Wrestling with ghost

Our Village folklore are full of strange stories. Some of them might be true and some just exaggerated tales from the fertile imagination of village folks having plenty of time they enjoy , especially in off season periods. But nevertheless these stories never fail to entertain us.

One such story or incidence I heard from my younger Grandfather.He used to be a renowned wrestler in his young age, He used to tell us this story/incidence so seriously that we had to believed it or at least had to pretend to believe it.  We have place outside our village called Teliya now. This place used to be a Muslim graveyard before. Because it was too close to village and incidents for ghost sighting stories , the graveyard was shifted to some other place and a Hanuman temple was erected in a nearby vicinity. However there was a Peepal tree and they used to keep the earthen pot for dead(it was called Ghant) on that tree. Incidentally a lot of vultures also lived on the tree. It was pre-independence era and there was no electricity or proper roads or a public transport system at that time. The passing by road to the tree used to be deserted by evening and no one used to venture out in that area after sunset.

My middle Grandfather was a wrestler and used to be a handsome guy during the last years of British era in India. He was once returning back after wrestling in a competition from a nearby village. He was in happy mood because he won the competition and was singing and took out his shirt and kept on his shoulders, thus exhibiting his muscular bare body. When he reached near the Peepal tree he heard a Voice ” So you think you are big wrestler and that’s why you are acting cocky”. Suddenly a human like figure jumped from the Peepal tree and challenged him to fight. A wrestling ensued and my grandfather kept on wrestling and running toward his home. He kept on wrestling and running toward his home for around a Kilometer, and somehow was able to reach home. He fell severely sick after reaching home, His health lost and had to go numerous places to get this thing off from him.

Though he recovered later on and married and had children and lived long enough to tell us the story .We cross checked it with other people of his generation and some agreed to him and some said that he was just ill for sometime. But it was confirmed that he fell sick for sure which changed his lifestyle permanently afterwards.