Ghouls of November: Indian and foreign ghost stories to make us jump out of our skins

Phantoms are Novemberists... they come out when the days are shorter and haze obscures everything, everywhere. (Photo by Sebastiaan Stam via Pexels)

’Tis the season to be… spooked! It is also the season for goosebumps, hair standing on end, creaky doors, grinning pumpkins and exclamation marks. We've only just passed Halloween on October 31, and All Souls’ Day is upon us in November. Almost like the penultimate month of the year wants to refresh and reboot us just in time for Christmas and the New Year Day celebrations by first frightening us thoroughly.

In India, perhaps compared to anywhere else in the world, a belief in ghosts is most prevalent. Everyone has a scary tale to tell. It happened to them, to someone in their family, to a friend, to the friend of a friend, and so on. On dark nights, we love to be in toasty warm rooms, huddled around hot drinks, reading Satyajit Ray’s Indigo or Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Taranath Tantrik… one ear cocked for things that go bump in the night. Pumpkin spice latte is sipped or spiked, warm cardigans are pulled tighter across the shoulders and small shivers shivered.

Also read: 7 writers of ghost stories in India to read to ring in Halloween 2023

Many horror stories for kids involve mysterious forces kidnapping them – perhaps as a warning not to talk to strangers or stray too far from familiar terrain. There is Slender Man, the faceless monster, as also Lilith, Gombel WeWe, Kopek and Lamashtu – mythical characters with nothing better to do than chase children. Of course, this strikes fear in adult hearts too! Films and books transport us to worlds where goblins and wraiths roam free. Urban legends and myths would have us believe that anything can happen anytime!

Some books this year that had everyone scream for their mommy include Her Little Flowers, described as a spellbinding Gothic ghost story, by Shannon Morgan; The Night Begins, full of magic and rituals, by Abigail F Taylor; Night Side of the River, a ghost story collection by Jeanette Winterson, which has many new ghosts, including trans, and also some AI… If there was The Signal Man by Charles Dickens, there is the short story called Signal by John Lanchester, with a ghost intent on... you will find out upon reading.

Indian folklores and old tales are made up of a million jump scares. Kiran Manral, who has written many a story featuring other-worldly beings, says, ‘I’m fascinated by all that we cannot understand or comprehend or explain, and I enjoy being terrified out of my skin. That’s why I write ghost stories.’ Manral has written The Face at the Window, More Things in Heaven and Earth, All Those Who Wander – all novels that bring on the chills.

The success behind books that scare us silly is that we want to be scared again, and again. It is like a drug. What frightened us the last time won’t frighten us again, and therein lies the catch. So this is November, the month of moody silences, when the dark falls earlier in the evenings, and the mist rolls in from… okay, traffic fumes. Phantoms are Novemberists. This is the month they circle red in their calendars. Get ready to shriek and scream, someone is going to go ‘boo’.