We came out of the factory about 2:30 PM after a whole day’s effort, putting all our knowledge and experience to rectify a fault in a machine, but all our efforts were in vain. The machine responded for some time and again the problem started. Me being the official expert engineer  from the manufacturers service […]

The Fateful Night

There are festivities everywhere as the Durga Puja was only a few weeks away. My colleagues were preparing to go on leave and some others were thinking about going to visit various tourist destinations. But I was stuck up in one of my serious problems with my department. I was selected for overseas training by a very reputed institute. However I need a No objection certificate from the department stating that my organization has no objection and my absence during the training will be treated as on duty without any traveling/daily allowance being paid. All traveling, accommodation, pocket expenses and food will be arranged by the organizer. My file was moving from one table to another table without any decision being taken. I was so frustrated and personally met those decision makers, all of them had promised prompt action but final approval was not coming. In the meantime, I received the air tickets and an invitation letter from his excellency, the President of the host country and I have practically very little time to apply for a visa. Without seeing any hope with holidays coming after 10 days or so, I went to my home to be with my family and forgot this whole affair as I lost all my hope to get the certificate.

I had a very close friend who had a reputable bookstore and I used to be in his shop whenever I was at home. He was one of my closest friends whom I lost a few years back. I was in his shop but he understood that I have some problem going on and I was looking very depressed. He arranged tea for the two and he asked me what the problem was. I told him the whole story and he was thinking something without saying a word. When I was done, he told me whether my bicycle is with me or not. I was surprised, instead of saying anything to console me he asked me for my bicycle. I told him Yes I have the same in good condition. He then told me to be ready with my bicycle in my house at 5-30 the next morning and he will meet me in my house by that time. He also told me to take a few leaves of Tulsi and some grains of rice with me. I asked him what was happening and what was in his mind. He did not tell me anything but I know he was a very serious person, a book worm who rarely opens up and only with close friends. I did not pursue him further and the next day, I was ready as advised by him. I have taken the Tulsi leaves and the some rice grains in a small paper. He told me that we are going to meet a very special person around 8-9 km from my house. We started immediately.

I asked him who the man was and why we were going there, he did not tell me anything except that the person is very special and I will make my own assessment after coming back from him. It was the month of October and winter has just started. I was not using my cycle for quite some time and after cycling for around 5  km, the rest of the journey was a narrow lane  through a paddy field for nearly 4 km. After that we reached a better road and nearly after 200 m there was a SHIV TEMPLE. My friend Gyan told me to wait outside. He went inside and found it was locked. We kept our bicycle there and as led by Gyan, we entered a house just nearby after crossing a big water tank (Pond). I saw a man coming crawling towards us in a special cycle with hand paddles. Both of his feets were amputated and his hands were also very thin and bent. It was a very difficult scene for me. Gyan must have been coming here several times and the man recognised him and smiled. He with our help, sat in the hand paddled cycle and reached the Temple and was given the key to open the Temple door. The temple was made of bamboo walls pasted with mud, with a thatched roof. The floor was earthen and at the center of the room there was a Shiv linga and this area is concreted. a earthen pot was hanging from the top with rope and was over the shivling and water felt drop by drop over the linga.  A lady came and broomed the floor and then cleaned with water. We were waiting outside and looking at what was happening. I was totally in deep thoughts about what was happening. Soon after I came to know she is a neighbor of the special person whose title was Gogoi.

Gogoi then went inside the temple and told us to wait. He was inside for more than half an hour and during this time I was totally engrossed in my thoughts and not even talked a single word with Gyan. After half an hour or so, the door opened and he called us inside. He was sitting in one corner over a mat on the earthen floor and some more mats were lying nearby. He told us to use those mats and sit in front of him. A sarai was in between us .

Gyan only introduced me as his friend and he smiled.

He also told him that I wanted to know about my future. 

I have no idea about astrology, palmistry sort of subjects as I never read about these and therefore was not interested about such things. It is not that I believed or not on these subjects but were not interested as I had no knowledge about these matters. Therefore, I never visited any astrologer or palmist. As I do not know the subject, I never felt it was a superstition and may have some scientific background. 

The belief that particular events happen in a way that can not be explained by reason or science at my level of knowledge. May be there is some scientific basis which I don’t know .

I was sitting in front of him and there was a sarai in the middle. He asked me if I brought some rice and Tulsi leaf with me from my home .

I told him yes.

He put one Tulsi leaf in my left hand and put some rice that I had carried from my house.

Then he took out the Tulsi leaf from my palm and told me to count the number of rice that was in my hand. 

He was wearing a rudraksha mala and started praying, taking the mala in his hand for a few minutes and I started counting the rice. Before I finished counting he wrote something in a piece of paper and kept the sarai in reverse position, so that I could not see. I finished counting and told him the number. I still remember it was 324. Then he gave me the sheet of paper where it was clearly written as 324. 

I was shocked and he was smiling.

Then he gave me a second sheet of paper, where some alphabets were written.

I asked him what it was. He asked me to go from left to right and whether the alphabet represents the first letter of the name of my family from oldest to the youngest. It was perfectly correct. 

Gyan told me later that, if the number and alphabetic of names are not correctly told by him, he will not tell anything further to the person and call him for some other day.

After that he goes on praying for sometime with the rudraksha mala on his forehead with his hand. 

After sometime he started talking without waiting for my reaction about my family, my job etc. Then suddenly he told me that on a particular date I am going out of the country to a quite far off place crossing the sea and will return on another date.

I was damn shocked as he had told me the exact date of my departure (I already got my tickets) but return date he told me was one day late. I was just looking at him in astonishment as he neither knew me nor my family and Gyan also simply introduced me as his friend. He also did not ask me anything about my family, job location, education etc.

After some more time with him, we came out. But on the way back, I was thinking about this man. It is neither astrology or any other science, I know about. But he was dot accurate except telling me that my return journey will be late by a day from the tickets I have.

Next day I went back to join in my duty and my friend, who was from the HR department, was frantically looking for me. I went to his room and to my utter surprise, he handed me the No objection certificate 5 days before my scheduled departure. The same day I came back to Guwahati and the next day went to Delhi for the Visa. With the presidential invite in hand, it was easy for me to get the Visa the same day but as the number of people applying for Visa in the Embassy was quite large, it was almost 5-30pm that I could get my visa.

Even after getting the Visa, I have faced a lot of problems from my organization till the last moment but finally, I was able to go on the same day Mr. Gogoi (The Surprised Man) predicted.

We completed our course successfully and nine persons from India participated along with similar teams from quite a large number of countries. This was a great learning experience and luckily, I did not miss it by grace of God. We really enjoyed every moment of it and after so many years, it is still a very fond memory to all of us participants who are still in contact with each other after internet helped us to do that .

After the completion of the program, the Indian team reached New York for our return journey to Delhi. We all boarded the flight and waited for the take off but there was a substantial delay. And at last moment, there was an announcement that due to a sudden strike by the Air India Pilots, the flight had to be canceled and we will be accommodated in different flights shortly.

During all these days, I forgot about Mr Gogoi who told me a month ago the journey dates and return date was one day later than the ticket I received then. I was not very serious about it. But the announcement took my mind to the prediction of Mr. Gogoi. I told my friends who were all from renowned organizations like IITs, Maharatna PSUs, NGOs, Film makers etc about the prediction and all were listening to me with great surprise. There was no scientific explanation about what I was conveying to my friends. I was accommodated in Lufthansa to Delhi via Frankfurt exactly as predicted by Mr. Gogoi. He was so accurate about my return being delayed by a day for and not as per my confirmed tickets I had. Till today, I do not know how he predicts the future so accurately without having any formal education or following some astrology-like system of predictions.

I came back and joined my duty. Soon I visited my native place and went to Mr. Gogoi. Like the first time, he predicted something which later proved to be 100 percent true.

As there were not many visitors to him that day, I was asking how he was able to make such accurate predictions.

He then started a long story. In short he told me that he was a well to do person and had sufficient earnings from agriculture though he had problems due to polio. But due to some accident he lost both his feet which were ampulated below the knee and it became impossible for him to carry on his agricultural activities. Survival was a problem for him and his wife and a boy child they have adopted. During this period a sadhu (saint) visited his place who stated to be  roaming around the country for six months and living on the food and shelter given by the villagers and balance six months in a cave in himalayas doing tapashya. When he saw the condition of Gogoi and his family, he stayed in his house doing tapashya  for 6-7 days and at night he took Gogoi near to a big banyan tree where later Gogoi built his temple and whole night. He prayed for 4 nights continuously. Before he left, one midnight he called Gogoi and put his hand on Gogoi’s head and told him that he had given some power to Gogoi. Gogoi realized immediately and as advised by the sadhu, he built a small temporary temple below the big banyan tree . For the last ten years or so, he has been practicing the same and he does not take any money from anybody. whoever wants to donate anything they can keep the same in a box placed near the shivling. The villagers have helped him to make the temple and and the visitors give him rice, fruits, money etc of their own and those who can not give anything, offered a betel nut with betel leaf which is a symbol of honor in the society. I asked him whether he is teaching these knowledge to someone, he told that he was told by the sadhu that he will be able to know when he is going to die and than only to pass on his power to someone who is needy to avoid misuse of power.

I told these to my friends and colleagues who also visited him and found him to be accurate.

I used to visit him several times and he told me so many things which came out to be true.

Once my elder sister, who lives in another city visited us. I told her the story of Gogoi and she wanted to meet him . I took her to his place. He told her a date and told her to be careful on that date which may be the last date of her mother in law who was otherwise healthy. My sister did not take it seriously. But I believed him. So on that particular date, I started to my sisters house which was about 6 hours journey only to find her mother in law expired early in the morning of that day because of a heart attack.

Mr Gogoi died a few years back. Till today, I do not know what is this super power Gogoi was having. Whether any scientific explanation is possible or not. But, I personally observed this power of prediction firsthand and hence have no other alternative but to believe this as some super natural power.

The definition of superstition as per dictionary is, the belief that particular events happen in a way that can not be explained by reason or science. So whether it is a supersition or our ignorance about so many phenomena is to be left to the readers.

Rajat     04/5/23

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We were around ten eleven people growing up together almost of the same age in our locality and always together. Getting ready for school quite early and shouting at each other from the front of their houses in full blast and another one came running from their house even though the uniform buttons were tied in the road . Reached school just before time as a lot of activities on the road were carried out and some days were punished with kneeling down in front of the class for reaching school late before the prayer . During going to school we discussed our evening plan we the friends  boys and  girls and our fertile brain comes out  with all kind of ideas to celebrate our evenings .Someone will come out with some information, like in which house in the neighborhood, what fruits etc. are available and we take quite long time in reaching home after school is closed and get busy in all our adventure on the road.  Grape Fruit (‘Robab Tenga’) was used by us including the girls in our group for playing football .Girls were generally goalkeepers. If not available , we are very busy with some kind of other games. After reaching home from school , immediately have our food as fast as possible and run to meet our friends . By the time we reached back home, it became nearly dark and our dress became full of dirt . Getting scolding was routine . After all these , when we reached our study table , we felt too tired and sleepy and were waiting for our dinner  and gulping  whatever was on the  table . Naughtiness is a part of those  days which when we recollect now , gives us enough enjoyment and those scenes are coming vividly in our front . We play in the open  when we enjoy ourselves with new inventions in our games ,there is no shortage of ideas. Discuss and carry out   all mischievous activities  and come to our house sometime late, frightened  to get the scolding of our parents .I still remember such happy days and those childhood friends are still getting crazy to meet each other when they get an opportunity   .

 As we grow , friends are gradually changing and our ideas of our spending times change with new brilliant ideas . The participation of the girls were coming down , and as our studies keeping us busy , we get less time to spent with our friends .But when we get time one is running to others house , to spent some beautiful time and our parents also consider all of us as their child and whatever best was prepared in the family was shared with all our friends .The seniors of the locality , considered us as part of their family too and take care of us by a beautiful smile and a hug or scolding when necessary . That time though we feel bad , but as we grow up we understand their love for us and regard them . With the Changing of society ,the people are getting busier and busier and the competition to get a seat in all educational institute , taking away the childhood friends gradually away from each other , no one has time . Competitions everywhere make all of us mechanical and if a child has some spare time,  get busy with computer games or glued to the Tv thereby physical activities are coming down except for very few . Childhood friends are now gradually becoming a thing of the past to a certain extent specially in the urban areas .World is changing too fast and competitions are so hard that the younger generation of people hardly manage time like us in the earlier days. However, people can not survive without friends , because all need to discuss their ideas, personal matters with their friends and gossip which is a gift to the mental health of any person.There is always a need of a support system in place beyond the family with whom one can share their personal matters and have confidence with . So, new ideas of forming friendships are gradually coming into existence and people are happy using such technological facilities making new friends to share some quality time with them even if only a few of them met each other physically.

Good morning

Thank you for accepting my request

From the other side a thumbs up.

Gradually the conversation started , from hello , hi to longer sentences .With the increase in frequency of messaging . Without knowing each other, people are getting closer and closer spending hours with new found friends through the internet .  Everything in this world has some plus and some minuses, luckily, the numbers of pluses outweigh the minuses and social media like facebook and messenger are growing everyday . Everyday some friend requests were received or sent  and on acceptances , messengers started working with the newly found friend .However , some miscreants also sometime become friends who have to be deleted sooner or later. It is a totally different world and several groups of people got busy in this new world for different reasons . Lot of people are also using these social media for other than friendship purposes and a lot of people have become victims of trusting their new found friend.

The younger generation of people normally get engaged with their video games and also make friends for sharing their ideas and also getting advice from people of their interest as a friend . The introverts are more engaged for new realisation of the ease of communicating with the opposite sex without being met them face to face . Sometimes those lead to happy friendships later and sometimes have some very opposite kinds of realisations

Sometimes the conversations are very constructive and helpful to know the world and get a lot of information, if correct contacts are made .

The older generation , also getting very much involved and these activities are a very good way to spend their time as nowadays most of the nuclear families have their children out for studies or job and the old couple are left alone . In FB they found a very useful tool to spend time with all generations of the people and sometimes they can guide the youth with their long experiences of life and have gather ideas about the change in thinking of the new generations , but they are also become sometime victim of some scrupulous elements because they are new to this world of Information technologies  and new  tools and apps  are being used to lure them.

Another group of people who found this a very good platform and getting involved in this media are housewives who are not in any job and after sending her kids to school and husband leave for work , remain idle and passing time is becoming very boring . These media give them some company and friends and lot of new talents are coming out who never wrote a line earlier are publishing their poem and other writing skills .They also like people appreciate their work or photograph in different occasions  and therefore uploading them and communicate with their friends all about themselves whether going for some tour or some performances of them or their family . In seconds like or response started coming and it is a pleasure to read the beautiful comments of their new friends as no one normally writes the actual comments . Both will be happy . Then starts the process of sending reply likes and time passes very nicely .

This really a very different world being created and a gift to the human kind .However some people, even after becoming friends , never communicate and only enjoy the messages without any reactions . That may also be fun for them.

I also started spending some time in these media to refresh myself without being seriously involved but gradually  became addicted to these social media and tried to make friends with all age/gender groups after getting retired from services. I started making friends with all age groups and professions knowing fully well that hardly , I have any real friendship growing with most of them and only very few are becoming friends and we enjoy passionate time with those very few . For others , it is a routine hello/ hi and some like and beautiful comments on either’s writing sometimes even without understanding what actually he/ she wants to convey . But as a friend immediately liked that with a beautiful comment .So both feel good . If I take a photograph which is  uploaded and some friends write very nicely , Definitely it brings a smile to our face.So I started to study how the people react in these media and it gives me enough pleasure . One  more important media like whatsapp , new social groups were now created and people who were not in contact with their once close friends for long are now again getting connected through these social groups and getting together is becoming amongst them very frequent . Professionally also it helps in knowledge sharing and sometimes quick communication for management decision making with online discussions .A great thing our generation people have hardly thought about . Days of physically meeting and playing with friends are almost over , as no one has time . Both parents are working , school started early and kids are travelling long distances to and from school by bus or private transport and tuition starts after they come back home which most of the parents feel is necessary (unlike during our days) and till their  parents come back either they are alone or busy with video game or TV or may be with some caretakers. Days of Physical friendship are now limited to the school time only. 

TO BE CONTINUED

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We came out of the factory about 2:30 PM after a whole day’s effort, putting all our knowledge and experience to rectify a fault in a machine, but all our efforts were in vain. The machine responded for some time and again the problem started. Me being the official expert engineer  from the manufacturers service department and Sourav from the Design wing with two of the factory engineers and their supporting staff, were just draining all our energy without any positive result from the morning. There was a lot of pressure from the company management to get the machine rectified early as they were losing their revenue for every hour the machine was out. Sourav and I went out of the factory for a walk after 6 pm to get some fresh air but no one was talking about anything. Deep thoughts were going on in our head about what to do and suddenly almost at the same time, both shouted to each other, finding the same solution in both our heads. We ran to the machine and instructed the tired workforces the idea we had just  discovered. It was completed around 10:30 PM and the machine was restarted. It started smoothly with a normal sound (sound is a very important indicator of the health of the machine) and we felt this time it should be ok, however there was fear in our mind. But luckily everything was fine and at around 2:30 AM we started for the guest house which was quite far off. 

The single lane road from the factory to the Guest house was bad with a lot of potholes and I started the gypsy provided to us with a tired but relaxed mind that we will be able to go back if nothing more happens till morning. The road is passing through a deep jungle on both sides of the road, without any street lights or any traffic. Our vehicle may be the only vehicle plying on this road at that time and we are to cover a distance of nearly 30 km. There was total silence except the chirpings of the insects and the lightning bugs with their conspicuous production of light made our journey very frightening. It was a cloudy night and there was total darkness, no stars or the sky was visible and drops of rain were falling.  Sourav was very terrified and his face was worth looking at. He put the music system on and I drove very slowly, to avoid the potholes and in a very relaxed way listening to the ghazal being played.

Suddenly Sourav shouted at me to stop, I was surprised, what had happened. He angrily told me why I did not stop as a man had just crossed the road luckily without any injury. I was looking in shock at the face of Sourav, where he had seen the man crossing the road as I had not seen anything with the vehicle lights on and I had not seen anything. But Sourav was very sure, a man had crossed the road. We waited for sometime there and after a lot of persuasion, I was able to convince Sourav to proceed to our destinations. After a kilometer or so Sourav again shouted to stop as the man this time crossed from his side to my side and vanished. This time, I was also worried though I had not seen anything. At that time an owl moved over our head hooting “knew knew” and making the situation extremely terrifying for us. We were not talking and looking at each other’s faces. But now we are in the middle between the factory and the guest house, either way we had to travel almost the same distance and may face the same situation. I came off the Gypsy keeping headlights on and found a bottle of whiskey kept in the vehicle . Both of us took some and felt somewhat better and started again. We moved only a few kilometers when the headlight stopped working. This was a  brand new vehicle and all my disbelief about supernatural things vanished. Frightening situations started to come to my mind. Sourav was already so scared and did not utter a single word. My condition was similar to his now but externally, I tried to show Sourav that nothing had happened. I was too scared. The owl hooted again to terrify us further. With the help of my torch, we checked the vehicle and the headlights were on again to our relief. We moved on.

The single lane road meets the two lane state road around 10 km from the Guest house and we were about to reach that point, when our engine stopped automatically. Fuel tank was filled before we started from the factory, but the engine stopped. I was now really speechless and startled. I have seen two people of medium size in front of the vehicle in white attire, and one approached me and told me that they will push the vehicle from the back and should try to start with the jerk. Accordingly they pushed the vehicle from the back and after a few meters the engine started. Smiles came to our face. The man came again to me, and put his hand forward. I also place my hand on him to shake as a courtesy. But, what is that – his hand was cold like ice and as I was about to say thank you, both the people vanished. The sound “knew knew” was again coming from nearby.

We are sitting there in the vehicle with the ignition on, my hand in the steering. Sourav started crying, he was married just last year. My condition was also very bad and I still fet the coldness of the person’s hand.

We finished all that was remaining in the bottle and started again to the guest house. Luckily nothing more had happened but the day’s exhaustion.

Next day we find ourselves lying in bed with high fever . The incident on the road last midnight made us sick and both were running with high fever, the next morning. The company doctor was very helpful and later he told us that such incidents happened earlier also. Some other officials told us so many terrifying stories about those places

We had to postpone our return by a day to recover from the shock and decided not to come to this place any more, whatever may be the circumstance.

 This, supernatural (?)happenings made me start believing in such a thing which I earlier read for entertainment only but now I understand something must be there. A man crossed the road twice which only Sourav had seen, no headlights suddenly and finally the engine stopped. Two people reached to help us in the middle of night and the freezing  coldness of his hand. During all the incident on that fateful night, the owl was shouting “knew knew” from nearby, making us more terrified. I do not know how I drove that last 10 km of the road and reached the guest house. Even now if I remember the situation, I start shivering.