In the middle of 2 villages (equally far away) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, in the Gendamau Nahar (Marigold canal), below a strong bamboo footbridge, lived (?) the ghosts of a Pehelwaan (bodybuilder)& of a highly disgruntled old lady ...
This is on the way from my husband's town to his Granny's village, flanked by Bajra farms on both sides.
On one side of the canal, the Pehelwan is known as Kumbh Mall, on the other, simply as Koni Ram. It's variously fabled how he came to be a ghost. Some say, he was a lathail (Martial art fighter with stick), & was killed fighting dacoits on behalf of his master. Others insist that he stuffed himself with one poori too much in a poori-eating competition, released a single burp, & happily closed his eyes, never to open them again.
Either way, his life dream had remained unfulfilled - that of winning a major wrestling tournament, in his part of the world.
The other presence is a frail, hunched figure in a White Saree, silver hair tied in a high knot. (Neither is reported to wear any warm clothes in winter.)We do not know the name or origin of the geriatric madam, but what we do know is that her daughter-in-law was a no-good! She never cooked her anything good, & our poor gran died with her gastronomical desires ungratified!
She might look like a dusty relic, but Hell hath no fury like a Mother-in-Law scorned! Don't think that just because she died, she'll forget how her D-i-L neglected her!
If she caught you one evening near sundown, (If you happened to cross by Gendamau Nahar), she might suddenly demand for a bowl of Lapsi, or some Bedahi, or a Bhakoswa! & Vintage womanly swear words will be hurled at you, as well as the D-i-L (who must be dead herself, many years now!)
& Pehelwaan! Oh! Poor lost soul! He challenged to a match of wrestling, every soul that he lays his sight on, then & there, & there meaning, in the water!
Those who fell prey to the duo, would be simultaneously be threatened, chased, & be made a tug-of-war between z two tales. They literally had to run for their lives, (there was the very real danger of drowning in the canal). There was no respite from this twin assault, until you reached a village, when they would reluctantly disappear, at the edge of human habitation, though they had no issues with pouncing on unsuspecting (human) passers-by within their territory...
But if on reading my post, a Parapsychologist is inspired to go there, & meet in person & have a conversation with two alive & kicking ghosts, he's in for a disappointment.
last month, going to visit my Husband's Granny, I crossed the place. He pointed it out to me. The footbridge is now a pucca structure. But sadly, no water in the canal.
No-one has seen either of them, since last 15-16 yrs.
Our theory is that the concrete scared them away. They no longer feel at-home.
If urbanization is driving even the dead, the spirits, the eternal from their abode,
Think of the tigers & the dolphins, the turtles & the kingfishers ... certainly less formidable than a indestructible ambitious bodybuilder, & a indestructible grumpy Granny!