Paranormal Activity

Sometimes, they appear! They come from the world of supernatural. Their apparitions confront us in dreams, in solitude and sometimes in a revulsive experience. Some believe it as spirit, while for some it’s a delusion. It comes like a sudden blizzard of the falling asteroid, all the way from galaxies and soaks into your soul to have one and the only rendezvous with you. Or it might behave like a swinging pendulum; hitting you back at unknown intervals and shocking you at each occurrence. At times, this Intermittency would delude you that the pendulum is entangled at the other end and would not haunt anymore. But they come back – why? Scientific commune have their versions of explanations or you might have developed indigenous interpretations. I’ve experienced the hits of this swinging pendulum - impactful enough to change the course of my life every time it hit. 

I was twelve when it all started

I was strolling on the balcony that day. The evening lull was giving way to the darkness. The corner of the balcony was darker than usual wanting the replacement of fused bulb. I strolled towards the corner and felt nyctophobic as I approached closer. And as I turned around, I saw a horrifying black specter in front of me – his face hardly visible. He was slowly charging at me; I took reverse steps to maintain distance. My pale face waned as my hip bumped into the corner, leaving me trapped. He continued charging at me - I leaned backward over the railing. He brought his face closer to mine and spoke in intimidating looking tone. I could hear nothing as world around me seemed to have muted. I tried catching his lip movement, but then I was shivering – fast enough. Suddenly, my eyes opened and I realized that it was Mom wiggling my shoulder and waking me up. 
Yes, It was a dream!

But even as I woke up, the dream was echoing in my mind and it forced me to go in retrospect and grope the reminiscences. All I could figure out was a scornful debate that I had with my friend who had come to my house last evening. In the heat of the moment I had told him to get lost from the house – something I should have never done. And from that point onwards, the incident was taken over by dream. I was standing on same balcony now, thinking about the dream of last night and looking at the Morning Prayer assembly at a nearby convent school. I heard few lines of prayer which came with the sudden row of incoming wind. It went like this:

“Respect is the basis on which relationships are founded; Respect is the anchor that keeps a person well grounded” - I wondered if this was the message in dreadful dream and if he was a noble spirit? 

Two years later

It had rained last night. The ground was covered with shallow water. I was sitting on the boundary wall of the ground, which used to be our coveted playground. The unseasonal rain had suspended the play for now. Having known that, I had still gone there to watch children play in anticipation as this had become my routine those days - a routine to watch as I was deprived of playing. I was recovering from a severe injury that I had sustained in a road accident in an attempt to learn driving. Along with many other dents in my body, I had suffered a deep cut on the face, which still remains my de facto license of driving. I was sitting quietly on the wall watching my reflection in the water. Cut-mark on my face was looking prominent in the reflection. I swept my fingers gently over the face passing it over the cut-mark and tried to retrieve the moment just before the accident, which observers say was an head on collision. But, nothing came to the fore of my mind – how could it have? I had suffered memory loss for that span of time. I was still looking in water at my reflection, which had started to show some activity. The reflection had turned into a strange face with stern countenance. I felt the voice of castigation coming from reflection. It was asking me about the fate of my pillion friend, who had sustained more injuries than me and was in comma for days. It was asking about my fate - I had to skip the board exam as my fractured hand was still in plasters. The reflection further resounded: “Concentrate and revaluate – Where are you heading? It’s time”.

A swaying leave came falling and dropped onto the surface of water, making the reflection fade away with the ripple of circular waves. 

Four years later – This time in clouds

It was bustling crowd that day in the city theme park. Pleasant November weather and extended weekend had added to the crowd pull. Noise, whistles, trumpets – it was lively! People had thronged at the entrance. Gates opened and we all ran for the ride. I jostled my way to ride torra-torra; leaped over the barricade and jumped into the seat – being first one to be latched. The ride started in moments.

Ride went in full swing and sounds of scream emanated. I screamed for joy, then in fear and then followed a strange feeling – of entrapment; of being stuck. The limbo resembled the state of my life, which was directionless those days. For unknown reasons, my behavior had become like a paranoid. In sudden attacks of emotional tide, I use to curse the world for present and pray for diviner to rescue.  I was under similar attack now. I had become numb on the ride; sounds of scream were fading out and the silence was fading in. And with each swing of ride, questions recurred in my mind – Who would come for my rescue? Precursor to all of it was my escaping from Engineering College back to home the day I had reported there. I was homesick, down in confidence and had negativity all around me. The journey of life, which I craved for and paved the way for, was looking thorny now. It was all thrown open to me, but I was finding it difficult to pluck up my courage to walk.  The ride took next swing. I saw a cluster of cloud taking shape of a giant visage. It was him yet again - the supernatural apparition! In the next swing, I felt the visage to be closer than it should normally be and felt as if the ride paused momentarily for a conversation between us. He indeed spoke, in domineering tone: “Take the power to control your life. Take stewardship of your actions. No one else can do it for you.”

There was a bump sound of halt; ride was over. And as I walked out, there was an apparent reclamation of confidence in my walk. 

Eight years passed – high & haughty

I flied high in confidence since then. But, it remained unchecked and soared so high that it had turned into conceitedness lately. Ignorant of my presumptuousness, I was beginning to look around the world with immodest boasting – in ‘do it my way’ attitude. Delusions of grandeur reflected in my speeches that were getting didactic. Heedless of these, One day, I was sitting at the stairway near clock tower of Thimphu – watching the high rise of clock with array of mountains at the backdrop. The mercury was touching zero, sun was shining bright and it was a breezy day. In thoughts, I was matching my stature with the tall pillar of Clock Tower and exuding pompous expressions. Suddenly, the strong westerly breeze howled and it hit my body hard. An object came flying with the wind and got tangled around my ankle. I picked it up. It was a pamphlet meant for circulation in religious community, which read at the top: “Before destruction a man is haughty and before honor is humility”.

I flipped the pamphlet; few boldly written words caught my eyes first. It read – “Be humble”.

The message was unequivocal and I knew where it came from. 

At Present

Today is the cardio day at gym. I’m walking slow on the treadmill and mobile is in my hand. I’m actually trying to finish a game which is at an interesting stage. I’m playing – ‘Game of Life’, a remarkably cool mobile game. My attention is divided between the treadmill and the game. I know it’s dangerous but then I’m involved in playing little too much. And as anticipated - I fumbled! I quickly pressed the red stop button and grabbed the bar to prevent falling. In the process, my mobile went up for a toss – Quite literally. I stabilized; saw the mobile falling down and before it could hit floor, I caught it just in time. Somehow, the game was paused and it displayed a message: “The Game is not over – Continue?" 

I pressed Yes and the ‘Game of Life’ Continued.