Tales from the Neverbeens

3 am once again. This same voice has been nagging me for the last couple of weeks. That is why I have refrained from writing on this blog all this time. I was a bit creeped out. But it's happening again tonight, and I guess it is time I speak about it. It's a voice. It comes every night a short while after 3 am. And before it does, it wipes out all other sounds. The clock doesn't strike 3. It doesn't event tick. The mischievous mouse underneath the bed stops its frantic searches. The insects too seem to be silenced. And then I hear the voice, amidst the reverbrating silence. I always wake up a few minutes before the time. Sometimes, like today, I lie sleepless with a myriad thoughts. But the voice takes me by surprise everytime, even when I know that it is going to come. It's a little girl's voice. "Is anyone here?" it says, "I've lost my body somewhere. Can you help me find it?" I wonder if it's the mute girl who always looks lo...

I tried to shoo the fly off. But it was persistent. In fact for the last few hours these flies have been growing in multiples around the town. These bees, they are everywhere. And they look angry! It is unnatural, the way the bees are behaving. Such big numbers, and all over the place. They don't seem too eager to bite, but they are nagging everyone around. Even the sky's filled with them all the time making it seem cloudy and dark. Things are getting out of hand. I decided to take a look at where they were coming from. Following the growing density of the buzzing, I walked upto an old grey wooden house - the house of the bee keeper. People had already gathered there, but there were too many bees to enter the house. But there was this foul smell that hit me. "It's the bee keeper, he's dead," a man said from behind me, "He must have been dead for days." "But I had seen him a couple of days ago. He was walking and healthy then..." another...

It must be an asthma attack, I guessed. The air felt heavy, and it was growing more difficult to breathe. My lungs were going to burst if the doctor did not arrive on time, but there was no sign of him. Even swallowing was difficult now. My vision was getting blurry and the room was getting darker. Mother arrived with a man with a suitcase. The doctor, finally, I thought! The man came nearer, observed my eyes and put his hand on my chest. It felt as if the lungs were reaching out to him for help; they were pushing and crawling. Then the man reached into his coat and took out a cross. He held the cross in front of me. I felt burning inside me, and then I passed out. The next time I opened my eyes, I found the man looking at me. Now that I could see him properly, he was no doctor. He was a priest. Mother was all in tears on the other side of the bed. "What's going on?" I asked. "You're sick son, very sick," said the man. "What...

A lonely tree stood in the middle of the field, a blanket of mist behind it. It stood twisted, silhouetted against the blanket of cloud behind. This tree has a history. It never broke. Kamini had always looked up at the tree, wondering how the tree had got twisted. As if an invisible hand turned it several times by its top and held it there eternally. Her life had got twisted in the same way, but she hoped life wasn't as adamant as the tree. She had both feared and hated the tree, until she had her first child. Little Sohail seemed to like to play around the tree quite a lot. There was nothing else to play with around anyways. The little boy grew up and had began his education, but he was always attached to the tree. The father had made a swing for him on the tree, and Sohail would spend most of his time swinging. But one day the branch that had bent down by the weight of the boy suddenly pulled up, and the boy, caught among the ropes, was pulled up too. The rope coiled around h...

I was talking with a very good friend at that time.  I was alone in my room, and she was on the other end of the line. It was past midnight and yet we weren't sleepy. We never were when we were talking with each other. She was the best company. It was then that I realized that the clock was still. It wasn't ticking. "My clock has stopped," I said to her with the hint of a laugh. "It never was running," she said, "Did you forget..." I was perplexed. This clock had been running quite fine from the day she had gifted it to me. Yes, it was gifted to me by her, just like every other time piece I have.  She is very particular about time and time pieces. And the ones that she chose were quite well built. It was as if she was connected to them. As if the sharp tickings were her heartbeat. I remember once when I had lost a watch, and she drove me mad asking me where I had dropped it. It seemed as if she couldn't breathe. And now she tells me that the...

That shadow has been following me since the evening. It's one of those shadows I've always seen in the corners. Of tree trunks and leaves, of walls, of poles and of men. But then it was different too. As if it was moving among the still shadows, as if it rustled among the silent shadows. As I walked along the street the shadow seemed to be following, ever getting a fraction of an inch closer. As if it was bound to reach me very soon but not yet. I gathered the most courage I could and led myself forward. Blind to the time past and ahead. Just getting as close to habitation as I could. The shadow somehow seemed to have a great resemblance with loneliness. But this dark thing was alive, and I knew it. And the street seemed to never end. Other shadows of tree leaves seemed to flutter: of climbers seemed to reach out to my ankles to bind my feet. Ever so close. Yet not reaching me yet. It took me the most part of an hour to reach the place where I could see a house.  It was a lo...

Meditation is one of the first things I do in the morning. Everyday. But last night I was particularly disturbed. I felt as if some strange thoughts had taken upon themselves to not let me sleep peacefully. And I decided to meditate late past midnight. I sat down on the bed, crossed my legs, put my hands on the knees and closed my eyes. I began my journey inwards. Stars and galaxies flashed before my eyes. Those were the thoughts I was having in my mind at that time. I tried to find out the ones that were disturbing me. But then there was something else that made me uneasy. I could feel a presence around me that I had never felt before. I opened my eyes, and saw a pair of black eyes staring at me. A broad face of a lady with an expression that was so blank that it made me feel it was born just to stare at me. And the face did not have any body too. It was just suspended on nothingness. In fact, I realized I wasn't in my room anymore. I was in a black sky covered with stars and g...