Like so many people, I occasionally suffer from nightmares and I have noticed that these generally depends on the state of health I am in. I often suffer from indigestion and have noticed that when I go to bed with an upset stomach, the frequency of these is increased.

I reckon that our pit of stomach control the energy creation from the food we eat and then to carry it around the body. The body consumes the greater amount of energy for its operation of brain and hence the mind. Any malfunction in the pit of the stomach is bound to affect the mind, especially during sleep time.

The other day, I went to bed with certain amount of indigestional pain and load in my stomach and as soon as I was asleep, bad dreams began to pour in and one dream was so bad that it affected me the following morning and day after, as things of unusual nature began to occur.

I was walking in a lonely place and felt could not envisage anything except sound of some muffled footfalls behind me. It put a sort of panic into me and I quickened my pace as to run away from the danger but the thing behind me also quickened its pace. Suddenly a hand gripped me from behind and brought me down and fell flat on my face and then it climbed on my back and tried to suffocate me with its bodily strength and starting twisting my body around. The pain was so extreme that I screamed and I woke up.

My heart was throbbing and my throat was dry and I jumped out of bed, to get away from the pain and the imagined ghoul. I could not go to sleep afterwards though it was still dark outside. I opened the window and breathed in gulps of fresh air as to calm me down and bring me back to my normal senses .The after effect of that dream sapped my energy and it felt out of sorts for number of days. The following nights I slept intermittently with a fear in my heart, that my dream might be repeated and I could go gain in the clutches of the ghoul.

After certain time, one night I had a foreboding of something dreadful was going to happen and that kept me uncomfortable and tense and when I eventually went to sleep, I had sense of visitation from that entity again, though it was too hazy for recollection. One night the dreaded thing again visited me and held me in its grip and whispered me in my ear:

‘ I want you to help me. I am soon going to Dharmraj (lord of judgment) to have my judgment read out and want you as my witness as to support me in front of him, about all my good deeds and karmas of my past.’

‘How can I accompany you? You are dead and I am alive.’

‘Don’t you make me angry by making such stupid remarks.’

He hit me hard and then vanished. I awoke with a shudder.

I was cursing my fate for having such a fiend at my trail. I knew he would be back one of those days. Should I seek help? From where? If I tell someone they would just laugh in my face and even a psychiatrist would not believe me and diagnose me just as a mental case. I tried to spend my days trying to forget that episode and kept it out of my mind as much as I could.

I could not sleep till the small hours of morning and when I woke, I sensed that someone was sitting on the edge of my bed but I did not want to turn and look and tried to hide my face under the sheets but it pulled the sheets away and whispered.

‘I am here! Look at me.’ He whispered close to my ear.

I did not want to look and shut my eyes close again but he caught hold of my chin, pulled it up and opened my eyes with his cold clammy hand. An old gaunt figure was there, more of bones than of flesh, though his eyes were small just like tiny slits in bone fissures; they had a look of intense horror and taste of death. They were inhuman, impersonal and mechanical robotic eyes without any feelings. To look at these were to gauge the depths of hell. I screamed and he seemed to have vanished.

He indicated to me mentally that he would be back later.

Winter was approaching and the days were getting shorter and being nothing else to occupy my mind, I went to bed early to escape from the dread enveloping me. Soon the room began to fill with shadows and I heard muffled footfalls outside the window and a distant whispering voice. It was either a voice or under my stressed state, I was just hearing voices due to my heightened sense of hearing.

I tried to take shelter in the dominion of sleep. I was not sure how long did I sleep when I felt a sudden weight on my heart and realized that the ghoulish figure was sitting on top of me, straddling me and its breath was awfully stinking. I tried to struggle to get out of its hold but it began to slap me harder and harder and with supreme effort, I threw it over and jumped out of my bed. It gave me a mule like kick in my back, which make me dizzy and was sprawled on the floor feeling sick in the pit of my stomach. Soon there was a discharge from my mouth and I vomited.

I wanted to get away from my location and go anywhere and soon found a place deep in the mountain on the edge of a lake. I packed my bag and just left that cursed place.

It was a beautiful location in a district abounded in by number of lakes and my villa was situated at the edge of a pretty lake surrounded by forests, walks and other tiny islands in the lake, which could be visited on a day excursion .All you needed was a small boat called shikara and for which I enquired about at the estate management office. Yes, they would provide me with that and the boatman would be coming in the morning to take me on the excursion. I hired the boat and the man for the whole day and paid the said amount.

On the following morning, I was told that the boat was waiting for me at the water’s edge and I went there to board it. The boatman was sitting at the front clad in dark clothes with his face all covered. I said hello to him but he did not respond and just started rowing the boat towards a small island in the middle of the lake. The sky, the water and all other elements were in their full glory on that sunny beautiful day. I forgot all about my past troubles and just sat their to enjoying the sound of rowing as the oars struck the water and created fresh bubbles of froth with churning sounds.

‘That is the life!’ I muttered to myself.

We visited few islands with their varieties of birds, plants and flowers and I was completely saturated with all the sensual delights the nature could offer. I was curious about the driver as he sat their immobile without speaking or showing any sign of enthusiasm. After each of my visit, I found him just waiting for me to arrive and then just went on rowing. It was afternoon and the boat had already done three quarter of the circular lake. He me to a place which I thought to be our last stop.

Some one whispered in my ear.

‘That will be your last stop.’

I looked around but there was no one but when I looked back the driver of the boat had disappeared.

The place looked pleasant enough for a start but as I walked and took to the path shaded by a canopy of tall trees, it began to get dark and cold and shivers ran through my body. A mist descended and I lost my bearings.

‘I have got you in my clutches at last. Let us go to Dharmraj.’

A spirit of defiance suddenly sprung in my chest.

‘Never. You cannot take me away. Never, never---’ I screamed as I ran as fast as I could

The clad figure chased me through the dark forest and I intensified my running speed, it was a matter of do or die. I stumbled and fell into a ditch. There was an air of stinking rotting flesh inside and putrefied dead bodies were strewn around different states of corruption. As I was crawling out, a hand grabbed me and tried to push me back into the ditch. I gave a loud howl and jumped upwards with all my strength and somehow got free.

I ran and ran without any sense of direction but somehow reached the edge of the water and jumped straight into the empty boat and found oars still lying there. I rowed hard in any way I could do and luckily reached the edge of the water around my villa. I got out of the boat and fell into knee-deep water but carried on till I reached the door, exhausted and wet and fell there unconscious on the floor.

I was lying in my bed and the kitchen boy was standing near by.

‘Sahib had a bad excursion. I will bring in some hot soup.’

Durlabh Singh© 2009.