ILLUSIONS AT THE HOSTEL

Fear part-2: 2nd installment of the fear series

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One important and funny fact about fear is that it is not bound in the sands of time (OK! I admit it’s not funny).These scary experiences which are bestowed upon us by our respectable elderly are sometimes spiced up with some folklore also. But now, when I am not a silly teenager (but still I can’t call myself a grown up exactly…I mean come on I am just 21),I can easily scoff these ideas and can count them as my elders’ effort to become a hero in a child’s view. So, I mentioned that ghosts don’t visit you after checking the calendars. However, I thought that being scary is in fashion because we see so much of LADY GAGA these days. My aunt Vanessa shared an unforgettable encounter with the supernatural.

In her young days, she used to look quite pretty. She was a sort of beauty and (some) brains and got herself enrolled in a nursing institute. Nursing profession was well respected in those days. I think like that because there are not many websites which may provide an old sex video under the category of nursing.

It was her first day at the hospital and its hostel and she was completing the official procedures. Coming out of the office in lunch time, she saw a handsome, well built man named Jose. After a brief introduction he said he was waiting for her cousin Betty Lawson who was a nursing student and stayed in that same hostel. He said” You know it has been long that I have seen her. I have come a long way to meet her and to take her to a marriage procession. I want we should leave by tonight’s train. It would be kind of you if you can search for her in the hostel and convey her message. As for now I can’t wait here anymore because I got to make few preps for our departure.”

Though being unknown to everyone, Vanessa accepted his request with a broad smile…you know why…because that guy was looking his sexiest best in that quaint suit of his. I now agree that my mom say she used to be quite like I am in her younger days. The guy moved away from the hospital area and my aunt too came to the room which was allotted by the hostel authority. She was very much looking forward to meet her room mates, namely Mary and Jenna, and other people on the floor. She quickly became amicable with Jenna. Jenna had an elder sister who was a pass out from the same institute and was serving as a faculty there only. Being closer to faculty any how would give her a good grades and references for job too. (I told ya ..she was just like me).After a fair round of brief introduction(means sharing names, Bf’ names, home town, school grades ,favorite actor, favorite actress, favorite movie, fav subject, fav Tv serial, fav beauty brands, other normal things), they found themselves similar in more than one way. Due to this conclusion they were of common opinion finally that they are going to rock their bachelor life at hostel. In the course of this introductory talk (of about 1-2 hrs.) Vanessa told everyone about the guy who met her in the afternoon. She was still talking to that man in her fantasies. She asked everyone available if they knew someone by the name of Betty in hostel. They denied.

This name, Betty, made Jenna share a strange rumor that had been doing rounds among the hostellers..Batch by batch. She told them that there was a student named Betty only who was her sister’s classmate. Many people were of opinion that she was undoubtedly a fascinating beauty of her time. People also talked behind her back, about her carefree fling with many doctors at the same hospital. But just a few months before her completion of the course the warden found her sitting on her room’s desk, struggling with death. White foam was erupting from her lips and all what she could say in her last moments was” It’s not fair…it’s not correct…”.Doctors declared her brought dead and the reason of death was toxicities of the respiratory system. Sometime later, her classmates became aware of the fact that one of her relatives who had started visiting her frantically few weeks before her death died in an accident with his parents.

This revelation made all the girls along with my aunt too scared to speak anything. No one can accept being chickenshit on the first day of college so they mutually decided to go off sleeping. Vanessa and her room mates too retired to their respective beds. Around 1:30 PM my aunt got up from her bed to breathe in some fresh air as was not able to adjust to the strange smell flowing through the room and the corridor. She came to the window which was facing the corridor.

Few minutes later she saw a young girl coming towards her. She had a gentle but apologetic smile on her face. She had an expression as if she had been on a thinking mode for quite some time and hadn’t slept in few days. With a soft voice she exchanged pleasantries with my aunt and introduced herself as Betty Lawson. Betty told that she got t know about her through Mary. She asked about who had come to visit her from her home and what did he say. She also said that there has been actually a long time that she met her parents and the assignments were too killing in the final year.

At the mention of Jose’s name her tone grew bitter and sort of shouting. She warned my aunt not to convey any message of his in case he visits the hostel again. But my aunt had got a huge crush on him so she started arguing about why Betty was being so partial to him. Vanessa explained the cumbersome efforts which he was making in the scorching heat just to meet Betty. At this statement of her, Betty got into a fit of anger .She gave my aunt a small dialogue after which she found herself in the hospital directly ( I mean before her regular college schedule, getting treated for acute weakness).Betty roared” I didn’t come to meet him on my last day and I won’t come on any other day in future. Killing your parents to forcefully profess your love for a cousin is not a good idea…You know Vanessa it doesn’t feels good killing yourself for a stupid man’s attempt to hunt you. If You meet him again, tell him to kill himself every time on that aisle which he had decorated for my wedding to him …and tell him that his love is unethical and dead anyways…and you know what MISS VANESSA…..HE IS NOT AS SEXXY AS YOU THINK!!!!!!!!”.May be Betty would have gone into her favorite doctor’s cabin then.

The Dread instinct

FEAR, the dreaded and the most unwanted situation which an individual want to get rid of within the blink of an eye. You know, for him the thing or the situation should just vanish as if it wasn’t there. Unfortunately, for many of us this doesn’t happen so swiftly. IN fact many people live their whole life surviving out of those fears or PHOBIAS if I aptly interpret it.

Many psychologists have correctly disintegrated the term ‘FEAR ‘as:

Fantasized

Experiences

Appearing

Real

I think the unnoticed strength of fear is that people refuse to accept it. I have noticed men do it more cleverly to save their face among peers and society and to avoid tarnishing their male egos. Doing this, we are unknowingly letting the dread grip harder on our psyches. I have known some of my boldest friends and colleagues (of both genders, but thing is that girls accept it too loudly compared to boys who secretly suffer) who have an anxiety about something too ordinary. Thousands of years ago, humans evolved to develop a feeling which helped them in identifying life threatening situation. Unluckily we have inherited that sense of close sheltered life across many generations. Scientists have adopted fear as one of the major traits of a living being but for everyone it is not possible to experience the fear as simply as feeling jealous.

One of the point highlighted by many achievers is that they too brunt of facing heights, taking financial risks, speaking to public etc. but they went on anyhow to adjust to it and overcome it. I surfed through the net and found many wacky categories of panic.

CLOUROPHOBIA: 

Jhonny Depp ,the famous actor who featured in the movies like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean series’ and ‘Charlie and the chocolate factory’ fears clowns and heavy make ups.

(I too used to feel the same as a child whenever I saw a joker or those Bharatnatyam dancers, but no offence to The great Indian culture, this is because I equally dread the so called frantic moral and cultural policing even now)

AGAROPHOBIA 

Marilyn Monroe suffered from the fear of facing public or the open places. I still ponder over how she managed such a huge fan following at the acme of her acting career.

Demo phobia

Cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata etc feel the pressure of accommodating a huge influx of people on daily basis. Who can then think that people may suffer from fear of people? Area per capita is getting shrunk day by day but some people still prefer being all alone. I can cite a good and famous example of this phobia….no prize for guesses because it’s our so called Marathi MANOOS the ultimate jingoist, a certain Mr. Thackeray. God bless him and not let him screw up the state boundaries.

List is long and quite eccentric but I would be more interested in guessing the root of the thing. Seeds of fear are far deep seated in the time when in infancy we received the stupid and harmless threats from our Oh-So-Pampering parents.

I have seen many people surrendering to those horror moments in extremely abrupt and unexpected ways. All seems well with a person who looks extremely normal on the surface, but put him in his danger territory and suddenly you will witness a body language which will make you to laugh your heart out with a pinch of guilt and feeling pity on the poor creature.

In my upcoming posts I will try to share some of those experiences…and undoubtedly will give an account of my own fear(s).

Thanks a lot for reading and please provide me with your feedbacks…It will be kind of you to maintain that these are just my baby steps into writing and I hope to make them big some day….