Part 24 of the acclaimed ghost story by professor Lakshmi Raj Sharma set in India.
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THAT NIGHT (part 24)
I found Manoj looking handsome and stately. His regality was an intrinsic part of his character and had been absorbed by his soul. Perhaps Pran did not like him for this reason as well. Pran seemed ordinary in comparison in spite of his slightly superior intellect. Manoj did not say a word to me, but as he stood there I could feel that he was showing me some kind of gratitude
for coming to Gaipura, the region of which he had been the raja in the birth before he was born as Manoj Singh Rathore. I was able to gather this in a second, through intuition, as he stood in front of me and gave me a royal smile. The haveli belonged to him and he seemed to be asking me to visit it in the daytime.
I woke up from my reverie and had a better feeling than I usually had after my encounters with spirits. Manoj was clearly a nobler spirit as he was a nobler human being. On an impulse I left for the haveli. In the day there were no obstacles on the way to the haveli. I felt as though spirits preferred to rest and remain unseen during the day. At last I reached the place from where the haveli could be seen. I was struck by the grandeur of the building. It must have looked really majestic when it was occupied by the living. As I came nearer the building I began to get more and more apprehensive about what was to follow there. But I knew that I was going there on Manoj’s invitation during the day and was therefore in a rather safe position. On reaching the place I looked around and discovered a hut that was made of old bricks but with big patches of mud. I thought someone was inside and through one of the gaps between the door and the wall I could see that someone was asleep inside. This was a big relief. There was another human being living so close to the haveli, virtually inside it. I knocked at the near broken door of the hut. The man sleeping inside turned towards me, got up and looked in surprise. He open the door and looked at me very astonished.
‘How did you come here? Who are you?’
‘I wanted to see this haveli,’ I said in the absence of another reply.
The rather tall man looked at me from head to foot in amazement. And then gave me a smile. He did not want to speak much to me. He only wanted to see how such a gutsy person had gathered the courage to reach this point.
‘So you want to see the haveli?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I want to.’
‘O. Really?’
‘Yes. Please help me to enter.’
‘Don’t you feel scared?’
‘No’, I managed to say. ‘Why should I feel scared, if you don’t?’
‘I feel scared,’ he said and vanished.
I could find no trace of him after that. I looked towards the hut and found that missing too. There was no trace even of the hut. I wonder what you would have felt in such a situation. I was rather scared.
I woke up from my reverie and had a better feeling than I usually had after my encounters with spirits. Manoj was clearly a nobler spirit as he was a nobler human being. On an impulse I left for the haveli. In the day there were no obstacles on the way to the haveli. I felt as though spirits preferred to rest and remain unseen during the day. At last I reached the place from where the haveli could be seen. I was struck by the grandeur of the building. It must have looked really majestic when it was occupied by the living. As I came nearer the building I began to get more and more apprehensive about what was to follow there. But I knew that I was going there on Manoj’s invitation during the day and was therefore in a rather safe position. On reaching the place I looked around and discovered a hut that was made of old bricks but with big patches of mud. I thought someone was inside and through one of the gaps between the door and the wall I could see that someone was asleep inside. This was a big relief. There was another human being living so close to the haveli, virtually inside it. I knocked at the near broken door of the hut. The man sleeping inside turned towards me, got up and looked in surprise. He open the door and looked at me very astonished.
‘How did you come here? Who are you?’
‘I wanted to see this haveli,’ I said in the absence of another reply.
The rather tall man looked at me from head to foot in amazement. And then gave me a smile. He did not want to speak much to me. He only wanted to see how such a gutsy person had gathered the courage to reach this point.
‘So you want to see the haveli?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I want to.’
‘O. Really?’
‘Yes. Please help me to enter.’
‘Don’t you feel scared?’
‘No’, I managed to say. ‘Why should I feel scared, if you don’t?’
‘I feel scared,’ he said and vanished.
I could find no trace of him after that. I looked towards the hut and found that missing too. There was no trace even of the hut. I wonder what you would have felt in such a situation. I was rather scared.
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