by Reikimg » Sat Jan 07, 2006 2:48 pm
<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=212608&n_date=20060107&cat=India">news.webindia123.com/news...&cat=India</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Students of yet another school in Madhya Pradesh have reported seeing ghost-like apparitions.<br><br>At least 10 of the 128 students of the Government Middle School in Rewara village of Khandwa district in southwest Madhya Pradesh have fainted in the school after seeing a black apparition in recent weeks.<br><br>"At mid-day, I saw a man wearing a black dress near the water tank of our school. He had a long black beard and big teeth. He was very scary," said Chhaya, a 12-year-old student of the school. She fainted and came around after an hour.<br><br>"At least 10 students, mostly girls, have fainted in the school in the last one month,' said the school's headmaster Sajjan Singh Pawar.<br><br>"We sprinkle water on their faces to bring back their consciousness. We tell them that there are no ghosts in the school, but it has not worked," he said.<br><br>The guardians are also now afraid of sending their children to the school. "The whole thing is very scary. I have stopped sending my children to the school. But how long will they stay at home? Something must be done to resolve the matter," said Dheeraj Pal Singh, a resident of Rewara.<br><br>Sharad Agarwal, a doctor in the village, examined some of the students who had fainted and said that it was their illusion that they had seen a ghost.<br><br>The state's School Education Minister Narottam Mishra said: "I have also asked the district administration of Khandwa to send a team of doctors to the school."<br><br>Last week, girl students of a government school in Seoni district of southeast Madhya Pradesh were reported to have behaved abnormally on reaching the school, swaying their heads and dancing fitfully as if possessed by supernatural powers.<br><br>In October last year, girl students of a school in neighbouring Mandla district had behaved in the same way.<br><br>In both the cases, it was said that the girls were possessed by ghosts.<br><br>"What the girls are experiencing is known as mass hysteria or shared psychosis. One girl thinks that she has seen a ghost. She narrates her experiences to other girls and they also start believing that they too have seen a ghost," said Nadia Hasan, a psychiatrist based in Indore.<br><br>"Children are told stories about ghosts; they are intimidated by their parents in the name of ghost, so they start believing in ghosts. In all the cases it is girls who have come under the effect, because they are more sensitive and emotional than boys," she further said.<br><br>According to her, it was up to parents and teachers to tell children that there are no ghosts or spirits.<br><br>Said Uma Bhattacharya, a Bhopal-based psychiatrist: "All the three incidents of ghosts haunting schools have taken place in areas dominated by tribals, who strongly believe in ghosts and spirits."<br><br>"Moreover, only girls show symptoms because they are still discriminated in their homes. This creates a sort of fear and a complex in the minds and they start hallucinating," she said.<br><br>"With proper rest and nutrition, the girls can overcome the problem," Bhattacharya said.<br><br>(IANS)<br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
