Indian Truth or Dare Story

It was the summer vacation in 1996, in our Indian village. Me, my cousins and some friends from the neighboring houses were playing the game Truth or Dare in our courtyard. It was after teatime that we started playing.

There is an old abandoned house about a few yards from our house. As the house was abandoned, there were many tales spreading about the house and a ghost residing there, most of them designed by the mothers of our community to scare their little ones from going away far from home, without anyone noticing them.

Since we have been hearing these most often, there was a kind of bad feeling in us when we go near the house and we have been telling the same to our younger friends too. That day, we had Sharan, the well-built boy from our neighborhood to play with us.

This particular person thought too high of himself and so most of us didn't like him. In fact, we were waiting for a chance to teach him a lesson. After playing Truth or Dare for a while, Sharan started disturbing us and began to spoil the game.

This annoyed the younger ones a lot and they began to cry and complain. Seeing this, another boy, Kithu, tried to pacify the younger ones saying:

"We will put Sharan tonight alone in the haunted house, after feeding him with chicken!"

The ghost in the haunted house was supposed to be fond of chicken, and he will surely find the flesh of a boy who has eaten chicken tastier!

Happy, the younger ones stopped crying and we continued to play, while Sharan, with a long face, sat alone under the nearby Banyan tree.

After sometime, tired by the excessive play and lulled by the soft breeze, Sharan began to doze. About fifteen minutes later, we all were startled by an ear splitting howl. It was from under the Banyan tree.

Turning that side, we all saw Sharan thrashing and kicking in the air and shouting,

Ghost! Ghost! Ghost! Save me, oh, save me!!!

He was dreaming that he was in the haunted house and was being attacked by the ghost!

We shook him off his sleep and seeing us all in front of him, he felt ashamed of his behavior.

We had a hearty laugh and moreover, we haven't ever heard him boasting thereafter!

Photo from Trostle