Nagaon, Assam

1992

It was Friday noon. All the men had gone to offer namaz in the masjid.
I was sweeping the floor. Then, I performed the wadhu. I offered namaz and dozed off.

It was summer. My 2 year old son Faizal was playing in the courtyard.

After one hour

I was still sleeping. Just then, I heard my husband's voice. He was screaming. I rushed outside to see what had happened.

I was petrified. My son's dead body was laying on the ground. My husband was holding my dead son and crying. I couldn't move for a while. I was shocked. I couldn't believe my eyes.
He fell into the pond. We assumed that he was playing near the pond and somehow he fell into it.

I couldn't accept the fact. My beloved son had died. I fed him with my own hands in the morning. And now, and now, he won't eat from my hand anymore. I was crying like a mad person. I kept saying, "God damn me! I am the worst mother. If I hadn't slept that day, my son would have been alive. I deserve to burn in the hell."

My husband didn't sleep that night. He kept uttering, "Where did you go my son? Where did you go? My son, my son..... "

My mother -in- law was an old lady. She didn't eat anything that day. We feared that she might get sick. So, other members of our family managed to feed her. But, she wouldn't stop crying. He was our beloved son. My Faizal. How can I forget his lovely face. I sang lullabies to him. I taught him how to walk. I fed him with my own hands. Faizal.....

Then something strange started to happen. It was something we hadn't expected at all. We weren't prepared for it.

Our dog Billy stood near the banyan tree and started barking endlessly. We dismissed it as Billy was just a dog. Billy barked for the whole night and no one could sleep. It didn't end here. Billy barked continuously for 3 nights. Then we started to suspect his behaviour.

My sister-in-law said,"I think we should call a kobiraj (meaning shaman). The dog is behaving very strangely. There must be some reason."

Next day, a shaman was called. He inspected everything. He chanted some spells and did some other work. What he told us next was shocking. He said, "An evil spirit is sitting on the tree. It doesn't live here. It was passing by when it saw your innocent son. Shaitan is but man's open enemy. It hypnotised your son and took him to the pond and killed him. The dogs are speechless but Allah has given them the power to see through the veil and recognize the evil. Your dog had seen the evil spirit and so it was barking at it. Don't worry, Allah is the most beneficent and merciful. He has shown me the way to drive this spirit out of your house." He continued chanting the spells. He took a small mirror and was speaking in a strange language. He took out a baked clay disc from his bag and gave it to my husband and said, "Hang this properly at the entrance of your house. No spirit shall dare to enter it." Then, he left. He didn't charge anything from us.
My husband hanged that disc at the entrance of our house. Billy became normal.

After two years, I gave birth to a beautiful daughter named Mehbooba. Time heals all wounds. We love our daughter.
But that memory still haunts me. Sometimes, I cry for hours when I remember that.