All children love ghost stories, and I was no exception. When the lights went out (and they often did) in our native village of Talkat, nestled deep in the ranges of Sahyadri, we kids used to gather around the earthen stove and listen with fear often masked by excitement to the stories from my paternal grandma, and then, went to sleep often dreaming of those creatures.
Over the years, stories of grandma were replaced by movies like Raat, Raaz, and Evil Dead.
As Swami Vivekanand had a quest to see God, my personal mission was to see a real ghost. So I asked everyone if they had seen one, and no one ever did.
It was then that the realization struck: There are no ghosts.
Majority of the ghost stories are purely hearsay, passed from one to another with some exaggeration. And many are even blatantly false, just narrated to be the center of the group. There are just a few cases that actually defy explanation, but there's no doubt even those will be resolved over the years.
As parents, we should never scare our kids with notions of ghosts. It is much better to simply say, "Don't go in the dark room, you may not see clearly and you may hurt yourself."
And as adults, if you have to walk near a funeral pyre or across a cemetery, just take a deep breath, and remind yourself: Ghosts don't exist.
These days, there's more danger to us from living humans than from the non-existent undead folks.
Over the years, stories of grandma were replaced by movies like Raat, Raaz, and Evil Dead.
As Swami Vivekanand had a quest to see God, my personal mission was to see a real ghost. So I asked everyone if they had seen one, and no one ever did.
It was then that the realization struck: There are no ghosts.
Majority of the ghost stories are purely hearsay, passed from one to another with some exaggeration. And many are even blatantly false, just narrated to be the center of the group. There are just a few cases that actually defy explanation, but there's no doubt even those will be resolved over the years.
As parents, we should never scare our kids with notions of ghosts. It is much better to simply say, "Don't go in the dark room, you may not see clearly and you may hurt yourself."
And as adults, if you have to walk near a funeral pyre or across a cemetery, just take a deep breath, and remind yourself: Ghosts don't exist.
These days, there's more danger to us from living humans than from the non-existent undead folks.
