(Patna) “As a kid I used to live in a village. There were rumours of a ghost in the village. If somebody fell down from a tree, people used to claim that a ghost had possessed him. This led to more scary thoughts which got entrenched in my mind. Many years ago one of my aunt died and I had to go to my sister’s place. My sister was so scared that she held my hand to go to the other rooms or even to the bathroom. I was scared too. That night we all slept in one room: the kids, my sister, the domestic help and me. But my sister didn’t let anyone sleep all night. She felt that our aunt is standing behind her. It was one of the scariest night of our lives.
People used to talk about a headless person in our village. As soon as it got dark, people in the entire village would scream that the headless person is coming. Everyone would rush inside this house and quickly shut their doors. They would light a big fire right outside their doors because it was believed the headless person didn’t come near the fire. But who exactly was the headless, I don’t know till date. This happened when we were still kids, a really long time ago. Since then, I have never been alone at night except once when my husband had an operation and he and my son were in the hospital. I kept all the lights on the entire night and kept a piece of iron close to me to ward off evil. I couldn’t sleep. As soon as I would start dozing off, I used to get up wondering if there was any ghost around. That was the only time in my entire life that I have stayed by myself all night.
I feel scared as soon as it gets dark. I don’t feel scared if there are people around me. If you ask me to sleep in a room alone, I won’t be able to even when someone is in the next room.”