So something surreal happened in the village.

I wanted to sleep in the basement because basements are supposed to be cooler in the heat and bijli keeps going off. Mor (mom) told me not to sleep in the basement because there could be scorpions or insects.

Now this is a relatively new house and not used much so she has a point. But I have not seen a scorpion in these parts in a long time, and the caretaker and his kids use the basement to sleep here when we are in the city. I am like, how can there possibly be a scorpion here?

So I take my pre-sleep chai to the basement (I cant sleep without it) and sit down in the bed and take a sip or two,and lo and behold there is a scorpion crawling from right underneath my bed and it is a giant. Scorpions are miniature in these parts but this one is like 3 inches.

So before I get up to kill it, I berate myself for not listening to my mother and how mothers are always right even though we never admit it. (Ok, not always, but most of the time).

I step on the scorpion with my chapal. I hear a crunch. I pivot my leg on top of it.

I may not know how to twerk but I have bowled some left-arm china-man in my day so I know how to pivot the front leg on the bowling crease. It is all in the hips and the pivot, the spin bowling coach will tell. So I pivot some more and I hear the scorpion crunch some more.

I am non violent. I never kill anything and I didn't feel great about killing it but, come on, it is a scorpion. It would have killed me too. So I convince myself that I am doing the right thing. Scorpions must die so we can live. This is how our species has ensured its survival.

As I am having this philosophical conversation about the survival of the fittest and ethics of scorpion-killing, I lift my foot up to reach for the chai. But before I do that I look down to check the scorpion pulp and there is no pulp.

The scorpion is not there.

I swear I killed it. I crushed it under my foot. I felt the crush. I heard the sound. I felt the pulp as I pivot.

How could it have just vanished into thin air? It is impossible! I swear I killed it!

I am brave but I couldnt possibly sleep in the basement now. Could I?

I mean, I am not crazy. I couldnt possibly sleep in the basement with the place swarming with scorpions.

So I went upstairs and told everyone what happened. So Mom and Dad came down to the basement with me to kill the scorpion before it laid eggs (gave birth?) or something.

So we combed the entire place but couldn't find the scorpion. It had vanished. Like I said. After I killed it!

My sister said peryaan (bhoot) live in basements; assume shapes of scorpions and that this was a test which I failed it and that I would pay for it.

Look, I dont believe in Djinn bhoot. I am a rational scientific human being. (I only stood with Popalzai because i cant stand all the sanctimonious trolling of the other side). I have never had a paranormal experience in life. But what happened today freaked me out. I wont lie.

For those asking, yes I did check the sole of the chappal. Three times. It wasnt there. There was no splash on the chapal either.

#NaPohaStory