Growing up in Bangalore during the mid-60’s, my childhood idyll was marred by a terrifying event. A bloodthirsty she-ghost was rumoured to be visiting the city, and a wave of fear had gripped our neighbourhood in Shantinagar.
But all was not lost: There was a simple solution to discourage this supernatural visitor from entering our homes and massacring us in our sleep. All we had to do was clearly paint the words naale baa (meaning ‘come tomorrow’) on our front door.
Despite the dubious premise regarding our local spectre’s literacy and obedience, the strategy seemed sound: our well-read phantasm would peruse our message, and finding it fairly reasonable, move on. But fearing the ghost was schooled in only the Kannada script, we wrote our humble request in two languages, just to feel safer. Our exasperated parents rapped us on the knuckles for ruining the front door, but we kids knew better than to take chances with something so evil. And so we survived.
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