The Pratapnagar Enigma - 3 (Continued...)

Editor's Note:

Sorry to say this, but the part 3 is a slight let-down really! As the author says - "That is the last of what I have to say of my experience at Pratapnagar." . I ventured to cut the article at this place in the previous post only to arouse suspense and generate more evidence that there are readers for my blog.   :-)  No one seems to be reading it!   So this trick!   :-)   Anyway, I continue with what the author has to say :

SWAMI NATH'S STORY CONTINUED

That is the last of what I have to say of my experience at Pratapnagar. While Dutt and Gaurishanker had different kinds of experiences, I had none.

A year later, at Narendranagar in Tehri Garhwal district, one night my neighbour was eagerly pointing to a white apparition walking on my backyard compound wall. It was really strange, for assuredly he seemed to be seeing it - judging from the body language - but I saw nothing. At this point I must admit that once, for a couple of nights, when my servant was away, I did hear the sound of vessels being washed. Strangely, my neighbour confirmed that he too heard the sounds. Even today I am positive I heard the sounds but as the Americans say  "I never ever saw no apparition !" My friends to whom I relate these incidents dismiss these as 'some psychic phenomena' but their arguments have not convinced me. Like Hamlet "TO BELIEVE OR NOT TO BELIEVE, THAT'S THE BURNING QUESTION"

Before I end this narrative, it may be of interest when I say that during one of my visits to Pratapnagar, the watchman said that there was a grave with a tombstone about a kilometer away. On my insistence, he even showed it to me. He said that people in the nearby villages believed it to be of an Englishman who had died a mysterious death and was secretly interred there. The watchman was emphatic that the ghost of whomsoever that was buried there made periodic visits to the annexe, particularly on new moon nights, and this was the cause of those lights, music and the noise of clashing billiard balls, which he too had seen.

Given a chance, even now I would love to revisit Pratapnagar more for enjoying the pretty landscape and not for probing the Pratapnagar enigma!

                     (Next Entry : Another story by J. Swami Nath)