A matter of premonition

Among the myriad mysterious phenomena pervading our earthly existence, most of us must have experienced the inexplicable instances of telepathic premonition which leave indelible scars on our lives. This phenomenon — defined as communication of information, feeling and warning of future events through means other than our senses, involving certain unknown mechanisms defying all known scientific laws — remains unfathomable even to this day. During my prime years, I used to dismiss such incidents as a mere figment of fertile imagination till, to my dismay, I myself experienced it.

That day, several years ago, I was busy discussing certain technical problems with my junior colleagues in my office when I suddenly found my thoughts arrested by some unknown power. I was unable to continue the discussion and was compelled to abruptly postpone the meeting in order to be left alone!

Next, I called up my wife and, much to her consternation, went on mechanically explaining how she should reach her mother’s place in Shimoga from Bhilai in the quickest possible time by first reaching Nagpur by road and thereafter by flight to Bangalore and finally to Shimoga by road! Since this most unexpected piece of communication was coming from me with no context, she presumed I was planning a surprise trip for her and our infant son to her hometown.

Little did we know that fate had designed an entirely different course of events. Before I could compose myself and realise my involuntary action, my wife received an emergency trunk call informing us of the sudden demise of my mother-in-law in Shimoga! (STD systems were not yet introduced then).

It was painful to see my wife reach her mother’s place in the same manner I had explained to her. She was under the impression for several days that I had known the deteriorating condition of her mother beforehand prompting me to mentally prepare her, though none had any inkling of it whatsoever!

Several decades later, while serving in Bhilai, I had planned an exciting three-day camping expedition along with a few of our close family friends at the lush-green forests in the Bastar region considered as ‘the Kashmir of Chhattisgarh’.

Even as the preparations were in full swing, my enthusiasm was suddenly blown off by a flood of inexplicably overpowering pangs of depression and I felt that my entire being was shrouded in an unbearable cloud of loneliness. Much to the dismay and annoyance of everyone, I abruptly cancelled the entire plan and before the team members reached my house to enquire into my capricious decision, I got a call from Bangalore that my twin brother Ram had just expired!

Had we undertaken the trip before the receipt of this message, we would have been inaccessible to any communication for several days in that remote zone which I would have regretted all my life.

How would one explain these? Could this be nature’s compassionate act of preparing us for the tragic impact of impending sad events? God alone knows!