“The moment one dreams is the moment one lives…”
“And I have reached my city of dreams. Here it is. Delhi. Let me take a cab to Sir’s home,” Aastha thought.
It was noon, and she had to reach the institute as soon as possible.
“Everything is the same. Oh, there is a new restaurant. It must have opened recently”. She pondered as she passed through GTB Nagar towards Mukherjee Nagar in a share cab. Mukherjee Nagar housed everyone equally. The same old student crowd crying different relationships, particularly that of a student-teacher.
It was past noon when she reached the Mukherjee Nagar lane where a new banner of Aim Law Institute could be seen atop the building of the front office on the main road. It was lunchtime and the student crowd could be seen moving hither tither for food and drinks.
‘Congratulations, Mam, greeted one student on her way upstairs to the office room. As she entered the office, she saw her poster with a photo on it saying – Congratulations Aastha for clearing West Bengal Interview. We are proud of you. They pasted the poster to the left side of the entrance door that was visible easily to anyone entering the office.
“Hey, Aastha, greeted Akash Sir and Mahadev Ji. Congratulations. How are you doing?”
“Sir. I am fine. Thank You. And how are you, Mahadev Ji? How is everyone at the office? she bulleted various questions at them.
“Oh. I forgot to ask – How is Sebastian Sir doing?”
“Everyone is fine, Aastha. So, are you ready to take classes?”
“Yes Sir. When should I begin with my classes?”
“From tomorrow”.
“Thank you, Sir. Am relieved. May I come back to the office after some time? I need to go to Sir’s house in the next lane. I will stay with Sir and his family. Hence, I need to keep my luggage and freshen up”.
“Okay, but don’t be late. Some notes and question papers need to be rechecked before we distribute them among students”.
Sebastian Sir was taking a class in the other office where Aastha paid a visit before leaving for his home.
He was teaching the Transfer of Property Act and was busy with the students. After an hour, Sir dispersed his class and called Aastha to his cabin –
“Congratulations, Aastha. So, at last, you cleared a judicial services exam and became a judge. Now, what are your plans?”
“Sir, I will wait for the call letter. I wanted to ask you something?”
“Yes. Go ahead”.
“Sir, is there any news on pending litigation of Delhi Mains. They were about to re-evaluate the papers of all the students who appeared for Delhi mains”.
“Aastha, now forget about that. Concentrate on your home state and open a branch office of our institute in your home state, Kolkata.
“Are you taking some classes from tomorrow?”
“Yes, Sir”.
“Okay. Go ahead. Mahadev Ji will take you to my place”.
“Thank You, Sir”.
“Mahadev Ji. Please take Aastha to my home and bring my food”.
‘Let us go, Madam’, said Mahadev Ji.
They both take leave and Aastha happily receives the heartiest congratulations from all those who know her on her way to Sir’s home in the next lane.
The lane across Aim Law Institute’s first office houses a society of flats belonging to a cooperative housing society. One of such flats belonged to Sebastian Sir. It was in a building near a small garden. ‘I am one of those privileged to have visited his house,’ thought Aastha. And even stay with him.
“Madamji, this is Aastha Madam. She is Sir’s student”. Mahadev Ji introduced Aastha to Sir’s wife, Neela.
“Yes. Sir told me about her. Come inside.”
“Mahadevji, please take this tiffin for Sir and make sure he eats his food and takes medicines before taking another class in another branch office,” commanded Neela.
Aastha freshens up and goes back to the office.
At the office, she again hears the same old voices saying, “You are a piece of shit. You will never become a mother. You will never get married, etc.” She couldn’t ignore the voices completely, for they were recurrent. She tried concentrating and preparing for her lecture somehow.
The night was equally tormenting. She slept after having a glass of warm milk. Nothing much to do with work pressure, but the different voices coming from around the walls disturbed her sleep. The neighborhood in the society was quiet except for a lot of murmurings coming from a distance. She could hear frequent chanting of some mantras throughout the night till 4 am, after which all voices disappeared for some time.
Her lectures were well prepared and delivered properly to the students. It was a three-day schedule arranged for her. During her lectures, she again sensed some problems with her hearing. The same voices frequented into louder ones while she was addressing the queries of the students. Everything was very disturbing for her.
At the Institute, many students wanted to know how did she clear the West Bengal Interview. She shared her experiences with them and left for Sir’s home.
It was her last night in Delhi. She yearned to sleep peacefully, as she was exhausted. Luckily for her, she went into a deep sleep within an hour. However, she woke up with a nightmare. She dreamt of extreme darkness with no light around and there were some murmurings going around in the background somewhere. She felt something heavy on her body. Something heavy was overpowering her and trying to touch all the parts of her body.
Everything was bewildering to her.
The next day, she woke up unhealthy and sped up to the office to collect her payment for the lectures. She had to leave for the airport in a few hours. This time her mother received her at the Airport. She was a little uncomfortable with the surroundings and felt a sudden change around her.
It has been a month since she returned to her home in Kolkata. Marriage with Parth was the thought that preoccupied her. Days passed and one day, she confided her feelings to her mother. Aastha missed Parth. She wanted to see him and, more than that, know about his wellbeing, but with little luck.
Her love was true enough to sustain his separation and was unconditional. They could not remain good friends. They had separated their ways after a brief meeting. However, they exchanged their photos through social media.
It was during this phase that Aastha’s health deteriorated badly. She got regular fits of pain on the left side of the brain. It became unbearable. Her parents got worried and took her to a doctor.
“Let us take her to our neurologist. She needs a check-up’, said Kishan to Rita.
Aastha overheard the conversation and interrupted –
“I don’t like doctors. I don’t want to go to a neurologist”.
“Aastha, don’t be stubborn. You are not a kid anymore”.
Aastha along with her parents go to their family doctor, a known neurologist.
The doctor carefully examined her body parts wherever required. The examination lasted for a few minutes. They advised EEG of the brain and CT scan of the whole body.
They did her EEG at the clinic of the neurologist. The results were to be picked up the next day. While the doctor advised immediate CT scan for further diagnosis.
“I don’t want to go for CT scan of the whole body. I am alright, Mom” said Aastha.
“It is necessary, Aastha. Now don’t argue with me. Your dad won’t like any further arguments on this. Come. Let’s go to the hospital. It is urgent.”
The hospital didn’t give her a good feeling about everything that was happening. She changed her clothes and wore a hospital gown. She opened her earrings and gave them to her mother. The doctor asked Aastha if she had eaten anything a few hours before the procedure. During the test, she had to stay still on a table inside a large, doughnut-shaped CT machine. As the table slowly moved through the scanner, the X-rays rotated around her body. The procedure lasted for half an hour.
They scanned her whole body and gave her a lot of medicines.
At home, different placements and arrangements were done. They shifted the Temple place outside in the house and placed it in a corner of the drawing-room. They gave different food preparations to Aastha. However, she could eat nothing substantial. The food was very heavy for her. She would often vomit the food she would eat.
Her condition deteriorated further.
Once Aastha was making a list of her wishes and writing it down on the laptop when she found herself more heavily drained than before. She thought something wrong was happening or about to happen. She sensed some forthcoming upheaval in her life. That her life would be upside down in no time.
To add more miseries to her life, her paternal side relatives paid a sudden visit to her. They tried to convince her not to move ahead with the police complaint. Her family received the guests.
“Dad, I am watching the movie, “Oh My God”. I don’t want to meet them. They will talk about the same old things. You meet them,” angered Aastha.
Aastha watches her favorite movie on the new LED TV set, while Kishan goes out to the drawing-room to meet the guests. One guest, Beena, comes inside the room to meet Aastha. She is her father’s sister. Beena asks the same old questions to Aastha about her career and her plans for the future. The guests leave the house in an hour.
Frequent visits from relatives, bizarre experiences, unusual settings of the house, heaviness in the surroundings of the house, abstemious food habits, and deteriorating health marked this phase of her life.
Aastha came to know from various sources that Parth was staying in Haryana and had opened his new office there. She wanted to fill up the form for Haryana Judicial Service Exam so that she could visit the state to give the exam and meet Parth. She missed him badly. During an evening, she spoke to her mother –
“I want to go to Haryana, Mom. I am tired of taking care of the financial needs of the house. I need a break from all this.
To this, her mother responded negatively –
“I will not allow you to take any more exams. Just sit at home and work for our benefit. No need to go anywhere.” She shouted angrily.
A bitter argument ensued. Aastha was asked to maintain decorum in the family.
She cried bitterly over her mother’s demeanor. She couldn’t understand why was all this happening to her.
“Returning to Kolkata wasn’t a good idea, it seems,” she thought.
She had no alternative but to wait for the right time. Perhaps a new turn of events was waiting for her. Was it the call letter and the new job or something else was in store?
“It all began on an afternoon when Aastha couldn’t stop seeing certain visions of fire and some images of her and someone else standing completely naked.
“Mom, please come to me. I need you,” she cried.
“Mom, I need you to take me to a temple. I am seeing all things in my visions. They are very frequent. I am surrounded by some bad omens, which are not comprehensible”.
“Okay, I will take you to a temple. But tell me what do you see?”
“Mom, I…. I…”
“Yes. Kid. Everything will be fine. Just tell me what do you see in your visions”.
“At times, I see fire, then I see myself standing naked. Wait, now I am seeing you standing naked before me”.
“I cannot understand what is going on. First I hear weird murmurings around me and now I see weird things in my visions”.
“Don’t worry, Kid. We will first go to the temple. Then we will spend some time together”.
“I don’t feel like going to the temple. I think I need to sleep.
After some time, Aastha wakes up. Let us go to the temple.
“I think some jhad-phuk is required in the circumstances. It might give you some peace, said Rita
“Exorcism”, looked a surprised Aastha. “Why exorcism?
“The symptoms that you are exhibiting are all related to some evil or black magic. There is some devilish presence in your life. I know of someone who might be of some help”.
Aastha goes to the temple with her mother and gets some jhad phuk done. The problem persisted.
Her nights were replete with restlessness, no sleep, and tiredness. The voices she heard were even louder and highly disturbing.
The next day, they called a doctor for a checkup who suggested heavy medication.
She is now on heavy medication.
Aastha started working on her laptop but not with little difficulty when suddenly her mother came out running from the room and started pouring some special oil on her head.
Ugh… what smell?.. What is this?
She took some in her palm from the head and brought it close to her nose to smell. It had a mix of castor oil and mustard oil.
“What are you doing? Mom,” cried Aastha.
She didn’t give any reply and started massaging the oil over her head.
The effect of oil on Aastha was that she became unconscious for some time and was made to sleep on her bed in the room.
Aastha went into a deep slumber. When she regained some consciousness, they made her drink some medicine. After taking the medicine, she went into a semi-conscious state.
“Wake up, Aastha,” said Harlyn.
“Where… Where am I? What time is it?”
“You are in your room. You were unconscious for the last two days. Here, take this medicine. It will help you. Dad has got some new medicines for you which were prescribed by the doctor.
There is also some news for you. Sebastian Sir is coming to Kolkata to sign the contract.
“That’s great, said Aastha. I am feeling a little puckish. Can I get some mint and some juice?
Dad will get the food for you along with mint and juice. Here, have some fruit.
Where is Mom? asked Aastha
She has gone out for some work. She will be back soon. Before everything, Dad and Mom will take you to a Dargah for another round of jhad phuk. It is necessary to ward off any evil.
They took Aastha to the dirtiest and worst places of the city where nobody would go. Her parents took her to a dargah, which was dirty and subject to the foul smell of urination. Kishan went inside the dargah first before Rita. However, Aastha was forbidden entry into the dargah.
From the dargah, they got her some scented incense sticks, some eatable, and a very eerie-looking bottle comprising scented rose water, as they say. They made Aastha chew everything while she was in a semi-conscious state and not able to understand what was going on. Everything was heavy on her – the food, the surroundings, the medicines, and her life.
“Aastha, today I will take you to a very distant place. So get ready,” said Rita.
“But I am feeling very weak. I cannot go”.
“We will go in a cab. Don’t worry. Both of us will come along with you’, added Rita.
“But Mom… I don’t feel so nice about anything. I just want to take some rest and sleep.
Okay. Take some rest. We will go after an hour.
After an hour, Aastha was taken through the narrow streets of an old Muslim area of the city that is not inhabited by many people. It was a small compartmental room where the Muslim heretics were waiting for Aastha. One of the two made some unusual prayers and chanted some mantras before touching her chest and the area below her breasts. He put some watery substance on the area beneath her chest, covering her whole body. Aastha could do nothing but cry while Rita sought his blessings.
He seemed to be a Djinn. The Djinn can touch a person and cause them to relive their deepest dreams and desires. This puts the human in a coma-like state, which allows the Djinn to feed on them.
Everything was very unusual.
They took her to all those parts of the city where heaps of garbage lay with a foul smell. The buses were heavy with people while they made her see all those places. Passing through Alipore zoo, they took Aastha to some inner quarters of brothels of Muslim ladies in a lane crossing the main road. She was not in a state to understand what was happening to her.
Bewildered and bereft, she was waiting for her next.