The Fire Spirit -Real Indian Ghost story
I belong to Kerala which is in
the southern part of India. My town is known as Palakkad, situated in a valley
surrounded by western ghat hills. These hills are subtropical rain forests having
an average altitude of 1200 meters.We have monsoons for 5 months in a year. And
when i say monsoon its heavy rainfall for 2 to 3 months. Because of this the
small streams in the hills are full of water throughout the year, even during
summer (though shallow ). Summer season is rather very humid as my place is
situated in a valley, the heat accumulates in the plains and because of the
surrounding mountains it cannot escape. This makes the humidity level to shoot
up in the months of March and April. A group of hills is situated near to my
school known as Dhoni hills. Folks who live near to the forests of this hill
make a living out by cultivating rice. They can be said as tribal as they don’t
mingle with the people living in town as they are happy amongst themselves and
have their own culture and tradition. Most of them live near the little streams
which is their main water source. Though these people follow the Hindu religion
their deities include their forefather’s spirits,goblins along with other Hindu
gods.
My
school was just 4 miles away from these hills. I and my friends used go to the
stream and have a great time during summer season. Four of us who used to go
there together. Sometimes we used camp for the weekend near to this particular
stream. During summer the stream was shallow and we could wade across easily.
One weekend I, Roshan, Pranav and Vivin planned for camping trip to the
mentioned place. We all were pretty excited. In order to reach the mentioned
place we had to trek 4 miles. And our path consisted of 1 mile of pappy
cultivation and then 3 miles of forest area. Since this area was under Indian
forest reserves we had to get permission from the forest department prior to
our camping journey. I am a scout so it was easy for us to get the permission
docs cleared. We had to give our address and emergency contact numbers to the
officials as per the clearance procedure. This forest didn’t have any wild
beasts rather it included gentle animals mostly deer’s, rabbits etc. But the
vegetation is thick and dense in some part of the forest.
So on
the day of our journey we loaded our camping equipments and food stuff in our
bikes and started from Pranavs home. Pranavs mother had made us food which
would last two days of our camp trip. There was just one shopping store near to
this forest which was located just before the paddy fields. Since we were in
good terms with the shop keeper we parked our bikes there and started on foot.
Even though we were burdened by the weight of camp equipment and other stuff
but our excitement to reach the stream made us forget rest of the troubles. It
was a pleasant day and in couple of hours we reached our destination. The best
part was Vivin had sneaked in some beers in his backpack. The time was around
10 am and we started setting up our camp. Vivin and Pranav went to collect fire
wood so that we could set a camp fire by the evening. I and Roshan got busy
fixing the tent. Things were set in an hour’s time. Then we had some grub and
started to explore the surroundings. We went to the nearby forest just to try
our luck to catch a game. But unfortunately none of us are good hunters so we
settled for a troll in the woods. On the way we saw a few huts of the folks who
stay there. We didn’t cross their area as we are aware that they never
entertain kids like us as they thought that we are troublesome. Near to these
huts there were a few idols placed at the bottom of trees which these people
used to worship.
By
the time we reached back it was almost 1 pm and we were a bit tired and wanted
to cool off in the cold water of the mountain stream. We had the beers and were
in awesome mood and we all had a great time swimming and fooling around in the
water. It would have been an hour or so suddenly Pranav shouted aloud which
alarmed the rest of us. We were shocked to find blood in the water were Pranav
was standing. We caught him bought him to the bank and when we checked he had
cut his leg as he had hit an underwater rock even though the cut was small the
blood was coming out in high pressure. We had stocked some bandages and med (we
were well prepared as anything could happen in places like this) in our kit. I cleaned
the wound and applied a covering over it. Then asking Pranav to rest we sat
near to him and started chatting and playing cards. Time was around 5 pm,
Pranav said he is feeling a bit pain in his leg. So I checked in the kit to see
if there were any pain killers available. But there were none available so we
decided that two of us would go to the store and get some painkillers. Vivin
and Roshan started off immediately for the store before it closes down for
the day. The rest of the story is as per what Roshan told me. On the way Vivin
wanted to take a leak so he relieved himself near to a treaa. But unfortunately
he had not seen the other side of the tree was an idol of worship was placed by
the local folks. He was very sorry after realizing what he had done. And when
Roshan assured him saying since it was not intentional it’s ok. And they
shrugged their remorse and walked off.
By the time they reached the
store it was almost 6 pm and luckily the store was still open and they
purchased the meds. Then Vivin insisted Roshan to buy some beers, even though
he was reluctant at first but later he agreed. So they bought some beers which
the store keeper used to sell illegally. They had couple of beers and since it
was getting late they started their journey back to the camp. On their way back
they decided to take another route as it was a short cut even though it was a not
used much by other folks. It would have been around 7 pm by then and was dark
as it becomes dark sooner in forests. They had flash lights with them so they
just started walking. After a mile or so they reached a clearing in middle of
the jungle far away a mile or so, both of them saw a fire burning in a higher
altitude. Thinking that would be the hill where our camp is, these guys started
heading towards the fire. They walked for almost a mile further towards the
fire, but it was as if the fire is as far as it was when they had first seen
it. Since they were a little high they didn’t notice that they were walking
away from the path. And they continued to follow the fire. After walking
another mile they noticed the folly they did. That they had ventured away from
the track and now they have lost their way. But they didn’t loose heart as they
could still see the fire and kept on walking towards it. Again they walked more
than a mile and still the fire was burning as far as they had seen in the beginning.
By then both of them started getting little scared. Roshan is the toughest
among the four of us, he said not to worry and kept on walking towards the fire
but now they were totally lost in the unknown area of the woods. After a while
they started hearing some creepy noises. Usually in forest you hear all kind of
voices, of crickets and other animals and birds. But as per Vivins details
these voices were not made by animals or insects but were some really horrifying
and strange noises.
It was almost 9 pm and still they
had not reached anywhere. So they decided to leave trailing behind the fire
instead use the tracks back to the camp. They walked away avoiding the fire,
even though it lured them to follow it. After walking here and there for a
while In-between they even dropped the plan to search for the path and follow
back the fire, but then Roshan said to Vivin it is useless and let’s find the
path. Luckily after a while they saw a group of huts. They had reached the
backyard of a small group of folks living there. They went and knocked at the
door. An old man opened and gave them an unwelcome look. But later when they explained
what had happened he quickly let them in and made them comfortable. They were
surprised to the core when the old man offered them coffee. And asked them what
exactly happened. They narrated what had happened, about Pranavs accident till
the fire that had made them lose their track back to their camp. After
listening intensely the old man his name was Choran asked whether they fooled
around anywhere. Suddenly Vivin remembered about the folly that he had done
earlier that evening. Then the old man said the idol where he had passed urine
was of a fire spirit ( it’s like goblin, in my language its known as thikolli
pisachu ). Some people who practice black magic use this spirit to get all
sorts of wicked things done. Mostly the rituals are performed in front of these
idols and Vivin had made the ritual premise dirty which had angered the spirit.
Usually when a fire spirit wrecks vengeance it makes its victims follow a fire
and make them loose their track. As and when the victims feel that the fire is
near by the spirit will increase the distance and in the end people would go
crazy and start running towards the fire source. Then the spirit would take
them to the top of a hill and make them jump to death.
After hearing this both of them
were scared like hell. Then Choran said as there are two of you that was the
reason you were alive. If you were alone then you would have gone crazy and
would have succumbed to the lure of light in the dark forest which ould have resulted
in your death. Charon then gave them Bhasmam ( it’s a holy powder that is
applied on forehead by Hindus ) that he had kept in his worship area and told
them to apply it on their forehead. This powder is considered to have Lord Shiva’s
blessing, and Lord Shiva according to Hindu religion is also known as the lord
of spirits and goblins also. Therefore no spirit can touch you if you are
reciting his prayer. Listening to this they were relieved. Then choran lit a
fire torch and lead them towards the path so that they can reach the camp. Once
they reached the path Choran asked them not to follow anything else other than
the path. As the fire spirit might try to lure them towards their death. They
nodded in unison and thanked the generous old man and started walking. On their
way many times they saw fire burning here and there but they stuck to the track
and walked forward without any diversions. They said they even heard the spirit
calling to them in a female voice. This made them more scared but they recited
Lord Shivas name and walked ahead. After walking for more than an hour they
could hear the voice of stream flowing and could see our campfire upon the
hill. They thanked heavens and rushed towards us.
Meanwhile I and Pranav were
scared thinking about Vivin and roshan, But when I saw two flashlights far
ahead below the hill I knew it was them. By the time they reached it was almost
past 12 pm. When they narrated what had happened, we didn’t believe at first
but when we saw their seriousness we understood it was something paranormal. Pranav
got his meds and slept well. Nothing happened that night. I and Pranav didn’t feel
anything spooky or unearthly but Vivin and Roshan had become believers on that
day. Next day we started early as Pranav couldn’t walk as fast as others. After
that we had couple more of camping trips to the same place without any trouble.
