The Garden

Once there was a big garden in a village. It was well maintained and had a big well. It had a lot of trees with fruits. However it was seldom visited by the visitors as they believed that it was occupied by witches!

Nikita was a young girl who studied in class IX. She was beautiful and of good nature. One day she happened to pass by this garden while returning from her school. She saw an old woman standing there. On seeing Nikita the old woman called her and asked her about her well-being. She was friendly and Nikita spent some time with her. While leaving she offered some sweet mangoes which Nikita gladly took home.

Next day again she visited the garden. As she had a kho-kho match in school, she was tired. So the old woman gave her plenty of fruits to eat. She ate to her heart's content. After that she felt asleep. She got up at around 10 pm in the night. She saw a witch in place of the old woman. She became frightened and called for help. Then all the other witches too came out.

The witch who had turned old woman, explained to Nikita that she would not do any harm to her and she could spend the night there. She gave him more fruits to eat. Nikita spent the night in the garden as it was not safe to go alone at night.

In the morning she went home and narrated everything to her parents. Her parents told these things to the sarpanch who called a panchayat and it was decided that the villagers would go to the garden and see for themselves, what the truth is.

Next day all the villagers went to the garden. There the old woman was there. She saw the villagers coming and said to them that she and her companion witches used to work in the garden, which was owned by a rich zamindar of the village, many years ago.

One day there was a fire which engulfed each one of them, and they all died there. Since then they live in the garden as witches and take care of the garden. They never harm anyone but the people misinterpret them and donot come there. She said that the villagers could use the well and take fruits from the garden.

The villagers felt sympathy for the witches. They decided to perform a puja for them in the garden. A pujari was called and a big puja was organised by them. All the witches attained moksha. And the villagers started coming to the garden regularly.