55. MIGHT BE THE BEGINNING OF THE DISTURBING VISUAL HALLUCINATIONS

Dad had small garden at the paddock of our house where he loved to grow small vegetable plants and creepers. There was no water tap yet at the house. Servant or house cleaner used to fetch water from the public drinking water facility provided by the municipality. There was a deep well in the backyard from which we would manually pull water for all our domestic use with the help of a rope.

My dad used to water the plants both in the morning and in evening. There were two sturdy huge and all enveloping neem trees well-grown, thick and tall giving shadow and cool breeze in summer. Dad was very fond of them. In the evenings after prayers dad used to sit in the open portico bordering the paddock telling us the local and world news

We children usually would sit and have our own world of fun. Summer nights were very gorgeous with cool breeze gently slapping on every uncovered part of your body, making you want more and more of it to unwind after a day full of sultry schedule. Clear sky with swarming stars and moonlit sphere smacking of a jasmine aroma from dads backyard would be an extra fascination. I really miss the very atmosphere.

I had talked to my dad about this ‘old man frequenting our space’ occurrence several occasions, to which my dad had turned a deaf ear. I was hardly twelve then and these visions would frequently upset me. Was that a vision, or an apparition?  Was it some kind of spirit who had lived there long ago, nobody knows. Once my dad had told my mom that, going by the appearance of the vision of my account, it could be well my grand dad, who after his evening prayer would habitually walk on the foyer engrossed in his religious recitals. My dad also had told my mom that like my grand dad I was also to a certain extent imbued with the sort of vision with which one could see the dead and the apparitions.

It sounded so incongruous that I dismissed it long back. Nonetheless, could that be true? Would my dad unnecessarily coin something out of the ordinary about my faculty? If it were so, why would he? Years just rolled. Afterwards when I was doing my tenth I had a separate study room, where I had my bed too. I would study until late in the night, for the exams. I just loved and wished that none disturbed me. I felt a thrilling while I was all alone with the books in the lonely nights.

We had no electricity those days. A kerosene lantern known as ‘qandeel’ was all that gave light for my room. I had slept for some time, one night, I guess, then suddenly I got up and hurried to dad’s room nearby, asking for matchbox. My dad awoke and was amazed to see me asking for matchbox as it was still midnight, and untimely.