“I am thirsty...”

Grandpa’s friend was posted in an arid region of India. It was a very different landscape from the dewy green Himalayan foothills. Here the parched earth was puckering in summer under the cloudless sky. The sun glared mercilessly drying the water bodies.

As the mercury rose, groundwater sank lower, and wells ran dry. Yet, women in colourful Indian ghagra cholis [pretty embroidered skirts and blouses dappled with colours] and jingling bangles would throw in their pails as deep as the longest rope could sink in. Sadly, there wasn’t a drop to drink. They returned forlorn with their dry pails and pitchers.

Summer had set in there in post-colonial India. The star-spangled sky shined silver after dusk. Our acquaintance while under his blanket which guarded him against cold summer nights, would hear the musical clanging of bangles. Days were scorching and nights had an eerie chill in this semi-desert area.

After a week of the tinkling of bangles, he decided to investigate, as it was unlikely that a woman would walk past his Edwardian bungalow in the dead of the night. In those days electricity hadn’t reached as many Indian villages as it has in 2023. A kerosene lantern was lit to illumine homes at night.

He went to the ornate window with a lantern and focused its faint beam on the sound source. It shifted. He shone the light at the new resonance origin. The reverberation pranced to a new place.

He decided not to vex the paranormal being. Instead tucked under the blanket he listened silently to the clink of hand ornaments. The ring ended in the dry dilapidated abandoned well.

His bungalow’s caretaker informed him with a hot cup of bed tea in the morning, “Fifty years ago a newly married girl had fallen into the well. Her spirit still lives on and her footfalls end every night at this well. Her steps are silent but her bangles still tintinnabulate every night.”

He decided not to be spooked by this innocuous chime anymore. It started serving as a lullaby to him, delving him into a peaceful slumber.