I am Anjali Paul and I was born in 1948 in a poor family in a small town name Naharkatia in the state of Assam. My father had a tiny shop where he used to sell umbrellas. We were three sisters and three brothers. Anjali, Atashi, Gita, Tulshi, Bishu, and Shankar. All these names are somewhat religious. Anjali: a ritual performs in worship, Atashi: name of a flower used in worship, Gita: name of a holy book of Hindus, Tulshi: name of a holy (basil) leaf of Hindus, Bishu: name of a holy festive day in spring, Shankar: a name of a Hindu God.
I am the second younger sister. I was a gossiper among all my sisters. I rather like to talk than doing house chores. I passed high school and went to college for further studies but I couldn’t finish it because my parents had arranged my marriage with Ranadhir Paul who was a central government employee working in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. When I was young, I heard many incidents of spooky things that my mother told me. Things like when my father carrying a fish in a bag, someone pulled the fishtail from behind but when my father turns around, he finds no one..When he reached home, told my mother, she said the fish was pulled by a goblin, a mischievous ugly dwarf creature associate with an evil. She cut thefish in half and throw the fish tail outside the house and kept the remaining. A skinny black wrinkle hand was seen by my mother in the kitchen window. Another incident was when my younger brother Tulshi had experienced a horrific presence of paranormal stuff like someone gasping in a dark room. Exorcism performed on a teenage girl to get rid of a demonic presence that was taking over her body. In the backyard of my sister’s house Gita, a tree moves at night. I mean how possibly could a tree even moves? It sounds absolutely ridiculous. People of the village say about the tree that it has something to do with paranormal activity. My brother Shankar, while he was pursuing his medical course, one night during his internship, he saw a beheaded man walking in the corridor of the university. All these incident sounds very scary but I was not a blind believer who abruptly believe on such things. My in-laws are a respectable family. My husband believes in science and so do I. Every event occurred on earth whether it is by humans or events which happen in the cosmic universe, there is always a reason behind it, and it's called science but my belief in science got a crack when I had experienced something very unusual.
In the year 2006, when I was in Itanagar, Arunachal, I attend an educational and spiritual camp organized by Shree Shree Ravi Shankar one of the profound names in the world of spirituality. I attend his preach to gain some spiritual knowledge and to introspect my life’s path. He was an amazing spiritual preacher. There were also programs held for teaching students. I was selected for teaching the primary students for few days. Our accommodation was arranged in a hostel a few minutes from thecamp. I was staying with my roommate who was also a teacher in the camp. It was a long corridor where there are more than thirty rooms. One evening there was a cultural program going on the camp. All the teachers went into the program even my roommate. She asked me to come but I said: “No, thanks. I rather stay and write my poem”. After an hour, I came out in the corridor and found the entire hostel was vacant. I was alone in the hostel. I went back to my room, I took my pen and notebook, trying to compose a poem. A moment later I heard a sound. At first, I ignored it. Minutes later the sound was coming again. I tried to listen to it carefully and found that the sound was coming from the next room. The sound was like someone is dragging the bed. By gathering all my audacity I went outside in the corridor and found that the room next to mine was locked. I was scared only then I heard the water running forcedly from a tap. I ran quickly to my room and wait for my mates to come. She came in the morning. I didn’t tell her about the things that happened last night. When the camp was over and we were returning then I raised that very topic. She told me that the hostel was built in a graveyard. But such paranormal things are not supposed to happen because before building the hostel over there, many Hindu rituals are done to neutralize any negative effects. She asked me “ Are you sure you haven’t seen anybody there that night? Because the hostel watchman was also supposed to be there” I was confused and said “ I am not sure”
Accordingto my roommate, it was the watchman that I have heard, dragging the bed and turning on the water tap but as for me I had checked, there was no watchman in the corridor. After I reach home I tried to contact the watchman. I found a phone number and called him asking about his presence in the hostel on that night. He said: “Yes, I was there doing my duty but I went at dawn”. After knowing, I was biting my nails trying to correlate every event on that night but I found no conclusion. If it was not the watchman then was it a paranormal activity or my subconscious mind, the embedded thoughts from my childhood and adolescent that tends to make me scared under the specific circumstances on that night? I might be wrong but it’s a whole thing of debate that, Is science has any explanation on this? or its something that is beyond science. A thing that is far off from our potential reach of understanding.