The Old Banyan Tree
- 4 minute read
- Ages 9-13
- Horror Stories for Kids
At the end of our village there was a banyan tree so old that nobody could remember it being any smaller.
Its roots came down from the branches in thick ropes and went back into the ground, so that it was not really one tree but a whole crowd of them standing together, and inside that crowd it was dark even at noon.
The rule was simple, and every child knew it. You could play near the banyan tree in the daytime. You did not go past it after sunset.
Nobody ever explained why.
Meena
My cousin Meena came to stay one summer from the city, and she thought the rule was silly.
"It's a tree," she said. "What is it going to do?"
"It's not the tree," said my grandmother, without looking up from her work. "It's what sits in it."
Meena laughed. My grandmother did not.
For a week Meena talked about it. She wanted to walk past it at night and come back and prove there was nothing there. On the seventh evening, when the light was going orange and the cattle were coming in, she stood up and said she was going.
I said I would come with her. She said no. She said she would be back in ten minutes and would call from the far side so we could hear her.
She went out along the path with the last of the light behind her.
The waiting
We sat on the step. Ten minutes went. Then twenty.
Then, from the far side of the tree, we heard her call my name.
I stood up. My grandmother caught my wrist and held it, hard.
"Sit down."
"But that's Meena—"
"Sit down."
The voice called again. It was exactly her voice. It said my name the way she said it, with the little laugh at the end, and it was coming from the dark under the roots.
And then it called again. And again. It did not stop and it did not get tired and it did not sound worried, which was the wrong way for it to sound, because by then she should have been frightened.
It called my name for two hours, in exactly the same tone, all night long.
The morning
At sunrise the whole village went down the path together.
Meena was sitting on the far side of the tree with her back against a root, perfectly fine, blinking at us.
She said she had walked round it and then sat down for a moment because she felt tired, and she must have fallen asleep, and she was sorry for worrying everybody.
"Did you call out?" I asked her.
"No," she said. "I didn't want you to hear how scared I was."
She went back to the city that week and she never came to the village again.
And I have thought about it for a long time, and the part I cannot get past is this. Whatever was under that tree, calling my name all night — it knew my name. And the only person who could have told it was Meena.
Moral of the story
Some rules are old because they have been tested. When everyone in a village agrees on something without explaining it, it is worth listening first and asking afterwards.
Questions and answers
- What was the rule about the banyan tree?
Children could play near it during the day, but nobody was to go past it after sunset.
- Why did Meena not take the rule seriously?
She was from the city and thought the villagers were being superstitious about an ordinary tree.
- What did the narrator's grandmother mean by 'it's what sits in it'?
She meant the danger was not the tree itself but something she believed lived inside it.
- Why was the voice calling from the tree frightening?
It sounded exactly like Meena, but it never got tired, never sounded afraid, and called for two hours without stopping.
- What is the unsettling detail at the end?
Meena says she never called out. But the voice knew the narrator's name, and Meena was the only one who could have told it.
Word meanings
- banyan
- A large Indian tree whose branches drop roots that grow into new trunks.
- superstitious
- Believing in things like luck and spirits without evidence.
- blinking
- Opening and closing the eyes quickly, as when waking up.
- tone
- The sound and feeling of a voice.
Questions about The Old Banyan Tree
Is this story too scary for children?
It is written for ages nine and above. There is nothing violent or graphic in it; the fear comes from what is suggested rather than shown.
Why are banyan trees common in Indian ghost stories?
Banyan trees grow enormous and live for centuries, with dark tangled root systems. They are landmarks in villages and have long been associated with spirits in South Asian folklore.
What is the moral of The Old Banyan Tree?
That local rules and warnings often exist for reasons, and that dismissing them because they sound unscientific can be a mistake.
Is this a true story?
No. It is an original spooky story written in the style of village ghost stories told across India and Pakistan.