Believe It or Not

Take this prophecy by a 16th century Wiccan woman. While we Wiccans never make prophecies like Nostradamus did, this particular lady made an unusual prophecy for the eastern hemisphere. She wrote: 8216;8216;In the year of 95/ The sky is dark/ And stone comes alive/ Who is friend and who is foe/ Those who betray will have to go.8217;8217;

If you remember, it was the year of the solar eclipse. The sky had indeed become dark when the stone came alive. The forces of the earth were manifesting themselves in strange ways. I do not see the episode as a sign of the messiah descending on earth, like some people do. I think God would have found a more special way to signal his arrival than drinking milk from silver spoons.

Mysterious Monkey Man
May 2001

For over a fortnight, the Monkey Man terrorised the bylanes of Delhi after first appearing in Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh. Terrified residents jumped to their death after seeing the ape-like creature with steel claws, many others sustained animal bites. A desperate police force finally attributed the Monkey Man8217;s existence to mass hysteria after confirming that no animal had escaped from the local zoo and that it was not the handiwork of gangsters or the ISI. An expert committee also concluded the phenomenon could be the result of 8216;8216;stress, psychiatric disorders, alcohol-related illnesses and mental retardation of the people.8217;8217;

CHAKRAVERTI: Let me tell you about the phenomenon of shape-shifting before I speak about the Monkey Man. From the Middle Ages, where it was known as lycanthropy, we have instances of a man or a woman taking the full or half shape of an animal to harm others.

When we hear of such incidents today, reported quite frequently in states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bengal and Orissa, we know that more often than not they are simply cases of persecution. A middle-aged tribal woman from Bengal who was accused of it came to meet me. Her neighbours claimed she took the shape of a wolf every night they knew it was her because her face remained the same and attacked children. She was even tried before a witch8217;s tribunal. I was convinced she was innocent, her only crime being she was alone and defenceless.

So, is the Monkey Man8217;s case a well-crafted prank or can we explain it as a case of shape-shifting blown out of proportion because of mass hysteria? Could the shadow side, as psychoanalyst Carl Jung called it, the dark repressed state of the human persona, have burst forth? Maybe.

The Weeping Tree
January 2001

A neem tree in Delhi8217;s Chanakyapuri began to release a steady stream of murky white sap flowing from a fork in its branches. Soon, people began to worship the tree and drink its sap for its miraculous curative benefits. This carried on for a over a month till the flow stopped. Scientists could find no botanical reason for it.

CHAKRAVERTI: I have read about many weeping trees and weeping Madonnas and I was curious to see one for myself. When I reached the spot, I noticed a sweetish, floral scent emanating from the tree, like one gets in a temple. People had gathered around it and were worshipping it. Two constables were even put on duty to control the swelling crowds. The faithful drank the sap and claimed it cured them of illnesses. The taste was pungent and sweet, very unlike the bitter neem.

A few days later the Gujarat earthquake took place. Meanwhile, I heard another tree had started weeping a day before earthquake. Maybe nature, I thought, had foreseen the troubled times ahead.

Haunted Houses

Haunted houses are a figment of feverish imagination. In reality, they do not exist.

CHAKRAVERTI: Delhi, where I currently live, is a city of the dead. Layers of history in the form of graves lie on top of each other as the city has witnessed hundreds of battles over centuries. Its bloody history will just not go away. It leaves impressions on our lives.

I visited a house on Krishna Menon Marg, where a former solicitor-general was staying. He narrated how he would be woken up every morning at 4am, to see an old Muslim gentleman cross his bed and head for the door. At first he thought he imagined it but when his wife saw a similar apparition, he was sure something was amiss.

I visited the house and could feel the vibrations. The past was still living and the vibrations were coming not from the house but from the land on which it stood.

A few years ago, we lived in an apartment in R K Puram in Delhi. Every evening I would hear a thump and at 4.30am, furniture would be dragged on the floor above our house even though it was unoccupied. My study door would open on its own at regular intervals. When the air is negative, it manifests itself in small things like these. The chowkidaar told me a woman had killed herself by jumping out of the 8th floor. I could sense the vibrations of this house were not good and left it soon.

Konark8217;s Healing Power

The Sun temple at Konark in Orissa, also known as Konaditya, was built in 1278 AD by the Ganga King Narasimha Deva. The 227-feet-high structure is considered one of the best examples of Oriyan architecture that originated in 2 BC. Conceived in the form of a rath, the joint structure of Vimana and Jagamohana stand on an immense terrace with 24 giant wheels.

CHAKRAVERTI: I have visited Konark over the years because it was Conceived as a healing temple. I came across a 16th century Wiccan prophecy which claimed we would discover the therapeutic importance of the Sun Temple in the future.

It is entirely possible this 13th century structure, rediscovered in the 19th century, is built on a site that emits earth power. Built like a pagoda, the temple had a gigantic magnet on the top. The Portuguese got it removed because it made their ships flounder, and the roof collapsed.

I asked for permission to visit the sanctum of the shrine, where the image of the Sun God was kept. I descended the flight of stairs, it was like being inside a well. I took my daughter along to take pictures of me as I sat meditating. After a while of reciting the Gayatri Mantra, I could feel waves of energy reaching me from the top and coming from below as well. Amazingly, the pictures had me with a shaft of mist descending around me. This was despite it being a very clear day. How does one explain it?

Bollywood Jinxes

Jinxes operate purely in the realm of superstition, not in the real world.

CHAKRAVERTI: In places where there is a manic scramble for power and money, impressions of emotions like success and failure are left behind, and jinxes are formed. Bollywood has its share of them. In Mumbai, I visited Movie Towers whose residents included Dharmendra, Raveena Tandon and Prakash Mehra. Periodically people hurl themselves from the 9th floor of this building, shrouding it in a sinister cloak. Similarly, Sterling Apartments on Peddar Road was known as a suicide building until a few years ago. Sunil Dutt8217;s home in Pali Hill is jinxed, nothing but bad luck has plagued him since he moved in, like illness, separation and death. The song Kabhi Kabhie from the film by the same name is supposed to be a bad luck song. The film flopped but it was after Amitabh Bachchan re-released its album a few years later that he went through a patch of misfortune. His company ABCL went bankrupt and even something as innocuous as the Miss World contest he organised in Bangalore was a washout.