Ghost Of Kallavva

The story which I am going to tell you took place in the city of Bijapur in India. I have not known the ghost personally but my grandmother and grandfather knew her very well. And due to certain incidents, the ghost became an integral part of our family as well.

In India, you will find many dowry harassment cases all round the year. The woman Kallavva was also a victim of dowry harassment. Her husband and in-laws treated her very badly as she was from a poor family and her father couldn't provide enough money to them. She was forced to do all the work in the home, not allowed to travel anywhere, was forced to eat stale food, and was often beaten very badly. She had a young 1 year old child whose name I can't recall.

She had only one friend in the entire city and that was my grandmother. Whenever she used to come to our home, my grandmother used to give her good food to eat, buy sari (traditional Indian dress) for her, counsel her and give her hope to continue on in her in-laws' home.

This story is around 50 years old when the idea of a divorce was not very practical in India. After few years of torture from her own in-laws, the poor woman committed suicide by drowning herself in a well. But as she was drowning, she realised that she would be leaving her son all alone and so she called her in-laws to save her. Her in-laws, even after hearing the poor woman's screams, didn't rush in to save her and let her drown. Soon afterwards even her young child died crying for his mother. That's where all the problems began.

Now, when her son died because of her in-laws' negligence Kallavva, who had come back as a ghost, turned mad. She decided to have revenge on all of her in-laws by making sure that no child is born in the family in the future. She had three brother-in-laws. She told this to her mother-in-law in her dreams. She dropped one of her brother-in-law's son off the roof of a building. The child became mentally challenged after the incidence. The second brother-in-law and his wife could not conceive a child even though they were fertile individuals.

Scared that their family name won't continue, her in-laws came to my grandfather to ask him for help. We come from a brahmin family and my grandfather was a great pundit. He had faced spirits in the past and had released them from their bondage to the human life after death. When my grandfather came to purify their house and do some puja, He was hit by a hard blow and landed several feet away from the house. Then he saw the ghost of Kallavva coming towards him. She told him that she is not an evil spirit and that her in-laws deserve every bit of what was happening to them. She also said that she respected and adored my grandfather and that she does not want to hurt him and politely asked him to go away from the home.

My grandfather, being the kind man he was, decided to marry off his own daughter, my aunt into the family. Kallavva wasn't evil. She could never hurt her only friend's daughter for her own rage, so she told my grandfather that she won't harm my aunt and the children born to her, but the others in the family will not be able to conceive another child. Moreover, she even came to my grandmother and asked my grandmother to buy one new sari in her memory every year and to cook extra food for her everyday. The sari and food she asked her to give to poor people and that she would feel better if my grandmother did so. She also warned my grandmother that if she chose not to do so, the firstborn in the family would face some trouble. Saying so she went away.

My aunt gave birth to my cousin, a perfectly normal girl child few years later. Kallavva didn't try to harm her in any way. After my grandmother's death 8 years ago, my mom stopped cooking extra food for Kallavva. My mom is a doctor by profession and she thought this all to be a made up story. Soon afterwards, my elder brother fell sick of high fever. No matter what medicines were given to him, his fever didn't reduce. Doctors were also completely baffled by this case. One day my mom thought that it might be because of Kallavva and made some food especially for her and gave it to a poor old woman. The next day my brother was totally fine. This incident made my mother a believer as well.

Even today my mom cooks extra food especially for Kallavva. She has become like a part of the family. She has visited my mother in her dreams twice to warn her of dangers and her advice have always proved to be beneficial to us. She is there somewhere amongst us. Always. I feel a strong feminine presence many a times around me, a presence which is trying to help me and make me feel better. I think the feminine presence is of Kallavva. That's all I know about Kallavva.