THE GHOST WHO DID NOT WALK

This is not a ghastly ghost story. Neither is it scary enough to qualify as a full-fledged bone chiller that gives you the creeps and sleepless nights. Rather it is more on the funnier side.

Situated in the plains of the Simlipal Forest Range lies the erstwhile princely state of Mayurbhanj in Northern Odisha. It has now become the Mayurbhanj district with its headquarters situated at Baripada. Our ghostly tale relates to this place.

Baripada is a quaint little town that still retains quite a bit of its old-world charm. The maharajas of  Mayurbhanj used to rule from Baripada. They had their palaces here. They were very benevolent rulers who always worked for the upliftment and progress of their subjects and state. As such, Mayurbhanj was more advanced than other parts of Odisha during their rule. It had electricity, rail connectivity, airport, cinema halls, schools, etc., way before the rest of Odisha did.

The benevolence of the Maharajas was not confined to Mayurbhanj alone. A case in point is the famous SCB Medical College at Cuttack which came into existence due to the efforts and funds of the then Maharaja: Sriram Chandra Bhanjdeo, who was a great visionary and a philanthropist as well. When the maharajas left,  they gave away a major chunk of their properties for the welfare of the state. One such property was the “ Main Palace “which later became the MPC College named after Maharaja Purna Chandra Bhanjdeo.

I studied at MPC College from 1975 to 1978. During my time, the entire college used to function from the palace which basically consisted of two parts: the outer part and the inner part. Both parts had square-shaped courtyards surrounded on four sides by two-storeyed buildings that housed a large number of rooms in which our classes were held. Both the parts were interconnected. In the days of yore, the outer part used to serve as the maharaja’s office and residence, while the inner part was taken up by the maharani and her staff. The inner part was, therefore, called the Rani Mahal.

Behind the Rani Mahal lay the Boys’  Hostel which had come up recently. To go to this hostel one had to enter the college main gate, cross the courtyard of the outer part, enter the Rani Mahal, take a right turn and reach a newly constructed road that led to the hostel. So after sunset, while the courtyard of the outer part was brightly lit to facilitate movement to and from the hostel, the courtyard of the Rani Mahal always lay in the dark because there was no need to cross it.

Local rumor had it that this courtyard was haunted. Many claimed to have seen a female ghostly figure move in the corridors surrounding the courtyard when they had ventured there after dark. It was called the ‘Walking Ghost’ and was thought to be that of a maid of the Maharani who had committed suicide due to a failed love affair. So despite its attraction as a wonderful place to sit and chat in, the courtyard and its surrounding corridors were always fearfully avoided after sunset by all and sundry.

I was a frequent visitor to the Boys’ Hostel since I had many classmates staying there. As these visits were mostly in the evening hours, I always used to get an eerie feeling whenever I took the road to the hostel which adjoined the courtyard. Once, in the summer of  1977, while returning from one such visit late in the evening with two of my hostel friends who had offered to accompany me up to the main gate, I suggested we stop at the entrance of the Rani Mahal and enjoy the cool breeze flowing through the interconnecting corridor between the outer and inner part of the palace. My friends agreed and we stopped for a chat. After a bit, the talk got around to the credibility of the ghostly presence in the corridors surrounding the Rani Mahal courtyard. While my two friends emphatically said that they believed in the ghostly tales, I was skeptical. “If you are so confident, why don’t you take a stroll along the corridors? We will give you five bucks!”, they said. To this, I said I would. They were taken aback. “Are you crazy?!”, they asked incredulously. After repeated attempts to dissuade me had failed, they gave up reluctantly and agreed to accompany me up to the edge of the courtyard.

Standing on the fringe of this infamous courtyard I started straining my eyes to see into the deep shadows to adjust myself for the upcoming task. As I was doing this, I felt that eerie feeling again creep up on me. I lost all my bravado. I could not do it. I was scared. When I was just about to give up, I saw a small boy of ten years of age come up to us with a milk can. He was the local milkman’s son going to deliver milk to his customers at the hostel. On the spur of the moment, I asked him if he could go around the corridor for five rupees. He said he would. Keeping his milk cans with us, he entered the corridor at one end and came out of the other end without having any ghostly encounter! The Walking Ghost had not walked!

While handing over the fiver to him I  told him that he was a brave boy. He looked at me and asked why. I told him, “You have just walked where people say a ghost walks during these hours.”

“ What!” he exclaimed and fainted.