Discontented Spirit

   

   Once my father's maternal grandfather was traveling from Rangoon to his native place Satyabhamapur to see his daughter by train. He got off at the Jagatpur Rly. Station (now Kendrapara Road and walked on foot up to the destination as during that period no vehicle was available for conveyance and also no roadside electricity.  

On the way, he came across a place named Paga which was a notorious county graveyard as a favourable resort of discontented spirits and ghosts. It was 1 PM and a sensitive solitary doldrum was pervading that area.

   Our great-grandpa was a daredevil person and he proceeded amid the encircling dense darkness beside that grave while he saw a woman was baking her new born baby on her lap by vomiting fire. That female apparition (called Pitasuni in Odia folk terms) was sitting on the narrow village path. So he climbed up a banyan tree nearby with his hand bag containing luggage and sweetmeats. After about half an hour the pitasuni disappeared from the spot and grandpa got down and walked on.

   Then after some time, he saw a horrible woman's Spirit beside a bush which was begging food to eat moving her tongue to and fro. So grandpa stroke the bush with his sanctified cane (mantura beta in Odia) and drove the spirit away. He also assured the ghost to return again at tomorrow night with enough food for it.

   Then he reached home at 3 o'clock at night. The after evening a Satyanarayan Puja was performed on the occasion of the 21st birthday of his first born daughter (my grandma)and father's grandpa carried some Sirini (a mixture of milk banana and molasses coconut etc. offered to the deity )to the Paga graveyard as per his promise given to the Ghost.

  It was 10 PM and after putting down the Sirini grandpa alone returned while he heard a voice of satisfaction of a hungry woman behind him. (it is a true ghost story told me by my late great grandfather (bapankara aja)who was serving as a DSP of GRP in British India).

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