SONGSOPTOK: It seems that fear is the most important primal instinct in the animal
world. The two main manifestations of fear in the human society is centered
around two entities: God(s) and Demons. We somehow learn to fear ghosts and
spirits at a very early age and remain marked by that fear later in life. What
is your personal experience? When did you start fearing ghosts and for what
reasons?
MITRA: As far as I can remember; when I was very
young; we children were very often threatened by the elders in the name of JUJU; if we did any mischief; we believed the
Juju would catch us immediately; but, we didn’t have any idea what exactly it
was or what harm it actually could do to us! But my first fear was Juju. There
was another fear of “Chele-Dhora”… if we children went outside of the
house-campus alone or in wrong time beyond the eyes of the guardians; we knew a
bad man would catch us and take us forever from our parents and family. We might be made into baggers or sacrificed
to their causes Then came the fear of
curse from god/ goddess and lastly, very little fear was there for ghosts. I used to be afraid not only of ghosts and
demons; but also of the curse of gods and goddesses (“Thakur Pap debe”). Beating
, scolding, calling names by angry senior people of the joint family or
neighborhood (in the name of care taking and
teaching moral things) and ridiculous and innovative punishments from
angry teachers of the school as a part of the lessons created lots of fear,
guilt and shame in my child-mind. ‘Do and don’t do’ were set for us with very
strict boundaries by all these sources. Rather, ghost stories or fairy tales of
big and small giants kept a broad spectrum of imaginations and thrill (fight of
the prince/ princes or the village boy/ girl ultimately defeating the giants) beyond
the periphery of fear. So, of all, the fear of getting beaten, scolded, punished affected me the most. If fear did any damage in me, it was never
generated from ghosts and demons. I never took them seriously. It was rather a
curiosity, sudden kicks and fun for me.
With my little observations and intelligence; somehow I discovered,
ghosts didn’t exist and if they existed at all, they were not going to eat me,
kill me, humiliate me or punish me.
SONGSOPTOK: Very often adults try to
control the tantrums of children by threatening them with ghosts and spirits.
Do you remember any such incident when you were very young? In your opinion, do
such methods have a permanently negative effect on children? In what way?
MITRA: As I mentioned just now, only threat of ghosts
came to me from the adults was ‘JUJU’.
They never described clearly whether it was a tiger or bat or ghost;
whether it had horns, tail, sharp teeth or only one red eye in the middle of
the forehead! I used to imagine it from the latest ghost or fairy story I heard
from them. I think I was one of the
luckiest children who didn’t face much threat directly or indirectly through stories,
rituals and ideas. Let me describe my only experience of real fear of ghost. In
our house; everyone in the three storied building had to cross a long open
terrace in order to reach the toilets lying at the corner of the first
floor to respond the nature’s call. when I was very young; when I had to go there alone after the sunset; I used to get really afraid of ghosts as if some were sitting in the visible huge
trees and moving the branches rigorously with their long, thick, branchlike
legs. I used to run into one of the toilets and run back through the dark
terrace to reach the main corridor of the first floor. But I didn’t seriously
believe that; rather I indulged myself to enjoy the cold and shivering like
feeling! Our uncles and some cousins were seriously very afraid of those trees
(inhabited by ghosts) and never used to
go there alone. I knew this fear was baseless; but liked to hold the
imagination and feeling for some time, may be a year. But when I started to go
to school; somehow I found much more interesting and fascinating things to
attend than to be trapped in the imagination of ghosts I can’t say about
permanency of any negative feeling or practice; rather I deny it. And I also
deny the chance of permanent fear from ghosts and demons. As far as life is concerned, there are many
ways to overcome any threat, constraint, restraint, fear are always there. But
yes, of course any kind of threat in any form, even the ghost stories, tales
about demons and fierce creatures, do affect a child’s mental set up;
especially if, in course of growing up to an adult, mature person, the child
does not get enough and constant
exposures in the form of love, empathy, courage, trust, education, experience,
success and so on... The big and deep are the fear, the greater the risk or
chance of mental weaknesses are there and the more fights and problems a person
has to face to overcome them. Fear is
the root of almost all weaknesses and vices a person suffers from. To get
defensive, he/she becomes offensive or manipulative and channelizes the fear
through a series of negative maneuvers and activities. Some real helplessness
might result which need helps.But, I don’t think ghost story at all or alone is
responsible to generate such long lasting fear.
I would rather say the horror and violence in movies, stories, video games do a greater and long lasting
damages; not only to a child, but to an adult too! Though I am not very sure,
fear or anger , which is the source of violence, but some deep rooted sense of
insecurity, fear and sadism might be there!
SONGSOPTOK: Not only do we frighten
children with ghosts, we often entertain them with ghost stories. When children
learn to read, grown-ups often try to incite them to get into the habit of
reading by buying ghost stories. What do you think of this practice?
MITRA: I am against horror and violent stories /movies.
Ghost stories are just made up stories; while some of them are really fearful;
some are very funny and there are lots of ghosts (as I read) who are friendly,
protectors and problem solvers. Like
magic, ghost story creates some illusion, which everyone knows not happening
really! Some recent Bengali movies on
the existence of ghost mostly belong to these categories. Sudden fear and stunt
are very usual and primitive feelings of ours…. stories based on them are attempts to express out those feelings and a
story is always colored, winged, folded and
twisted to create new taste and emotion. I think they are non serious and feeling threatened by ghost stories is a
threat which generated from other kind of insecurity. I myself is not very fond
of ghost stories; I usually don’t buy one or present somebody. But if I didn’t read any ghost story at all,
how could I find some classic and
marvelous stories like ‘ Bhushundir mathe’ by Rajshekhar Bosu, ‘Le Lullu’ by
Trailakyanath Mukhopadhyay, ‘Monihara’
by Rabindranath Tegore. In fact, the
presentation of fear always make me to take the challenge to get more fighting
and courageous. Sense of fear only makes me ashamed for a limitation I have to
overcome with knowledge and courage.
SONGSOPTOK: Adolescence is normally
the period when we start asking questions about different things. Did you start
asking questions about the existence of ghosts? Will you share the details with
us?
MITRA: First of all, even in childhood, I was never
afraid of ghosts. I read those books for
thrill, different taste and feeling - mostly fun. I heard and read lots of
ghost stories but each of them appeared to me as a non serious story of its
unique taste, color, stunt and twist.... they generated no bad effect or harm in me. I don’t believe
ghost stories could ever make an otherwise usual child into a timid, coward or
disturbed human being. Who didn’t and don’t read ghost stories? Are all of them or most of them or even some
of them suffering from serious fear in their adulthoods? If an adult person has
fear of ghost, e or she might have other sources of trauma in their childhood,
what I think.
SONGSOPTOK: A lot of people claim to
have direct experience of ghosts or other inexplicable phenomena. Do you have
any such experience to share with us? Or experiences of people you know?
MITRA: NO
! I heard many stories from many persons about their direct experience (or
experience of some ones they know) of seeing ghosts. But we all knew at the
same time, those were told in a gathering with the purpose of passing
leisure time , to create some special
effect and ambience on a rainy or dark night , to keep awake during the night on long drives. I appreciate, the stories
were very interesting (creating lots of attention) and the purposes were served
well. That’s it! I could write here a story about how I feared about ghosts
when I was forty two years old, a mother of two young girls but how I got every
explanation of my scary imaginations.
SONGSOPTOK: It is true that most of us
like reading or watching films about ghosts, spirits or mysterious phenomena.
Do you enjoy these things too? Can you think of a specific story or a film that
really thrilled you? Do you have any favorite writers of this genre?
MITRA: No,
I don’t. I don’t get any enjoyment from
them; my choice and passion for art and literature are entirely different. I still read fairy tales and may be also ghost stories ( and watch one or two new
or special kind of scary movie) if some
of my reliable source recommend. But, most of the time, they do not fascinate
me so much to recommend another. Bottom
line is, neither I am interested in
ghost-matters nor in scary or flowery stories of blind religion and faith.
Momentarily I may enjoy a ghost story and movie for the purpose of fun; but
never enjoy made up religious stories of gods and demons.
SONGSOPTOK: Many of us think that
science still has to go a long way to explain everything that we experience on
earth. Science has enlightened us about a lot of things, but there are certain
areas that can be considered as the twilight zone – the breeding place for the
uncanny and the preternatural. What are your thoughts about this?
MITRA: There are two types of unknown; one is yet to
understand and discover
(the journey
of Science and exploring new and unknown
horizons
are still going on -- human race is evolving everyday) and the other is
blind faith : for whatever reason, when someone chooses not to accept, search
or wait for the actual explanations which already exist and chose to stick to
that blindness and blind faith. I have still so many things to know and
experience what mankind already opened up; I feel no urge or interest in the
dark supernatural things. If I watch any
of these show in TV or get a book of this type; I use to leave them after a
short while. Not for any opposite belief or opinion; just for finding them
boring. Not my cup of tea. Not my
subject to discuss; as I am unaware and disinterested on this issue. Rather, my
awareness stops me and takes me to different areas which gives positive vibes
and pleasures to me.
SONGSOPTOK: We find it difficult to
accept that nothing remains after death, which often leads us to imagine the
supernatural. We are naturally attracted to what lies beyond the known everyday
world. What is your opinion about this? Do you think that everything ends with
death? Or is it because since we don’t really know that we oscillate between
belief and doubt?
MITRA: If
I am in doubt about anything; I try to approach professionals and mainly
research the subject on existing information, through internet. If I don’t get
any answer; I prefer to keep it aside and wait for my next search rather than
to go for any readymade alternative and false theories and beliefs. I have
unlimited things yet to know about life; don’t find any eagerness to go for
this research. Let the interested and professional
people explore and find it; I could wait for the result. I am curious and hard working on what could
be solved but I am lazy and reluctant about the issues which are beyond my long
earned knowledge, interest and capacity.
I am not an ignorant or arrogant, I always give space to research and
people who are focused on different direction than mine and if the result makes sense to me; I
accept. Whatever I gather or read about the journey beyond death or
reincarnation; it gives me the pleasure of reading a story; yes, like ghost stories.
The bottom line is; I have no idea whether life ends in death or there is
another journey beyond death. Not my cup
of tea again.
SONGSOPTOK: Almost all societies
believe that the entities that exists in the realms that are beyond our
understanding and our sensory perceptions possess an immense amount of power.
But the capacity of humans is limited. So why does humans believe that the
souls of the dead are immensely powerful? What, according to you, is the reason
for this?
MITRA: No idea, honestly. Unaware in this subject.
SONGSOPTOK: As we grow more and more
dependent on science and technology, it is possible that our belief in the
supernatural will grow weaker with time. In that sense ghosts and other
entities are likely to have a very dark future indeed. But wouldn’t that
deprive us of a whole range of feelings and emotions? Wouldn’t we become poorer
in our sensations? What is your opinion?
MITRA: I
don’t find any threat from knowing the fact, reality and truth. Those will go side by side. So long man does not stop hearing, reading, watching a
story; so long man does not get rid of
any emotion; reader of ghost stories and fairy tales will be there. I am not
talking about the horror and violent literature and art. Let them go (but,
could we?) The real threat is, as I realize how many readers are there now and
will be in future? How many are reading these universally well circulated
webzines and books, old books? The globe has turned into a market place.
Everything is salesmanship. Anything could be sold, whether right or wrong,
true or false, ethical or unethical, Science or beliefs, war or peace. We are
trying to keep into the positive sides of everything; but if there is a war, we
don’t know who will win. We are just solders if not puppets.
MITRA GHOSH CHATTOPADHYAY: An ex Scientist of India (worked for
20 years) in the field of Geological Science with degrees from India, UK and
Canada. At present, She lives in Canada and India, she is a writer ( mostly in
Bengali), working as an editor and publisher of a magazine ( Prabhas) and a
publication (Sohojiya Prakashoni). Two
books, few short stories and many travel articles are published. Besides
writing, travel/ globetrotting and photography are her passions.
We sincerely
thank you for your time and hope we shall have your continued support.
Aparajita
Sen
(EDITOR)
Songsoptok
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