The Warning - A Brush With Fate

I was thinking of sharing this story with you folks for a long time... But could not because of my business with exams for the past few days...Anyway, this is my mother's experience. I am not sure how many people would count this as "paranormal" or "supernatural", but I thought that it was definitely an interesting account to tell of.

My mother had lost her dad, my grandfather, when she was still in College. After my grandpa's death, my mom along with Grandma and her 3 other siblings were thrown into deep waters. The financial grills apart, there were streams of enemies around who were looking for an opportunity to grab the property my Grandfather had left in the wake of his untimely death. My grandpa had a brother, whom we will call Vijay. Vijay was one of the main tormentors of Grandma and her children, there were numerous property cases going on in the court with this guy at the time. As per Indian Property laws, if my grandma and her family happened to pass away suddenly, then all property would come into his hands. I mentioned this part because it would later play an important role in this story.

Shift to the night of the incident. It was the night of the Diwali, the Hindu festival of Lights. It's the time when people burn firecrackers to celebrate the Victory of light over Darkness, here in India. It was late into the night, and a few flashes of a flying "rocket" or "tubris" (fire- cracker names) could be seen smashing across the otherwise dark sheet of the night sky.

My grandmother and her 3 children were fast asleep... On the bed which was adjacent to the wall, just below a open window. They were all comfortably tucked away within a mosquito net, as is the habit with most families in India where mosquitoes are a real nuisance. So there they were, the four of them, sleeping peacefully on the bed with a Nylon Net tented over them.

In the room next to theirs, in the drawing room, my mother was sitting all alone, poring over her books, the semesters were approaching and were due months after the Diwali vacation ended. So she sat there, in the dark with a lantern. She did not switch on the lights for the light might disturb the four sleeping in the next room.

While studying, as she said, she suddenly felt very drowsy. It was natural as my mother had a habit of studying late into the nights, and as I have mentioned before, it was sometime of the midnight when this incident took place... She felt sleepy and soon passed out... Suddenly she had a dream where she saw something that greatly disturbed her (as my mom said, she does not usually remember dreams, she did this one because of what happened after)

She saw a square shaped room made of glass, which was on fire. She remembers faintly that she saw some people inside struggling to get out, but in the end, all became silent, just the vision of the burning room persisted. She woke up, disturbed by the dream... After a while she assured herself that it was only a dream and nothing to pay much much attention to. A few minutes had passed when she felt the same drowsiness overcome her. This time, she saw a figure in front of the room apparition... She heard a faint voice in her dream saying..."ja, o ghore ja... Ato alor modhye ondhokare bosa thik noy" (why do you sit here, all alone, my child? Go and sit in the next room full of light")

After a few seconds, she recognized the voice as of being my Grandfather's! She shivers while saying that it was the exact, distinct, slightly scruffy voice of him, and it was telling her to go and sit in the other room (where the others were sleeping!)

My mother was a bit startled and unnerved but she soon shook it off... And guess what? She dreamt the same thing a THIRD time... This time, she recognized her dad in her dreams... She said that he smiled at her and, weird, beckoned to the other room! She could see fireworks playing around him, in her dream... Then after sometime, the apparition slowly melted away... And my mother too jerked out of her sleep!

She had a distinct feeling of uneasiness nudging at her stomach... She felt as though all was not right, as if something bad was about to happen! Not being sure of what to do, she, on an impulse got up and went to the bedroom.

In the bedroom, my Grandma and aunts were sleeping peacefully... There was no sign of any discord anywhere. Relieved she got herself together a bit, my mom turned to leave... Suddenly she heard a swishing sound past her room, as if something like a rocket had just flown in through the window...startled, my mom turned around... And to her amazement saw that a Chucho bazi (a kind of firecracker that leaps and dances around when you set it on fire) just missed the window grills by inches. My mom did not think of it much, because as I have mentioned it was a Diwali night and it was normal for firecrackers to be flying around. She was going to leave, when she saw ANOTHER chuchobazi leap past the window, out of the corner of her eye. She was a bit puzzled... How come so many crackers of the same type were flying in this direction only? She waited for a moment... And to her bewilderment, saw TWO more fireworks fly past the window... One just missed slipping in through the window grills, by inches.

My mom was amazed, and got the feeling that something was not right. She walked to the window, and looked up... In the direction the Chuchobazis seemed to be coming from. In front of her, there stood the big house of Vijay, my mom's uncle and their nemesis of the time. She looked up at the roof of the house and... She saw Vijay standing there, with candles and a packet of these Chochos on the roof floor. My mom squinted up to get a better view of what he was doing... She watched as Vijay picked up another chuchobazi, and set fire to it, and then he threw it off, DIRECTLY in the direction of the window above the bed!

My mom ducked to escape it, and then, it occurred to her what he, Vijay was doing! He was trying to get my grandma and her children KILLED! He was firing the crackers INTENTIONALLY in the direction of the window... Beneath of which was the bed on which they slept! He was trying, as my mom understood, to get a Chuchobazi through the wide grills of the window... Following which it would land DIRECTLY on the mosquito net which was just a few inches away from the grills... As I mentioned before, the bed was adjacent to the wall and the window stood just above the bed... Making the Mosquito net which was tented over the bed, just a few inches away from the window grills.

The net being made of inflammable substance like nylon, would catch fire at the smallest spark... And would set the whole bed on fire thereby. Vijay the vermin was planning to catch unaware everybody and burn them to death in their sleep! He knew that all members of my mom's family were fast asleep in that hour of the night... Of course he was totally ignorant of the fact that my mom was awake even then.

A petrified mom immediately struck up an alarm... Shouting for her mother and siblings to get out of the bed, NOW! Startled, they all woke up, and, following my mother, crowded near the window to look at what the trouble was about. As they looked up at the roof of the House, they saw Vijay, being startled at the sudden alarm, drop the packets and scurry and disappear down the stairs.

Afterwards, when all was calmed down a bit, my mother broke to everyone details of what had happened. From what could be gathered, Vijay was trying to off our family and make it look like an accident, and he had done this to get his hands on our grandfathers property. Had my mother not arrived at the scene on time, he could definitely have been successful and the four would have died a ghastly death... And no clue about the conspiracy would be available to anyone after.

While narrating the account to them, my mom remembered the dream - the one with the visions of a room on fire- and shivered. Could it- and the voice of her father urging her to visit the other room, have been a divine warning about the forthcoming calamity? Or was it just the sixth sense within her that had come to sense the evil, and made itself known to my mother in that late near-fateful hour of the night? Or maybe it was indeed my grandfather who had called on to protect his family that night?

That is and will remain a mystery- but I, after hearing this story from my mother, am immensely forever grateful to the Divine, the Supernatural or premonition- whatever it was- for protecting my mom and her family from a horrific fate.