Bhaago Bhooth! | Flash Post 381

Why in Hindi suddenly?

Button, don’t you know Hindi is our official language? We’ll have to, sooner or later, start writing our posts in Hindi. It’ll also be a change and change can be fun.

What does the title say?

It says: Run. There’s a ghost!

Are we trying to scare someone? Do ghosts exist?

Well, your Dost certainly believes they do!

I don’t. Do you?

Not me. But, everytime your Dost travels out of the country or city alone, he sleeps with all the lights and even the television switched on. The first, to be able to spot the ghost before he can run and, the latter, for company.

How would this keep the ghosts away since he believes they exist!

Like I said, he keeps the lights on so, on spotting them, he can escape!

Like that!

I’ll tell you why Dost suspects ghosts exist. Also, one of our directors on the board of our company claims to have seen a ghost moving around in the same building where we live.

Why did he say it? Did he really see a ghost?

Apparently, he’s seen a white shroud making her way up and down the staircase, sometimes, even sliding down the bannister.

Really? Did Dost, too, see her?

I’ll tell you a hilarious incident that took place a couple of days back which you know nothing about. Or you may have heard some commotion in the middle of the night?

Now that I think back, I do remember hearing someone screaming hysterically. Was it from our house? What happened?

Dost, usually, wears striped pyjama suits to bed every night. On that particular night when you heard the screams—your Dost decided to wear a white pyjama and kurta to bed.

Ok.

Around midnight, he woke up to use the washroom. Groping his way through the dark dressing area that has full-length mirrors on the cupboards from one end to the other, he suddenly saw his own reflection in the mirror and took a step back. It was an identical reflection of him that stared back but he was so groggy with sleep that he didn’t quite get it that it was him, in his stark white pyjama kurta and began screaming thinking it was a ghost!

Which means that’s the scream I heard?

Must have been.

Did you wake up?

I take pride in the fact that I sleep the sleep of the dead—a fact that I am ragged for by the family— even I woke up and ran to the dressing room, my hair disheveled and eye and lip make-up smudged all over my face because we had got in way past my bedtime from a wedding and had not removed the greasepaint, groping with my eyes at half-mast through the dark to find out if he was alright.

What did you see when you reached the spot?

Seeing me like that, he thought he’d seen another ghost and the screaming began once again till I shook him up to get him out of his stupor.

10 Comments

Sherry Godwin November 1, 2019 at 6:07 am

Hahahhahahahah! Somebody should make a short video or film on this storyline! It will be a huge hit. I am still on the floor laughing my guts out. My god. The number of times this has happened to me!

Reply
- author November 2, 2019 at 10:17 am
  
  Dear Sherry,
  
  Do you believe in ghosts? Have you watched any horror movies and flinched? I, for one, don’t believe in ghosts but watching films like Scream, The Blair Witch Project and A Nightmare on Elm Street had me stay awake all night.
  
  Reply
vivek purohit November 1, 2019 at 6:10 am

When I was in boarding school many years ago, these are the kind of pranks we used to play on our professors and friends. We used to dress up in white shroud and walk down the corridor and knock on their room door. And when they opened the door, since they couldn’t see who it was, they stepped out just that wee bit and the minute they stepped out of their room, we would boo them. The fright on their face was worth a million bucks! Ah.Nostalgia.

Reply
- author November 2, 2019 at 10:24 am
  
  My Dear Vivek,
  
  Those are the kind of pranks even I have played in childhood. I have also scared my 87 year old grandmother by wearing a white cape over my head and booing her which was a silly thing because it could have killed her.
  
  But, have you seen a real ghost?
  
  Reply
Percy Dsouza November 1, 2019 at 6:13 am

Inwas put into detention many times during my school days for this. We used to go on camps and treks and this is how we used to harrass people. Once we recorded a video with one of us walking down a road wearing nothing but this kind of a cape and circulated it with a rumour of the hostel being haunted. The girls on camp were petrified as were the boys and teachers. I loved my growing up years! We just has a school reunion the other day where all these stories were shared.

Reply
- author November 2, 2019 at 10:37 am
  
  Dear Percy,
  
  I’ve never believed in ghosts. I feel it’s our minds working overtime to conjure up a visual of what we would like our ghosts to look like. This picture is usually one that wears a white cape over its head and has black hollows for eyes! How can that even be scary?
  
  Reply
Mohit Vashisht November 7, 2019 at 6:39 pm

I have zero fear of ghosts…I think it’s the mind playing tricks on us sometimes which makes us imagine that theres someone else in the room or that some kind of spirit inhabits a place. A lot of these stories are made up by bored or drunk people and floated for entertainment and they spread like wildfire. Even TV shows and web videos on haunted places are falsely made by using graphics or some cheat mechanism.

Reply
- author January 6, 2020 at 7:55 pm
  
  Dear Mohit,
  
  For me, life could be a little more interesting were I to meet up with a ghost. I could have used that to churn out one more story for my readers.
  
  Reply
Sunita mehra November 7, 2019 at 6:52 pm

Whether ghosts exist or don’t, if I see someone in all white in the middle of the night I will have a heart attack and instantly collapse on the spot! Even if that person happens to be me in the mirror! People should not walk around like this at night. Thank god no one in my house sleep walks!

Reply
- author January 6, 2020 at 8:00 pm
  
  My dear Sunita,
  
  The dark and the unknown could be fun. I’d love to delve inside and find out if there’s anything interesting there.
  
  Wouldn’t you?
  
  Reply