Good Spirit, please come..

            In our hostel days, we used to talk about anything in the world. It was just like another day, busy with chatting. We were in our room. There were some other friends from the nearby room. We neighbours are having a group chat.. the topics were vast and wide, no limits..Then, somebody told about a new thing, that we have seen in a movie, but neither discussed about it, nor experienced..

It was “OJOBOARD”.. The game with the spirits...!!!

            In that movie named ‘ Aparichithan’ ,the heroine and friends got an ojoboard, from a witch’s place. They had seen her calling spirits of dead persons and talking to them . One night, they had stolen the ojoboard and tried to play the game in their place. The only light was provided by a candle.Placing the ojoboard coin at the centre of the board, they called out a spirit. To be safe, they called out a good spirit ,who won’t make any harm. “Good spirit please come.. Good spirit please come.. Good spirit please come.. Good spirit please come.. Good spirit please come............”  They felt a change in the surroundings .But, they continued,..they continued, till the coin started moving itself. Yes!! The spirit had come. They asked it whether it is dead or alive, and man or a woman, and name.. The spirit’s name was said as ‘Ram’. Then one of the girls got scared and disturbed all the arrangements. And the surroundings got changed in to normal. But, they didn’t know, the spirit they called couldn’t return from where he came. He was with them, till  the end, having a purpose..rest the story of movie..

            So, coming back to our chatting in the hostel room... When we started discussing about the movie, the topic changed to ojoboard only. “is it a real thing” was our doubt. To my surprise, the girls in the next room had more knowledge about this. They had told us many real stories (they claimed them as real) regarding this, and two of them told, they had experienced that. And, told us, how to try this in our way, as we don’t have the real ojoboard.

            At last, came the idea of trying it.. “just try it”..said some, who considered themselves brave and like to do risky adventures [they think themselves like that! It’s their first adventure any way ): ], “yeah, let’s try it”, said some who don’t believe in such things, and need to prove that, that was a fake idea and won’t work. But, there are the rest of the girls..” Oh no..Please don’t do this, we don’t have to try this. What if the spirit really came? What if it is not a good spirit? We don’t have to risk our lives”. There were some other people who don’t have any particular opinion. They think “let it be”, whether the decision is ‘to go for a try’ or ‘the deal is over(“we can stop this nonsense)”.

            And, finally it is decided that, its a “No Deal”. We don’t have to risk other’s life, though we are ready to put risk to our lives. And the meeting ( chatting), dispersed as it was time for the dinner.

            Everything was normal, from then. We all had our dinner, our usual things before going to bed. Some have assignments to do, two of them reading some novels or something, some were in the study hall, as they have a test on the next day. And, among the rest, one went to bed already, and a group of four was discussing something. ‘Ojoboard’?? Hey, no.. Me  went back to my assignment. It was almost 12.00 am , when everything  got settled and everybody on their beds.

            Me always have some problem with sleep. The sleep won’t bless me as soon as I get  my bed. I need to wait, sometimes with some books, or some music.. but, as the lights were already switched off by our hostel warden, no more deal with books. So, I closed my eyes and waited for sleep......

            “Hey, make your sound low, they will wake up”- a husky sound heard. And that followed some other sounds also. “bring that candle, oh..and the steel glass too..” the conversation was between more than two “yeah, everything is ready” some other’s voice. ‘what is happening’ I couldn’t figure out first, whether I was seeing a dream. But, it was sure, I was not blessed then..

            Okay, then some thing is there. I just turned the other side slowly and , watched out..There were 4 of my roommates, they are doing something in the dark, in candle light. “Oh..No!!” they were trying to play ojoboard!!.. ‘What should I do? Shall I stop them?  Or silently watch this? And if the spirit come, what if it caught me first?” .. “ Oh, what am I thinking? There is no such spirits or something. We are engineers, believe in science and technology. Don’t be stupid”,  I scolded myself.

            I wake up, making them notice . They all got startled, seeing me. But, when I neared them, I was also in the group, trying to arrange the settings. A small candle, a steel cup, a sheet of paper, on which all the alphabets and numerals are written on periphery and at the centre there was a circle, to place the coin, and on two sides, written ‘YES’ and ‘NO’ . The ojoboard got ready to play. It was like, we play this every night. Everybody seemed so confident and brave (what about me..? ). Then, one of us explained the rules on ‘how to call a spirit’. That was Sari, the bravest one among us. So, everything was ready..it was set..and we went for it..

            We sat down on the floor making a circle.  Then we lighted the candle,  a small candle as  we have to cover the candle using the steel cup, as per the rules. The candle was placed on a coin . These all, the coin, candle, the s teel cup, all on the sheet of paper , which we have converted in to an ojoboard not any less than the real one.

            12.30 am. The silence of night..we have done everything as per the plan. Now, its time for calling the spirit. Remember, ‘ Good spirit’..   We have hold our hands stretched, with the forefinger pointing to the steel cup. We repeated the words from the movie “Good spirit please come.. Good spirit please come.. Good spirit please come..”...And........

            We were reciting those words with full concentration...suddenly....” Stop this nonsense..” somebody screamed..and put down the cup, tore the paper..the candle was already turned off. One of us switched on the lights. Thank God, nobody wake up from sleep. And, we were looking each other ,’what happened’ ‘who screamed?’  ..you know, who was that? It was Sari, the bravest girl among us.  She looked so frightened, looking on something on the floor. We couldn’t find anything there. We were still sitting on the floor. We called her ,shaking her body? We all were scared..then she said “ Something is rotten somewhere....”  .... “WHAT??????”  We all asked in unison and burst in to a laughter.. What does it mean..? .

            After we settled from the laugh, we asked her, what actually happened to our ‘Brave little woman’? . As we laughed, on her that strange wordings, the situation got loosened. She was feeling a little shame, and said that, she felt something strange that time, felt the steel cup moving itself and don’t know how that words came to her mind...

            We told her, there was nothing like that, and we didn’t feel anything strange.. and assured her that, may be someone among us had touched the cup, and made it move.. We finally managed to get in to the normal. And, it was already late, and we went to sleep....

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The next day, the girls in the other room had asked us whether we tried ojoboard ,last night. And told us that, they expected that. But, we told them..” No, and never..”..and we looked for Sari..She was there , busy in something..