Dehradun, May 3 -- Tulika Singh Roy

By: Ganesh Saili

For years now, I have heard stories about a piano at the Sergeants' Mess that tinkled on its own. The story goes that if you hold your breath around midnight, you might hear it too!

I tracked down the old barman, who, after years of mixing drinks, had retired from the nearby Convalescent Depot. He was still in the vicinity, living in a house he had built for the family.

'Oh yes! That piano would begin to tinkle on its own,' he remembered with a shudder.

An old commandant had asked the pianist to teach his nubile daughter to play the piano. Apparently, he taught her a little more than just that. Later, to hush up the scandal that followed, she was sent off to England.

Whatever happ...