This was a part of another creative writing exercise wherein we were supposed to write a 1000-word or less memoir with a 6-word memoir summarizing title. This is what I came up with.
Title: Rather be deemed crazy than possessed.
“MOM! I need you to answer this questionnaire for my Class Project!” My 10-year old sped away after thrusting a writing pad in my hand, not even allowing me the chance to open my mouth.
I walked into my room going over the list of questions, thinking it would not take me more than a couple of minutes to finish. Boy, was I wrong! The topic was 'Super-Natural Experiences'. It was like opening the door to a long subdued flood of childhood memories.
1.Have you ever been in a haunted house?
I don't remember how old I was...not more than 3 I guess, but I remember the house we lived in vividly. It stood atop a hill with a huge set of wide steps leading to it, propping it up even further. A huge rose bush grew next to the steps, perfectly matching the house in its grotesqueness. The path that led to it was made of a mixture of the fertile blood red soil and gravel, flanked by huge Chinar trees on either side. From outside, the scene looked as picture perfect as one on a postcard . It was only when you entered the inside of the house, that you would feel the cold chill run down your spine - something not quite right, something you could not quite place but which permeated everything inside the house - something dark and unhappy. I don't remember laughter there, I don't remember conversations – all I remember is the darkness and the brooding sadness of a presence that seemed to have sucked us all in. No, I was not going to share that, no way.
2.Do you believe in Omen's?
I was told an Omen preceded my birth - an Omen so strong that it was the talk of the whole small village we lived in. Apparently one night as my mother who was pregnant full-term with me was sleeping, she felt compelled to wake up in the middle of the night, extremely uneasy. She looked up to see the open hood of a big Cobra sitting right atop her head, resting on the sewing machine that stood at the head of the bed. She leaped out of the bed startled and the Cobra just slithered away. Everyone who came to know suggested that it was an Omen from the Gods to name the child after a Cobra, which is considered sacred in our culture. They suggested “Naag-Mani' (Naag meaning Cobra and Mani meaning Gem in the local dialect). When my parents refused they were warned that the good omen would turn bad and anything could happen. A lot did, but I am still very glad that I was not named “Naag-Mani”!
3.Do you have any unnatural phobias?
One of the things about that period is that I can recollect things from when I was not more than a couple of years old in such detail that it's absolutely spooky. I remember being in my mom's arms as she pushed my baby brother's cradle. I would look up towards the wall to see two huge lizards staring at me. I could even make out their bulging eyes looking directly at me. I would turn away and look at another wall and there they would be staring at me from every corner of the house. I would get up screaming in the night, pointing to the walls, mumbling incoherently as my poor mom would try to make sense of what was going on. I would be scared to go to bed, I would be scared to look up the walls. To this day, I cannot stand the sight of a lizard. I'd rather face a charging lion. Phobia? Yes. Unnatural? No. Super-natural? Most definitely.
4.Did you ever meet anyone who was possessed?
Well, well, well. Did I ever? As I was going through all this, there was a hue and cry everywhere that we were being punished for not naming me after the Cobra and that I was now possessed by a ghost. My parents could not laugh it away this time around. I don't know what to think. If I think back to that period and also long after that, the nightmares, the visions, the talking in the sleep in a strange language and many such incidents do make me give some weight to the argument that I was indeed possessed.
5.Do you believe in evil spirits?
I don't believe that the entity which possessed me had any evil intentions. Far from it, I believe it saved my life twice. I strongly feel that my mother waking up in the middle of the night without any reason whatsoever had to do with this entity. There was also another incident that happened when I was only about a few months old. My parents and I were sleeping in a small room, all doors and windows tightly shut to ward away the cold of the night. Sometime after that, the fire extinguished itself, started to smoke and filled the entire room. We would have ended up dead in a few hours had it not been for a super human effort from my father to open the window atop his head. Yes, I strongly believe that it was something other than the three of us in that small room that day. Something that helped my dad reach out to the window and push it open. The ghost of a servant maid? The spirit of a girl who used to live there? I will never know....but something most definitely, something I would never want to revisit nor would I like it to revisit me! A definite no-no.
“You are taking so long...” I heard the familiar drawl as my daughter almost snatched the pad from my hands.
“Seriously? 'No'... to all the questions. How could you have led such a boring life Ma? ”
She stomped out angrily, once again not even allowing me the chance to smirk!
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