the ghost

I wanted to go, at the same time I was extremely afraid. I didn’t know what I was afraid of. At that time I didn’t know about the ghost, this fear was just intuitive I guess. Then I reached that place with my father and brother. My father, being a frequent visitor to that place and a person who does not generally bother much about anything (by anything I mean just about ANYTHING), showed no emotion. My brother was plainly excited. He had come there to invite his friends to his wedding and that took over all other emotions that one could possibly associate with this place. I, with no other objective than just to visit this place, was quiet.

On our way to that place though, I noticed that all three of us were silent for some unknown reason. Like always each of us were in our own world of thought. Am sure my bro was thinking of his fiancée. My dad was preoccupied with finding faults with every other driver on the road and I was wondering how I was going to fare on this much sadly wanted trip.

When we reached, my bro and dad just walked ahead unperturbed. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t face that haunted house. I suddenly wanted to go away. I did not want to remain there for another minute. They called out to me and I just turned away from them trying desperately to run away my thoughts. Then, slowly when my father and brother were not around, I went and touched the grill door. I immediately shrank back as the ghost, my memories came rushing to me. It was everywhere, surrounding me, trying to choke me with tears and those memories, my past was swallowing me fast. I was unable to come out of it. Then I screamed out to my dad. When he came running I simply said “am afraid to go in alone, please come with me” he laughed and then suddenly stopped looking at my face, he understood. My brother was beside him and he understood too. He then hugged me and hand in hand we went into ‘Brindhavan’, my home.

Once I was inside I noticed how everything seemed to have shrunk in size. When I was young I thought that we had a really huge hall and a spacious and long veranda. But then everything seemed so small now. I realised that I had been so tiny when I was in that house and so everything seemed large for me. Now that I ve grown so much length wise and breadth wise, all this probably seems too small.

I recollected so many incidents that have happened here, the dead lizard found under the grinder, the place where mom had kept her chain which got lost, the kittens we found one day under our wardrobe, the first time my mother got wheezing, how dad was painting the wall when my brother came and told that he had gone for a movie with his friends for the first time and the fight which ensued, the place where my mom and I found a bottle of alcohol which my father had drunk after some problem at his work, the place where my favourite ‘red’ colour fairy tale book was kept, the green worms on a very beautiful plant in our garden…..

Then it was over, we just took snaps and took off. With one last look at this haunted house of memories, I left the place to itself. Now that I ve taken back all the memories, am sure new memories of new people will fit in there