Unfortunately this is not a spine-chilling Gothic fiction plot but if you have an inclination for the mysterious, the on-and-off phenomenon of possessed light bulbs, the deafening silence of fog-covered huts and offices, distant view of candlesticks and kerosene lamps burning on window sills signalling the perpetual fight against darkness and more sucking darkness, you could stay the night here and find out. Nothing to do with your favourite Hotel California either, although I rather fancy some of its interpretations. We also have mountains of skulls in our villages from those head-hunting days to entice you further, and if you don't believe me here is the living proof of a picture:
All stories that writers write are influenced by their personal experiences in some way or the other no matter how fictitious and deliciously sleep-inducing. Stories of haunted places therefore are perhaps inspired by real-life encounters with beastly things and frustrated spirits particularly after sun down when Dagr rides away in his swift Skinfaxi (nah! it's not the new moisturising cream), or in some cases if one is specially anointed with the oil of extraordinary hallucinations.
Our story of haunted places goes way back as early as the third or fourth day of creation when it was uttered, "Let there be light!" Before this very words it used to be really dark and really cold, there was nothing, not even ghosts. In modern times, people just swing their wands and spellify with a simple "Lumos!" Anyway, in those bygone days of Primordial Soup, soups could be scooped up from soup-ponds, naturally, and there was no need for electric stoves, candlelit dinners or roasted delicacies glistening on dining tables under blazing chandeliers. After many billions of years of natural soup-drinking, around 400,000 BC our greatest-great grandfather fortuitously discovered fire and roast beef and smoked pork and so on. Then came the invention of the primitive lamp right out of Flinstones' bedside table, illuminating caves and bats and there was no stopping our early mothers and fathers thereafter. The birds and animals oil lamps made their début and soon the market was flooded with competitive products of innovative inventions by Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Arabians and then the Greeks, Romans, Indians, Chinese and others.
However, the biggest blockbuster in titanic proportions was the box-office smashing invention of the Candle in 400 AD with a lot of hard work from our friends, the bees. Although it was a bit messy in the early stages, the candle was perfected as years passed by and the oil lamp and candle duo have been serving humankind since....
I suppose it is important to mention about the inventions of Thomas Alva Edison and his powerful incandescent lamp too and the discoveries of Benjamin Franklin and Michael Faraday long long time ago but these have little relevance to our secret village life in 2010, the later discoveries are rather a source of nuisance for us. So what has this light and lamp history got to do with haunted places in Nagaland you ask. I am afraid it has everything to do with the matter at hand. I very clearly remember at least the last twenty years, how our villages and towns have been haunted by the ghosts of electricity and light bulbs day and night.
Kerosene lamps also called paraffin lamps invented around 1850 replacing their Hellenistic predecessors are the brave warriors in my hut till today battling the woes inflicted upon us by the other-worldly creature, locally known as 'electric power supply'. I am proud to mention that we are in possession of two types of kerosene lamps - the old and faithful hurricane lamp and the stylish but fragile mantle lamp, and a host of thin, fat, round and short candles.
There have been strange incidents like...
(to be continued)
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