Despite repeatedly pressing the doorbell there was no response. I was about to go back when I noticed my friend’s son Ravi cautiously peeping through the grille of a window to identify the visitor.
It was about 11pm when normally no visitor knocks at somebody’s door. But I was there because he had called me for some special reason.
As I was ushered into the living room, Ravi, who appeared quite shaken, was relieved to see me. Something was bothering him and his wife. Ravi seemed too eager to pour out his woes quickly. But I comforted him and urged him to tell his story over tea.
I had known the young man, now a father of two children, from his childhood days when his father worked with me. A copycat of his timid father, Ravi too had a knack for landing in situations that easily scared him. The state of nervousness was in their DNA. Reasoning was alien to them.
Sipping tea, Ravi, his eyes wide open, said there had been threats to his life and his family from unknown persons who were using black magic.
“For quite some time, we have been feeling uncomfortable the whole day. I get an eerie feeling at night. We have been advised not to move out of the house after 10pm and keep even the windows closed,” Ravi said.
He paused to gauge my reaction but I told him to go on. Ravi continued: “It seems a beginning has already been made. While chasing away a street cat, my son fell and fractured his left arm ... I don’t know what more is in store for us.”
Why was he chasing away the cat? I asked him.
“Because it was about to cross his path which, you know is a bad omen. And mind it. That was a black cat,” he said.
I did not know how to react. I have been coming across such stories and claims, so I kept quiet and listened patiently, with a pensive look on my face. I did not know whether to dismiss Ravi’s assertions as sheer nonsense or to establish if there was any grain of truth to black magic practices and their supposed effects.
It is well known that black magic and witchcraft in their varied forms are being practised the world over, including in developed countries. Most people believe that occult practices achieve the intended result — of causing harm to the targeted subject or benefiting others. In many places, it has taken the form of an organised industry. In such a scenario, sceptics would be a minority. The hard fact is that while many people profess their disbelief in witchcraft, tantric practices or black magic, they will not always say so due to the inherent fear. Their refrain is based on the fact that should these be really effective, why invite trouble upon themselves? Not many would muster the courage to oppose any such occult practices if told that they might bring wrath upon one’s family.
Like any other boy, Ravi’s son could have fractured his arm for any other reason. But here was a firm believer in what is described as superstition, ready to attribute any mishap to it. Reasoning is alien to such people.
Asked how his unknown enemies were trying to harm his family, Ravi said that someone was surreptitiously placing a plate made of dry leaves containing cooked rice, cloves, jaggery, all sprinkled with turmeric powder, outside his main door after dusk. He suspected it was someone staying on the floors above his.
This reminds me of a renowned chartered accountant friend’s wife saying that her husband contracted so many health problems after he inadvertently stomped such stuff placed at a road crossing. He managed to get “cured” with the help of antidotes.
So, we have several people claiming to have benefited from such so-called superstitious practices — and others ridiculing these as a hoax. Frankly, I am swinging between two extremes not knowing which is true.
However, I solved Ravi’s problem in my own way. I took the same items from the kitchen shelf, plus a few pieces of charcoal, milk pudding and some bread, mixed them together before sprinkling blood-red vermilion on top. As Ravi and his wife watched, I closed my eyes, pretended to recite some spells and then proceeded quietly to the staircase leading to the flats above, where I placed the items.
Two days later, Ravi reported that the nuisance had stopped and, amazingly, he was “now feeling better”!
Now, what would you call it?
Lalit Raizada is a journalist based in India.
