The Haunted Mansion

Seth Bhanu had come to Sundarnagar from Rampur several times in connection with his trade, but he did not care for that Mansion. Now when he saw it, he got mesmerized by it. The presence of such a beautiful place near the desert of Rajasthan was no less than a miracle.

The Mansion had artistic creations engraved in the stones and stood surrounded by tall and dense trees.

Seth asked the driver of the camel cart to take the cart near the Mansion. There was a road, which joined the Mansion with the main road. Someone lay it with brick and stone. The cart driver hesitated for a moment, then he turned the camel to the Mansion. They had moved a short distance toward the building. Suddenly hundreds of bats came out of the Mansion and flicked out in the sky, A group of about ten dogs ran out of the Mansion through a large rift in a broken part of the Mansion’s door. Seth understood that the Mansion would have been lying vacant for a long period. He asked the driver to go to the city.

Seth wanted to expand his business according to the tradition of his family. He had opened a shop in the Sundarnagar town with this intention and wanted to make a house in a beautiful city. He liked the Mansion very much. Seth’s own family was small, but he belonged to a big family. He could use the Mansion for more people.

Seth found the owner of the Mansion and expressed his willingness to buy the Mansion. The owner of the Mansion agreed to sell it immediately and lowered the price. However, before the deal, he said to Seth, “Let me tell you one thing. Some people called the Mansion a Haunted Mansion.”

Seth was getting a magnificent Mansion at a very low price and so he did not pay attention to anything and bought the Mansion.

Seth got the Mansion repaired, cleaned, and painted and lived in it with his family. His family comprising his wife Sugata and an eight-year-old daughter Kanti.

This was a Haunted Mansion. The local people had so much fear in their minds they avoided going anywhere nearby the Mansion.

Seth had no fear in his mind because he had not heard the horror stories of the Mansion. He was happy to buy such a beautiful Mansion at a very low price. The old owner of the Mansion was happy to sell the Mansion. He sold the Mansion only after telling Seth that people called it a Haunted Mansion.

Seth’s wife Sugata did all the work herself at home. There was a well in the Mansion's courtyard. Sugata washed utensils and clothes at the well. A pucca boundary wall surrounded the good safety.

One day, Sugata kept the dirty clothes on one side of the well and got busy with washing utensils. Suddenly she heard the glass bangles. Sugata looked in the source's direction of that sound and got surprised by seeing a beautiful young woman, who was wearing a white sari. That woman was washing the clothes kept by Sugata near the well.

Sugata thought her husband might have sent a house-maid to help her.

Sugata asked the young woman, “Who sent you here and when did you come?”

She said, “I saw you work alone, so I came myself.”

Her reality got revealed when after finishing the work, she said with a smile, “Well, I will come again tomorrow: I’ll leave now.” After this, before Sugata could say anything, she jumped into the well.

Sugata ran to the well and looked inside the well. In the well water was calm as if nothing had happened.

Sugata understood that she was a ghost.

On the second day, when Sugata was washing the vessels and clothes on the well, that woman came out from the well. Only then did the daughter of Sugata Kanti came there. Then the ghost-woman disappeared. After a while, when the daughter went back, she appeared again. Sugata asked, “Where did you disappear?”

She said, “I disappeared so that your daughter should not get afraid of me.”

Sugata said, “You are so good by nature, why would anybody fear you?”

She said, “Some people get scared by the name of ghosts. Due to some evil ghosts, all ghosts become infamous.”

Sugata asked her, “What is your name?”

She replied, “My name is Gauri.”

Now, Sugata’s family did not know for many years the Mansion was empty and there was no one there, so the ghosts of all the town had gathered in the same Mansion. Most ghosts had no problem with the coming of this small family. There was enough room in the Mansion.

There were four ghosts, who did not like humans. They thought how to send these people out of the Mansion. They knew the rest of the ghosts would not support them. So they secretly talked about this topic only in their faction.

Most of the ghosts were happy with this family. On seeing them, they remembered their old days when they were also human beings. They wanted to make friends with these people but they were afraid lest these people should fear them and leave the Mansion for fear. The ghosts of the Mansion had a variety of ghosts. Like leaders, lawyers, teachers, thieves, police, shopkeepers, etc. These included the fiends, the female ghosts too.

The four ghosts, who wanted to chase away Seth’s family were thieves ghosts.

They scared Kanti first.

Kanti was sitting alone in the room. The thief ghosts went to her room Seeing the lovely girl, they felt pity and did not feel like harassing her. Then a thief ghost said, “We are unnecessary getting emotional. Remember that she is a human being and humans are our enemies.”

Among the four thieves, one thief was a dwarf ghost, one tall, a fat and a lame ghost. All were invisible. First, the dwarf ghost pulled the book from Kanti’s hand and dropped it to the ground. Kanti felt like someone had drawn the book from her hands. But there was no one there. So she did not pay much attention to this. Only then the teacher lady ghost came there. The teacher, fiend always had chalk in her hand and a wooden scale on the other hand. It thrilled her to see Kanti reading a book and scolded the thieves there, “What are you guys doing here. If you disturb this girl in the study, I will punish you.”

When they heard this, they ran away from there. Kanti heard nothing. She continued studying

In the night, The thieves ghosts thought of teasing Seth. Seth returned from the shop and placed a bag full of money on the top of a cupboard and went to the well to wash his hands. Meanwhile, the tall ghost took the bag from the cupboard and put it on the ground below. When Seth wanted to take back the bag from the cupboard, it was not there. Seth got surprised. He found the bag kept on the ground. The four thieves were watching Seth getting confused and were laughing standing there. Then the police ghost came out there. He understood that thieves had done mischief.

He said to the thieves, “If you bother someone, then I will put you in jail. It is such a big Mansion, but why do you keep walking around this side?”

The thieves said to the police ghost, “Sorry.” And they escaped from there.

While sitting on the Peepal tree outside the Mansion, the four thieves ghosts were talking.

Dwarf ghost said in anger, “I heard there is a democracy. Everyone has freedom. Where is the freedom for us in the Mansion?”

Lame ghost said, “If you want to discuss democracy and freedom you discuss with the politician leader Netaji Babulal.”

Fat ghost agreed, “He is the president of the Mansion’s ghosts association. You can tell him about your problem.”

Tall ghost did not like the idea. Dwarf keenly desire to meet Neta Babulal.

Netaji lived in an empty old wooden almirah. He had a female ghost secretary, Ms. Mala, She handled his appointments.

Tall ghost said, “We will have to give a gift to Ms. Mala then she will fix our meeting with Netaji.”

The dwarf said, “We will give flowers bouquets to Ms. Mala and Netaji.”

They went to Ms. Mala and gave her a bouquet.

Luckily Ms. Mala liked the sweet smell of the flowers of the Bouquet and immediately arranged a meeting of thieves and Netaji.

Netaji welcomed thieves and ask them to sit down. They preferred to remain standing.

The dwarf ghost said to Netaji, “We want freedom.”

Ghost Netaji asked, “Why do you feel you are not free. Everybody has freedom in the Mansion and until I am the president of the association nobody can take away our freedom.”

The dwarf ghost told his real problem now

He said, “Sir three humans have come to our mention to live. We feel uncomfortable with them and want to send them out from the Mansion.”

In the meantime, Netaji’s friend Lawyer ghost Kapil came there. Netaji called him inside and requested Dwarf to tell his problem to the Lawyer.

Dwarf ghost repeated what he had told Netaji

The lawyer ghost said to thieves, “There is freedom for everybody but not to harm anybody. The Humans, whom you want to remove from the Mansion, are the owner of this Mansion. Seth Bhanu has bought it.”

Thus the four thieves ghost got none support from Netaji. They got dejected for some time but they did not shun scaring the family away.

The next day, thieves ghosts scared Kanti again. For this, they sought the help of the beautician witch Kamini.

It thrilled beautician Kamini Witch He thought, “Female ghosts pay none attention to their childhood. She could not practice her art for many days. Now is the chance.”

The witch asked the thieves, “Tell me how do you want to look like?” Like Amitabh Bachchan or Shahrukh Khan or anyone else?

The dwarf thief said, “Make us scary?”

Kamini said, “You people already look scary.”

The tall ghost said, “So make us terrible.”

“Well, there is the Peepal tree next to the wall of the Mansion. Come here after half an hour.”

After half an hour, four of the ghosts went to the Peepal tree. Kamini was sitting on the top of the tree, her makeup box hanging in the air by her right side. She changed the face of all the ghosts in a while and then showed them the mirror. They screamed seeing their faces, there. But they were happy and becoming impatient to scare Kanti.

The lame ghost suggested, “Let us act at night. Humans are more afraid at night and in the dark.”

“Everyone accepted the lame ghost suggestion.”

When the evening turned into the night and the Mansion’s lights were on, the four ghosts came to the part of the Mansion in which Seth’s family lived.

Sethani was cooking in the kitchen.

Seth was checking his book of accounts. Kathy sat on the sofa in front of the TV and was watching a cartoon show on TV. The thieves also stood behind Kanti and watched cartoon shows. They enjoyed those programs and watched for a long time. The dwarf ghost said, “Are we here to watch TV?”

The tall ghost said, “But his father is here.”

The fat ghost said, “So what happened? We will not be visible to him.”

The dwarf ghost said, “Well then. First, I will scare her.”

The fat ghost said, “We all have prepared for this act. So we all will act together.”

After this, they stood by making a line at a distance in front of Kanti.

Dwarf ghost count Guinea 1, 2, 3.

And all four ghosts appeared in front of Kanti in their horrible form. It scared her and she ran to her father.

Seth asked, “Daughter, what happened?”

Kanti said, “I saw four terrible ghosts here.”

Seth looked around and said, “I see no one.”

Kanti said, “But he was here.”

“No problem. You sit with me in this chair,” said Seth, pointing to his side.

Kanti came and sat down.

After that, there was no special thing that night. Everyone slept after dinner. Seth had told Sethani about the fear of Kanti.

On the next day, Sugata narrated the night incident to her friendly female ghost Gauri.

Gauri immediately said, “They must be thieves.”

Sugata said, “but they were not visible.”

Gauri, “Here are four thieves ghosts. They are rascals and dislike humans. They must have scared your daughter.”

Sugata, “Will they do that again?”

Gauri, “Tell Kanti we ghost are timid. But if someone is afraid of us, then we scare him. And if even a child fearlessly scolds us, then we run away.”

Sugata said, “Thanks for the advice. Like humans, ghosts also have all kinds of ghosts.”

During the conversation, the work of Sugata was over. Ghori went to her place. Sugata came inside the Mansion.

Kanti had come from school. Sugata told her what Gauri had told her.

Sugata thought, “The cowardly thieves want to scare the little girl. If they come in front of me, then I will make such a scolding they will always remember.”

The last night’s exploits thrilled the thieves. On the next night, they planned to scare Sethani Sugata.

When Sugata was making a meal at night in the kitchen, all the ghosts came there with their horrifying makeup and wearing black long kurtas. All four ghosts stood behind her. When she turned away from any work, they opened their mouths and scared her with their fake knife-like tooth kit. Instead of getting scared she attacked them with iron tongs and shouted at them. All the ghosts ran away.

After this, the thieves stopped coming to the living part of Seth Sethani and his daughter.

The remaining ghosts had none complaints from Seth’s family. Seth’s family had no problem with them. They did not even look and did none mischief. Gauri, the female ghost was Sugata’s friend.

In that Mansion, both humans and ghosts lived peacefully and lived for countless years.

People of Sundar Nagar city often ask themselves and the society, “When humans and ghosts can live together peacefully, so why can humans not live together peacefully?”