By Jerome K Diengdoh
In the early 1980s when I was attached with one of the departments of the government of Meghalaya, I was assigned to monitor and evaluate the farm productivity on paddy and other agricultural crops to the remote villages under West Khasi Hills District which border with Kamrup district of Assam. In those bygone days touring these villages was a mortification of sorts, teeming with deadly creatures like snakes that crossed past at lightning speed missing our tired feet by a whisker, blood-sucking mosquitoes/leeches that would make people have an unsettling sleep. Approaching roads to villages were generally unmetalled, and in the Monsoon seasons they beggar all descriptions as touring officials had to wade through knee-deep soggy-rain-soaked muddy terrains! Those flora and fauna have now vanished,I believe, thanks to wanton felling of trees and unchecked coal mining.
It was precisely in the middle of that Monsoon season I arrived at twilight in the village of Aradonga. Stranger as I was and being at my wits’ end, it was hard to find a government built rest house for an overnight halt. Fortunately, I somehow managed to contact some benevolent villagers who informed me that there was such an abode which was not too distant where I could spend the night. Thanking them profusely,I approached my purported goal at a time when it was getting pitch-dark. Owing to darkness, it was next to impossible to locate that rest house but nonetheless , I could finally find that shelter, and thereafter met the caretaker, who, uncannily happened to be one of my student colleagues. However, his reception was not too friendly as against those good old days when we were in one of the boarding institutions in Shillong. Mechanically, he handed over the keys and took to his heels. That aside, I was beside myself with joy to get at least a shelter in that god forsaken isolated place.
The rest house had spacious rooms as it was a sizable structure to live in. The cot where I was to sleep was adjoined to the dark kitchen! Before I slept, I securely bolted all the doors and windows from inside as I somehow could feel an overpowering negative vibe in its entirety! Feeling an eeriness in the enveloping ambience, I had the strong feeling that I should leave that house but at that unearthly hour I thought desperate times call for desperate measures. Come what may, before I nod off, as has been my wont, I pray to God and my guardian Angel to safely protect me from any evil spirit that may lurk around, plus other unforeseeable calamities while I am fast asleep. I felt the Rosary that I invariably wrapped around my neck. This noble attitude has been entrenched in me as taught by my ex -Rector, an Italian priest, while I was a boarder in a religious school. Owing to the arduous journey from Shillong, I was dead tired and before long I slept like a log immersed in deep slumber. Perhaps it must have been midnight,albeit fast asleep as I was,I could however, intuitively feel that some shadowy figures were fiercely staring at me and stalking stealthily round my cot; though at that poignant juncture l wanted to get up out of fright,but an inexplicable ethereal power impelled me to mystifyingly fall asleep again. I shudder to think,even now,what could have happened if I had woken up at that critical and eerie point of time? Perhaps, I would have swooned out of overpowering fright! The fright to wake up and the pressure to sleep are not susceptible to the ongoing apparitions and have not unfolded themselves even now.
Then at daybreak the next day I was somewhat unusually late that morning in getting up,probably in the wake of those ghostly hangover effects of the previous night. At length, I saw a beam of sunlight streaming through the windows into my room; but like a bolt from the blue, I noticed that all the windows of my room and doors leading towards the kitchen which I had firmly closed and made sure to double check if they had been securely bolted the night before, were wide open. To my utter bewilderment, a pair of socks that I had placed on the bed were disorderly scattered on the floor. However, the most amazing of all was the holy Rosary strung around my neck that flawlessly slipped under the pillow I had slept on at night! Hence, I prayerfully thank God for protecting me on that ominous night and for good measure to my holy Rosary! Pertinently, I felt in my intrinsic sense of self-belief that any further stay in that portentous house would not be wise.
Hence the first and foremost priority for me that morning was to get accommodation in any of the government rest houses. Fortunately I managed to get one such abode,which was teeming with residential areas around, hence an aura of positive energy was intuitively felt. To feel more at home, I was exceedingly invigorated with joy to meet some friendly officers, who, too, were on official tour in several parts of West Khasi Hills District. Nonetheless, as I was dog-tired that particular night owing to the horrific experiences of the night before I had to leave my friends while they were conversing among themselves, even as I slept like a log till next daybreak. Subsequently, after having completed my agricultural field-works, I left the village for Shillong.
When I reached home the mystifying incident at that bungalow continued to haunt me like an albatross around my neck and my mind was restive and on edge. In the first place I thought it best not to disclose this specific nightmare to anyone else, but in my heart of hearts there is an impulsion to vent these pent-up nuances to someone who was close to me, else l may go nuts. Incidentally,I met my nephew to whom I narrated the episodes, and he, in turn assured me that as he had a Muslim friend who was a proprietor of a hotel at Thana Road, Shillong where some field staff posted at Aradonga and in around other villages connected with Malaria prevention operations used to come to Shillong once a month for official purposes to report their respective performances to their Directorate. Those personnel had to invariably halt in that particular hotel for a few days until their official works were done..
Then several days later my nephew came running, gasping for breath just to inform me that those health workers had narrated to him that I was very fortunate that nothing untoward had befallen upon me while sleeping in that lodging given that the same was constructed on the abandoned cremation ground of the villagers. They affirmed that those deceased beings must have haunted the said quarters. They further reiterated that those who had passed away long back must not have been pleased with any sort of human commotion, construction or extraneous activities over their supposedly revered grounds!
On hearing that news,I was literally overwhelmed with relief and thanked God for protecting me on that ominous night. I felt like an insurmountable yoke had been removed from me indefinitely. As an afterthought, I had the temptation to revisit that dwelling although it may give me goosebumps,but better sense prevailed and told me that I should let ťhose enigmatic spirits rest in peace!