Now Reading: A swimmer’s personal essay on ghostly encounters and eerie presences
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A swimmer’s personal essay on ghostly encounters and eerie presences
In an essay on ghostly presences, a journalist recounts two personal experiences. The first occurred in Petrozavodsk, Russia, where while staying in a centuries-old mansion, he felt a cold presence in the…
The Story in Brief
In an essay on ghostly presences, a journalist recounts two personal experiences. The first occurred in Petrozavodsk, Russia, where while staying in a centuries-old mansion, he felt a cold presence in the basement. The programme coordinator later confirmed the anomaly and offered alternative accommodation. The second happened in Kolkata, where upon entering a room, he had an overwhelming sense that a child was hiding in a bureau, later confirmed by a butler as a resident ghost.
The author uses Mark Fisher's concepts of 'the weird' and 'the eerie' to frame these encounters as a 'failure of absence'. He contrasts these personal experiences with the decline of ghost stories in the age of smartphones and electric light, citing S. Mukherji's 1917 book 'Indian Ghost Stories' to argue that such phenomena were once common.
The Indian Opinion
The essay draws on personal anecdotes and Mark Fisher's concepts, but the real story here is how urbanisation and technology have erased the space for such experiences. The author romanticises a pre-electric past where ghost stories were common, yet fails to address why digital natives, who consume endless horror content, report fewer direct encounters. The test is simple: ask a teenager today if they've ever felt a 'presence' in an old building. The answer will likely be no, not because ghosts vanished, but because we've traded creaking stairs for glowing screens.
Source: frontline.thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
