He rejuvenated after the whole night’s sleep. It was afternoon and when he looked outside he saw the sun blazing in the blue firmament after a heavy shower in the morning. He was at home and was on leave from his office for a few days.  He remembered how it all started when he returned from the office in that evening. He dropped his iPhone on way back home, cut slip in the bathroom at his house and was hurt on his right leg.  He was not in a mood to exchange tittle-tattle with his wife in that evening that he usually did over the cup of tea after returning from the office on other days.  He could not even relish the tea and snacks that his wife made for him pouring lots of love and care, which he would eagerly look forward to at the end of his office hours on other days.  A feeling of discomfort overtook him when he recollected that how he howled at his three years’ old son when the child toddled to him for love after he returned from the office in that evening because he was not in a mood to communicate with others and preferred to stay aloof. He grew more fidgety as time passed, screamed in his sleep and woke up several times at that night. In the next morning, he felt fatigued and had no appetite for food and hence shoved away the breakfast on the table complaining that it was not prepared well.

                He plodded to the office in a somnolent state and the job that he usually did with much ease and finesse turned out to be cumbersome and dull for him on that day.  He even behaved rude with some of his subordinates and declined to listen to them when they approached him with some issues to be worked out.  His lunch box was ignored and he instead craved for some siesta putting his head upon the desk in the afternoon. But rest eluded him. Giving a finishing touch to the day’s work with weary hands he stepped out of his office for his home in the evening. But home was fading away in its charm for him and seemed to spill out its content of rest that he sipped every night to revive him for the next day’s job.   

                 That night, he also passed in alarm. When sleep started spreading its feather upon him, he woke up several times feeling a pressure upon his chest. He rose up and sat on his bed quite a number of times with sweat running all over his body and felt more distraught when he saw his wife and his son enjoying deep slumber by him. Thus he lapsed into the grip of insomnia and it continued for five consecutive nights. He lost interest in all the things around him and always simmered in anger that found its outlet on his submissive wife. Seeing his unusual behaviour, his wife confided about his changed nature in her mother. Her mother who always believed in ghosts and goblins and considered that whatever trouble people faced were due to the evil spirits roaming around arranged for a shaman for the treatment of her son-in-law.

                 His mother-in-law, authoritative by nature met him early in the morning before he left for his office and settled the matter with him that the discomfort he was facing was due to an extra-terrestrial being that set its eye upon him.  She then dictated her daughter to collect all the things handing her the list for them that the shaman asked her to keep ready at home. She also fixed the day on which she would bring the shaman for the treatment of her son-in-law. 

            The shaman came to the accountant’s house along with his mother-in-law on the appointed day.  The moment, the black robed shaman stepped into the accountant’s house, he uttered in a bold voice, “Nothing is good in this house. Nothing is good”. He then looked at the accountant with his scanning eyes and gazing at the latter’s mother-in-law said, “I feel pity for him. He is in the clutch of an evil spirit completely”. He then bade the accountant to tell him in detail about his problem and also asked about the time when it started. The accountant like a child under the shaman’s spell and with fright besetting his mind divulged everything without any sham in the description. The shaman then inspected all the rooms one after another in the accountant’s house poking the floor in each of his domineering step with the stick in his hand.  He then with a grave face feigning a danger looming large ahead declared in a gruff voice, “An indomitable spirit accompanied him on his way back home from the office fourteen days ago. It has settled in the house firmly as a good number of days have elapsed since its entry into the house. Hence, it is going to be a tough job for me to drive it out of the house. I will have to keep the accountant under my treatment for five consecutive days to oust it”.  Hearing that, both the women, the accountant’s wife and his mother-in-law, raised a hue and cry. They pleaded the shaman with much wriggling to set the accountant free of the clutch of evil spirit and they also promised to shower monetary bliss upon him in return. The accountant was stricken dumb in the fuss made by the women and the shaman’s eyes glowed with some unknown mirth and joy.

            The accountant was treated by the shaman for five consecutive days. The shaman visited the accountant’s house every day after the daylight was out.  The things that the accountant’s wife gathered like a white piece of cloth, water fetched from the river early in the morning, a fistful of mud collected from the cremation field, incense powder and so on at the dictate of her mother were all utilized in the treatment. With eyes gleaming in the darkness, the shaman brandished his white sword around the accountant lying on the floor covered fully with the white cloth. From time to time, he sprinkled mud and water upon the accountant. He also talked to an invisible spirit, that he was supposed only to view, in the dark room filled with the fume of burnt incense. Thus, the treatment continued but it bore no result and instead, the accountant’s condition worsened catching cough and cold. 

            The shaman visited the accountant’s house in the company of the latter’s mother-in-law one early morning after he failed to cure the accountant or rid him of the evil spirit. He then announced to his patient in a grave voice, “I dreamt last night that my treatment has exorcised you of the evil spirit but since a long time has passed, as I told you earlier, the spirit has settled in this house and is unwilling to leave the place. Under such circumstances, I suggest you to change your abode and better shift to the other end of the town so that you will no longer be disturbed by the spirit as it told me in the dream. If you follow whatever I have suggested, you will be cured completely, I assure you”.  Saying that he paused for a while and then conjuring the marks of sympathy, sincerity, humility and all other humane feelings on his countenance, those he could affect at that moment, spoke on, “I really regret that I cannot drive the evil spirit out of your home though I have set you free of its grip.  I, an upright shaman never deceive my clients and hence I am returning rupees five thousand out of what your generous wife gave me for your treatment. That I am returning because I failed to chase away the spirit from the house”. Saying that, he put the money on the table despite the accountant’s wife’s insistence that he should take back the money. Leaving the money on the table, he dashed out of the house.

     On the way, the shaman heaved a sigh of relief and said to himself, “I earned rupees five thousand per day for his treatment that amounted to rupees twenty five thousand for five days’ treatment. Though I have given back rupees five thousand to mark my dealings as sincere yet I am left with a good amount of money i.e. rupees twenty thousand for doing no treatment at all but just making a pretence of doing that. I am also going to be no more pestered by him as I am driving him away far to the other end of the town”. After muttering those words, he cantered the busy road in a horse’s pace and vanished out of everyone’s sight.

             It was only three months ago that the accountant took the house on rent that he was living in. But the shaman put him in a trouble asking him to change the house. Incurring much hassle individually as well as taking the assistance of his friends, he finally got an old house in the outskirt of the town where he shifted with his family.  Parting away with a hefty amount in the name of his treatment in shaman’s hands and then the expenses incurred to change the house put the accountant in a bit of financial crunch and that also added to his stress and anxiety. Hence, his problem never subsided; rather it augmented in his new house. His friend viewing his distress exploded one day, “I do not believe in any unseen thing and hence I do not take any spirit to be the cause of your illness. Therefore, I am taking the appointment of doctor and you must accompany me to see him”.   

            The whole day was spent at the clinic. He had to undergo various tests including that of COVID-19 as well as ECG. But there were nothing untoward in the reports and hence, he further sought the aid of the psychologist. Several days’ counseling brought out the causes of his problem and started abating his crisis. It was unearthed that his entire predicament issued from the stress that he undertook. The pandemic, COVID-19 was held to be responsible for his plight. Hypochondriac by nature, he constantly worried him to be an asymptomatic patient of COVID-19 as he was in no discomfort, health wise. His constant obsession with the safety measures against the pandemic also bred unrest in him. Apart from that, he also apprehended that the long lasting pandemic with its adverse impact on the economy of the country might result into his losing the job someday with no other means left in his hands to sustain himself and his family. Hence, his taxing job of an accountant became more arduous when he had to redo his work several times due to the slips that he committed in his doings because of the anguish that he nurtured in him constantly. Consequently, some aberrations of behaviour were noticed in him like becoming prone to short- term memory loss, getting lost in his own self, losing the things or his belongings, getting irritated at the slightest deviations of others from the normal course etc. In addition to all those, the shaman’s treatment of him burning incense made him to catch cough and cold as he was allergic to the smell of incense. But the doctor’s prescription of some medicines cured his that ailment on time without leaving any chance for its exacerbation.   

              His therapy under the psychologist concluded without any hassle and he slept very well at night on the day of his last treatment. He slept for the whole night and it was a very peaceful sleep without any intrusion of nightmare. Hence, he felt to be restored to his previous self with energy circulating in him again in the next day. He was looking outside at the clear sky on that day and his memory churned all that occurred to him and the thought of the shaman and his mother-in-law set fire in him. His wife was then arranging the table for lunch. He looked at her with anger smoldering in his eyes and said, “I am not going to spare your mother for all the troubles that I faced in the hands of the shaman due to her and that shaman, once I get hold of him, I will smash all his skulls, conches and beads into dust and then throw his black robe into the fire for swindling me”.

——–Dr. Fathema Begum