I saw my first ghost as a kid during the day, and it left me scared for life

The first time I encountered a ghost was when I was six.

It was after lunch on a sunny day. But the day somehow did not feel that hot; it was almost a still, soundless day. 

The only noise I heard was birds chirping far away. There was no swish of winds blowing either.

Most of the people I knew were taking their afternoon naps after a full lunch, and I was standing in front of the almost-abandoned Kali Mandir right beside my Bagerhat home. 

I didn't even realise when I reached there. I was in my own mind, completely distracted, thinking about how I would approach my dad to buy me that cricket bat I saw in the market the other day or go and get some more betel nut branches. Just random kids' stuff.

While still distracted, I went to the side of the temple where the walls were a little lower than the other parts and just jumped in. By the time I returned to reality and started catching a better glimpse of my surroundings, I was already inside the vicinity.

There were no buildings inside the temple since it was only used when there was an occasion, and it remains abandoned the rest of the year. Only a few abandoned wooden structures there. 

There was, however, a massive century-old banyan tree right in the middle.

As I kept looking around, trying to understand why I came here, I just looked straight at the banyan tree and saw this figure behind, draped completely in white clothing. 

I was so shocked that I forgot to feel afraid. I looked at it for some time, trying to understand what I was looking at. But the distance did not help at all. 

It looked like an old woman for a split second and something surreal the next.

So, I did what any six-year-old would do. I jumped and ran for my life. 

I did, however, grab one of the older neighbours as he saw me running and brought him to the spot after a while. 

But as you may have already expected, there was nothing there to see anymore. Just the century-old banyan tree mocking me.

I did give it a really good thought afterwards and came up with some explanation about what I must have seen. 

One of the explanations was that there used to be a very old woman living in the area. She was probably a hundred years old. Probably because that's what we thought all our grandparents were aged back then. I first thought it might be her, and all the other grown-ups I shared the story with agreed with me.

But then I realised that the temple has walls all around it, and there's no way that a hundred-year-old woman (still, probably) would jump walls to get in and out. 

I have forgotten many things that happened before and after this encounter. But this just left a permanent mark in my memory. No matter how much I try, I cannot forget this.

There were some other things I didn't forget. But those are not real.

Since childhood, I have had my fair share of very detailed ghost stories, and I was always good at picturing whatever I read as long as it contained enough details. I still do. 

I have had so many of those books pictured in my brain since an early age that I don't watch any more horror films now. When I do, they just don't feel as intense as those decade-old memories either.

However, the horror film that I did watch, and the one that left me scared for days, was Debi. 

It was because Debi showed ghosts at the most unpredictable places possible during bright daylight, and it instantly reminded me of my first experience seeing one of them.