Most kids hear about ghosts, banshees or other monsters from their elder brothers,sisters,cousins, uncle,aunt or sometimes even from their parents. They usually describe a fearsome ghost or monster who will gobble kids if they do not behave/eat food properly/ or sleep on time. That is how it presumably started in my case. I must have heard the story from my cousins or from my nanny. But a curious incident took place when I was about 10 or 12 years old. An entire city seemed to be gripped in fear of a ghost popularly called "Naalebaa".
One day as I was walking to my school I met a couple of friends along the way. They seemed to be having an exciting conversation. I was pretty sure the reason for the excitement was not the mid term exams that were coming up or the unusually lengthy homework that we were given. And it turned out that I was right. They were discussing about a terrifying spook that seemed to be making rounds of the entire city. The ghost it seems, would randomly pick a victim and pay his house a visit. He would knock on the door and once the door was opened he would kill the unsuspecting and sleepy victim in a matter of seconds. Once he gained entry he would likewise kill all the inmates of the house. I asked my friends what this ghost looked like, to which they all replied, nobody who has met him has lived to tell the tale (How then did everyone know about this spook I always thought). But it turned out that they were wrong. For it appeared that one of the kids woke up in the middle of the night for a drink of water and casually peeped out of a window overlooking the street. What he saw made him shiver uncontrollably. For there was a hooded figure walking in the streets with a bent gait. The fingers were like razor sharp talons, and in the moon light my friend supposedly saw very large canine teeth in a horrid face. He was so scared that he went back to bed and hid himself under his bedsheets. He was so scared to wake up even that his mother had to drag him out of bed and send him to school. So out of nowhere many rumours had started each giving a different dimension to this specter.When I went home that day even my maid started narrating her own version of the ghost story of Naalebaa. Thus it was official! The entire city was supposedly haunted by "Naalebaa".
Now let's get down to the name of the ghost itself! One wonders why it was called "Naalebaa". Naalebaa in Kannada means "Come tomorrow". This was also the only solution to get rid of this ghost. For though almost everyone had a different version of "Nalebaa" story they all agreed on the one solution to get rid of it. All one had to do, was to take a piece of chalk and write on the front door "Naalebaa". This supposedly fearsome ghost was also apparently very obliging. For the moment he saw the writing on the door, he would think "Oh darn! They want me to come tomorrow! I will come back tomorrow then!". Thinking thus, he would go away. And according to everyone who believed in this spook, as long as the writing is on the door, the spook will keep going away and this would go on and on until the end of the world! When I told the same story to my parents, they dismissed it as utter non sense and I became somewhat skeptical about the ghost. However that did not necessarily allay my fears during night time when the ghost was supposed to wander the streets looking for his next victim.
The rumours lasted for some time, and probably during that time one could see "Naalebaa" scrawled on the front doors of those who were gullible enough to believe in this ghost! I only hope no unsuspecting guests were caught in this infinite loop. I always wondered what would have happened if a guest dropped into the house and would see the sign. He would probably be at a loss as to what to do! And unlike the ghost he may take it as a personal affront and never visit the house again.
During this time an interesting event happened to a cousin of mine. Being younger than me, he had taken this ghost story quite seriously and dreaded the time between sunset and sunrise. One night while my cousin was sitting at home watching an interesting show on TV, he heard someone rapping at the door. He was greatly petrified and he caught hold of his mother, who had risen to open the door! He pleaded to his parents to not open the door as that would allow the ghost to enter the house and do unimaginable things to them. The parents somehow calmed him and went to their front door and peeped out of the key hole to see who it was. While my cousin was trembling all over, his mother opened the door with a smile on her face. My cousin who was expecting a ghastly apparition on the other side of the door found his uncle standing there instead. His uncle had missed the last bus home and had come to my cousin's house which was nearby to crash there for the night. From that day onwards, my cousin stopped believing in ghosts I presume. My skepticism in Naalebaa only grew after hearing this incident.
The rumors lasted for some time, but they died down pretty soon. And now my friends also were probably bored of concocting stories about naalebaa. Now the topics of discussions were only the latest exploits of Sachin Tendulkar and Yokozuna's unexpected victory in a casket match against the Undertaker.
I still remember this incident with a smile on my face. I can only describe this event as mass hysteria. According to me there was absolutely no paranormal phenomenon whatsoever.
