Those Hands !!

     Everyone has a spooky story that they swear by. One that made them go white in the face, dry in the throat and a voice that went barely a squeak. The brain froze and heart sank to the bottomless stomach. Some would say that they don’t believe in ghost types and I agree. But I never mentioned a ‘ghost story’ did I? Rather a ‘spooky story’. It is not about ghosts. It is more about an eerie, a sinister, a paranormal…or an unknown. It is about the unexplained that has etched itself in your memory. An event, that despite the time gone by, still makes you feel hollow if your neurons connected old dots. It could be a simple shoulder tap or the smell of damp wood or a visual of a withered plant. It could be millions of things that are around you that would otherwise be the usual.

     For me, sometimes the winters trigger it. As far as I remember, it probably started to occur during the December of 2005. Or was it November I am not sure. But I definitely remember that I woke up one of those nights. It was pitch dark and well past the midnight. It was the time when neither the bats fly nor do the birds chirp. The wind had dropped and there was no sound on the outside. I was uneasy for some reason and could not pinpoint it. I looked around and did not find anything unusual. What definitely was unusual though that the left half of my body was sweating. My right half was perfectly dry! I got up the next morning and everything was just fine. And for the next 20 days there was nothing… until one night it happened again!

     I found myself sitting on the bed, having woken up way past midnight around the same time again as earlier. My heart was thumping in my ears. There was nothing around that alarmed me. Nor any visions. But I was very much uneasy. I am unsure what got me sitting on the bed. My conscious mind did not even remember anything before that. I forced myself to calm down for a good 10 minutes. As I slid of the bed to go for a drink of water, I noticed that the left half of my body was sweating. And yet again my right half was dry. Not understanding what all of it meant, I went back to bed. But could not grab any sleep until it was dawn. Post that, it was all fine again. And I was relieved that things were in the past. Until the past come up again, doesn’t it !

     This time it was different. I remembered what triggered my anxiety. The sweat was on the right side of my body though. I was fearful. Only this time, I knew the reason. I was looking hard into the dark room… for the pair of hands which were just a moment back trying to reach my neck. The intentions were as clear as the night itself! I was scared and my heart was wrenching itself. I wanted to drink some water. But was fearful of the unknown. And this in my own house. I decided to pass the rest of the night with lights on.

     The next day I decided to share my experience with Yash. He was very sceptical in the beginning but gradually understood me when I did not budge from my position of gravity. He came for an overnight stay with me for the next few days. But nothing happened. Then without warning, this night the visions were back. It was more vivid, clearer. The hands again. They were slender and the fingers were long. I noticed some kind of design / stains on them. And they were inching towards my neck yet again. These visions continued with an ever increasing frequency. And with an increasing breadth of clarity. I saw bright lights and the choke that applied around my neck. It was suffocating. Until one day I saw the location and thought that I had been to this place. 

     I confided in Yash about the location and me being in the know of it. I had to go to this place to end all of what was happening. Needed to get to the bottom of all of it! And so I very vividly remember that it was 7 May 2006. I gathered the directions to the place and we set off in the morning. It was a long drive and we went past the village boundaries. There was a temple on the edge of the village and I decided that I really needed a higher consciousness to guide me. I was unsure what I was getting into. But I was pretty sure that what was to follow would change my entire life altogether. And so I prayed with a sense of fore brooding. Off we were post that. 

     With only a few turns left to the destination the mood in the vehicle turned from sombre to grave. We went silent. I did not know what to expect. And just on cue, as the building came into my view, my heart went pounding again. It was the same one that I had seen earlier. It grew larger through the windscreen as we came closer. We arrived at the back of it. For a surprisingly large structure, it had only 2 small doors with one of them marked as ‘Entry’. There was a lawn surrounding it, freshly manicured as if inviting to step on it. But then I was more focussed on the stage that was set somewhere else.

     As I turned the knob and entered the door, it creaked slightly as if it intended to announce my arrival. The door opened to a large space in front of me. As I moved forward, with Yash behind me, there was silence. I could hear small murmurs and voices - were they in my head? I had no idea. I was fixated on the steps that lay ahead of me now. As I looked behind for some reassurance from Yash, he calmly said that hereon I was on my own. And that I will have to face the next all by myself. I was in panic but did not show it. It manifested though through sweat which I felt on my palms and my slippery footwear. I removed the footwear and took the steps up and reached the platform. And all of a sudden the same blinding lights that I had seen were on me. Only that I could feel the heat from them. I had the urge to escape and run away as I saw those hands again. Those slender hands with some design on them, or was it mehndi? They were making their way towards my neck. It was happening and I was trapped; no way out. The next 2 minutes decided the fate on my entire life.  As I saw the hands reach out for my neck I saw that they had a garland in it. All of a sudden the bright light made things clearer and my brain less foggier. The hands that I now saw belonged to Surabhi reached above my head and placed the garland around my neck. I reciprocated.

     And so on 7 May, I got married. Indeed it changed my life forever !!