Its on the bizzare incidents which happened in the village were my late grandfather used to live. It was during the 1940s. The fuzz and the hysteria in the village community relating to a ghost residing in the village's major river, pala was at its peak during his prime. Its still believed to exist.In the year 1941. My granpa, Chacko, then 17, was walking back home after midnight mass. He was already scared, thinking of things such as satan and hell.So he was rushing towards home. But halfway through, he wanted to make a piss.So he moved towards the river cliff of the river pala and started pissing. He looked at the sparkling water to distract himself from scary thoughts. But when he fully bend his head at looked down, the sight which he saw was so frightening that his body got frozen in fear. The ghost in the river, unkown to people till then was climbing towards him through the line of piss. Chacko lost his spirits and knew it was his end and called gods name in his mind. But suddenly, out of luck, instinctively he stopped pissing. And and just a while before it could grab my granpa, the ghost fell back into the river as the line of piss got brocken..My grandfathers encounter and subsequent strange incidents surrounding the river came to be later known as the ghost of the river pala, the waterclimber,... whatever the names are it became a myth.
the villagers base for discussing the issue was the church. They saw the phenomenon in religious terms. The influence of the church did not allow people to look at he issue, logically. But my grandfather, could. At his 30s, a decade after his experience, he became far much fearless but still interested in the mystery. He was a wrestler and had the confidence of pounding anyone. He was intimidated at nothing.He never saw the ghost, again inspite of walking so many times besides the river during the night . But people continued seeing the ghost. Many believed that the ghost's station was confined to the river and they made a wall to seperate river from the road, and people consiousely avoided pissing at the river or even getting into river during day time, thinking the ghost would start abominating the land, too.
She was really young when this happened. My grandpa has 10 children and my mother was the youngest. She woke up early in the morning as always to attend the 5:30 mass. Seeing the brightness outside and thinking she was late for the mass, she got ready, fast and started moving not realising the time was just around 3:00 and the brighness outside was due to the full moon. As she was walking the sky became darker and darker and soon realised its not morning yet. There were no other people walking along to the church as it was not time yet for the mass. She got really scared and decided to walk back home. But just when she turned she saw a white figure at the end of the dark road. She didnt know what it was and didnt know what to do.
So when my mother turned around, the saw a white figure far away and it was coming closer. But it was not a ghost or anything such, it was my grandpa...he had came out in search of my mother knowing that she's is not home. Finding his five year old daughter, he called her name loudly knowing that she would be scared. But ironically, few months later people began to see a figure moving around during the midnight hours in white clothes. It was 1st seen by a group of drunk people coming out from a toddy at around 1:00. They all, while walking back, heavily drunk, on the road, suddenly popped up a figure in full white clothes. On the influence of the alchohol the drunk fellows didnt find the persons white clothes strange.At that time it was inappropriate and uncommon for anyone apart from them to be on the road. But they didn't even notice it untill the the figure or the person whatever it was, with its whole body shrouded, began acting crazy. One of the drunk fellow, took his knife out of his lungi and followed the bizzare form. The form retreated from him and vanished into the rubber tree plantation and the drunk fellows couldn't catch it or get any idea abt what it was.Many more people began to see it. At midnight, children were afraid to look out from the window thinking they might see the white figure in their land, beneath the trees.Looking out from the window many saw the figure . And very few indeed dared to go out of their houses and check out what it was. Once My grandpa, seeing the creature, went out to check what it is, against the wish of his wife and children.My mother saw saw my grandpa chargin through the cropfields to catch the creature. My mother looked out from the window in fear. She could see her father moving through the field but the ghost was not seen. She worried if the ghost suddently makes an ambush attack on her father.She lost the sight of him after sometime. Grandpa went too deep into the woods in search of it.
about one hour after grandpa left the house, someone knocked the door. His wife opened the door expecting him. She opened and it was him, it was grandpa.There were marks all over his body. One of his hands was bleeding. When asked abt what happened he said he couldn't get sight of the creature and his hands got cut when he accidently held the sharp side of his knife.
The next day......
A seminary student was seen dead outside the church gate. There were no cut or bruises on his body. He was chocked to death. My grandpa explained to everyone what had happened to him the previous day and begged people not to suspect him as the murderer and the bandage in his hands and the death was just a coincidence.People believed him as he was a person whom people respected and known for honesty.
Church Meetings.......
The church organised regular meetings on fixed days to discuss the issue. People became more united as a result. Telephone connections were established in the village by the efforts of the vicar. Men of the families, gathered togethor when sitings were reported. Men set out for ghost hunts quite regularly.But they hardly saw it to catch it, untill one day when a group of around 200 villagers, including women and children set out and spotted it. They chased it bravely. It ran away from them without posing any threat to the mob. That made the mob more confident.They continued chasing it, even through the rubber trees. People began surrounding it from all corners. The creatures character was totally human, though a bit odd and people became convinced that it's a prankster. But again the infamous ghost of pala narrowly escaped when people lost sight of it when it jumped over the huge church wall. Since all of the churchmen were a part of the mob, there was hardly anyone to catch it from inside. By the time people got inside the church compound the creature was dissappeared. But how it dissappeared was a mystery as the the compound was pretty closed and an escape was quite impossible for normal human or neither was there any hiding places inside the compound.
years before the siting of the white clothed ghost, a priest in the church went insane and was locked inside a cell in inside the church compound. Years after his imprisonment the mad priest discovered a tunnel from his cell which takes him to the outside world. So every midnight, when the village slept, the mad priest came out to the outside world to enjoy the fruits of his lost freedom. Because of eccentricity, people identified him as a ghost. He moved around the heavenly place in front of him with full freedom. Perhaps he too foolish letting people to see him moving around. And he was most definitely the murderer of the seminary student.It was discovered when a seminary student saw something sprouting out of thin mud all of a sudden while looking out of the window.Unlike his colleague who got killed he didn't do anything stupid. The next day he spread the discovery. They found the tunnel, unknown till then which connected the cell to the outside world. They became convinced its the mad priest who made all the fuzz. He was caught and questioned to learn that he was responsible for the death of one.
But
When questioned, the madman was also trying to explain something else. Something very crazy. And ofcourse people couldn't comprehend. People didn't pay any attention to that and felt relieved. But my grandpa who saw the madmans questioning, thinks that what the madman was trying to explain was his conversations and experiences with something really supernatural. Perhaps the very same ghost who almost took my Grandpa's life and the very same ghost which does really exist beneath the waters of the river pala...
