The Haunted Well

Ghanshyam was among the few men in his village who could read and write. Belonging to a wealthy family, he was educated in Jaipur, a privilege few could afford in those times. Even fewer had justified the expenses borne by their families in sending off their son to the city for education. So he considered it a cruel act of fate when his father passed away and he, being the only man in the family, had to return home after his 1^st year in BA to take care of his mother and 2 sisters.

Upon return, he prospered as a landlord, his education and inheritance holding him in good stead. The villagers of Madot revered his intelligence and wealth and frequently sake his advice in matters of money and family. As he was now the wealthiest and, as some would have him believe, the wisest man in the community he was confident that he would become the representative of his community in the next village Panchayat. Hence, he was in for a rude shock when his community elders, including some of his relatives, favored Meghram over him.

In stead of making his disgust evident, he decided to dig deeper and find out the reason for this injustice. For the next 6 months, he coaxed and cajoled his close ones in to admitting the real reason for the raw deal he got. Saying that he was dumbfounded would be an understatement. He concluded that he wasn’t chosen, partly because he had spent his formative years in the city and not in the village and whose deep rooted issues and beliefs he would never comprehend. The same village, whose problems he so easily understood and solved. But those were the times when anything foreign was treated with cynicism and suspicion. He was just a smart man to the villagers with no real say in the way they functioned.

The major reason, but, was the fact that he did not believe in spirits, so much so that he had not organized a single barsi for his late father. The pain of losing a parent and then altering your life’s plans may affect some people such. But for the villagers, this was blasphemous and unthinkable.

Ghanshyam, being the man he was, decided not to bow down to the pressure but in stead prove to the villagers that no such thing as ghosts or spirits existed. He was convinced that if he could convince the villagers of this, they would not be averse to supporting him as a representative in the Panchayat.

He, being a methodical man, came out with the perfect plan to convince the villagers. Just outside Madot, there was a dried up well, inside the cemetery boundary wall. The people of the village were of the belief that any man, once cremated, resided in the well until Chitragupta worked out his deeds and ordered his carriage to either heaven or hell. Needless to add, people were scared of going near the well alone even in broad daylight as every now and then, someone would claim to have heard strange voices coming out of it.

Ghanshyam’s plan was simple. He would go to the well on a moonless night, spend an hour there, and return to the village. If he did return safely, his community would be bound to endorse him as a Panch over Meghram. To prove that he had actually visited the well, he would hammer a nail in the wall covering the well. So strong was his belief that he turned a deaf ear to his well-wishers’ advices, pleading sisters and a weeping mother and patiently waited for Amavas.

On the night of reckoning, he left the village when the clock struck 12, promising to return after an hour. As he walked to the cemetery, he laughed to himself when he heard multiple chants and prayers for his well being.

The villagers waited with baited breath for his return as time went past.By 2 o’ clock, his mother could not bear it and began bellowing while the sisters consoled her. By 3.30, even Ghanshayam’s sisters could not hold it any longer and started hollering, fearing the worst. By 4.30, the whole village was in frenzy, with the elders collecting in the temple and praying as the youngsters formed search parties to begin looking for him with the first ray of sun. The bravest of the youngsters, armed with totems, rushed to well, praying more for their safety than Ghanshyam’s.

They found Ghanshyam’s body sprawled by the well, with one hand strongly clasped on his Dhoti. His mouth was wide open and his eyes were about to pop out. The face had a look of such horror, as if he had seen a ghost. The priest insisted on first persuading the ghost to leave the body before allowing it to be cremated, costing Ghanshyam’s family a fortune.

The tragedy was nothing but another anecdote in the list of reasons cited by the villagers to keep away from the well. And oh, the old man who told me this story swears that he saw Ghanshyam’s dhoti stuck in the nail which Ghanshyam had hammered in the wall but nobody believed him as he was only 8 at that time.

*For all you morons who have a low IQ and didn't understand the last bit but are too proud to admit it, here's the logic:

Ghanshyam's dhoti got stuck in the nail and when he turned around to leave, he felt his dhoti being pulled. Fearing the worst, he died of shock.