“Sunita Mashi and her Curse” is a thrilling ghost story by Arica Mandal of Class 5, Epic Public School.
But then after a few days, people in the neighbourhood started dying suddenly one after the other for reasons unknown….
Hello readers, I am back again with you yet another thrilling story from my grandmother’s bag…
That day, it was raining cats and dogs, and needless to say, I was unable to go out and play. Under such circumstances, I chose the best option: I joined my family, who had gathered in the living room for the evening tea. I went straight to my Grandmother, who demanded a session of story-telling.
She smiled and asked, “What kind of story would you like to listen to today?”
“Well, it is raining, so why not one of those thrilling ghost stories, Grandma?” I suggested.
“Very well then,” she paused for a moment, took a sip of her tea, and began, “Let me take you to the time when I was in my sixth standard. One day, I woke up hearing some noises outside. I went to the kitchen and asked my mother what was happening outside. But to my disappointment, she had no clue. All she could say is that they were probably talking about Sunita.”
“Who is Sunita Grandma?” I asked
“Sunita, our Sunita Mashi”
“You have a mashi?”
“No no…not my own, but …okay let me go back a few weeks for you to understand ….It all began when Poritosh Babu left the neighbourhood.”
“Who is Poritosh Babu?”
“Ah, don’t interrupt so much, listen to the story, you will understand.” My father stopped me.
“Don’t scold her; she is allowed to ask as many questions as she wants.” Grandma pampered me. After patting me, she continued, “Poritosh Babu and his wife used to stay as tenants in our neighbourhood, but one fine day, we heard that they were leaving as Poritosh Babu was transferred to a different city. After a few days, a new tenant occupied the house. Her name was Sunita, and I used to call her Sunita Mashi.”
“Oh, so that is Sunita Mashi.”
“Yes, she was an unmarried woman who used to sell fish in the local market.” Grandma paused for another sip and continued “You see Sunita Mashi was an early riser and used to go out at wee hours to the market.”
“Which market Ma?” my father asked.
“Now who is asking questions?” Grandma scolded, “Which market is not important here? “Besides Sunita Mashi, there was Kundujethu who too used to go out for morning walks, round about the same time when Sunita Mashi used to go. They used to meet each other every day and exchange wishes. This way, life continued until one day, when Kundu Jethu did not see the Sunita Mashi. He presumed she might have overslept, and moved on. But when the same thing reoccurred the next day he was concerned and informed everyone.”
“So that was the noise you heard?” I asked again.
“Yes, I went out and asked one of our neighbour what was happening. He scolded me and asked me to go inside as I was too young to participate in the discussion. This raised my curiosity. So when no one was looking around I quietly slipped outside.”
“So you were a little detective, weren’t you?” Baba teased.
“That I was, but the twist comes here, Sunita Mashi was no were to be traced.”
“Why what happened to her?”
“No one knew, but it was after some days she reappeared. We were all surprised and enquired with her about where she was all these days. She replied that she went to a friend’s place. But I noticed there was something strange in her behaviour.”
“Why Grandma?”
“I really cannot describe the feeling, but I could sense something was different.”
“Then what happened?”
“Life went on as usual, I was busy with school assignments, and Sunita Mashi started going to the market the next day.”
“Where is the ghost, Grandma?” I asked, “This seems to be just a normal story.”
“Ghosts,’ Grandma laughed, “it was the second day or third day, I went out for school and saw one of our neighbour, Rothindronath Banerjee, was buying fish from Sunita Mashi. But when I returned that day I heard that Rothinkaku is no more.”
“You mean dead?”
“Yes, and not just him, one by one many from our neighbourhood started to die, and worst the common thing was all of them had purchased fish from Sunita Mashi.”
“So Sunita Mashi was selling rotten fish?”
“Well, the matter was much deeper than that as more and more people died and the message spread across the city. But no one could understand why. So one day I decided to probe into the matter.”
“What did you do?”
“One night when everyone was sleeping, I went out and what I saw was horrifying.”
“What did you see Grandma?”
“Well, I saw many people were sleepwalking towards the jungle.”
“To the jungle?”
“Yes,” Grandma continued “I started following them.”
“Were you not scared?”
“On the contrary, I was as scared as a sheep when it sees the wolf, yet I gathered all my courage, and started going towards the jungle. And then….
“And then what grandma?”
“And then I saw a woman. She was eating something at the same time she was crying.”
“Eating and crying? So what did you do Grandma?”
“I slowly went near her and…”
“And what?”
“I touched her shoulders, she turned and I saw…”
“You saw what Grandma?”
“It was Sunita Mashi. She looked at me and said ‘Why have you come here, you too will die tonight’. But I saw that she was crying while saying this. But surprisingly one moment she cried and the next her eyes were full of blood.”
“Why did you just run away?”
“I wanted to, but then I had to solve the problem, or else more people will die. So I asked her if it was her who was killing the people. She started crying and started narrating her story. But I noticed that her eyes were no longer red.”
“What happened next?”
“She told me that she was used to sell the best fish available. She had a small family in the village to whom she used to send money every month. In the bazaar, there was one more fish seller named Manilal who was a greedy man. Manilal used to sell rotten fish. So he started losing business, and everyone started to come to Sunita Mashi. One day he told Sunita Mashi to sell off her shop to him and join his business. But Sunita Mashis I didn’t agree. But that night he came with some goons and took her to her shop and burnt Sunita Mashi alive in the shop. She cried for help but no one rescued her. I felt sad and wiped my eyes, but the moment I looked up she was gone forever.”
“Then?”
“I came back home and informed my father. He immediately spoke to the police and Manilal was arrested. That way the city was safe again.”
“Bravo Grandma. Three cheers for Grandma…hip hip hooray.”
