The Hindu Business Line : Why not talk business with ghosts around?

HAT do you get if you blended a deserted road, unoccupied houses, broken gates, wild creepers, dry leaves changing places and eerie silence? Just the right recipe for a mystery sequence in a TV serial, you might say, before the director shows in the next frame some skull and bones behind a tree. Well, cut, cut, and get back to reality, we're talking about D'Monte Colony located in the heart of the city and sitting pretty close to prime property.

If you are driving through the patch, at a stone's throw from Park Sheraton Hotel, with windows open, slow and not honking, better take a few quick breaths and don't be surprised if your palpitation increases.

What made news about this colony is that a few days ago a watchman was found dead. But if you had observed those unprotected premises that become the target practice of urchins returning from a nearby school, you would have noticed how there are holes made by vandals in the backdoors, enough for anybody to creep in and vandalise, and utilise as the right venue for some business with criminal intent.

I log on to S. Muthiah, the reference point on anything anciently madrasi. He patiently narrates how it was all a property that one John D'Monte owned in mid 19th century. He was a director in a big company but his personal life was a tragedy. His wife was mentally unsound and so D'Monte stayed in Kovalam with his ailing wife.

To add to his misery, his son disappeared from on board a ship when returning to India after his studies abroad. Vexed, D'Monte willed the property to the church. During the mid 20th century - say around 1960 - there was some good development of the place. Single storey houses were put up and leased out. Of late, however, the whole place has fallen into disuse.

Enquiries reveal that some of the companies or parties who took the property on lease have since vanished or gone bust, and it is the legal wrangle that is holding back effective utilisation of these houses - they are neither maintained, nor sold. A few are rented out but it would need a great courage for the residents to live there, with an air of creepiness around. Perhaps the curse that befell D'Monte is still lurking around.

How foolish, one might say, to think like that in the 21st century, when we swear by Windows and sleep with a mobile. Yet, it is not unusual to have haunted places around.

For instance, from www.realhaunts.com, I learn about the Hangman's Tree in Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. "During the antebellum period, a slave was caught in the heat of passion with a white female. Consequently, he was taken to an oak tree near Lake Pontchartrain and hanged. If one goes there late at night, he will hear the snapping of the rope and will see a shadow swinging back and forth against the tree." Similarly, there is the Witches Den or Circle in the City Park: "At this old fountain, witchcraft was practiced very regularly. Many dogs and cats were murdered during sacrifices; their howls and meows are still heard today. Also heard are the screams of cries of the murdered and of the virgins that were brutally raped."

And, the Old Elerbe Road School: "This former school was closed due to the disappearances of several people, one being a beloved janitor. When the children went to look for him, they too disappeared — one by one.

All that remains is a building in which all the lockers have been knocked out; in their place is a mural of the grim reaper. At night, one may hear the screams of children and the sound of a school bell." If you want to see the ghost schedule in the UK, there is help in www.paranormaldatabase.com. Apart from ghosts, many of these sites boast of many tourists being sighted too.

Interestingly, the investor protection body SEBI has its office in this colony. A brave act, indeed, though, if they can handle vanishing companies, they should be able to bear with a few spirits too.

For the city authorities, however, does it help to have pockets of weirdness in the middle of civilisation? If such properties cannot be dealt with in a more rewarding manner, would it make sense to convert them into tourist attractions, if not into shooting spots for movies and TV serials?

As they say, there is enough place for everybody. So, what's wrong booking revenue on ghosts' account?

EeAndOhEe@hotmail.com

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
Until next year...

Why not talk business with ghosts around?