POWER OF KARMA

PART 1: WHERE I ALMOST LOST MY LIFE

Time was around midnight, I was feeling sleepy. I switched off the TV, lights and went straight to bed.

I had the habit of checking my mails on my phone before going to sleep. Doctors discourage this habit as looking at bright screen leads to sleep deprivation. It was a difficult habit to quit. I could not control the urge, my hands would automatically pick up the phone. It was routine job before sleep. I still regret doing it that night.

My phone screen was the only source of light in dark bed room. I was engulfed in reading my emails. Once finished, I closed the mail app and was about to press lock button but accidentally pressed the camera icon on home screen. My phone’s rear camera turned on and was capturing an image of something bright in the corner of my room. I put the phone aside and looked at the corner, nothing was visible. Again focused my camera towards the corner, nothing unusual showed up on screen this time. I told myself that it might my eyes that are creating illusion as I had looked at screen for longer duration in dark room. Convinced with this theory, I tried to go back to sleep. But some part inside me was still unconvinced, it kept pointing my thoughts to something really bad. To clear my mind of disturbing thoughts and convince it to give me some sleep, I took out my phone, opened camera app and started scanning the dark room. As the camera panned across the room, bright image showed up again near the door. Afraid, terrified are the words that aren’t even close to describe my feeling at that time. I was sitting on my bed with phone in one hand and blanket in another (just in case, I could hide myself under it). The wall fan running at full speed could not stop me from getting wet due to sweat. My heart constantly tried to come out of my chest as if it doesn’t belong there. I tried to zoom in on the bright image near the door, it looked like a saree, may be towel, may be pyjama, I was confused, before I could make out what it was, the image moved and went near book shelf in my bed room. I kept pointing my camera in its direction and slowly tried to get out of the bed and decided to go near it.

I set my shivering feet on the floor and stood up with camera in hand firmly locked on the image. I moved. Inch by inch towards the figure.

The image was getting clearer as I approached it. I could see long hair, head turned away from me, the brightness came from the saree it was wearing. As I went nearer and was about to touch it, it turned and I was on the floor. It sat on my chest. I saw its eyes, they were moist. They tried to say something. I gathered strength and pushed it away. Grabbed the car keys from shelf and ran towards the door. The door simply wouldn’t open. The hinges were stuck. I kept trying. The image was coming towards me. I went into submission mode and started begging it to leave me. It pointed towards the attic and disappeared.

PART 2: RAMESH’S CURIOSITY

The door suddenly opened with ease and I drove to my friend Ramesh’s place and narrated the whole incident to him. He pacified me and told me not to worry about it. I slept there.

I woke up late in morning. Ramesh offered me a cup of coffee and sat near me.

“You told me that it was pointing to attic right?” Ramesh asked.

I nodded in agreement.

“Let’s go there and find out. We may come across something” he said.

“You are asking me to go there and find out more about it. Are you kidding? There is no way I am going back to that house. I almost lost my life there” I said.

“Its morning. Have you seen or heard about a ghost that roams around in morning?” he asked me.

“No.but…” I resisted.

“Come. Let’s go now and find out what’s in the attic” he insisted.

Both got ready and left the house. On the way to my home, I was feeling uneasy. I tried to convince Ramesh to drop the idea and go back but he was relentless. He has been always like this — adventurer and adrenaline junkie. He used to participate in racing, mountain climbing, deep sea diving during college. He still does but demanding corporate life has left little time for him to pursue his hobbies.

We reached my house. The door was open. I didn’t lock it yesterday night. Who will care about the house when your life is in your throat? We slowly entered the house.

“Is that ‘the’ attic?” Ramesh asked.

“Yes. But be careful” I said.

Ramesh took the ladder and started climbing. I stayed below. He got into attic and started looking around. I could barely see him as he was inside attic.

“Are you okay? “ I shouted.

“Ya. I am. Don’t worry. There is nothing here. I will search for a few more minutes and… “

Ramesh stopped in middle. There was a sudden silence.

“Ramesh. Are you okay?”I shouted.

Silence.

“Ramesh. Please don’t play tricks. I am afraid. Please respond. My voice was cracking due to fear.

Silence again.

I decided to climb the ladder and look for him. I was half way up the ladder, suddenly something was thrown from the attic.

I turned and jumped from ladder on to floor. It was Ramesh’s body. His body is bathed in blood. I tried to shake him and get response but in vain. I checked his pulse- nothing. He is dead!

I looked at the door. It was still open. I thought it was now or never. I ran outside and got inside the car. I roamed around in car like a mad man on streets. I didn’t know where to go. What to do and whom to contact. My friend is dead. I cleared my thoughts and went straight to police station.

PART 3: THE POLICE

I narrated the events to police. From yesterday night to Ramesh’s death. Police didn’t believe my story. If it was not about Ramesh’s death, they would have sent me directly to mental asylum.

I left my car at the station and got into police car and guided them to my house. I stayed inside the police car when the police went inside and sealed the location to gather evidence. Forensics came, crime photographers came and I sat inside the car terrified. I could see who were going in and out of house through the car window.

After elaborate investigation and multiple interrogations, police didn’t find any evidence. The post mortem reports were inconclusive. They couldn’t pin-point the cause of death. Police closed the case after some days due to lack of evidence.

I shifted to apartment and there was peace. She didn’t follow me to apartment. Feeling responsible for my friend’s death, I couldn’t overcome the guilt. I had to go through lot of the therapy sessions to heal myself. As things were getting back to normal, I received a call from police station informing me to collect Ramesh’s belongings. I reached the police station with a heavy heart and collected some of his personal items that police had confiscated from his home during investigation. I decided to keep them with me for his memory.

PART 4: THE MISTAKE

That day after I came back from office, I opened Ramesh’s belongings and found an old diary in it. I opened the diary with curiosity and started reading it.

It seemed like his college diary. He had written about his college memories, adventures, our friendship and his ambitions in detail. As I flipped through the pages, I found out a shocking incident of Ramesh’s life that I didn’t know about. He had written-

“That day, I was drunk. I was driving back to home in my car. Everything was dizzy. I kept increasing the speed and adrenaline started rushing through my blood. Mixed with alcohol it was a great feeling. I didn’t care about the limits. I kept on pressing the speed pedal. As the car zoomed past a corner I hit a bike. I stopped to see what happened. A girl was laying in pool of blood and finding it hard to breathe. I panicked. I could have helped her and took her to hospital but I decided against it. Such a coward I am. I left her to die there and drove back to home. The next day’s newspapers carried the story. The girl was dead. I escaped without punishment..,”

After reading this incident, I opened my computer and started searching e-newspapers of the date Ramesh had mentioned. Most of them carried this news. More shocking things came out as I searched more about the girl. Her name was Anita. She stayed in the house where I was staying previously and spotted the ghost. Ramesh lost his life in the same house. Anita’s favourite hobby as a child was to hide in the attic and play there. The day I saw her first was the same date when accident happened years before where she lost her life.

After reading all these, I was feeling sorry for both Ramesh and Anita. I still remember the day when Ramesh abruptly stopped drinking alcohol in college. He never told me why. Now I know.