Ghosts and Cemeteries by Rahul Dhinakaran

Prelude

As all ancient cities, Madurai had centuries old cemeteries in the outskirts of the town. As centuries went by, the city grew from a highly planned capital of the erstwhile Pandya empire to an unplanned, modern town struggling to have an identity in the modern age while retaining its glorious past. The cemeteries which were in the outskirts when first planned centuries ago, were pulled right into the middle of civilization as the city grew in haphazard fashion.

Shiva’s home, in Harvey Colony (named after an Englishman who started the textile mill in which Mr. Raman worked), was near one such cemetery. The home’s proximity to the much storied and perennially dry Vaigai river made this closeness inevitable. Burning pyres could be witnessed from the terrace of the home. Tales of ghosts from the cemetery were told with such relish by young and old that the listener, if weak hearted, could come down with fever simply by fright.