The third was of a warrior who had found the king abandoned on the riverbank and had adopted him and raised him on his own. The second hand was of a priest who loved the king’s mother and had made her pregnant. The first hand belonged to a weaver, to whom the king’s mother had been forcibly given in marriage. As he was about to drop the funeral offering in the river, as ritual demanded, three hands rose from the water to receive it. Once upon a time, a king was performing the funeral rites for his father. The Vetal did not mind this, more than happy to fill the silence with an entertaining tale: One word from your lips and he will fly back to his tree.” Vikramaditya swore, as he walked towards the tree, to keep his mouth shut. But remember, while you are carrying Vetal, you must never speak. “If you can bring this creature to me,” a sorcerer had told the king, “I can turn him into a mighty slave who will do all your bidding. Vikramaditya, king of Ujjain, pulled down the ghost or Vetal who swung upside down from the branches of a tree that grew on the edge of a crematorium ground. Published as No Right Answer in Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, July 4 2008.
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