Prolonged Anklet Jinglings

I've grown up in several places in India owing to my father's profession in the Indian Defence Forces. As part of his postings, I would see newer places every three years or so until his retirement almost a decade ago.

What began in the summer of 1995 was something I've yet to find an explanation of.

I was a kid back then and used to sleep in between my parents or sometimes next to either of them.

One sweltering night, I lay awake as my parents dozed off peacefully. As I lay awake, I kept looking at the dark corridor that opened out of the door that was ajar. I suddenly started hearing the jinglings of an anklet, as if there was an Indian classical dancer performing in the dining room. I've been humble in my nature but I'm convinced that I've a strong memory and recollecting power right until about 4 years of my age. Hence, I can safely say that it was not an illusion/delusion/figment of my imagination. Infact, the jinglings were near perfect in their rhythm and would change in the musical structure after about 3-4 minutes. I lay rapt in attention and frozen in horror while my father and mother slept peacefully.

Curious I was, and so I gently crept out of the bed and start walking towards the source of the sound. As I grew closer, I paused for a while to think whether it could be the sound of the crickets, those insects that noise about at nights. But this was purely discernable and yes, haunting. When I reached the intersection of the hallway and the dining room, I tuned my ears to realize it was actually coming from the verandah, right outside.

Ours was a duplex building and we stayed at the ground level. The verandah was to the right of me and its view was blocked by the curtains that adorned the windows that oversaw it.

As I moved closer to the verandah, I felt like taking a peek from behind the curtains. But my fear overcame me. What I could notice though that the moon was out and its rays were breaking through the curtains. As the patterns kept changing and grew louder, I could barely contain my fear. I slowly walked back and crept into the bed.

That was 1995. As we kept changing locations, I had similar experiences, this time right in the hallway. This continued until 2007 when I finally starting my profesional life.

One thing worth pointing out is that during the course of these years, whenever I heard these sounds, it was only me who was wide awake, silent and observing.

I've heard it even while pursuing my under-graduate studies in a new city, away from my home. To compound it further, I've even heard it at my training facility in another city.

And yes, I'm perfectly sane with psychological disorders.

I have never been able to explain this.