The mystery stood solved, yet unsolved

This story, which I am going to narrate today, is somewhat disturbing to me. I've had never shared this with anyone, but I decided to put it in words and share my experience. 

Well, a few months back, my family and I went to our village Nandeshma, which is near Udaipur, Rajasthan. This place is very near to my heart as it has a touch of nature with farms and lakes. The fact why we go there is that my family believes in theism and is also very superstitious. Nandeshma is the place of "Kul Devi" of my maternal side, and that's the reason behind all our family gatherings being organized there. My maternal grandparents visit there once a year, mostly in "NAVRATRI" and I too have been going there since I was a child. 

So, a few months back, when I went there, I didn't know why were we going, because it was the month of December and Navratri was over. My mother told me that it was the death anniversary of one of our distant relatives, so there were a family gathering and a "Prasadi" by their family members. I had no problems; who believe in all these things anymore? I just wanted to meet my cousins, my uncles, and aunts. We had reached there a night before Prasadi. The house which had only one room, kitchen, and a verandah was now a two-floored house with three rooms on the newly made floor. The lower floor was now given on rent; the glimpses of that old floor made me recall that incident again. I swayed the thoughts out of my mind, as I ran upstairs.

After all the greetings with everyone, I went directly to my favorite room and tried to sleep while everyone else talked in another room. I could not help but think of the day when we had come to this house, where only the lower portion of the house was there with a small gate and a wooden bigger door behind it.

I remember when we had come to attend the "Mundan Sanskar" of my cousin during Navratri, I was around 11 years old. Everyone else in the house had gone to enjoy the dandiya function. Meanwhile, my family and I were resting in the room. The main doors were not locked because everyone was to come around midnight. When I woke up the next day, there was chaos. I couldn't understand what was happening. I rubbed my eyes with one hand while I covered my mouth with the other as I yawned. My dad told me we were lucky that we were safe, otherwise, we would not be able to greet each other in the morning. I still stood there in confusion watching my family members talk in a serious tone.

Later that day, I got to know that when my uncle arrived at midnight, he was about to switch on the lights, but he sensed something odd. He could smell something terrible, soon realizing that it was the smell of gas that leaked from the LPG cylinder in the kitchen. He rushed into the kitchen and found the gas pipe broken. Our room gate was closed from inside, so he woke up my mother, opened all the windows, and fixed the pipe immediately. The strange part was that my mother remembers that she had turned off the gas and closed the kitchen's gate and locked it, but when my uncle arrived, it was wide open. Also, the main gate was locked from outside, but we had left it open for my uncle. If he had switched on the lights, there could have been a blast or any other mishappenings. We never realised if it was a coincidence, or someone actually came and broke that pipe intentionally. No one likes to talk about this anymore, but every time I visit this place, the incident takes place in my mind. I really wanna know who was it and what made him do it. Was it our luck or any other power which saved us from being killed? I don't know if it's a story my mind made up itself but, it seemed all strange to me. 

I didn't realize when I had slept while thinking about all this. My sleep was disturbed by a sound which came from downstairs... a very feeble sound it was. It sounded as if someone entered the house from the main gate. I did not want to wake up, but something made me stand. I stood there and directly walked downstairs automatically. It was all strange, everything was darker than usual, something about me was not same. I didn't know what was controlling me, but I could not move as I wished. I stood on the stairs as I saw a man creeping inside. I did not know who this man was, but he seemed familiar in some way or another. He crept towards the kitchen and slowly unlocked the door and snatched out the gas pipe. I stood there watching him do it, I stood in front of him but he could not see me. I was clueless, could not even move. I watched him close all the windows as he grinned quietly. I wanted to stop him but I was statued. Why the hell couldn't he see me? I tried to scream but I choked and fell there. My vision blurred as I saw my uncle approaching to the nearby window and opening it.

SPLASH! I woke up and started coughing, as my family members encircled me. "Are you okay?" my mother asked me in pure concern with a glass of water in her hand. "Yeah what happened?" I muttered as I scratched my head in confusion. "You were not waking up sleepyhead!" My brother replied in a sarcastic tone. "Maybe I took a higher dose of my medicines and dozed off a bit..." I lied, I did not even take my pills last night, but you know Indian moms are so concerned, I had to make up something to make her believe me.

"Okay, just get ready now. We have to leave for prasadi in half an hour now." My father commented. I surely remembered the thing from the last night, but I did not want to talk it out with anyone. I got up, telling myself that it was just a nightmare. I kept on thinking the whole time about last night. When we reached there, I noticed a huge photograph with a garland over it, but before I could take a look my cousin pulled me aside with excitement. Maybe it was picture of the person whose death anniversary it was. I heard my mom talking about how this distant relative of ours died many years ago. Coincidentally it was the same year when (according to me) my family, and I were tried to be killed, in fact just a month later. I heard attentively as my mother continued, "I know our relations were not as good with them, but god should never give such a merciless death to anyone else. I mean, he died in the blast in his factory. He would have suffered a lot as he was locked in his factory when the gas leak occurred."

I was shocked, I took a deep stare at the picture, it was the same person from last night. I could make out his big moustaches, dark eyes and that grin on his face. Yes! it was him who did it. 

I later got to know that this person, who was a distant uncle of mine, had a dispute with my grandparents over some family issues. From then we did not have good relations with him... but after he died, the issue was soon resolved.

The vision I got there, or the dream I don't know what it was but it was true. Now the mystery stood unsolved in front of my eyes, but I never told anyone. I wonder what that vision was all about... was it a positive power or something else? Also, the death of the same person in the same way he tried to kill us... STRANGE!