London, June 04: Thomas Owens must surely be turning in his grave, or so some superstitious Indian villagers believe.
A Britisher who died nearly a century ago has come back to haunt the residents of a village near the eastern Indian town of Gaya. And it's not just the trademark spooky noises and eerie shadows linked to this bizarre tale of the dead.
Villagers claim commuters traversing on a main Gaya link road, which runs near the final resting place of the deceased Englishman, have been stopped on their tracks and asked by the restless soul to serve him tea and biscuits.
A refusal to comply with his requests meets with highly unwanted rendezvous with supernatural beings.
While many would dismiss this as sheer hogwash, villagers have been providing a regular supply of tea and biscuits at the grave. Often people substitute the biscuits with bread or home-baked snacks.
"After taking the form of a man, he (the ghost) used to stand in the middle of the road stopping commuters demanding tea and biscuits from them. He used to relent after hours of requesting but those who were in a hurry used to give in to his demands," said Ashraf Malik, a villager.
Villagers add an increase in demand for tea in the recent times led them to "chain" the ghost for his "wayward" ways. Iron rods were pinned to the grave immediately resulting in a halting of demands, though some sympathetic souls still bring him tea all the same.
"He has been bound by this railing to control him. Its not an iron railing and has divine powers behind it. It he was not contained, we don't know how many more people he would have continued to trouble," Mahmood Ali, another villager.
According to his tombstone, Owens died at the age of 47 in 1906 and was survived by a "very loving wife", Emily. Villagers opine maybe she made extraordinary tea...
Source: http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.a ... 68&sid=LIF
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