OF GHOSTS AND GRAVES

In the land of the Pharaohs, where people buried their dead believing they would continue their journey in an afterlife, I wondered if would find any ghosts or at least some ghost stories that I could recount to my readers. I daresay I looked for them everywhere and finally made this shocking revelation. Let me share with you a 'deadly' tale of the ones at the bottom of the pyramid.

When I expressed my disappointment at not being able to explore the pyramids for a ‘ghostly’ story I was prompted to look elsewhere by my local guide. “In this necropolis of the great kings there are many other graveyards. Why don’t you scout them? You may find a ghost or two. There are many in Zienhum,” he said with a mysterious smile.

The graveyards of course! My best bet. Ghosts seem to fancy graveyards more than any place I’d say. That’s where they are buried and that’s where they prefer to be. Helps them to maintain their ‘grave’ look in the background of the ruins and derelict tombs, I guess. They do have this serious ghost image to preserve from which they rarely depart – Unless of course it is a pretty genie or a well meaning spirit popping out of a lamp. But we are talking about graveyards here. And the ones in graves are always solemn, somber, disheveled and emaciated, hovering over the burial ground in flowing gowns or tattered clothes. I needed to catch one of them.

"If you are lucky you would just catch one silly," said Jo. Have you heard of ghosts walking hand in hand or having a party?" Not really. That stuff happens only in a Michael Jackson thriller. "They would cease to scare you if they looked decent and went around in pretty masquerades, dancing and giggling." True! If indeed I found them huddled together or scattered in clusters they wouldn’t even look like ghosts unless there was a proper background score playing – sprinkled with blood chilling wolf cries and all. I'd take them for a bunch beggars instead!" Precisely!

I will come back to the ghosts in a while. A little more about the graveyards first!

Cairo has a large number of graveyards. Once a upon a time some of them were in the middle of the desert. No more. With the city expanding and gobbling up every bit of the sandy plain some of these cemeteries lie comfortably ensconced between high rises and highways today.

The largest of the charity graveyards in Cairo is in Zeinhum, across the central morgue. During the first day of Eid, when everyone went out to pay respect to their dear departed in their ancestral family graves and private tombs, Zeinhum would look desolate. These graveyards were earmarked for unidentified accident victims and the poorer lot and so no one came here.

And this is where I am told, in all likelihood, the first ghosts appeared. They came one at a time sequestering small patches for themselves at first. From a distance one could make out they were unhappy souls trundling in the darkness of the night to their graves to mourn their plight. They looked scary and pathetic. One could only pray for those restless souls and feel sorry that there was no one to send them flowers, or share their agony.

But soon a curious thing happened. They multiplied in no time until it was quite a camp. They still looked unhappy and unkempt but not half as frightening or desolate anymore. They didn't look like apparitions appearing mysteriously at the wee hours, slinking out of their grave to stretch themselves or fliting around ominously to scare you . They were suddenly everywhere, all the time - especially in the evenings when you could even catch an entire ghost family bunched over a fire, cooking a meal for themselves, with a bundled brawling baby ghost to boot. They looked painfully human then, almost like us. They looked like destitutes with no home.

Many of Cairo's cemeteries are full them today - Not just the dead but also those who are fighting to live. Squatters even pay a monthly fee to the grave keepers who decide their eligibility to tenure on of the dank clammy corners or the underground chambers of these graveyards.

Ever since the land prices shot up, burial in private tombs, which has been a tradition, became a matter of luxury. More and more people had been forced to bury their dead in Zeinhum and that is when they discovered the truth.

That was my ghost story. Not as eerie as I would have liked it to be. But creepy you must say!

With Cairo’s population nearly 18 million today and an economy that is not chugging too well, the fate of those at the bottom of the pyramid looks bleak…And I am not talking of the Pharaohs you know!