karanag Thread

Quite late to the party, but anyhow I will share. Also, this did not happen to me , but to my grandmother way back in the 1970's.

It was a balmy August afternoon in Delhi and my grandmother (Nani) and grandfather (Nana) were having lunch on the porch. Theirs was a huge house with a big lawn, driveway & stuff. Anyhow, while they were eating a group of Sadhus (Hindu Monks) appeared on the gate asking for alms. My Nana tried to shoo them away from his chair but they were adamant and making loud calls for alms. Already being interrupted and not wanting to spoil the rest of his meal, he went to the gate gave them some change and asked them to leave by saying , "Jao baba jao, ab jao" (Translation - Go Monk now leave)

To this one of the sadhus said, who are you to send us away, you yourself are leaving very soon and then they left. Hearing this my nani got angry at the sadhus but they nevertheless they continued with their lunch and finished it.

The very next day my grandfather passed away at the age of 38. He was not sick or anything .

Edit : There are several follow up stories to this one, if anyone is interested I can share

EDIT : Follow Up Story

So, when my Nana died, my mother , aunt & uncle were all very young... age 13, 11 & 9. My grandfather and his brother were partners in their business and had very good relations. This being India of the 1970's it was unthinkable for my grandmother to work or stay alone with young children. So my grandfather's brother (we'll call him ChachaJi in this story) asked my Nani to move into his house which they did with a view to lease out their own house and move back in after a few years. Everything is fine for the next few years, my mom gets married so do my aunt and uncle. My uncle & Nani continue to live in Chachaji's house which again was very huge so there was no dearth of space. (It is common & expected for sons to live with their mother's in India). They never really visited the old house during this period because of strong emotions associated with it which were painful to deal with and people never really stayed in it. Some problem or other made sure that the tenants left sooner or later, Chacha Ji dealt with all these affairs so my nani , mom stayed oblivious to it.

Fast forward to the late 90's , now my uncle had had kids of his own and now the 3 bedrooms he had in his area of chachaji's house started feeling cramped. Eventually they decided that they should move back into their own house which they had avoided so far as my uncle had joined Chachaji in the family business and staying together was really convenient for everyone. And as anyone can imagine, chachaji was now like a father figure for my uncle so emotionally it was tough leaving him and moving out. Anyhow , one day it was decided that they will go and take a look at the house and take note of what restorations/renovations need to be done and move back in asap. Me, my cousins tagged along with my uncle and aunt to see the house.

When we arrived, it was a bit rusty from outside having been neglected for 10-12 years (no tenant had been staying since mid 80's). Overgrown lawn, scraping paint, leaves spread around, etc. When we entered inside the house, there was a huge layer of dust everywhere at least about an inch thick. Considering it was a nice upscale locality of Delhi with lots of greenery we were surprised with the amount of dust we saw. But more surprising was the fact - and this is where it finally gets interesting - there were several pictures of Lord Hanuman (google for info) and none of them had the tiniest amount of dirt on them. The small in-house temple again was spick and span... you could eat of the floor over there. Perplexed, we quickly praised the lord and his mysterious ways and continued with our job of inspecting the house and left. Once back we mentioned the mystery of dust to chachaji who then narrated us the history of the house from 1975 (when we left) till now.

When the first tenant moved in sometime in the winters of '76 they never really felt at ease over there. Odd noises, pots & pans falling in the kitchen, kids falling sick all the time it was routine. So they packed up and left after about an year in the house. Then an old couple moved in , very religious people, the old lady used to pray daily and everything was calm for a few years. The old lady got sick, and died in the hospital. Once alone, her husband started seeing strange shadows and was having terrible nightmares and left within weeks of his wife's death. Then it was given on lease to a corporate which used it as a guest house. Guests who would stay there once would request a hotel on their next trip to Delhi, that company had taken it on lease for 5 years and ended up using it for less than 1. Eventually word got out that this is a haunted place and leasing it further was then out of the question.

Still, my uncle got the house all prepped up and they moved in on 1/1/2000. Till today no supernatural occurrence has occurred with my uncle's family. The general wisdom of all religious pundits that my grandmother consulted was that my nana's aatma (holy spirit) was in that house and he did not want anyone staying there except his own family.

Surprisingly, I being a huge skeptic always feel warm & cosy inside that house like I am at home, much more than I do at my own house.

p.s. - sorry, i know I should edit it and make it much shorter but right now i don't have the time to do it. Will do it maybe later. Please excuse the grammar as well until then.