GIANT PROBLEM: Residents of a village in India are not allowed to do any building work without planning permission from the ghost of a dead monster.
"An ogre used to attack our village and eat up humans," explained villager Tarlochan Singh. Eventually a deal was hammered out whereby the beast would not eat anyone in return for a degree of respect. The contract stretched way beyond his lifetime. For more than a century, residents have continued to give offerings to the tomb of the ogre. No one builds anything higher or grander than the tomb. They stick to the rules "lest he wakes up and eats them up," said Singh. The village in the Chandigarh area, originally called Ramgarh, has now been renamed Deopur, which means Ogretown.
People who defy the rules see their projects come to a sorry end, thanks to the monster's vicious spirit, who goes around knocking things down. "Once a factory came up nearby and the owner ignored the warning," villager Swaran Das, 65, told The Times of India. "Soon after, the wall collapsed." The ogre was also credited with the death of a man who tried to build a temple nearby.
The village went through a crisis when the time came to switch from mud dwellings to brick homes, known as pukka, or genuine, houses. "The first few who dared to do so first went to the ogre's grave and gave some bricks in offering," said Das. "A few more followed out of fear. Soon it was decided that they rebuild the tomb with bricks. That way they could safely construct pukka houses." If Ogretown ever makes it into the age of skyscrapers, be prepared to see the world's tallest tomb.
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