Three Spooky Happenings

Oct 26, 2023

The First Incident:

Many years ago in a time that seems like a dream now our large airy flat was always full of my married siblings ( I was a late child somewhat of an embarrassment to my parents ) their spouses... and children, our cousins and many other relatives all gathered for the summer.
One such happy busy, noisy day the adults were playing Monopoly and I with many children was out on the balcony... eagerly waiting for my eldest brother to bring home a brand new car... the first automobile in our entire neighbourhood. A great shout went up from the sitting room... someone had won the game finally but the loud applause was drowned our delighted squeals at the first sight of the new car!! We clapped and cheered and as the car drove up slowly to the entrance of our building I lost my balance and went falling down...!

My cousins screamed their heads off, “Kay has ‘flown down’...” They kept shouting till my father and uncles came out and saw to their horror that I was lying on the ground and my brother was sitting beside me wringing his hands and crying.
Within minutes our servant brought out a string cot... a khatiya and four of the men placed me on it and ran to the small newly built hospital that was nearby on the main road. Mother with my aunts and sisters would come to see me. I wailed and made a great big nuisance of myself. “Poor Baby Ji,” one aunt said. “How lucky that she didn't hurt her head,” another said. “Arrey! Kay could have met her end. Hai-hai!!!” Yet another said to my mother. “Bhabhi, your neighbour was saying Baby didn't fall straight down dhum se she appeared to have floated down!! Imagine..!” My mother would shush them all. She would smile tenderly at me and stroking my head used to say, “Kay has a Guardian Angel. She was carried to the ground. Isn't it, darling?” And, everyone would laugh.
Three months was I there in that small cosy hospital. I slept a lot. It seems they kept me sedated so that I could bear to remain in the posture the way it was, my leg tied high on a metal gadget and I could not turn on my side without help.
The day I was discharged from the hospital Mama came with a large box of sweets in her hands for the staff and a gift. “Doctor,” she said giving him the sweets, “I am so thankful to your staff. And, please I would like to personally give this gift as a token of our appreciation to the kind nurse who I always found sitting by Kay’s bedside. I don't see her anywhere today.” Mother looked at the doctor questioningly.
The doctor looked even more puzzled, “The staff is all here Ma'am.”
“No-no!” mother said, “...that nurse wears a blue uniform.”
The doctor said, “There's no one who wears a blue uniform Ma'am.”
“Then who?” My mother’s voice trailed off.

The Second Incident:

Some years later....
I was only 8 years of age...and I didn't mind running down for small errands the three flights of stairs in our building. The stairs were very wide, not steep. The landings were also broad and always clean. My sisters or my father would often tell me, “Run down child and fetch the clothes... go and buy bread or fetch the chaat waala up...”
The old woman who sold bangles, the babuji who made delicious sweets, or the kite seller all followed me willingly whenever needed and many of our tenants would gather around at our entrance. Those were wonderful times... laughing... cracking jokes... remembering funny incidents... It all happened in our old home. People were coming and going especially the postmen... all day. But at night the stairs were different...silent... silent... All doors to the flats shut... I still ran down at dusk or dinner time for something or other singing or humming to myself. One day I paused in the middle of a song I thought I heard another's footstep. I looked around but no.... nothing. I blithely went on my way but coming back again I felt a presence. “Koi hai?” I called out. No reply came. After that day I always sensed someone ahead or behind me but Papa said it wasn't possible. So I shrugged it off, after all the staircase was lit all the way so there was nothing to be afraid of... Was there?
Months later when I came home from the convent school in the hills for the winter break I happened to meet a friend who lived on the second floor in our building. The poor fellow had his arm in a plaster .
“Did you fall during a match?” I asked grinning. “No” he said, “I tripped twice on the stairs.”
“How come, old chap?” I enquired.
“It's always pitch dark around the last bend haven't you noticed?” he said, “I stumbled and went tumbling down.”
“Pitch dark?” I said. I wondered if the bulb got fused or something?
“Come on Kumie...” he said. “What light? There was never any light there.”
“What!!!?” I gasped
“No...Your father and mine must've changed the bulbs a hundred times but they always got fused!!”
I gulped and realized someone must’ve watched over me.

The Third Incident:

In our little convent up in the hills we had the study hour before dinner but in the hills it used to get dark early. Just below my class on the ground floor at the end of the veranda there was a small hall with just an old piano and stacks of benches against the walls.
We were shown a film in that hall but rarely. And, strangely during prep I used to hear someone playing the piano! No one went there and I wondered. I used to whisper to my friend, “Isn't the music lovely!”
Her brows would knit together and she'd ask, “What music, Kay?”
Just before the term closed I gathered courage and asked the Nun seated at her desk, “Mother Mildred, who is playing the piano downstairs?”
Mother looked startled, “Child, can you hear it?”
“Yes Mother. Every evening... It's lovely music...”
Mother looked into my eyes and said, “No one plays the piano there. Do you hear me? No one.”
Of course I couldn't understand her strange reply but from that day the door to the hall was barred and the way there blocked off!

Kum Kum Ajit Singh

Kum Kum Ajit Singh a former teacher at Mayo College Girls’ today enjoys the life of a satisfied and doting Dadi. Residing with her family in Ajmer she loves to reminiscence, observe and write.