A Ghost Story

Adiv and I had a lazy friday. We woke up later than usual, oblivious to the fact that Rohit had to gone to work at 6.45. I woke up at 9, got myself a bowl of cornflakes, and continued reading "Behenji". By 10.30, I decided Adiv had to wake up.
"Wakey wakey time Tuttoo," I said loudly.
No reaction.
Finally I played a song on my mobile, and he jumped up smiling and rubbing his eyes.
The maid wasn't coming, so we had the day to ourselves. I made our beds, gave Adiv his breakfast, and brought out his toys. I turned on the radio, and danced to a popular song. Adiv looked up, smiled, and moved to the beat, his hands up in the air. Just then, we heard the friendly radio jockey, lure her listeners with a grand prize. To win it, we had to tell her a ghost story.

"This might be interesting", I told Adiv who was contemplating between putting either Gladys the cow, or a big red block into his mouth.

The first caller was on air.
"We went into the woods, and suddenly I heard a baby cry. It was spooky. It just had to be a ghost."
"It could have been a baby", said the RJ, trying to stifle her laughter.
Anyway, after thanking him, she played a few more songs.

"Maybe I should tell her a story", I thought to myself. I pulled out my mobile that was now in Adiv's mouth, and sent a quick SMS.
"You can't not believe in ghosts, when you've been to the most haunted place in the world", I typed, wearing a smile on my face. She would definitely call after that message, and I'd get my 40 seconds of fame (even if it meant only the jobless were tuned it at that time!).

As I predicted, she called.
"Hi Roopa", said a chirpy, friendly voice. "How are you?"
"Great. How are you", I responded with an equally chirpy, excited tone.
I gushed(lied) about how Adiv and I spent our days listening to radio.
"How cute", she responded.
We eventually got to my message. "So you have a story for me?"

I told her about our three-day holiday in York, a place that is marketed as being the most haunted place in Europe. In York, we'd visited all the museums that boasted of ghost sightings, walked along the city walls, and eaten the best doughnuts ever.
We'd heard many ghost stories while we were there. Sadly, we hadn't seen any.

Anyway, I was eventually on air telling my story. I told Bangalore about the eccentric old man, who'd built a huge house near the cathedral. He lived in his house with several servants, and no family to speak off. Anyway, in his will, he promised to keep his house open to tourists.
"But if you move anything, I'll haunt the place", he threatened. But this isn't the Ghost story I was going to tell Bangalore.
This house had more ghosts than it's beloved owner. An electrician working in the basement claimed that he'd seen a group of roman soldier marching across the room.
The ghosts seemed oblivious to his shocked presence. Interestingly, they took a path that was once a roman street. The city of York as we know it today, was built over a roman city. Archeologists are still working on the remnants of that era.

"Wow", said the RJ. "That was amazing. I've never heard about foreign ghosts," she laughed. I laughed and disconnected after being told that I might just win the grand prize.
What followed were frantic calls to Rohit and my mother. "I was on radio. I might win a prize." I didn't think the guy in the woods stood a chance. My story was definitely better, and I wanted that grand prize.
I waited for them to call back, telling me I'd won. I couldn't listen to radio, coz an excited Adiv had meddled with the radio, while i was bragging about my 40 seconds of fame.

Anyway, as with the cookery contest, I didn't win the big prize here either. Ironically, I was hoping for a prize I'd never have used. If I'd won, I'd have got a gift voucher to the hard rock cafe; hardly possibly with a baby having the sniffles. I was making generous plans of giving it to Rohit's young cousin.

Rohit believes they might still decide to give me the prize. So the wait continues!:)