It Probably Drove Him To His Death

Greetings! Before I start I just want to clarify- this is an absolutely true story- and nothing about it is made up- it's about my grandfather who sadly I have never met (you'll know why). It has been narrated to me by several persons including my dad and specifically my grandma who naturally remembers the details. It isn't from my personal experience per-say though it has changed quite a few things about my life. I'm writing this mainly as a warning to everyone who has written stories on this site about some spirit in their house or some "being" bothering their close relative. PLEASE TAKE SUCH INCIDENTS IN YOUR LIFE VERY SERIOUSLY... As for readers who are here for the love of ghost stories- I promise you'll find this really interesting. It's a tad long but I must tell you this so you know spirits are to be dealt with as soon as possible. You can't take their presence around you lying around.

I'm 24 and I'm from India... I'm a doctor and hence people find it really strange that I would believe in spirits, because it's "not a proven science". But I do- I do believe that some people come back after their death for whatever reason and that there are "good spirits" and "bad spirits". In fact many of my relatives and I strongly feel my granddad is watching over us and comes to our help when we need it desperately. However I've never seen or heard him- it's just a common feeling that we all have had on separate occasions.

Anyway, coming to the main story, this is a story my grandma (repeatedly) and several other relatives have told me. Nobody knows why it happened but it did. Being a doctor I can probably try and find a medical explanation to most of it. But frankly it does seem like too much of a coincidence. So... Let's go back to the 1950s to a small village in Haryana. My grandma and grandpa live in a mansion with their two sons (my dad and his younger brother, my uncle). The neighbouring mansion belongs to grandpa's close friend and his big joint family- parents, aunts and uncles, and cousins (he was a bachelor).

Now, there was a time in the 1960s when people in this neighbouring house seemed to be really ill. A lot of them had fallen sick (granny isn't sure what the ailment was) and were pretty serious. Gradually many of them died of it. This sadly included grandpa's friend and he was quite sad after this incident. He visited his friend's younger siblings at their home very often to make sure they were fine.

Soon after this, grandma noticed grandpa behaving rather strangely- he would keep to himself and barely speak to anyone. He would blank out and go away for walks faraway without informing anyone. She assumed it was due to him being sad because of his close friend's death. But she soon also started noticing how his voice and manner of talking had begun to awfully resemble that of his dead friend. At times she felt another two dead family members of this friend (the dad and the uncle, who also passed away that time) were "speaking through" grandpa. In other words people thought grandpa was possessed by these spirits.

He was uninterested in his business which eventually went into a terrible loss. They were almost bankrupt but grandma's parents were pretty well-to-do so they helped grandpa start a new business which sadly also failed miserably. Another shot was given at another business but to no avail. My grandpa otherwise had a very good commerce sense and his first work had been doing decently well but off late nothing seemed to work. He would just stare blankly all the time and do no work and barely even eat. He was taken to plenty of doctors and priests but nobody could help. Eventually they left that village and shifted to a town, but the incidents didn't stop. They consulted more priests and local paranormal experts but in vain. They were always told that no cure was known for multiple possessions in a single body!

Then one morning, grandpa went for a walk and never returned... They later found his body at the railway tracks. My grandmother was in her late 20s at this time (Indians used to marry very early those days), dad was 8 and uncle was 2. (Please note however that grandpa's symptoms can be correlated medically too- it's possible he was in depression due to a dear friend's death and hence showed no interest in work. And repeated failed attempts at trying to make a living drove him to suicide. It's also possible that a head injury that he had received around the same time, when he got into a small tiff with local dacoits, made these symptoms appear. Although granny claims that injury wasn't too severe- he wasn't even hospitalised, and that these complains started before that tiff)

Anyway, so apparently a few months after grandpa's death, granny's brother, who wasn't from their village, but stayed in this town they now lived in, started complaining of similar incidents. The staying to himself, the phasing out, the disinterest, and a similar trail pursued. A failed business (which was flourishing earlier), a trial at a new one- and countless terrible losses followed. Shockingly, he too tried to commit suicide twice- by jumping in the city lake, which is pretty deep- but thankfully he was saved by some pedestrians both times. After a lot of priests trying in vain to rid him of this "possession", a paranormal expert finally succeeded. It was tedious but granny's bro was saved! He wears the enchantments and voodoo armband until date. He was not affected ever again. Soon after this his business flourished again and he's now the proud great granddad of two kids, with a lot of property and money to his name. Sometimes I wish they had found this expert a little earlier. (Once again, it is possible to explain this medically, but isn't it a little far-fetched to think that he would have the same problem, in such quick succession, when in fact he had no reason to be depressed either? Besides, any psychiatrist will tell you- it's extremely rare for schizophrenia or depression to go away completely but he seemed to be cured- forever, and that too without any doctor's help)

The story doesn't end here. A year after this, my uncle (dad's younger bro) who was 5 by now, started with the same complains. Till now, he was a normal child who had started talking, walking and everything else at normal time, like the other kids. He went to school and his performance was above average, with no complaints from teachers. (All this is important to write because it proves he was normal earlier- the fact that his milestones of talking walking, etc. Were attained at normal time shows his brain development was normal). And suddenly, at the age of 5- with no history of head injury or brain infection, my uncle started behaving abnormally. He would go off on long walks, sometimes even late at night, without telling anyone. He would keep staring in school and trouble the teachers. He would get lost somewhere for hours on end and then return like nothing happened. At the tiny age of 6, he once travelled all alone from the town where they were staying then, to the village they lived in earlier- the route involves changing two buses and walking on very confusing roads. He was brought back by the people in the village who knew where granny had shifted to. Soon, uncle even dropped out of school. After trying to consult many paediatricians, that paranormal expert was called in again- and uncle was cured too but he's mentally retarded TO THIS DAY. It's very minute and barely noticeable. In fact if you speak to him you probably won't even realise it but its there. But thankfully he was never affected again- he too wears the charms even now. (Again, maybe it's just mental retardation but then that has to be from birth right? And with no history of injury or infection, it seems unlikely)

And oh yes, I forgot to mention- back in the village where the deaths occurred- the 2 ladies of the house that died, also apparently haunted the neighbour from the opposite side of the lane- granny's friend- who would suddenly start behaving abnormally- screaming, throwing out utensils, scratching on the door of the house (where these deaths occurred), etc. But each time the local priest could manage to cure he never permanently though. She continued to be troubled intermittently like this several times until they finally shifted to another village. She wasn't troubled after that.

There is in fact a story regarding her which grandma vividly remembers, but I'll write that as another short story- since this is already too long!

So, I'm coming to the end of my story. Sorry I made it too long. But hope it kept you interested. I don't know if this is just an array of medical misfortunes or some play of notorious spirits. What I do know is that my extremely cute granny has been a widow for almost 50 years now that my uncle is in his 40s and has been unemployed all his life, that my daddy has had no father since he was 8, and that I've never known the love of a grandpa...

You can take it as a warning or an advice- but please contact whoever you have to, and get rid of the bad spirits in your house... BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

Thank you for reading.