1972 - Paper Ghost & Muni Attack---in Rameswaram
(This is an extract from another blog of mine)
Believe it or Not, I definitely had this experience in my rented house in Rameswaram.
The one year I was there in Rameswaram was a nightmare and some one up there was watching over me all the time and despatched many Godsends to keep an eye on me.
Most of the old houses in Rameswaram in the seventies were terrace houses about 25 feet wide with a long passage or corridor from front all the way to the back, with room after room with doors opening inwards into the rooms from the corridor. In the front was an open verandah with a one metre high platform about 8 feet deep 12 feet wide. Often used for relaxing in the evenings watching the goings on on the street and getting some cool air on summer nights.
On hot nights this was the preferred place to sleep. The back door opened into a back yard which always had a water well and right at the back were located the open toilets.
The house we rented had an attic room in front and you had to go up a ladder and the door to the attic room was on the floor slab. I had to push the door up into the room and climb into the room. My colleague, his wife and child and mother lived downstairs which had two bedrooms and a kitchen one after the other.
The Engineers who were living there before we moved in cautioned us that there was a "Muni" or a Ghost living on the Palm Tree in the Back yard. That he was generally a Good Ghost and did not harm any one but he did not like any body lying in the corridor with the feet pointed towards the entrance to the house.
(This is an extract from another blog of mine)
YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT IS COMING NEXT.
Believe it or Not, I definitely had this experience in my rented house in Rameswaram.
The one year I was there in Rameswaram was a nightmare and some one up there was watching over me all the time and despatched many Godsends to keep an eye on me.
Most of the old houses in Rameswaram in the seventies were terrace houses about 25 feet wide with a long passage or corridor from front all the way to the back, with room after room with doors opening inwards into the rooms from the corridor. In the front was an open verandah with a one metre high platform about 8 feet deep 12 feet wide. Often used for relaxing in the evenings watching the goings on on the street and getting some cool air on summer nights.
On hot nights this was the preferred place to sleep. The back door opened into a back yard which always had a water well and right at the back were located the open toilets.
The house we rented had an attic room in front and you had to go up a ladder and the door to the attic room was on the floor slab. I had to push the door up into the room and climb into the room. My colleague, his wife and child and mother lived downstairs which had two bedrooms and a kitchen one after the other.
The Engineers who were living there before we moved in cautioned us that there was a "Muni" or a Ghost living on the Palm Tree in the Back yard. That he was generally a Good Ghost and did not harm any one but he did not like any body lying in the corridor with the feet pointed towards the entrance to the house.
Just a representative Image
One Could not see the Muni or smell the Muni as he had no form they told me but you can feel his presence and he can even pick you up and throw you to the ground I was told.
I thought to my self what Cock and Bull story in this modern age. But then, when I went to bed upstairs to my room with one window that had steel bars and just one door on the floor to exit and turned the lights off, my thoughts invariably drifted to the Muni living in the Palm tree at the back of the house. I made sure I slept in a perpendicular direction so I did not point my feet to the front or to the back of the house..
I thought to my self what Cock and Bull story in this modern age. But then, when I went to bed upstairs to my room with one window that had steel bars and just one door on the floor to exit and turned the lights off, my thoughts invariably drifted to the Muni living in the Palm tree at the back of the house. I made sure I slept in a perpendicular direction so I did not point my feet to the front or to the back of the house..
Six seven months went by and we had settled comfortably in the house, me the bachelor boy going upstairs only to sleep. One common past time was to go see a movie at the local Cinema Tent. I'd go with some co workers for the 9.30pm show after dinner. Come back around 1.30 or 2.00am. Knock on the door and my friend would let me in or leave the main door unbolted so I just had to push the heavy wooden door in to find my way up the ladder into my bed room, where the bed was a mattress and pillows thrown on the floor.
One night I returned from the movie with Narayanan who was the cleaner for all our Tipper Trucks. The main door was locked and we knocked gently so we did not wake up my colleagues baby but he was in deep sleep and just would not open the door for us.
It was already 2.40am and Narayan said "Sir, lets not disturb him, I'll borrow a bed sheet and pillow from neighbours and we just lie down for a few hours in the Thinnai ( raised Platform) and leave at 5.00am to catch the first train out of Rameswaram to get to the work site" and I agreed, after all he was also there and it will be two of us. We lay down, on either side of the passageway, with out feet pointing to the road in the front open verandah on the raised platform.
DEATH RIDES MY THROAT / NECK
DEATH RIDES MY THROAT / NECK
I fell asleep and went into deep sleep immediately and started dreaming. My younger sister Manju (now a General Surgeon) was in my dream. All of a sudden she sat on my chest and started to choke me. I thought she was being silly and play full and kept telling her to get off my chest and stop choking me. It got worse and worse and she would not stop and I was sweating from head to foot. I started screaming loud in my sleep.
Next thing I know was that Narayan who was sleeping on the other side of the passageway heard me, got up and came and shook me and said "Sir Wake up you are having a bad dream". I woke up and he switched the torch light on and said Sir you have been sweating badly as the bed sheet is wet with sweat.. I remember telling him I don't know what happened but my younger sister was sitting on my chest and choking me by the neck and would not stop.
Soon after we got up and walked to the railway station to catch our train. Narayan observed that my neck was red as if I had been strangled but I did not think about this any more.
To me it was just a bad dream IMHO, then.
On hind sight "No"
To me it was just a bad dream IMHO, then.
On hind sight "No"
That evening on my return my colleague told me his mother found it too warm in her bed room so came and slept in the passage way and he said do you know what happened
"The Muni Choked her last night around 3.00am and she is terrified and has been crying all day and wants to pack up and go back home to Madras".
I was not at all surprised as I was choked around the same time, the only difference was that his mother was awake in bed and I was asleep. I related my experience and we all agreed that we had offended the muni and he was not a happy little Vegemite.
We had also been warned that if the muni ever attacks us we'd die within a month.
My colleagues mother died after 3 weeks but I survived
"The Muni Choked her last night around 3.00am and she is terrified and has been crying all day and wants to pack up and go back home to Madras".
I was not at all surprised as I was choked around the same time, the only difference was that his mother was awake in bed and I was asleep. I related my experience and we all agreed that we had offended the muni and he was not a happy little Vegemite.
We had also been warned that if the muni ever attacks us we'd die within a month.
My colleagues mother died after 3 weeks but I survived
Believe it or Not.
