I was about to wade through the pages of my newly bought novel over the small coffee table in ‘shoppers stop’, when I heard the voice. There was a tall, handsome guy looking at me. “may I sit here?“. I nodded as he settled down comfortably. “Is that book interesting?” I was getting curious. “oh yeah, looks good to me.”, I replied. As we greeted each other, I learnt that he is from Canada, researching on ‘the effects and behaviors of different religious communities coherently existing in the society’. I found Ivan quite interesting as we started chatting on different topics like Indian society, the current economy blah blah. We talked about for an hour. It was time to leave. I paid the bill and started towards the door when I heard Ivan again. “are you in a trouble?” he said in a soothing voice. There was a mental unrest indeed that was bothering me from the morning. I was a little taken aback. “may I pray for you?“, he said as If comforting my soul. I was completely clueless about what’s happening but a sense of curiosity was overwhelming me. So, we sat across the table as he closed his eyes and started mumbling. a group of gals over the other table, suddenly stopped howling and gaped at us. A few sheepish grins gleamed on their faces. After a few minutes, Ivan stopped briefly and touched my shoulder. “Amen” he said “You’ll be fine. The holy father will erase your pain.“. the cell buzzed in. she was mad at me yelling over the phone, “where the hell are you?” as if waking up from a haze, I realized that it’s more than half an hour since I was about to leave. But I was feeling better. Suddenly, the dysphoria that clogged my mind was gone. I couldn’t believe and found myself groping for a possible explanation. As I rushed towards the exit, a strange feeling was already pouring inside me… I looked back at the table where we were seated, but he was gone. And I realized that I didn’t even say him ‘bye’. I paused for a while trying to find him among the flock of shoppers, but he was nowhere. A tingle of awkwardness shot through me as I left the place.

I am yet to find a reason that could possibly fit into this piece of mystery that I experienced that evening. I am too atheist to term it as something divine. It was as if I was put on a hex for a while. And there’s no doubt that my mind was captivated for long. Was it a witch? An abnormal or supernatural power that can connect to your soul advertently for a brief period of time? A voodoo perhaps?