After partition, everyone left the main house of the ancestral home. Grandma and her sister went to stay with her children. Her brothers too stayed with relatives. The whole ‘tharavad’ was left closed for many years. Some members repaired the portions they got and had tenants living in their houses.
My father too repaired and made an extension to the house mother got. During those days the main portion of the tharavad was rented to a Mr. Warriar and family. They were very nice people and all four children had one of us as classmate and friend. But the sad, sudden demise of Mr. Warriar was a great shock to the family and they left the house.
Mr. Warriar died of heart failure and as explained by my cousin Babu, he breathed his last lying on Babu’s lap. After the Warriar family, no one stayed in that part of the tharavad. It was a long way to reach the main gate from other houses in the same premises which belonged to our family. We had to cross the main portions of the tharavad to reach the gate. Though there was an entrance at the other end of the compound, all used this gate. During the day time it was the easy route but at night it was difficult with no lights.
It was sometime in 1974 Shankarankutty ammavan was staying in one of the houses at the back part of the tharavad. Warriar died in that year. After the death of Warriar, the tharavad was left almost abandoned.
Ammavan’s eldest daughter Girija’s marriage preparations were going on. So the elders decided to clean the main hall of the tharavad and store the grocery and do the previous day’s cooking there.
The previous day’s dinner was very important and all family members would be present. In those days all the food was prepared at home and it was great fun as all relatives were involved in the preparations. So after a long silence the tharavad premises got some life….Now I feel the spirits and ghosts sleeping were awakened by the laughter and jokes of the family.
The day before Girija’s marriage everyone gathered. It is always great fun when the cousins meet.. There were too many people in the house and no one noticed when the boys sneaked out….Soman, Rajan, Babu and Unni had gone out for a long time and it was late night when they returned.
Today when I think of the house premises I feel it looked like a small forest with so many trees. These boys closed the main gate and walked in the dark through the walkway. Then they saw a figure standing far ahead and couldn’t recognize who it was. They assumed that it was one among them and wondered how he reached there so fast.
Soman had a catapult with him so he aimed and threw a small stone at the figure assuming that the person standing in front was Rajan. As the stone hit, the figure disappeared. The boys were shocked to see Rajan standing just behind them.
The boys might have ran for their life and when they explained the whole thing, all came to the conclusion that it might have been Warriar’s ghost.
Many thought it might be a thief but most of us believed it was Warriar’s ghost. Even after all these years all four cousins remember clearly seeing the ghost.
