Hello everyone, in today's session I am going to discuss a very interesting short story. I am a ghost written by a very popular Bengali writer Satyajit Ray. Before we get into the discussion, let me talk about the author Satyajit Ray.
Satyajit Ray was born in 1921 in Kolkata. He was one of the most influential film directors and a writer. He directed almost 36 films.
movies and received various national and international awards. Apart from this he also received all the four highest civilian awards in India that is Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and at last Bharat Ratna award. So all these awards were conferred to him because of the contribution that he had done to the field of cinema industry, Indian cinema industry.
He also wrote many short stories and essays and the story we have here I am a ghost has been taken from his short story collections. And this story I am a ghost is narrated by the ghost itself. Let me first introduce the characters of this story to you.
The main character of this story is Sudanya the ghost. He is the one who narrates the entire story. Sudanya is the one who dies and becomes ghost and expresses his feelings being a ghost. And we have one more ghost here called Naskarda.
Sudanya hates this second ghost Naskarda because of his character, because of his behavior. So with these two ghosts, we have three more characters. With these two ghosts, we have three human beings here in this story.
We have two officers called Lakshman Tripathi and Kanti by Dubey. Lakshman Tripathi and Kanti by Dubey. Lakshman Tripathi was a postmaster and Kanti by Dubey was a officer in a bank, a state bank. So these are the two other characters and we also have one more character called Narayan Sharma, a writer.
So these are the five important characters. We have The main character we have Sudhanya as the ghost and we have Naskarda, one more ghost we have. And we have three humans, Lakshman Tripathi, postmaster, Kanti Bai Dubey, a state bank employee and Narayan Sharma, a writer.
So now let's begin our discussion, let's get into the story. The story I am a ghost takes place at a haunted house called Lily Villa. So where does the story take place? The story takes place at a haunted house called Lily Villa.
And Lily Villa was there in a place called Deogar. In this Lily Villa, one of these two ghosts lives there and that's Sudanya. Sudanya was taking shelter in Lily Villa. So Sudanya, before his death, he had gone to that Lily Villa along with his friend on a holiday.
When he was trying to prepare a cup of tea, unfortunately when he lit the stove, the gas stove exploded and he died. And from that moment, after his death, he became ghost and he had been there in Lily Villa for the last 3 years. You may have one more question, how long had the ghost been in Lily Villa? So the answer is 3 years.
He had been there in Lily Villa for the last 3 years. this lily villa was like a guest house people used to come they used to spend some time in lily villa and they used to go but sudania was also there the ghost was also there in this lily villa but sudania never appeared before anybody because he did not want to trouble the people he wanted to just see the people he wanted to be with the people but he did not want to appear before he did not want to scare away the people he did not want to trouble the people That was Sudhanya's intention. Though he was a ghost, he did not have that evil thoughts or evil mindset to trouble the people.
He always chose to be invisible to the people. And according to him, ghost can choose to remain invisible. And sometimes the ghost can be visible to some people and invisible to some people. That option they have. according to Sudhanya.
But one day a doctor's family, a doctor had come to this Lily Villa along with the family to spend some days. But the ghost unknowingly became visible before this doctor and he looking at this horrific sight of the ghost Sudhanya, the doctor fell unconscious. And the next day, the doctor's family packed their baggage and left that place, left that lily villa.
And after this incident, people stopped coming to this lily villa. Somehow that news was spread all over the place, Diyogar and everybody thought that this Lily Villa was haunted by some ghosts. So people stopped coming to this place. But Sudanya wanted to be with the people, he wanted to watch the people but it was not his intention to scare the doctor away.
Later Sudanya admits that it was his mistake. It was because of his mistake. All this happened and the Lily Villa was not visited by anybody. From that incident, Sudhanya was alone. He was feeling that loneliness.
He was very unhappy with that incident. Why were there no other ghosts? The other ghosts were there, not in Lily Villa, but in the nearby places.
For example, Naskarda. So the second ghost, Naskarda was there. There were many ghosts.
But those ghosts... were very malicious they were very cruel they were very cunning ghosts they were giving trouble to the people they were troubling the people they were doing some harm to the people that was not liked by Sudhanya so he was not being with he was not going to talk to the other ghosts especially this Naskarada Naskarada was the most malicious cunning saddest ghost in this story To know about how malicious, how cruel Naskarada was, we should listen to the story of two innocent officers. Once there were these two innocent officers, Lakshman Tripathi, a postmaster, and Kanti Bai Dube, a state bank employee. Unfortunately, due to some reasons, there was hatredness between these two and they were enemies. That's okay.
What has Naskarda done to these two, Lakshman Tripathi and Kanti Bai Dubey? See, you will be surprised to see what Naskarda had done to these two. Once Lakshman Tripathi was coming back from his post office after his work, when he was going home, this Naskarda, the ghost, jumped on Lakshman Tripathi and he broke Lakshman Tripathi's neck and he died.
Lakshman Tripathi died. He was such a malicious ghost, such a sadistic ghost. And you will be surprised to see what he has done after that incident. After this incident, after this murder, the investigations were made, the arrests were made. And you know, someone was arrested in this case, in this murder case.
It was none other than Lakshman Tripathi's enemy, Kanti Bai Dubey. Kanti Bai Dube was no way related to this murder, to this death. But everybody thought, everybody suspected that he was the one who committed this murder. As he was the enemy, as he was the rival of Lakshmanthi Party.
And subsequently, Kanti Bai Dube was arrested and was hanged. And this Naskarada caused two innocent deaths. Such a sadistic ghost Naskarda was.
So because of all this kind of nature, Sudanya did not like Naskarda. He was troubling people. He was harming people.
He was disturbing the peace of the people. So Sudanya hated Naskarda. But Sudanya was not like that.
That day also when doctor fell unconscious, when doctor had the sight of this ghost Sudanya, It was not his intention. So because of this reason, Sudanya was not at all being with the other ghosts. Though it was very difficult for him to be alone, he was living alone in Lilly Villa. But later, Sudanya noticed someone came to this Lilly Villa. It was Narayan Sharma.
Narayan Sharma came to this Lilly Villa along with his assistant to... spend some time to spend some days in Lilyville. Narayan Sharma was a writer. He was a very famous writer in that locality. When Sudhanya saw his arrival, he felt so happy.
At last he got the company. He got some human being coming to Lillivilla. Soon after his arrival, his followers from nearby places rushed to this Lillivilla and they had planned to organize a function in his honor, in Narayan Sharma's honor because he was a very famous writer then. As they were talking...
each other as Narayan Sharma was talking to his fans his followers one of the followers warned Narayan Sharma that he must leave this Lily Villa because this house was haunted place haunted by the ghosts but Narayan Sharma said that he had come to Lily Villa to study about the ghosts to study about some spiritualism and he also said that he had the power the spiritual power to defend himself from any evils especially ghosts and he also says that he could know scare away any ghost from this lily villa when sudania heard narayan sharma saying that he could scare away the ghost he felt so troubled he felt unhappy and immediately he went to naskarda to talk to him about all this uh Narayan Sharma and his super power, his spiritual power that he could scare away any ghosts and all this. Because Naskarda, he thought, Sudhanya thought Naskarda would do something at least to get rid of Narayan Sharma. Because Naskarda, before his death, was a bodybuilder. He was a bodybuilder, so he was very strong.
But due to some reasons, due to some problems, he consumed poison. he swallowed poison and he died naskarda so sudania shared this all this if naskarda could do something to get narayan sharma away from this lily villa that night narayan sharma after spending his time as a writer after writing something at night narayan sharma started his preparations to scare the ghosts away to destroy that evil powers So he opened some powder and incense burner from his suitcase and started all the tricks that he had. And when he burnt that powder, the smoke was so effective that both Naskarda and Sudanya could not do anything. Naskarda, after looking at this powerful man Narayan Sharma, returned to his place and Sudanya remained in the same lily villa. And after some time as the smoke was so effective, it was so effective and he fell asleep.
Usually ghosts never feel asleep according to Sudanya. But that day Sudanya fell asleep. But the next morning when Sudanya woke up from his sleep, he was surprised to see one more ghost in the same Lele Villa. It was not Naskarda but Narayan Sharma. He was surprised.
He wondered how this Narayan Sharma died and became ghost. And Narayan Sharma himself answered his unasked question. Sudhanya had some unasked questions. He had some doubts. He wondered how he died and became ghost.
And all his unasked questions were answered by Narayan Sharma. Narayan Sharma said that when his assistant was still asleep, he wanted to prepare. a cup of tea himself so he went to the kitchen and he tried preparing cup of tea when he just lit the stove the gas stove exploded and he died you must observe one thing here narayan sharma also died the same way that sudania had died he also died when he was trying to light the stove and he the gas stove exploded and he died and narayan sharma also died the same way But finally when Narayan Sharma became ghost, Sudhanya got his company. He found someone in his villa as a friend. And so far whatever we discussed, it was all narrated by the ghost Sudhanya.
So this is all about the story, I am a ghost. Now let us look at some two more questions from this story. The first question is name the house where the ghost took shelter. The answer is Lily Villa. The next question is how did Sudanya die?
And the answer is he died when he lit the stove to prepare a cup of tea. And the next question is Why did Sudhanya hate Naskarda? And the answer is because Naskarda was troubling people.
The fourth question, whom did Naskarda attack? And the answer is Lakshman Tripathi. Who is Narayan Sharma?
And the answer is Narayan Sharma was a writer who came to Lilli Villa. How did Narayan Sharma die? He also died the same way Sudhanya died when he lit the stove to prepare tea. Shaka-laka