Bhoot Stories: Creepy Ghosts From India

Things that bend unnaturally are so ah they give me like chills. Yeah, it's lah. That's why I hate spiders so much. I think in crabs, yeah crab well, sure, they just look alike. I'm just like, oh like no, Welcome to Scary Mystery Surprise, where we talk about scary things that surprised us around the Internet. I'm Edwin, I'm Michelle. We're going on an adventure with the Bengal ghosts or boots Boots bhoots. Oh okay, there are many different types of ghost stories in Bengal. And by the way, Bengal is a region in between India and Bangladesh. It's like a culturer right in there. And it all used to be one, but then it got divided when they divided India's as a country. So it's West Bengal in India and Bangladesh that leg zone in the east of India. Okay, So, and this is one of those things. Well, this is like just a sidebar. This was so hard to research. My computer got a virus. I didn't know Max could get viruses. Yeah, I didn't think so either. That's why I was pretty shocked by it. But because I was just clicking on Bengali ghost stories. I got something sketchy on my computer, so anyway I'd like to delete it off my computer. I don't know how scary mysteries of rice listeners. If you know how to fix my computer, please let me know. But honestly, Boots or Aka, the ghosts of Bengal and Bengal literature and folklore are really cool and I wish there was more info out in English that we could find. This is all basically based on one article that kind of gave a like a brief overview of some of the ghosts, and so like you know, I'll just mention some of these really cool ghosts that are part of Indian Bengali culture. So it's a much much requested topic. As opposed to ghosts in other countries who prefer haunting domestic spaces, Bengali spirits often prefer marshes, ponds, forests in the region and some even take human form. That's also because they practice cremation a lot, so they don't have like a spot to put It's not like a graveyard. The body's gone at that point, so they would just be out wander around. And also, here's the thing, you can't always tell if they're a ghost or not, but you can tell if you like temeric root and hold it under their nose. Apparently they can't stand the smell, so I can't imagine. I don't know if i'd be able to handle the smell, but I'm not a ghost, so I don't know. They also have large appetites for fish, which are popular food in the Bengal region, and many are mischievous, while others are more vindictive. Here are a few ghostly tails that have gained popularity over time. So, okay, our first ghost or boot, it's called a petney edwin. You're on a walk and by the side of the road is some tall grass, and in that tall grass is an attractive woman, let's say Shakira. And she's like you who And you're like no, no, no, oh no, She's like you know, And you look around and you're like who me, And she's like yo, And so you take a step towards her. But just then you glimpse through the tall grass that she's been standing in. Something's odd. You look down at her feet. Both of her feet are pointing backwards a petny. You scream and he runs screaming down the road. That's what I would do. That's exactly what I would do. Yeah. Well, and she's like just fading, so she doesn't she would have chased you or anything. She was just kind of like she is, well, she's she is malevolent, so like odds are. If you'd been like, oh okay and gone in the bushes with her, she would have killed you. So she's evil. But the only way you know what she is is because her feet are turned backwards. Geez are her knees also turned backwards? That's what I can't figure out. God, that's disgusting. Okay, honestly, just like the sensation in my body of imagining my feet being turned backwards, it's like it's a little much for me. So little is known about Petney's except that they are ghosts of unmarried women who died with unfinished business. They are similar in appearance to women who are still alive, although their feet are pointed backwards, and they tend to make their homes in sandpaper figed trees. A lot of ghosts live in trees in India, so just go with it. According to folklore, these ghosts often try to accost men in order to satisfy their own desires. They are known to be violent and dangerous when crossed, and while they used to inspire terror, more recently people have been sympathetic to the view of the petney, believing her to be an embodiment of the female desire that disrupts patriarchal norms, basically giving women agency that they lacked in life. The next one is also a lady ghost, and I will be this one. I could not find how to pronounce, so this is like me winging it. Sank Katchurnis are ghosts of married women and widows. Their name comes from the clothes they wear are as white as conk shells, and they also wear bracelets of conkshows. Apparently culturally that's like when you get married, you wear wear these bracelets. Sank Kachurnis are less violent than the petney, but are quick to take offence. They like to possess married women so they can relive their own married days once again. In one popular folk tale, a woman accidentally brushed against a saint got Churney's and this made her so angry. The ghost imprisoned the woman in a tree, and she then takes on the woman's form and enters the house, where her husband and mother in law are impressed with her increased efficiency. However, the differences quickly become apparent. The sant Go Cherney extends her arms several meters to reach for food, and instead of using fuel to cook, she thrust her foot in the fire. Eventually, the burning trameric root test reveals her true form and she's forced to confess, and she frees the imprisoned woman. So what, okayficiency. Yeah, like she got much better at what she was. Like, They're like, oh, why are you so good at being a housewife? Now I'm impressed. I'm impressed. And then she reaches her arms super far. Yeah, and then she puts her own foot in the fire to start it and cook dinner instead of instead of getting wood. It sounds like a superhero like it does for good instead of just for being a house wife. Yeah, it seems like that was fine. I mean, I feel bad for the woman obviously who's imprisoned in a tree. But yeah, you know, okay, our next ghost once again couldn't find how to say this on the internet, so I'm gonna just wing it. And so, Edwin, you've had a successful day fishing you're walking home. Yeah, yeah, you're walking home. You're alone. Then you hear a nasally chned voice, my shut sha mash jha, which roughly translates give me fish. Oh. This startles you and one of your fish disappears, so you run down the road screaming. Such a funny scene, though, like what it's just a micho boot are male ghosts, mostly fishermen of those who died by drowning, and are renowned for their love of fish. They are known to haunt lakes and ponds to feed their hunger. Unlike some other Bengali ghosts, micho boots are not malevolent. However, they will beg fishermen or lone travelers for fish, saying in a nasally tone, mash yeah, give me fish. So our next ghost Scoondakota Edwin. You're waiting for the train. In the distance, you see a figure coming towards you. Of course, you are alone at this train station. It's outside the village, near the bog. The fog is settled in. Of course, Yeah, you know, it's totally totally fine. Nothing ever happens. This figure starts coming closer and closer, and then all of a sudden, it's very clear to you it does not have a head, So you run screaming down the road. Hope, my god, I get that issue, though I hope so too. Honestly, with all the running you have to do in this episode, well I've managed to escape all these times I've met anymore. The scoonda Kata are headless ghosts whose origin stories have changed over time. In the nineteenth century, they were described as being vengeful and dangerous, and willing to attack an enslave humans to help them find their lost heads. I don't know why that's funny to me. They generally dwelled in low moist lands outside of village, in bogs or fence, and go about in the dark, rolling on the ground. Why their arms stretched out like some resulting like like without a head? Is that you're just rolling? I mean, if your arms are stretched out, is it this way or this way? Hamburger or a hot dog? What are you? What is your cart? Willie? What if you are cartwheeling? But that's so much more menacing than what I thought. Oh, still creepy, though it's still very creepy. However, in more temporary descriptions, the Skundakata is described as ghosts of people beheaded on the train tracks. They haunt the railway stations, but can be easily outwitted because they lack because of their lack of sight, not brain, but site. No, no, no, it's because they don't have eyes, because they don't have a head, so they're just bumping into things. Yeah, I mean, it'd just be like some sort of weird headless thing that and then you just step out of the way. Oh man, we need we need listeners help more than ever here, Like, if you have any material, I want people in Bengal to write in and tell us these stories because this is these are so cool and we're just getting like a whiff of these stories. They're so cool and this is clearly not like the in depth expose that we love to be doing. Any info, please, guys, send it in Instagram or via email. Yeah, please, we want to hear everything. We want to hear all these stories. Okay, Finally, probably the scariest ghost that I found is the niche doc so Edwin. Imagine you're pretty much walking at night, Imagine a calling to you from the darkness Edwin Edwin, the voice of someone you loved who died recently. You're terrified, but you can't ignore the hypnotic promise of seeing them again. You venture to the source a fatal mistake. You can't run screaming down the road. I died, Dun, dun, dun, you died the niche doc are you didn't even let me process my own death and the sell and just no, we got to move on. You've been killed by a niche doc. The niche doc or ghosts of people who weren't given a proper burial and appear as shadows in the distance. The word niche means night and the word doc means call. So the niche doc will choose a victim call out to them in a voice of their loved one, and they will use these calls to lure their victim into a secluded area, revealing themselves and killing their victim. However, it's possible to distinguish between the call of a niche doc and the voice of a loved one. A niche doc can only call out twice, so if you hear your name announced three times, you know you aren't being haunted by a ghost. In one story translated by doctor Sutra to Samantra and one of the videos that I found was by PBS and they'd done like this short little video on the in the niche doc But anyway, the stories from that a niche. She directs its attention to a little boy. The boy shared a close bond with his aunt, who helped raise him. He would lovingly catch his allunt's favorite fish to eat. When she died suddenly, the boy was too devastated by grief to perform his aunt's last rites. He would not eat or speak, becoming ill himself. Exorcists were brought in. Amulet's charms applied, but nothing worked. One night, the boy woke suddenly claiming that he heard his aunt's voice calling to him. Soon, rumors began to spread of a figure sitting in a tree by a nearby pond. Then, after a heavy monsoon rain, a midnight fog encased the village. The boy, here's his aunt calling to him, begging him to come catch her a fish. So he sneaks out of the house and begins to collect the fish, but then he spots a figure in the trees. Fear brings the boy back to his senses, and with much effort, he's able to run, but he doesn't get far before a long arm snatches his basket of fish, and the boy falls into a dead faint. Three days pass before he regains consciousness. Everyone warns his mother to keep a close eye on the boy for next time he might have his neck broken by the niche. But the monster is relentless and lures the boy into the pond. He walks straight in, sinking below the surface. His body is dragged up in the fisherman's nets the next morning. That's a really good story. Let's it's good. I mean, and that's like one that was officially translated for this PBS documentary. So like we want to hear the stories man friends from over there, from that side of the world. Please please please help us out. Yeah, and I mean we've had it. I mean this was I did this because we've gotten requests to do this before. But I want more, I want more info, I want more stories. This is just like not even this is like the ice cube of the iceberg. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg. It's like an ice cube that was sheared off an iceberg and is in a glass. So please write in. That's why, though, Michelle, that's why when people people requested so much because it's not that we don't have access to that information. Like this is like an open call to the listeners out there because we want to hear more stories like this. And I know and I know that there is a lot of people who are bilingual or tri yeah, and and the I mean, they have to have access somehow. It doesn't have to be professional professional, but only we need the gist of the stories if we can translate, translate or lead us to wherever these Yes, the sources of these are if there's books, for example, on this type of thing, that'd be interesting, like flip through them and figure it out. It's a fascinating area of folklore that yeah, is pretty inaccessible, which I understand. Maybe sometimes everyone shouldn't know everything, but I'd love to be able to hear, you know, the ones that our mainstream, you know what I mean, Like, yeah, you know, I was listening to a story of from the Marshall Islands and some of the people there they say that there's like it's taboo topics to share share them. So it's part of a cultural thing, you know, to share those stories within their own circles. So it's like, huh, maybe that's why. But also it's intriguing, like it's intriguing to get this info. Yeah, so let us know. Is it taboo? Is it uh? You know? Is it just lack of representation out there? Is it lack of translation? What is it? Let us know? We know. We want to know more. Our listeners want to know more. My favorite ghost was the Shakira ghost. It's creepy. I knew she would be. Anyway, what are we going to talk about next week, Edwin? I don't know. I think it'll be a surprise. Bye, guys, Bye,