Ghosts in the mind

Yesterday we watched Angels and Demons.  Age old question resurfaced in my mind – about existence of Angels and Demons.  One thing led to the other and I started thinking about God and ghosts.  That reminded me of a real life incident that happened to me a few years ago.

 

I had just graduated and got a job close to my home town.  I left that job in a few months and went back to my alma mater (IIT Kanpur) to take up a Research Engineer job with my professor in the Image Processing lab, though it meant moving far away from my “loved ones” (may be because I was strongly influenced by my lecturer’s words that I am not cut out for corporate world and would do well in research). 

 

Well here I am in North India again.  I hated the hostel and hostel food.  So, decided to take an SBRA (Single Bed Room Apt) and start cooking.  A close friend (and a fellow research engineer) also wanted to join me.  Unfortunately SBRA is allotted based on seniority and there are several people already waiting in line for one.  So, we approached a senior faculty member for help in getting one apartment quickly.  He pulled some strings and got us one.  But there is a catch.

 

IIT is famous for suicides.  If someone commits suicide in a hostel room or SBRA, it is sealed and not allotted to any one. There were several rumors about ghosts in such places.  Our faculty friend said he can get one of those unlocked and allotted to us if we do not mind living with ghosts. 

 

Luckily, my roomie is an atheist and both of us are strong disbelievers in ghosts.  We think these are figments of weaker people’s imaginations. We eagerly told him we do not mind living with imaginary people.  So, he got us N1.  He told us that two sisters committed suicide in the apartment – younger one stabbed herself in the kitchen and the older one hung herself in the only bathroom in the apartment.  I believe it was due to older sibling’s infidel husband or a love triangle or some crap like that.

 

So, we thanked him profusely and moved into our SBRA. Thinking that the whole apartment would be for just two of us.  Little did we realize that the happenings that night could change this perception for at least one of us.

 

That was a Friday night.  SFC (Student Film Club) was screening a horror movie in L7 (lecture hall 7).  So, we ran to Red Rose (the only restaurant on campus) quickly finished dinner, went to a grocery store and boughte some breakfast items (eggs, bread, and jam), some potatos, onions and a bulb for bathroom. We went back to the apartment, I dropped the bag in kitchen while my roomie fixed the bulb in bathroom.  We had enough time to run (actually cycle) to L7 in time for the movie. 

 

It was past midnight by the time we went back to the apartment after the movie.  I opened the lock and entered and was stunned to see blood coming out from under the kitchen door.  My roomie was behind me.  He was the first one to react.  He said there should be some explanation. So, I moved ahead and opened the kitchen door.

 

I saw broken eggs and jam bottle on the floor.  What surprised me was that the grocery bag was in the exact same position I left it (against the wall on the 2.5 ft wide counter), the bread in exactly the same position, standing vertically in the bag – again same as I left it.  Except the jam bottle and eggs which fell on the floor from the 3.5ft high counter. They were in the bag which is 2.5 ft away from the edge of the counter when I left that late evening. 

 

The blood we saw was albumen (egg white) mixed with strawberry jam. We joked about it and started cleaning the place.  I handed over one blood soaked mop to my roomie and asked him to wash it in bathroom and bring back.  He diligently did that.  I took a second mop and both of us started cleaning again.  Suddenly we heard a loud noise from bathroom, as if something that was hanging from the ceiling fell down and exploded.  Suddenly both of us became silent.  I could see that my roomie’s face became pale with fear.  I mustered enough courage and walked into bathroom to see.  I switched on the light, it wouldn’t come on. I walked back to the kitchen to ask my roomie if he noticed anything different when he went to wash the cloth.  I saw him hurriedly walking out of the apartment taking his bike.  He waved to me and said he is moving back to his hostel room.  I thought I heard him mutter that it was no coincidence that the two incidents happened in exactly the same two places where the sisters committed suicides and in exactly same fashion (one with blood coming out and the other hanging).

 

Now, are these mere coincidences? Are there ghosts really?  Is there a perfectly normal, arguably rational, supremely reasonable, scientifically provable explanation for these coincidences? 

 

If any one is wondering, I persuaded my roomie to come back and we lived there for over a year without any further incidents.  Rational, critically analytical and overly smart (lol) I am, I have a logical explanation for this, if any one is interested.