The following story/stories have been either submitted by one of my readers or found on other websites.

..........

This is a real incident that occurred some 41 years back. I was about 17 years old back then. It was a small town with a population of less than 10,000 people. We used to play hide and seek during night time. We could hide anywhere in the town, which was about 1 km long.

One particular night, one boy from our team did not join us. We went to his house to enquire. He appeared to be quite frightened, yet he came with us. He informed us that just half an hour back he had sighted a ghost!

It so happened that he was returning from the district headquarter by a public transport bus. Being the last bus, supposed to arrive in our town at about 8:30 PM, there were only 4-5 passengers in the bus. When the bus was just about a kilometre away from the town, it had to stop as the narrow road was blocked due to a bullock cart having overturned on the road.

This was an age when there was hardly any traffic on the roads. I’m talking of 1977. In the whole town, there were not more than 5-6 scooters and not even a single car (even Maruti was yet to begin its production in India). Most of the people were used to bicycles for short to medium distances.

As there was no way the bus could move forward due to the blocked road for next one or two hours, all the passengers got down and started walking towards the town which was only about a kilometre away.

Just near the place where the bus had stopped, there was a cremation ground. It was near this cremation ground that this boy apparently saw a ghost, whose bones were shining, with no flesh or body and no clothes on. This boy got so frightened that he immediately ran away from there and stopped only when he arrived in his home.

I had become an atheist at the age of 13 years and had slowly developed scientific temperament. So, I did not believe in ghosts or any other supernatural powers. After listening to the story, I challenged him saying that there are no ghosts in the real life, and that he might have seen something else, or there might have been some illusion.

However, other boys in the group also supported him. I tried giving example of our chemistry teacher narrating as to how when you apply phosphorus on black cloth, it would shine while the black cloth would not be visible during night time, and that it was possible to apply phosphorus on the black cloth so as to make it appear like bones of a ghost.

However, other boys did not agree with me and challenged me to go in the cremation ground myself and prove that there were no ghosts.

I accepted the challenge. But, because no other boys were willing to come with me to or inside the cremation ground, so how do we confirm as to whether I had actually gone inside the cremation ground?

So, we made a plan. It was decided that I would have to go to the cremation ground past midnight on a day when there is a death in the town. It was believed that when a dead body is set on fire in the cremation ground, for 2-3 days, the person who died roams around that place as a ghost.

Therefore, there were more chances of there being ghosts on that day. It was further decided that in the evening a notebook would be kept in the cremation ground, containing signatures of all the boys in the team, and I had to bring back that notebook after visiting the cremation ground past midnight. This was just to confirm my visit so that I could not bluff. Further, an old shirt would be given to me which I had to keep near the burnt dead body in the cremation ground at the time of my visit. This was to doubly confirm my visit.

A day came soon within a fortnight, when there was an unfortunate death in the town. The dead body was set on fire in the cremation ground. At about 6 PM, all our team members went there and hid a notebook with signatures of all boys almost in the middle of the cremation ground. All of us came back. At that time, the half burnt dead body was unattended because usually people return after some time after cremating the dead body. Being a small town, there was no attendant in the cremation ground. It was in the open field, about 1 km from the town an

1 km from the town and about 100 m off the road.

As planned, all our team members assembled in the town and played our usual hide and seek game at night time. Past midnight, they accompanied me till the end of the town. Being scared, also because they fully believed in ghosts, they did not want to accompany me any further. This was my challenge now.

So, I started walking alone towards the cremation ground which was about a kilometre away. I had a small torch in my hand and also a stick (to take care of snakes or any other emergency), and also the old shirt handed over to me by one of the boys which was to be kept by me near the burnt dead body in the cremation ground.

It took me just about 10 minutes to reach the cremation ground. As I mentioned above, it was in the open field with no boundary walls. It was almost fully dark. I had full confidence that there could be no ghosts. However, there could be other risks such as of snakes or animals.

There was a theoretical possibility that my friends could stage some drama to frighten me (like using phosphorus on some black cloth); however, I fully believed that none of my friends had the courage to go near the cremation ground at night time. Yet, there was a possibility of they having hidden something during daytime to frighten me. Therefore, I took cautious steps while entering the cremation ground.

And, there I was! In the middle of the cremation ground!! No ghosts were to be found there!!! And, there was a deafening silence.

With the help of the torch, I could locate the notebook that was hidden by us during the daytime.

Thereafter, I walked towards the burnt dead body, which was only about 15-20 m away from there. I waited there for 2-3 minutes. I kept the old shirt about 6-7 feet away from the burnt dead body. The dead body had been completely burnt by then. Yet, there was a little fire and some smoke coming out of that place. I stood there for about 2-3 more minutes, though with full caution. And, then, I turned around. No ghosts yet!!!

The return journey took me comparatively less time. My friends were taken aback when they saw me coming back. Perhaps, they did not expect me to come back alive or in one piece. Early morning, next day, they got the confirmation by finding the old shirt at the designated place.

Yet, they were not convinced! Some of them felt that the ghost might have gone somewhere else due to which I could not see it!!

A few years after this incident, I had accepted another challenge. Of staying in an abandoned house said to be infested by ghosts. For 36 hours. Two nights and one day. Alone. I did that successfully.

But, people would still not believe that there were no ghosts. Even though I won the challenge as per their own terms.

Perhaps, wherever I went, the ghosts ran away!!!

Thereafter, I have had many occasions where I could have faced a ghost, if one existed. Due to my service in IPS, I had the (unfortunate) occasion to see more than a thousand dead bodies, of persons dying in violent or unnatural manner. For example, in 1993, I saw 55 dead bodies, completely charred, in one go when an Indian Airlines plane crashed near Aurangabad where I was the SP.

As I was in the nearby vicinity at the time of the accident, I was one of the first 4-5 persons who reached the spot (in an agricultural field off the road) with burning aircraft and with burning bodies inside it, while some of the surviving passengers were nearby who had jumped out of it (there were 63 surviving passengers).

I have moved in jungles at night time in naxalite areas, where you can hear the sound of a pin falling on the ground. Have seen so many violent situations.

It is generally believed that a ghost is created when a person dies of an unnatural or violent death (unlike a normal death). Yet, I never saw a ghost, in spite of having seen more than a thousand dead bodies after unnatural or violent deaths. Why?

Friends, ghosts are only for those, who believe in them. I don’t believe in them, and so they never come near me.

Do you get the message? There are no ghosts in real life

..........

Stay tuned for the next chapters.

Once again this book contains only real-life events, not made up stories.

Thank you very much for reading.

If you want your stories to be published here, private message me and get a chance to have your story in this book.

Next chapter: Serial killers

WC 1623