A Funny Encounter

It was December 2023 when family and friends gathered in our hometown to celebrate a wedding. The atmosphere was filled with joy and excitement, and nobody wanted to miss a single moment of the festivities. On that cold night, Naina crossed paths with Ravi after seven long years. They were once best friends who had drifted apart due to living in different cities. However there was one thing remained constant between them - their ability to make fun of each other. They would play pranks and share countless laughs with their mischievous adventures.

The night before the wedding, all the cousins and friends gathered on the balcony to spend the entire night catching up. Each person shared stories of their hostel life, making the atmosphere lively and nostalgic. Suddenly, the conversation took an eerie turn when paranormal activities became the topic of discussion. After listening to a few instances, Naina spoke up,

“Ravi, do you remember our first paranormal experience?”

Ravi laughed hard before affirming. Everyone became curious about their story. So, Naina described…

“All of you know we were neighbours, right. Our houses share common walls with our terrace almost connected. So, it was during summer holidays when we decided to meet at the terrace for finding ghosts. We were fascinated with paranormal things and love watching horror shows together. Most of our intense discussions would be about ghosts and their existence. We were seven years old at that time, when one day we decided to spend the night in terrace looking for ghosts who come out of their house after midnight. I know it’s funny! But a seven-year-old doesn’t have brain to think logically. So, we decided to meet at my terrace where Ravi would come crossing the wall. We followed our plan and Ravi came to my terrace where I was waiting with a table clock. We believed that ghosts lurk in the streets after midnight till 3am in the morning. We were taking a close look into our streets which was not so well lit those days. Covertly we were watching through the gap within the metal railing. We were in total shock, when we encountered her. It was our first encounter with a ghost afterall. An old lady covered with white saree and had white eye balls. She looked similar to horror shows and thus, we believed she was a ghost. Now, curious seven years old were not so scared and decided to catch her only to prove that ghosts exist. So, we shouted at her while she was walking towards the end of the street. She stopped, and was standing still without looking anywhere. We ran towards the street with a broom stick for our safety. We ran towards the lady and asked her, how did she become a ghost, when did she die. She was shocked and didn’t move her head. Her white eye balls made us sure that she was definitely a ghost. Then she asked us who children we were, which house did we belong to. And we, feeling brave at that moment told her if she doesn’t tell us how did she become a ghost we would beat her with the broomstick. She started shouting, basically calling for help and we started calling our parents that we caught a ghost. Meanwhile, the house help from one of the houses in the street came running to see what happened. He started laughing at us when we described our theory. Our parents too came running. Later we found out, she was an old widow who lived in the last house of the street. Her eye balls had turned white due to partial blindness and she was out of her house late night to get some medicines from a friend who lived in the beginning of the street. I can never forget our exploration. We are scolded so badly that night and our terrace doors became inaccessible for us during wee hours.”

Ravi interrupted to say “her right eye was completely white and her left eye was partially white. Also she had covered herself with white saree, looking like typical ghost from horror shows, except that her face was normal and she did not have a wicked smile. What will a seven year old understand?”

“Hats off to your bravery Ravi. Imagine it was really a ghost!” Said Naina and then she burst into laughter.

None of them could stop laughing after hearing Naina’s description about the incident they had. They exclaimed “Poor blind lady, she literally must have been scared thinking she is going to encounter tiny ghosts.” And all of them continued laughing.