Back to….scary house !

Sometime in Sep., I happened to chat with a few of my friends on the new job and my plans for relocating to Trivandrum. One of them mailed me saying they have a beeeeg house in Trivandrum for which they were looking for tenants and they wanted to know if I would want the house. The mail, which could easily make an entry for an essay writing competition, made me feel very special and I felt proud of myself for having made such good friends. All that mention of beeeg house (thrice in the mail), fully furnished (thrice, again), three bathrooms (whoopie!!), excellent location, car porch, etc. literally seduced me to say yes to the offer. Sigh! Little did I know that there was an intention behind ‘the lucrative offer provided’ – to be the caretaker of a scary house !!!

Since I knew the house-owner quite well, I never bothered to go all the way from Chennai and check the house, but I did meet the house-owner during one of my trips to Blore to show them my face and to let them aware of what they are getting into. The meet went well and everything was finalized. After reaching Trivandrum, I met the house-owners once again to get the keys and sign the agreement. And folks, thats when I got into the house for the first time !!!!

As soon as you enter the house, the first thing that would catch your eye is a huge painting of some guy undressing a woman by a river side. Now, who would want such a pic in their house right in front of the main door? Apparently, its a famous painting by Raja Ravi Varma and the undressing guy in the picture is our own Lord Krishna. No guys, I have no idea who that shameless woman is!!!  Thats just not all, there are (or should I say ‘were’) a few more such provocative paintings hanging in the hall and in the sitting room. One of them is a famous painting seen in all those local barber shaaaps; that of a woman, ala Mandakini of ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ style, on a swing with some fully clothed guy!  I had to remove it from where it was to avoid all the embarrassment when my folks come down; but its now safe and sound somewhere in the house. I might not understand art, but all these artists and ‘painters’ are, for sure, perverts; be it the famous painter king or be it the one who has a fascination for Bollywood Actresses !!!

The house, as mentioned, in the mail was not beeeg, but huge! So huge that it reminded me of one of those haunted bungalows in the scary movies. Moreover, the place had dust and cobwebs from the medieval era that added to the eerie effect.  The light was dim, and the hall had pictures of some old king (Swati Thirunal, I guess), three antique diwans, few other furniture from the 17^th century and believe it or not, a gun and a sword. Guess what, later, during one of our cleaning sessions, we found dates seeds behind that kings portrait which I believe he must have left it there during his stay in this house.

Till then I was staying in the company provided guest house and I was allowed to stay there for a week until I find an accommodation. After having seen the house, I decided to stay back in the guest house for that whole week and wait for my folks to come down by the weekend to shift.

Unlike the one in Chennai, this house isnt haunted.  But right from the first day, I have been getting this weird feeling that there is something wrong somewhere; somebody is watching me; somebody is finding pleasure in scaring the crap out of me. Read on to find out ‘some’ of the scariest incidents so far :

# 1  : It was my last day at the guest house and also my first evening in the house. The folks had to postpone their trip to Trivandrum by another week and I was all alone in the new place. I was tired that day with all the unpacking and running around and so decided to go to bed early. All those thoughts are going to haunt me only if I am awake, I thought!  Switched off the lights and hit the bed at around 10pm itself. In not more than 10 mins., I happened to hear a loud shriek of a young girl; so loud that it literally shook me off my bed. All that while, I was lying on my stomach facing the left side of the wall. Humans and their curiosity I guess, that noise made me turn to the right side where the windows were and I got another shock; this time for my eyes. A couple of spirits were staring at me; I mean that’s what I felt when I saw the wall shining in certain spots! I didn’t have the courage to inspect the wall and so lied down quietly in my previous position, kept the curiosity to myself and managed to plug in the earphones this time to avoid waking up again !

Next day, after waking up, the first thing I did was to examine the walls ! and you know what I found ??? Star shaped glow-in-the-dark stickers stuck all over! Apparently, this house was earlier rented to a couple of idiotic party girls. I am glad they stuck them only on one side of the wall and not the whole room. Sigh! Girls, I tell you ! They have always managed to scare me in one way or the other!

# 2 : That same morning, after examining the walls and laughing at my own silliness, I decided to freshen up. As soon I opened the door, I saw something in the hall that made me freeze for a while.

A painting like that in the hall right in front of the bedroom is exactly what I wanted after a horrible night. Sigh! Wonder how I missed this scary painting before! I mean, anybody would get scared seeing that deadly look on the kids face, right? It might appear normal here as a pic. But imagine seeing this around 6 in the morning when the lighting is very poor. Well, all I could see in that light was a kid staring at me as if I am responsible for his parents death!!!  Later, when I decided to shift that painting elsewhere, I realized that the kid is actually crying and not threatening! But why would anybody hang such depressing paintings in the hall, or anywhere for that matter ?

# 3 :  That same day, at around 10 am, I heard a knock on the door (the bell wasn’t working then).

Neighbor : Did you hear anything strange last night ?

Me : Nope. Oh yes, I heard some girl crying loudly.

Neighbor : Oh that’s my daughter. She screams like crazy when we go to hit her.

Me : Thank goodness (inside)! Nope, other than that, I didn’t hear anything. What happened?

Neighbor : It seems we had a visitor last night – a thief!

Me : Woah ! At your place? Did you lose anything?

Neighbor : No. I wanted to check with you if you have lost anything.

Me : I don’t think so.

Neighbor : Well, somebody did come last night into this compound. Do you know that there is a bathroom outside ?

Me : No. I have not explored this place completely.

Neighbor : Well, there is a bathroom and somebody has performed potty on the floor! He also left a beedi!!!

 

A thief breaks into the compound of the house, shits on the bathroom floor and leaves a beedi as a trail !!! Hmmmm….Guess, he reads my blog !!

# 4 : Same day, around 3pm, the electrician came over to fix the door bell. While he was fixing the door bell, I got busy fixing new tubelights and CFLs to bring some light into the house. After fixing the door bell, he gave me his number and asked me to reach him for any electrical or plumbing work. We spoke for a few mins and then, I guess, he got bored and left. I closed the door and went inside to arrange the furniture. The bell rang and I went out to check who it was. There was nobody in sight. Must be for the top floor, I thought. I went in again and after 5 mins, the bell rang again. I opened the door and didn’t find anybody this time too. Some kid must be playing a prank, I thought! So I moved the curtains and waited for some time to find out who it was. The bell rang again and I kept looking out of the window, but didn’t find anybody. The bell, then, started ringing continuously without a gap! I called the electrician immediately, but some computerized lady on the other end said that the number does not exist. Spooky, isn’t it? Now tell me folks, who wouldn’t be scared in such a situation with a continuously ringing door bell playing in the background? I went inside to check whats wrong with the bell. And  guess what I found !

 

That’s right! Another painting of a crying kid, this time a girl next to the door bell; shes probably the other kid’s sister!!!

I hit the door bell with my hands to make it silent. When that didn’t work, I removed the outer lid, and pulled out the rods ! Phew; silence at last ! But I could see and listen to the springs inside the equipment vibrating violently. You know what, this painting was above the door of the bedroom where I had slept last night. So the shriek that I heard was not of the neighbors kid after all. Probably, that crying kid in the painting was using the door bell now as a medium to communicate something to me.  There was only one way to stop it; I removed the fuse from the main switch that’s connected to the door bell. Yup, that worked alright. But later when I put the fuse back in place, the door bell started vibrating again. In a few minutes, the door bell got ‘fried up’ and this time the fuse went on its own. I went upstairs to check with the neighbor on the electrician’s phone number and hehehe, it seems I dialed an incorrect number. I managed to reach him finally and waited for him to fix up the power supply and also the door bell. And, that scary painting? That’s no longer up there!

# 5 : This incident happened a few weeks back. One day, when I got back home from ‘my school’, I was greeted with the news of another thief attack. This time there was no ‘download material’ anywhere, but he managed to steal six drainage lids from the compound. Guess what, this theft happened in broad daylight ‘cuz a few of the residents around claim to have seen some guy in our compound at around 3-ish and then leaving with a heavy sack. According to them, he appeared normal and looked more or less like a person who had come over for some plumbing work. I am pretty much sure that this is the same guy who had come to decorate the bathroom floor the other day. And with his obsession towards bathroom related stuffs, it’s confirmed that he reads V-Lokam; this must be his idea of taking revenge!

Obviously, the immediate question would be “If you have soooo many problems with the house, why live in it?” Well, I got carried away by my house owner’s mail, especially the part on fully furnished (thrice) and sold all my furniture.

Now I am stuck with a TV, a sofa and two mattresses  ! 😀 😀 😀

Btw, this is indeed the most courageous post of mine for I might end up being homeless very soon.

PS : None of the incidents mentioned in this post are made up. And if anybody finds it hard to believe, you can always contact my house-owner @ alphabetworld.wordpress.com

PPS : The house-owner was at home while I was drafting this mail (house-owners brother is also house-owner, right?)

 

This post is the second part of a trilogy.

 

Next Post : Back to…the country !