Chapter 1
This true story is about a ghost fair that occurs every year in India. A large number of people from India and abroad attend this unique fair. One can find numerous men, women and children captured by ghosts attending this fair.
It may sound weird, but almost all such people captured by spirits or ghosts get back to normal life after attending this fair.
People under the influence of ghosts or spirits behave erratically, often having red eyes, speaking in a voice that doesn’t seem to be their natural tone, shaking their heads violently and have a creepy look on their face. They do all kind of abnormal activities, but they leave the fair as a changed and normal individual.
Malajpur is a village near Betul in Madhya Pradesh India about 230 km away from Bhopal. This is the place where the ghost fair is hosted every year. The fair starts on the last new moon night in December and continues till the next full moon in January for one month.
Chapter 2
It is believed that during 1770, a saint by the name of Guru Saheb Baba, used to reside in Malajpur village. He was a very popular saint and believed to have gifted powers of capturing any kind of ghost. He was treated like a god by the locals. He died during meditation under an old banyan tree. He was buried beside the tree and people created a large temple around that place.
It is in this temple in Malajpur the ghost fair is organised. Police and law do not believe in ghosts, but as this fair attracts hundreds of people the authorities there had to provide proper protection to the people attending this fair.
The people captured by the spirit of ghost visit this temple and offer their prayers and after getting rid of the captured spirit, offer jaggery to the temple. This jaggery is offered to devotees as a holy offering.
The temple receives a huge amount of jaggery, but to everyone surprise, this jaggery is never gets inflicted by insects or ants and remains fresh. The ghosts are captured and sent to reside in the tree of their choice.
There are three old banyan trees in the compound. Ghost remains captured in those trees forever.
Chapter 3
During daytime people, attending the fair avoid the shadow of these old banyan trees and never venture close to them as they believe that the ghosts can be anywhere in the banyan tree. So it is better to maintain distance from the trees.
The prayer in the temple starts at evening; relatives catch hold of their loved ones who are behaving abnormally, some are dancing, some can barely walk, some are making faces, some are shaking their heads violently.
They wait in a queue for their chance before the head priest of the temple. The head priest has some items placed before him that comprise of some ash-like substance among some others. He also had a broom placed on his right side.
When a person is brought to him, The process of removing the spirit of the ghost from the person’s body begins. After catching the person by hair the priest asks few questions like, “What is your name”, “Which religion you belong”, “which caste you belong”, “Which tree you belong”?
People haunted with ghosts spirit, shouting in a strange voice, “Please leave me, I want to go back to my place”. Some start crying some start to run away, they are again caught and brought back to him.
Chapter 4
One such lady was brought before head priest, who grabs the lady with her hair, asking him the same questions. The lady after repeated attempts to run away was brought back each time to the head priest. The head priest hit her head with a broom and repeats his questions.
The lady replies in a male voice, saying his name is Kamlesh. The lady continues in a male voice that she is a resident of Lucknow. The priest next asks her, “Why are you bothering the lady”, to which the lady still replying in a male voice, says that her family members have killed me due to some land dispute and I will not let her go.
The head priests, after listening to her ordeal, shouts at the spirit to leave her immediately. To which lady again replies in a male voice “I will not leave her”. After sprinkling some ash from the front the head priest again asks the spirit to promise not to disturb her.
The spirit inside the lady replies that he promises to leave her. The head priest asks the spirit to select a tree and leave her immediately. And again hits the lady with a broom, a sudden jerk happens in her body. After a few seconds, she lifts her head and looks around as if she was not aware of what was going around.
The lady becomes normal again behaving normally and also regains her normal voice back. She thanks the head priest in her normal sweet voice. The head priest asks the lady to pray to the tomb of Guru Baba Saheb. He asks her relative to take her away as she is free of the spirit capturing her. Then the next person is brought before the head priest and so on.
Chapter 5
The person with spirits capturing their body visit the ghost fair and approach one by one to the head priest sitting beside the banyan tree. People gather around the temple area to witness this event.
A road that leads to the three banyan trees is kept empty, the crowd is not allowed to stand there. It is believed that the spirits leaving the captured person’s body traverse through this road to occupy a place in the banyan tree.
This entire event may look like superstitious to someone but watching an abnormally behaving person, speaking in a strange voice and erratically moving their head, suddenly behave like a normal person with their restored voice restored, looking gentle within a few minutes is something to wonder about.
Is this superstition or genuinely a ghost spirit? is debatable.
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