We’ve all experienced moments in life when what seems isn’t what is, and what isn’t seems eerily real and true; those uncanny occurrences that have no logical explanations and yet, one is sure, occurred; some of those experienced by our community, told here:
• Somehow, just like that, I woke up and decided to check on my 7-year-old son, only to find his bed empty. I panicked, but found him slumped in the dining chair, fast asleep with his head on the table. What made me wake up? Instinct?
• There was still plenty of time before my daughter was due. But on that one night, I had a vivid dream of her in a peach-coloured nightie with an almost angelic brightness enveloping her. Sure enough, I woke up to hear that she had delivered prematurely and all was well with her and the child. Upon enquiring, she was indeed wearing that particular nightie when her water broke!
• Moments that felt beyond ordinary, almost as if something unseen was at work. Times when I thought of someone and, in that very instant, my phone rang with their name on the screen. Moments when paths crossed unexpectedly, without planning, as though the universe had softly nudged us together.
• There have been dreams that lingered long after waking—not random but vivid and meaningful—and later, pieces of them unfolded in real life. And there have been intuitive feelings, subtle yet, that I couldn’t explain at the time, only to realise later they were true.
• What stands out most is that these moments tend to happen when I feel deeply connected to someone emotionally and spiritually. It’s as if that connection creates a quiet, direct channel.
• This incident is from those long-ago years after losing our first child, a stillborn. I was praying for another baby at the altar in our home, then in India, totally focused on Shirdi Baba’s photo. Although I wasn’t wearing my spectacles, I clearly saw Baba’s face illuminated for one ephemeral moment, and in that very instant, I knew I would be blessed with a baby. Sure enough, my pregnancy was confirmed soon after; God is truly great.
• One particular morning, many years ago, as I sat with my mother-in-law after breakfast, I felt a strong, smelly whiff of the mutt we had, one that wasn’t exactly part of the family per se and passed his days in the outer perimeter of the house. So, I peered under the sofas in case he’d sneaked into the house somehow. My mom-in-law looked at me and quietly told me that he’d died that very morning and most probably already cremated at the wat!
• There was a time I met a pregnant acquaintance and felt then and there that she wouldn’t make it through till full term, which I regrettably blurted out to her friend, because eventually, she did miscarry.
• This was back in my college days, when I was sitting on a settee with a friend watching TV, when we both noticed that the blanket dumped on my bed was taking on the exact shape of a person’s silhouette. We freaked out and ran out of the room!
• There are two magical experiences of meeting myself. One was when participating in a dance workshop and somehow, just like that, my mind, body, and soul amalgamated, and my being was permeated with a magical and mystical joy. My eyes in the wall mirror reflected my unmasked soul—raw, defenceless, and completely naked: a transcendental experience from which I did not wish to return.
The second time was last year when I sat alone in an onsen in Japan. Not a thing was on me—physically, mentally, and emotionally, bare, which paradoxically and strangely, filled me with an exhilarating and liberating freedom. Not a worry; not a care; not a single thing in my possession or possessing me. Just me with ME.