Me, as me and ghost

Slash. Red marks on the wrists. A woman runs away from the line. Next, a young girl. Another slash. A huge line of kneeling women with hair let down and men, actually more of women, wait for their turn to be hit on hands. A weird looking man with a black, dusty overcoat walks over them with a huge rope in his hand hitting each person knelt with it.
This is not an old Bollywood movie. It is happening in real in remote villages of India. And this incident just narrated is in fact a festival, to those who believe that they possess a devil in them and this is a sure way to ward the ghosts off.

Back to the village scene. I meet an old lady who seems warm enough in the crowd to explain what this is all about. She said, "This is one of the most auspicious days for us all. We will become blessed by god because we are scaring the ghosts away, and by doing so our families will unite, it will grow. Some find their suitors easier by doing this". I asked her, "But isn't this all a made up stuff? I mean, if you really wanted your families to reunite, all you needed to do was talk to them. Finding suitors can become easier if you started educating yourself and communicated to the world outside this village".

"You city people are always like this. You rationalize everything that comes your way. What is wrong in thinking of a supernatural thing? Have you never felt or feared for existence of a ghost?", she retorted. I said, "I have feared, but because of the ignorance of what it is and what stories people have told me. Mind you, they were stories. I have no absolute fact that they're actual ghosts I could believe in". "And that is true, because even I've seen one". Now things started amusing me. I asked her what happened, how did it happen, and how exactly a ghost looks like.

She rolled her already big eyes in enthusiasm and narrated the story to me. "I was coming back from a village fair with my two sisters. It was almost midnight. Actually it was the time the ghosts wander through the world". Get real lady, I won't fall for that. Like where do the ghosts go in the remaining hours of the day?. She ploughed, "It is a lonely place where I live. Near my home is a banyan tree where I saw the ghost hovering in mid-air without feet. It was pearly white in colour and just faded away into darkness". "Hold it, if it emits a pearly glow, how come it faded?", I asked. "You fool! Ghosts can appear and disappear!". Yeah, we don't need your wand Harry Potter. But she didn't stop. "When I went back to my home, I heard noises and anklet sounds". I really was getting amused over here, one minute ghosts don't have feet, next minute they wear anklets. "Believe me! They exist and by doing only this makes the ghosts go away. I'm most sure of it, definitely, definitely!". She started gasping for breath, protuded her eyes out. And then she added this, "I didn't do anything. It was all her fault. Do not punish me". She held her hands to protect her face.

Suddenly, I began to realize something. I spoke clearly and firmly, "No, you must be punished. You have been found guilty and will pay a price for that". She started crying "No, no, no, no! Spare my life, please. I will not succumb to your rules and regulations, its my life!" She sure made a great deal of noise. People surrounding us yelled, "A ghost! A ghost! She must be slashed". Then I cried, "No! Leave her alone. She must be treated first". I pulled her away from the crowd, that wasn't easy, thanks to the men who kept saying I was doing a sinful act, and women who wailed and cried and had a tug-of-war with me. Luckily I found my car nearby and pushed the lady inside and then started the vehicle and drew away from the place.

She kept gibbering away about having been drugged, having to face the society because of losing out on a marriage. Then came the most important fact that I was looking for, she said this, "Being alone is a power, no one to give reasons for, no one to be answerable for". I asked her slowly, "Just how many days did you have to do that?".
She replied to my surprise, "I have been living as an outcast for most of my life, I lost my sisters when I had been to a village fair". The truth now shone. She could not disassociate reality from her hallucinations. And why, because she became an outcast in her earlier life. And it is because of this she assumed ghosts too. People here do not have much education to support their thinking. Naturally, it would be limited.

Right in front of my very eyes, I see two different contrasting worlds emerging. One with Airtel releasing their digital TV and the other with an entire village worrying about ghosts ruining their family lives. Just where did the distance start? Or is it even a distance or our ignorance? Okay, there are urban people who do get scared of ghosts. But trust me, its not the ghosts that they're scared of, but the thought of it. Majority of us worry because we still don't know what it truly is.

I am right now, myself, writing this idea of a ghost. The true me has been covered by several layers of complexities, and I become reflected differently to each and every one. This is a natural thing for us humans to do, by default. This is a sign to hide our vulnerablities to people who we really don't know and/or don't want them to know us. We have secrets, things not to be told and stuff like that. One cannot hold everything in the mind, therefore we have a family and freinds. I, now have a tiny worry about my own self in my life that no one knows about. At this point of time, I'm stranded alone, with horrifying thoughts stuck with me. At first, I try to calm myself, hoping that good thoughts will take over me. Alas, no. The opposite happens and happens in exponential proportions. Until my mind has things under control everything is fine. But this is seriously a bad day. My mind loses the grip. I go against the rules of my own living. And now you see me, what do you reckon I am? A villager will say that a ghost has taken over me. A doctor would say I'm having my nervous breakdown. You, assuming that you're neither, will say I've gone mad!

More than proving the existence or non-existence of ghosts, it feels sad that even though we're growing up in technology ladder, we still have people who seem to me as stuck in time. Lost there back to those ages. Just exactly where is human existence leading us? Why are we truly building all this knowledge, discovering things, inventing new stuff?