I come from a lower middle class Indian family in a remote town from south of India. My dad was a mechanic and my mom is a house wife and I have a younger brother and during my childhood, we used to live in a community shared house.
To visualise the picture of the house in your mind, Imagine a long rectangle where it has been split into six equal pieces. That means six houses next to each other which means six families. For each house, Imagine again to split that each piece again in three equal parts which makes up outdoor room / my parents bedroom when you enter, main bedroom aka living room where the TV is present and where me and my brother used to sleep and then the last room is the kitchen room. In comparison, the total area of the house is less than small studio apartment in the centre of Amsterdam.
Even though it sounds crowded, it felt cozy. All six houses shared the common terrace which means it’s always bustling and lively with neighbours and kids
My dad being a mechanic, used to get work from remote parts of the region or sometimes country where he has to be away for longer periods of time. Sometimes it’s a matter of days and sometimes it is weeks.
Mom was never used to being alone growing up. She spent the whole childhood with a large family and then she was married to my dad and then me and my brother happened. But when these trips started to happen more frequently, she was given no choice but spent days and nights alone in a row with two small kids. I was like 10 and my brother was 8.
Routine was quite normal. Me and my brother have to finish our school homework by 7 or 7:30, dinner at 8 pm, in bed by 9 pm. Mom will finish the last minute chores and she will sleep in the same room with us by 10 pm latest.
One day morning, I woke up and saw Mom being awake earlier and a bit zoned out and worried. During breakfast, She asked me whether we heard any sounds from the terrace around midnight and we both said no. She said that there’s nothing to worry about.
But the curious side of me wants to be awake that night and check out what’s happening. I pretend to be asleep. Except me, everyone was asleep. Around midnight, when I was about to give up and force myself to go to sleep, I started to hear some loud sounds right coming from the top. It’s like someone deliberately jumping on the surface. I got frightened and I saw my mom became awake to the sounds. I looked to my mom and nodded my head that I hear sounds too but we decided not to talk out of fear. The sounds usually started with a low volume and far away and the closer it got to our ceiling, the sound increased and then again fade away. It happened periodically and at random times which made us more scared and they continued until 4 am in the morning. My mom and I couldn’t sleep at all the whole night but eventually we gave up to tiredness and fell asleep
The next day morning, by the time I woke up, I heard my mom calling my father and describing the whole incident. I can sense the worry in her voice and she is not the only one. Growing up, I was really a sensitive kid who was afraid of lots of stuff. Heights, demons, dogs, fire crackers and what not. The list goes on.
My dad advised my mom to get some help from the family and my mom called one of our cousins to come over and stay with us the following night. The cousin, although lives in a village, he used to come to the town to work, so it was easy for him to spend the night here. My mom told me that she enquired the neighbours whether they heard the same and the response was no. The neighbouring house next to us was vacant and the other one, they went on a vacation to their home town for few weeks. This made my mom worry even more.
The cousin came, we had our dinner and were put to bed. By this time, my brother also know the story but he is too young to understand anything. He went to sleep right away but I wasn’t. My cousin, mom and me stayed awake and the sounds started to happen around midnight again. The sound of footsteps slowly increasing their volume from far away and they became louder and louder as they came closer to ceiling of our house and slowly fade away again. So random and unpredictable when it happens which made us more scared and worried. My cousin eventually decided to check out despite my mom asked him not to go to the terrace. He took a stick, walked out of the apartment, slowly walked on the footsteps of the terrace and the moment he reached the edge where he will be on terrace, he peeked to check whether there’s anyone around. It’s dark but there’s enough visibility to see through far and he couldn’t see anything or anyone on the terrace. Puzzled, he returned back home only to start hearing the sounds again. This time, my cousin is also scared like us.
The next morning, Mom is almost at the edge of crying. She, being a very orthodox person, convinced that this is a ghost possessing the house and tormenting us. She called all our relatives, asked for help. She also went to couple of temples to perform rituals which will get rid of ghosts. She brought some sacred tree leaves and lemons, tie it in front of the house with the hope that ghosts will stay away. But none helped. More and more relatives came by, stayed at our place to figure out what’s happening. This became a routine. Stay until midnight, sounds happen, we go to the terrace looking for something or someone and return back only to realise the sounds of footsteps continuing a moment later. No one could figure it out and my mom is getting restless.
We even thought of moving out of the house and going somewhere but we didn’t have many options. We were poor while growing up and within our budget, there are very limited options for the family of four and also it would hurt my mom side hustle to make some money which was selling sarees to the local women ( Saree is an Indian attire ).
Some of my cousins who are brave enough decided to stay the whole night on the terrace. They didn’t experience anything but we didn’t stop hearing the sound of footsteps. So, After literally trying everything, we have decided that it’s best to change the house because we are all convinced that the ghost has been trapped in the ceiling. My dad was about to be back in few days and my mom thought she would wait until then. She is also bit confident now because apart from hearing noises, we didn’t experience any other supernatural phenomenon. All relatives left except one cousin who decided to stay with us until my dad returned. By now, everyone in the building, the street knows about it and they are also worried that the ghost’s next target will be them. Our landlord is definitely not happy about it because he is about to lose a ton of rent due to bad reputation.
After almost eight days, one evening, the sound of footsteps stopped completely. My mom was super happy but also thought it can be the beginning of something bigger. She believes in the phrase “the ocean is really calm before a storm”. But the sound of footsteps didn’t occur for another three days and then she was convinced that maybe the ghost decided to leave the house. After few more nights, my cousin left as my dad came back from the trip and it’s all happy again.
But one fine evening after 1-2 weeks, The sound of footsteps started again and now with more louder noise. Like someone purposefully jumping on your ceiling. Both my parents got so scared and they have decided that we will move. The next day afternoon, while we were discussing this with our neighbours, one of the neighbour who moved to the far end apartment of the building recently started complaining ,
“I am sorry that this has been happening to you. I don’t know anything about the footsteps but tonight my ceiling fan started to make terrible noises. Seems like I need to change the bearings of that”
My dad was instantly puzzled by it and followed up with another question
“Did it start to happen just today?”
He said
“I don’t know. I just came back from my village yesterday evening. I was out for ten days”
Now my mom was puzzled too because the timeline of him not being at home matches the days the footsteps didn’t occur.
My dad became more curious and he said to him
“Can you turn on your fan now? I want to check out something” and he turned to my mom and said “Can you go into our house and let me know if something is different”
My mom went into the house and my dad went to neighbour’s place and turned on the fan. My mom started to hear sound of footsteps again. More louder like the last night and after a while they stopped. She came out running and told my dad that they are happening even during the day now.
My dad who couldn’t control his laughter and also a sigh of relief told her “It’s not any ghost. it’s the stupid ceiling fan. The bearings of the fan are broken and the fan motor makes a ton of noise because of that and considering the poor quality roof structure, the sound travels through the whole roof. Our next door neighbours would have heard that too but considering that they are out of town for a while, we were the unlucky ones to go through this”
My mom was also relieved to hear that but still has some questions “But why only at night?”
The dad replied, “Apparently the neighbour is never at home during the day. He comes home around midnight and steps out again at 4 am in the morning because he works in the vegetable market”
The three weeks of restlessness, fear, superstitions and of course rituals to prevent ghosts from entering your house boils down to a faulty ceiling fan.