CHENNAI: Way back in 2001, there was a ‘poltergeist’ that perched itself somewhere in South Perumal Koil Street in Vadapalani. It made its invisible presence felt every night for 15 minutes from 8 pm onwards when it would rain down stones near Balamurugan Flats, where my friend, Karthik, lived. This went on for nine months and spooked the residents of the apartment complex so much that they remained indoors every night during those 15 inexplicable minutes.Of course the residents had made repeated attempts to figure out the cause of this, but were unable to find a scientific explanation. Stones and debris, typically found at a demolition site, would land rhythmically on the ground, sometimes damaging parked vehicles. Eventually, residents started advising visitors not to visit the building at that time. They blamed the phenomenon on the ghost of a young girl who had hung herself from a neem tree in a nearby compound some years ago. When the phenomenon began, the compound was still a construction site. Hence, the residents deduced that the girl’s spirit had been angered because the neem tree had been chopped down.Having sensed a supernatural hand behind the events, the residents just sat indoors in fear and lived with it. My friends and I had been aware of the problem, and we usually avoided going to Karthik’s house during that time. Co-incidentally, one day a friend named Ashwin and I landed up at the complex at eight o’clock and were stopped at the gate by the watchman, who asked us to wait till the ‘stone rain’ had stopped. We stood there and watched the stones hit the cement floor in front of us. Ashwin, being better than I at scientific observations, commented that if a ghost was indeed flinging stones from the construction site, the trajectory would be different. In unison we immediately rushed to Karthik’s house to get a couple of helmets. Residents implored with us not to mess with the spirit ‘as we were young and had our whole lives ahead of us’. But, we didn’t listen of course... we were teenagers! We went back out and peered into the sky to figure out where the stones were coming from. By this time, some residents were screaming their observations to us. Ashwin and I ran up to the roof of the building, only to find the door locked, which ruled out miscreants chucking stones from there. However, Ashwin the adventurer climbed out of the stairwell and stepped on to a sunshade before deftly lifting himself on to the terrace. Not entirely convinced, I followed.And there stood the ghost that had terrified around 200 people for nine whole months! Three young men were lying on their stomachs on top of the water tank with an armoury of stones heaped beside them. Ashwin and I charged at them, only to duck because they started pelting us with stones.By this time, word had spread like wildfire and residents poured out on to the roof. On discovering that the ‘ghosts’ were residents of the same building, who worked in an IT company nearby, everyone lost their cool. The residents thrashed them till the police got there.Not soon after, the apartments came up with another story about a female ghost whose anklets jangled every time she walked in the night. That turned out to be a chap in a badly soundproofed room practicing his music.After that night, Ashwin and I were never asked not to park in the way, or not to make noise.
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