VINTAGE AASHIQ..........

A dark acquaintance...

I actually pride myself on making that title sound like a STEPHEN KING novel. For those of you who don't know who he is, let me just mention that the man is a prominent fiction author who deals in the horror genre. Most of the people who have the misfortune of being close to me are quite amused at the thought that i don't believe in God, even though i do believe in ghosts.

I generally tend to stick to my guns by stating that God's existence has no evidence, while 'souls' at least have a believable source of origin so to speak. Most of the people i've known don't seem to buy the idea of some transparent white entity hanging around us after the sun goes down for the day. Common sense says that belief is the child of experience. Hoping that a person above the IQ of 70 is reading my post, i'd assume that i have successfully lead you to believe that i have had one such nocturnal experience.

The incident in concern is about a year and a half old, and quite surreal indeed. I vividly remember lying sound asleep on my bed, over my stomach, as i always have since i was a child. I'm not sure if it was the touch on my back or that cold wave of air enveloping the area around my bed that woke me up. I was suddenly wide awake with my eyes peering into the pillow next to me. While i was wondering what had waken me up, as if reading my mind, something made its presence felt on my back quite authoritatively. It goes without saying that i was petrified to say the least, unable to move not because of the fear that had gripped me but because of the weight on my back that almost held me down with an inexplicable tenacity for several minutes. The worst part was that i wasn't even sure how long it was going to last. It must have been only around 15 minutes, though it seemed like an eternity to me. Throughout the time i could not move any part of my body, laying on my bed, almost paralysed. The part of the incident that i'd never forget was perhaps the stillness of the air, and the sudden fall in the temperature that had no logical explanation. As i mentioned earlier, after those dreadful 15 minutes passed by, i felt the weight on my back starting to lighten almost as if the entity resting on my back had begun evaporating. It took around 2-3 minutes more until i felt the temperature returning to normal and the blood starting to flow back into my body with such a palpable force that it made me realise that i may have missed at least a dozen heartbeats. The moment i felt completely free from the effects of the experience, i spun around to face my new acquaintance, only to find myself staring at the wall in front of my bed.

Actually, when i spun around, i secretly knew that i wouldn't see it. Because i knew it had left. I had felt it leave. Just as i had felt it arrive. That incident never repeated itself, which is something i'm not complaining about. My family thought that it was just a nightmare, which of course it was. The only problem was that i had had it while being awake.

But whatever it was, it surely made me wonder, was it just the horror movies or novels that could make the hair on the back of our head stand as straight as needles? I think not. Sometimes... somethings.... can do it on their own.