A monster is born

This was a local phenomenon however it definitely was significant enough to be included in this series. I used to live near a maternity hospital. Similarly my school also was in vicinity of another maternity hospital. At my society complex as well as at school I used to frequently hear the same rumour again and again: A monster is born.

My first exposure to this rumour was when I was at school. A friend came to tell me about the news that she had heard earlier that day. She told me that in the nearby hospital a monster had been born to a woman. My friend went into describing the monster even further. She told me that the suppose it monster was as black as charcoal. The baby was much bigger than the newborn babies. It had thick black for on its skin. Also the baby had pointy horns. The eyes of the baby were red and glowing. The baby also had a prominent long tail like a monkey. The baby also was frightening to look at. She also told me that the mother is distressed and decided to abandon the baby. The entire hospital staff was terrified because of this incident. I asked her if she had seen the baby - the so called monster. My friend told me that she had not seen the baby but someone she knew had seen it. This is how the rumour had begun.

Soon after this rumour got spread everywhere. A lot of people were flocking to the hospital to see the monster baby. The hospital would be so crowded that it had become difficult for the real patients to get in. Finally the hospital had to take strict action against these rumours. They put up a notice board outside the hospital informing everyone that there was no birth of a monster baby in that hospital.

Unfortunately this was not an isolated incident. These rumours kept making rounds after every few months. Each time the name of the hospital would change. The description would slightly differ. In some stories the outcome would also be different. Yet the impact of rumour was intact. The rumours would still garner a lot of attention from the locals. Some unknown local newspaper would also cover this rumour as a news to mint publicity and popularity from it. The hospital would get free publicity because of the rumour (any publicity is good publicity). The rumour would go on for a few days before it would get shut down by the hospital staff.

Looking back today I still wonder how people could so easily believe such rumours. I could have understood it if the rumours originated from rural area where people did not have access to education. However these rumours arose from an urban area which had highly educated people as residents. I believe either it was something that people were really afraid of or the rumour was serving a mean for entertainment. It is still amazing and unbelievable to realize how easily rumours could spread even without internet or with limited means of communication.

In my opinion rumours do not require a lot of means to get spread. Rumours find their own way to become viral and sometimes they are significant enough to become Urban Legends.