Unexplained Deaths In One Family

I am not sure whether this qualifies as a paranormal issue or not. But, the occurring, tragic to say the least, happening in one family is what prompts me seek readers opinion. Please bear with me as I narrate a long story.

These series of events happened during 1970-84 at Bangalore, India for which I was a partial observer as a friend of the affected family. In the year 1970, our family moved from a small two-bedroom rented house in Bangalore to a 2-story house built by my father, slightly on the outskirts of the city (of course, today it has become the center of the city!). My father worked in a nearby college, whose employee society had purchased a row of plots on the outskirts and distributed to its employees based on a lottery system. My father was one of the lucky ones and built a decent house there, which still stands to this day.

Next to our house was an empty plot and next to that was a small house built by another employee of the college, a low paid attendant. Since, the attendant could not generate sufficient funds for building the house, he and his younger brother jointly built the two-bedroom house. Let me simply call the attendant as A and his younger brother as B. The house was registered in the name of A, as he was the employee of the college. B worked elsewhere in another low paid job.

A had a wife and five children, the eldest was a boy (let me call him S) slightly elder than myself and three more sons and one daughter. B had a wife and only one daughter (let me call her P), who was younger to me by 2 years or so. I was around 10 years at that time. There was an old woman who was the mother of A & B and was aged around 70 years A and B had an elder sister who used to live nearby and was always seen visiting the house. I was very friendly with S and P and used to spend hours with them playing. A had dug a well at the back of the house and there was plenty of water in it at a depth of hardly 20 feet.

During mid-1970, my family performed Grihapravesham or House Warming ceremony before moving into the new house and my father naturally invited A and his whole family (including B & his family). On the day of the function, no one from this family attended the function. Later on we came to know from A that his brother B's wife had expired just a couple of days prior to the function and they were very distraught and could not attend the function. She was very healthy and doctor could not say why she died. B was hardly 35 years of age and his wife was around 30 years.

Some months later, it so happened that all the elders in that house went for a function and were slated to return only by night 10 pm or so. S asked me to stay with them until their parents returned and I agreed. While chatting and playing in their house, P told us that she wanted to play a different game. She took a piece chalk and drew a large enough square on the living room floor with alphabet, yes/no, etc. Which I much later realized to be a crude form of Ouija board. With an upturned glass tumbler and a lighted candle inside (it was soon extinguished due to lack of oxygen) , she said that she wanted to call her mother's spirit and asked me and S to take part in it. We both were astonished that at such a young age this girl was about to call spirits and the calm way she proceeded to do that! At that age, I had no knowledge about spirits and boards and I was quite sure S knew nothing about it too. Anyway, we both looked at each other with amusement and thought that the girl was just crazy and decided to play along with her.

I have no recollection of what exactly she asked the spirit, assuming that there was one. But the glass tumbler did move here and there and we both believed that P moved it, although she vehemently denied our accusations. Anyway after a considerable time, P simply wiped off the written contents on the floor as it was time for the elders to arrive. Later on, I just forgot about the whole thing for ages.

A couple of months later, the sister of A/B, who was a regular visitor to their house, was stricken with a strange disease, which no doctor could recognize or treat. She started becoming thinner and thinner, refusing to take food. Over a period of 8-9 months, she became so frail that she was confined to bed and ultimately died with that strange disease.

Before the family could recover from this shock, the old woman of the house died. Of course, she was over 70 and distraught at the loss of daughter, this can be treated as a natural death. But just a few months later, A's brother who was just 30+ years, died suddenly, leaving P an orphan. It was speculated that he died of heart attack, but it was rare in those days to die of cardiac arrest at such an young age. P was lucky to have A as her uncle, who not only looked after her as his own daughter, but willed the whole house in her name, fearing his sons may disown her later in her life! These three deaths occurred within a period of 1 ½ years. Within the next one year, the husband of the aunt (A's sister) died suddenly too, with no particular ailment.

Next unfortunate incident happened around 3 years later, when A himself died suddenly probably due to cardiac arrest, just at the age of around 40 years. By now, the family had witnessed 5 deaths in a span of approximately as many years. My friend S and his whole family were now orphans. At that time, S was still pursuing his pre-degree education but was forced to discontinue and start working in a small factory to support the family, which he did wholeheartedly and even took upon the job of looking after P and caring for her.

The next big shock to the family was the death of A's youngest brother a year later, who was hardly 8 years of age. He had developed fever for a couple of days, which did not subside and died suddenly, in spite of having good medical care.

The final death was again a year later, but most shocking and mysterious as well. Another younger brother of S, who was around 13 years of age, one day started complaining of severe thirst. No amount of water or any liquid could satisfy him. Later in the day, the family found that he was missing from home. Any amount of search in the colony yielded no result and nobody had seen him leave the house either. The family spent the whole night worried about him. Next morning, when S was at the back of the house, he noticed someone sitting deep inside the well on a small step just above the water level (during construction of wells, a series of stones are placed on a spiral on the wall of well, from top to bottom so that people can climb down into the well, when the need arises). He recognized the figure as his missing brother. When help arrived and with great difficulty the brother was brought out, he was found dead hours ago. He did not drown but he was bent towards water as though he wanted to drink directly from the well! This was the 7th death in the family in roughly 8-9 years.

When all this was happening, it was noticed that P had grown extremely selfish and had developed a level of hatred towards the family which was taking care of her. She was also romantically attached to the brother of one of her classmates, who was nearly 15 years elder to her and desperately wanted to marry him. When S tried to reason with her, she argued fiercely and ultimately ordered the whole family to move out of the house, now that the house stands in her name! Although, his father was a major contributor to the house, my friend S left the house with his mother and surviving siblings and with great difficulty has managed to come up in life. In spite of being evicted from the house, he holds no grudge towards P and tries his best to maintain cordial relation with her. On her part, P married the man of her choice and lives happily in the same house, of course with major modifications and refurbishments to make it as per her choice.

A point to note here is that since S (and family) moved out of that house, no unfortunate deaths have happened. P and her family are hale and healthy despite living in the same house.

Can I consider this as a fit case of paranormal /ghost / malevolent spirit effect or a series of unfortunate but natural deaths in a family? If paranormal, why it ceased from the time my friend was evicted from that house? What is the role of Ouija board experiment conducted by P? Can there be a connection of Ouija board or its spirit on these unfortunate incidents?

I think YGS is the right forum to answer these questions. I would welcome comments from enlightened readers of YGS.