The Celestial Messaging!

It is a fact of life that we keep on getting celestial or divine messages from the invisible world—particularly during times when catastrophes/tragedies happening in or about to befall our family or locality or country and we might as well call these as intuition or premonition or telepathy or presentiment or the like. Most of the times we fail to decipher these in time; sometimes we understand but fail to act upon it and some other time we comprehend enough to prepare well for it. From at least three months prior to my father’s demise I had been having a very disturbing time—wanting desperately to go to him, be by his side; dreaming about him and at times having a hallucination of seeing him around. However, living quite far away from home, I failed to act upon it due to various external factors including a persistent financial strain. As was inevitable, he passed away one early morning and I could reach home only on the sixth day travelling for three days on an ordinary train as booking a flight those days was almost unthinkable. I joined my family, totally broke, depressed and inconsolable.

The first night we slept in my father’s bedroom. Early morning I woke up; there was an incessant chirping of a few house sparrows just outside the window. And I got a flash: my father was content and in peaceful rest, and that I should also feel happy, not to depress the atmosphere further. It came instantly before I had any chance of interpreting the chirping, and it did have a soothing impact on my mental health for the rest of the period.

(You can find a very similar territory in my thriller The Astral Limbo! No harm if you'd like to take a look!)

There was also a very painful prelude to the demise of my father-in-law: he had not been well for some time, but since he didn’t confide in anybody about his condition and we failed to take it seriously enough his condition worsened, and finally when we decided upon the journey he was literally on his death bed. For our peace of mind my wife and I decided to shift him to the nearest city for intensive treatment; we were desperate to do something for him, however futile or too late it were. Those 2/3 nights we spent in my in-laws’ house were terrifyingly disturbing for me. Every night I felt: the spirits of all his ancestors descending on me, not allowing me to fall asleep. I interpreted it thus: the ancestors came down and wanted to take possession of his soul in peace, because the end was inevitable and they did not want him to suffer more at the hospital beds and labs; they seemed to be angry at our efforts to linger it further. However, my father-in-law, kind soul as his was, understood his daughter’s feelings and allowed us to transport him for one last attempt to save him.

And, as it happened, he came back home again after almost a tortuous month to pass away in peace a few days later. Meanwhile, I had to go to my workplace for an emergency, and returned as soon as my wife gave me the sad news of his passing away. During the next few days of rituals leading to the aadya shraddha on the 11^th day I had a few supernatural experiences which, in final analysis, were only a communication or messaging from his soul.

Once around noontime, when I was alone in the room normally allotted to me on our visits, somehow I had an urge of sitting on the old wooden chair with arm-rests preserved there which was the favorite chair of my wife’s grandfather. As I moved towards it something inexplicable happened: the chair seemed to have jerked sideways which froze me on my track. I deciphered it thus: it was due to the profound respect the grandfather was given in that household, and that my father-in-law who lost his father very early in life wanted me to adhere to it.

One night as we were sleeping I woke up suddenly to a peculiar sound. It was a sound of laboured breathing that seemed to emanate from within the bed. It was so loud and clear that the bed almost shivered and shuddered. I put my ears near to my soundly-sleeping wife—no, it wasn’t coming from her. I examined the bed all around, but failed to identify the source of the sound. My efforts woke my wife up. I told her about it, she advised me not to think much about it. So we went back to sleep.

Very late in the night another time I woke up without understanding why. There was a pin-drop silence and it was pitch dark in the room—the period being a waxing moon fortnight. Suddenly I beheld a patch or a circle of bright white light floating at the ceiling, then moving all around us. It continued its movement for more than a minute, as if watching us, surveying us. My mind immediately started exploring the possible source for an infiltrating light. There was no chance. The curtained two windows on one side of the longish room were completely sealed in by the tin-roofed pandal constructed in the courtyard for the shraddhaceremony; heavy curtains were also fully drawn across the two windows on the other side and from that walled-in side there was no possibility of any light; the lone street light in the driveway had not been working for a few days. I confirmed every facet the next morning and found no justification for an infiltrating light.

There could have been only one messaging in those occurrences: that the spirit of my father-in-law wanted to assure us again and again that he was with us all the time and would be watching over us for some time. It is also interesting to note that my wife never expressed surprise or shock at my accounts, because, as I came to know later, she was also having similar communications those days.

 

Hark! Such messages keep on coming and are all around you! You only need to respect those and try to decipher to your own benefit. If you deem it to be superstition you’re most welcome to ignore this piece, apart from the messages! 

India Vs Australia T20I Cricket: India Now Looking More Like the Team It Had Been!

Although the ‘experiment’ scare is far from over Team India is now looking more like the one it had been in the national sense as regards the international tournaments. Doing justice to the expectations of a decider the third and last T20I match in Hyderabad last night went down the wire keeping the thrill on till the penultimate ball of the match. It was a high-scoring match in a pitch that helped both the batsmen and the bowlers. Australia put up an imposing target of 187 runs for India after Rohit Sharma won the toss for the second time. And India skillfully handled the early losses of both their openers with Virat Kohli (63) and Suryakumar Yadav (69) having a rollicking partnership of 104 runs thus nearing the target with enough wickets left. However, the ride was still not without thorns as the Aussie fast bowlers started delivering beauties and scoring boundaries was difficult. With the demolition-man Suryakumar gone Kohli and Pandya got into some kind of a spot—India needing 32 in 3, then 21 in 2 and finally 11 in the last over. Before getting out in the second ball Kohli did an immense service by hitting the first ball of the last over by Sams for a six and the target got tantalizingly reduced to just 5 in 4 balls. Dinesh Karthik came in and scored a single off the third ball. Pandya failed to connect a outside-off wide fourth ball and with the wide not given the equation got a little tough with 4 runs in 2 balls. Luckily, Pandya managed to nick another wide ball and the lone slip fielder missed it. It went to a four in the third man area and India won the match by 6 wickets and the Mastercard T20I Series against Australia 2-1, thus providing the much-needed impetus for the team to go to Australia next month for the World Cup.

 

The defending World T20 Champions Australia would’ve much liked it to go home with a series victory to prepare well for the tournament in their own turfs. Apart from the match being a very close one that could’ve gone in either direction there were huge positives for Australia though: it fought all-out to win the first match and could’ve won the next two also; their pace and spin bowlers coming good most of the times to put the hosts under pressure; their batting depth remaining perfect as ever to help the team come out of any adversity; and the revelation that Cameron Green as an opener proved for the team and the management. This exciting new-age power-cricketer has become a tremendous prospect for Australia in the coming World Cup and his sparkling performance has put up question marks for the retention of quite a few stalwarts including even the legendary Steve Smith in the playing T20 eleven in the World Cup. Refreshingly enough, Green has debuted successfully in all the three formats during the last two years only. In this match he notched up his second half century (52 in just 21) and also bowled beautifully and economically.

 

The last five-over woes continue to rattle India though with their bowlers conceding too many runs in those death overs consistently in the last few internationals. Of course, the main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah has come back to the team, but it’d be unrealistic to expect him to strike immediately after almost rusting for weeks. More hopefully, now in the company of Bumrah the other class pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is set to pick up soon. For the second time, spinner Axar Patel stole the show by capturing three vital wickets apart being part of the crucial runout of Glen Maxwell. This time he was joined effectively by Yuzvendra Chahal who removed Steve Smith early. Their efforts reduced Australia to a precarious 117/6 in 14^th over when Tim David came to the rescue with a brilliant innings of 54 in 27 balls. Daniel Sams did a cameo of 28 in 20 balls to aid David and the team. Next, India meets South Africa at home too in the last three-match T20I Series before the start of the World Cup. Pandya is supposed to be rested for that Series; we pray against more experiments and the only exception should be Rishabh Pant who was dropped for the third match.

(Photos from bcci.tv)

Amidst the Rohit Blitz Karthik Had His Moments as India Level T20I Series Against Australia!

Chasing a tall target of 91 runs to win in 8 overs (the second T20I between India and Australia was reduced to 8-overs a side due to rain affected pitch and outfield) captain Rohit played out of his skin remaining not out at 46 off just 20 balls to steer India to a win by 6 wickets against Australia before a packed house in Nagpur. He kept his cool and hit some terrific shots all around the park as he has been known for despite the failures of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. For a change, we’ve used ‘India’ instead of ‘Rohit Franchise’ because the team finally looked like a national team with main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah coming back and batsman-keeper Dinesh Karthik retained notwithstanding what happened in the first match. This is not at all due to India’s win. Of course, one of the main weapons for a national side Bhuvneshwar Kumar was dropped or rested as he’s been giving away crucial runs in his second spell in the last few matches. However, the fact that the IPL rookie fast bowlers have been consistently given the privilege of bowling the last over could’ve affected his confidence and form. Even with Bumrah around the last over in this match was also handed over to Harshal Patel and that over cost a lot of runs.

 

Earlier, during the extended pre-match panel discussion Sunil Gavaskar had welcomed the inclusion of Bumrah for the do or die match and made a far more important observation that with Bumrah or Shami bowling from the other end Bhuvneshwar just gets transformed bowling to a tight length and getting the rewards too. Gavaskar also welcomed the move to retain Dinesh Karthik saying that Karthik has always been a finisher and a team would love to have him coming in at a crucial juncture. His comment simply means that a ‘finisher’ must be utilized before the match gets actually finished.

 

In the match played last night, 23^rd September 2022, we justifiably had a nightmarish thought about having to watch Axar Patel coming in when a struggling Pandya fell in the fifth ball of the penultimate over and India still needed 14 runs in 7 balls. But to our heartfelt relief we beheld Karthik coming in occupying the non-striker’s end as Rohit did cross over during the Pandya catch. As a cruel blow to the Aussies who again saw themselves back in the match the sixth ball was a wide coming from an experienced Pat Cummins and the next ball was hit for a four by Rohit; the final equation being reduced now to 9 runs in the last over. Karthik was facing the last over.

 

He hit the first ball of the last over by Daniel Sams for a huge six and then the next ball for a resounding four. And the match was over as Rohit rushed to embrace Karthik. The ‘finisher’ sent ahead of Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel at long last seized the opportunity to prove his mettle and helped his team romp home to 92/4 with 4 balls to spare. Well, giving your key players the trust and confidence almost always works. Now what happens next is eagerly awaited as both the teams clash for the decider in Hyderabad tomorrow; the ‘experiment scare’ just refuses to leave us alone.

 

Put in to bat Australia had captain Finch blasting away in a determined frame of mind to seal the Series. But Rohit just then produced a masterstroke handing over the ball to Axar Patel in the very second over with, mind you, Bumrah around. Axar first affected a Kohli-fueled brilliant runout of the first-match destroyer Cameron Green and then clean bowled the dangerous Glen Maxwell for a first-ball duck in the last ball of the same over. Probably as there were only 8 overs to be bowled in all he was not taken off and was given the fourth over too, and in that over Axar clean bowled Tim David. He effectively prevented Australia from running away with a 100+ total in spite of the late charge by Matthew Wade (43 not out in 20 balls). Adam Zampa did more than an Axar capturing the top three Indian wickets, but could not force a win thanks to Rohit and that each bowler could bowl only two overs each. Josh Hazelwood was the most expensive Aussie bowler giving away 20 runs in 2 overs.