THE reason for writing this article relating events close to home is just so that we can be rational about stuff and examine them in a sensible way, if that is possible regarding such a topic.

Firstly, we must keep in mind the fact that humans do possess a highly creative imagination and can conjour up a lot of stuff just out of their own conscious, unconscious or subconscious realms. They say that the eyes and mind does play tricks, and then there is the dream factor. We sometimes dream eerie stuff and some people dream of ghosts or let’s say more often they see a loved one who has passed away. Then there are instances when one actually sees a person who has moved on, meaning not alive anymore, while awake.

Let us talk about the dreaming of people who are no longer alive first. A lady that the writer of this article knew as a child, (sorry no names can be mentioned as this is too close to home), related that her mother often came in her dreams after she had died. Instead of taking it in a positive way, she thought, as old folk’s belief, that her mother was coming in her dream to take her, meaning that this lady I knew was been given tiding of leaving this world. She got uneasy, she told me, and then when she saw her mother the next time, she actually told her in her dream that “Stop coming, my children are too young”.

She told me that her daughters were too young and she did not want to die. After that night, her mother never came in her dream. When I was told this tale, the lady was in her later years and she regretted telling her mother that because as she grew older and wiser, she realised that her mother probably did not come in her dreams to take her but just to let her feel that she was with her.

But now here is the big question; did her mother actually come in her dream or did she just imagine and then stopped dreaming of her after her own consciousness could not accept the appearance due to her not wanting to die? A mystery is what we have here.

Now we come to the ghostly part in real life. As a youngster yours truly remember reading a headline in a local Urdu daily, about the restless spirit of a woman named Tahira. Now being at that very interesting and curious age that I guess most of my readers are, it will be easy for you guys to imagine what a swirl it created in my mind. Scared, but still wanting to know more. And more… And more was easily available due to the fact that with three elder brothers who were much older than yours truly and were allowed to hang out with friends, we sat around the dining table discussing the entire scenario.

The story went as, a taxi driver going along a local highway at midnight saw a young woman dressed in a white sari standing almost in the middle of the road. The cab driver related to the newspaper, (sorry no names), that he thought she wanted a ride. He stopped and she got in. She gave him directions to a house not too far and he dropped her there. She opened the gate and went in.

Now the guy wanted his fare, so he waited for her to come and pay him, but no one came out. He blew his horn several times, but to no avail. He got out of the cab and rang the bell. After several bells an old man came out. The driver asked for his money and told the old man that the lady he had dropped to the house went inside without paying him. The old man told the driver that no woman had come to his house. The cab driver, now not in a very savoury mood, got angry. The old man asked him to describe the woman. She was quite young, had long black hair and was clad in a white sari and looked scared, the driver described.

The old man bent down and started to cry. He said that was the spirit of his daughter who had died in an accident that very night some years ago and she often appeared to people. The cab driver, now quite horrified, hurriedly left the place.

That was not all, it seemed that a couple of times the same incident happened to a man driving alone at night on the same road. But at one incident, the man looked back to where she wanted to go and saw no one on the back seat!

Could it be true or was this guy just a bit too inspired by the newspaper report? Or was the cab driver even telling the truth? And last, but not least, was the shadowy picture (yes, the writer still remembers the picture in the newspaper) actually taken by a passer-by who saw her but did not stop. And now we come to the present.

It is said that a very modern building near our beautiful beach has an entire side of apartments that are quite often vacated by residents. The reason, rumour has it that the apartments on one side are haunted. Or that residents feel uneasy and do not feel comfortable staying there. This is also true for a house at the end of the lane on which yours truly lives. Is the reason a paranormal one or is it due to the fact that maybe the floor plan of the places are not quite right and due to facing a certain side, it does not get enough fresh air? As to the house at the end of the lane, the previous owner relates that the actual owner’s son is the reason for the hauntings. Now that’s food for thought.