THE GHOST OF THE SUNDERBANKS

PAKURTALA in the Sunderbans: Gopal Haldar has been making his living in India's Sunderbans mangrove region as a ghost for more than 40 years.

Measuring a mere 122 cm and weighing a slight 24 kilograms, Haldar -- now near to retirement age -- says he has been malnourished all his life.

"My mother was very weak. So I am. I am unable to work in the field," Halder said in an interview in the Sunderbans village of Pakurtala, about 90 kilometres south of the eastern Indian city of Kolkata in the Ganges River delta
"I have hardly had the money to buy good food or visit a doctor. I have been suffering from malnutrition since my childhood. Because of his poor health and stick-like physique, he added, neighbours had said he was "born to play a ghost".
"Women and children are even scared of going out at night in case they meet me."
"I have no regrets. Sometimes I enjoy it," he said of his spooky profession.
His wife Malati, adding resignedly, "But he is addicted to smoking hemp and spends all his money on this habit." Lighting up a hemp cigarette in front of his wife, Haldar acknowledged his love of the herb.
"When I indulge myself in smoking hemp and playing chess, I wonder if I am a real ghost or a human being," he said philosophically.