Amma announced, “Manu, this summer you will have to stay with your ammama in Coonoor…”

Manu wailed, “I don’t want to. I’ll be alone. It will be boring…” Manu sulked. But it didn’t help. His parents dropped him at his grandmother’s house, a huge, crumbling bungalow that creaked and groaned on windy days. Huge, dusty portraits stared down from the walls. Some rooms were locked. The garden was overgrown.

His grandmother had changed. She rarely smiled or spoke. And she had odd rules: don’t go into the downstairs bedroom, do not look at the portraits, do not answer if anyone calls out at dusk…

Manu was bored and lonely. He explored the house and discovered hidden passages, unused rooms, old diaries and toys.

One day, while out in the garden, he peeked into the forbidden bedroom. He saw movement. A figure. It moved towards the window. As it approached the window, he saw it was his grandmother. She was smiling and happy to see him. “Two grandmothers?” he wondered. Puzzled, he ran away.

That night, Manu could not sleep. If his grandmother was in the locked bedroom, who was the woman sleeping in the room next to his?

Manu began to investigate. Through the hidden passages he had discovered, he found his way to his imprisoned grandmother. Ammama told Manu that, during a terrible storm, a young girl had come out of the shola forest seeking shelter. Ammama did not know, but she was a shape-shifter — a creature that could take anyone’s form, but only after trapping the real person. It had imprisoned Ammama and stolen her identity. Shocked, Manu knew he had to find a way for them to escape.

While they were talking, he heard the shape-shifter calling out for him. It sounded angry. Manu crept back to his room. He locked his door and refused to come out. The shape-shifter realised Manu had discovered the truth. That night, it paced the corridors, scratching its long nails against the wooden door.

“You should never have gone to that room,” it whispered. “Now you know too much. I have to kill you.”

As dawn was breaking, Manu and his ammama escaped. Manu took his grandmother back to Chennai with him. The bungalow was abandoned. No one spoke of it again.

Years later, Manu returned to Coonoor with his son. The old house had been demolished and replaced by a beautiful homestay. At the reception desk sat a pretty young girl. She smiled warmly at Manu’s little boy.

“Welcome,” she said. “You look just like your father did when he was 10.”

Manu froze. He had never met her before.

Published - August 06, 2026 10:32 am IST