A CHILDHOOD INCIDENCE. Friends, today, I wish to share with you one of my childhood incidence, which helped me effectively at the later stage of my life. It happened when I was hardly 6-7 years old. My father had a very close friend in a village about 60 K.M .s from GUWAHATI.. Every winter, in the month of DECEMBER, MY PARENTS USED VISIT THIS FRIEND WHOSE NAME WAS Mayaram Barman.. At that time we were free also after the annual exam. and the school was closed. Mayaram Barman was a very well-to-do farmer. He was a modern cultivator having own tractor to plough his paddy fields and own water pump to irrigate the fields. .He followed all the modern methods of cultivation which paid him rich dividents. I used to call him as Maya Jetha. In every DECEMBER, after our annual exam, myself and my younger sister used to go to the village with our parents to spend a week or so for a change. We always looked forward to it.. Mya Jetha took special care for us for which we always felt comfortable.. His wife whom I called Rohini Jethi was a very good cook and she used to prepare special local dishes which we relished thoroughly. Besides ,Mya Jetha had a vey big fruit garden on the back side f his house. This FRUIT GARDEN HAD ALMOST ALL THE LOCAL FRUITS LIKE MANGO,LICHI,jack-fruit,olive,dates,berries,black-berries,guava,poniyol etc. And we thoroughly enjoyed in this garden , eating whatever fruits were available at that time.. Maya Jetha had two sons and one daughter who were of the same age like us.. During our stay in the village, Maya Jetha’s children used to stay with us whole day and we used to roam around the village like wild monkeys .Every day was a picnic day for us. There were two large ponds where Maya Jetha used to rear different types of local fishes. Sometimes we used to do fishing with fishing rods—an experience which we never got in the city. Our mom was very strict and would never allow us to go near the ponds, as we did not know how to swim. But often we used to slip away silently from the house and go for fishing with the children of Maya Jetha. Maya Jetha was a very jolly man and a man of discipline. He never took bath in his house. There was a small river named BUHRA-DIA about half a kilometer away from his house. Every day before 12 noon , he used to go to the river and have his bath in the river and then come back home for his lunch. Maya Jetha loved me very much. Whenever, he used to go to the river , I used to accompany him to the river .Maya Jetha would make me sit on the bank of the river with a strict order to not to come down to the river. Then he would swim in the river for about half an hour and then come back home with me. One thing I did not like in the village is that there was no electricity and I did not like the darkness of the night. Maya Jetha’s mother was a very old lady, whom we called Kusum aaita as her name was Kusum. Now this Kusum aaita knew lot of beautiful stories and in the evening she would make us sit near her and tell us her stories, which we enjoyed very much. She used to tell us thrilling stories of ghosts, which we liked to hear but we felt afraid. ,specially at the dark night hours .as no lights were available. It was from her we heard about the different types of ghosts like, the GHORA-BAK,- THE GHOST WHO KILLED PEOPLE NEAR WATERBODIES, THE BIRA-THE NAUGHTY GHOST WHO DISTURBS PEOPLE ALL THE TIME ,THE JOKHINI –WHO IS ALWAYS AFTER THE CHILDREN, THE OPESORI-WHO ALWAYS LOOK FOR HANDSOME YOUNG MAN etc, etc .And Kusum aaita described so nicely that we almost felt like seeing the ghosts. One day Maya Jetha and myself as usual were returning from the river after Maya Jetha’s bath. We had to cross a lonely patch of the road and on the both sides of this patch were thick bamboo groves making the area very lonely. While coming back through this area, suddenly I saw an elderly woman running towards us in fear .from the opposite side. We could clearly see the panicky in her eyes .In the village everybody respected Maya Jetha. The woman told Maya Jetha,-“ Dada, there is a BIRA ghost ahead. The ghost has laid a long bamboo on the road. I am afraid to cross the bamboo, as the BIRA might lift me with the bamboo and thrash me to death.” Maya Jetha smiled and told her to follow us. After coming a small distance, we saw a bamboo of a bamboo grove was lying on the road covering the whole breadth of the road. I got frightened. Maya Jetha smiled and went forward and lifted the bamboo and made it stand with the other bamboos of the grove .and we crossed the place, Maya Jetha following us. I asked,-“Mya Jetha are you not afraid of ghosts?” He replied,” No, I DON’T CARE FOR GHOSTS.” I asked,-“ But why ?” Maya Jetha started telling me,-“See, ghosts move around us everywhere but we can’t see them. Ghosts are following us even now.” Hearing this I jumped towards Maya J etha and caught his hands tightly.. He said,-“Don’t be afraid, Ghosts attack only the timid and coward people “ I asked, - ‘But how they know a timid or a coward person? “ Jetha said,-“ See, when you walk you always leave your foot-prints on the road ghost following you ,feels the foot-print with his hands and check if you are afraid.” I again asked, -“how ?” Jetha continued,- “ See when someone is walking in fear, his footprints will not be firm, they will be light as in the case of running .Then the ghost knows that the man in front is timid or frightened and then the ghost appears in front of the timid man and creates problem .for the timid man .So, if you walk firmly without caring for the ghost then the ghost will never dare to attack you as he will know from your footprints that you are a courageous man. “ Hearing, this I immediately started walking very firmly .and felt comfortable. From that day, my fear for ghosts disappeared from my mind. I have never been afraid to go alone anywhere in odd hours. This incidence, completely wiped out my fear for ghosts forever as I strongly believed from my childhood that ghosts never attack a courageous man and they attack only cowards and timid men. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 04:48:40 +0000