Woman with 3 heads

Looking back I feel that most of the rumours or urban legends involved women. Another such rumour that I heard in my childhood was about a woman who had the heads.

That time I believe I was in Grade 3 or 4. Out of nowhere, a rumor started doing rounds. Someone somewhere had seen a woman who had three heads. It was not known who had seen the woman with three heads. It was also not even known that where this unique entity was spotted. Yet there had been discussions towards this new entity in town who apparently was a woman and shr had three heads. Additionally this was a biological anomaly and hence it was assumed to be a paranormal entity.

I had heard this rumour in my school and I decided to ignore it. The discussions were everywhere making it hard not to pay attention to it. Every person was talking about the woman with three heads. About this woman it was not even known if she was harmful. Still the existence of such an entity had installed fear in the hearts of people.

Just like any rumour or folklore this story continued to grow out of proportions. Someone would tell the story that they had spotted the woman with three heads in their locality. They would tell that she was roaming freely in their area. While someone else would say that the three headed woman was seen in their area and she was laughing hysterically. Some other person would say that the women with three heads was combing her hair in their locality taking turn with each head. While someone else would say that this woman was trying to abduct children from their area and hence adding a new threat to the already existing fear. With each person the story of the three headed women was differing. Yet there was no concrete sighting of such an entity. Everything was based on a hearsay.

The stories of the three headed woman were definitely scary. All children were terrified of the three headed woman. Some mothers had also used the entity for fear mongering. They would tell their children that if they do not behave then she would call the three headed women. Yet the stories of three headed women also scared the grown ups as well. For a few weeks everyone was terrified that somewhere they would see the three headed women. People would go everywhere in groups so that day felt safe. Everyone was avoiding to go out in night for the fear of seeing the three headed women.

This phenomenon was not only limited to the day to day lives of people. It was also covered by various newspapers. Each day there will be a news about unconfirned sighting of a three headed woman. That is how popular it had become at that point.

Today looking back it feels really absurd. It is unbelievable how easily people were getting scared back in the days. It is also really surprising that without internet, social media, or with limited means of communication how the rumours travelled so quickly. To me it just tells one thing: rumours are easy to spread irrespective of which era you are living in and people are easy to scare.