Thread by @TheDilliMirror

YOUR NIGHT IS ABOUT TO GET WHOLE LOT DARKER -

Have you ever seen this boy roaming at Sarojini Nagar market after midnight ?

The year was 1992 . My dad was transferred to Sarojini Nagar govt school. The school is right before the the market. We were allocated govt flat

which was just across the road from the school . Since my dad was to be posted in school for few years , I also took transfer to the same school .
I still remember it was a Sunday when we shifted to the house . The house did not lose any time in telling us that we were

not welcome in it . There was no slow burn . It was on our faces from the moment we stepped in only we did not realized it .
As is the tradition when you enter new house , my mother went to the kitchen to boil the milk . She poured milk in the pateela and turned on the burner

and bought the light to the burner . Nothing happened for the first few second . Small figment of flames fighting to burn out but could not . Almost like something was trying to control it . And then in split second the flames erupted out of the burner . And the flames

were 15-20 inches high . And coming out of all 4 burners whereas my mother had only turned on one!

Have you even seen fire knocking anything off ? Like a wind or a push ? We did - the fire knocked off the pateela to the ground . Thankfully my mother was not hurt but we could not

make out what happened . We blamed it on faulty burner and gas connection and chose to ignore it.
That night around midnight my father was standing in balcony and one can see our stairs from the balcony . My father was looking in the other direction and moved his view towards the

stairs and just then he saw a dark shadow of a person going up our stairs . Someone at that hour was very unlikely so my dad asked me to check from keyhole who it was - I could hear the footsteps - light but there were definite footsteps. But no one responded to my " Kaun hai ?"

and whoever it was had not even turned on the light . There is no way anyone can walk those staircases without light !
" There is no one here - no light either "- I told my dad . Did that person went back realizing he was entering wrong house ? I asked my dad .

No one walked out - replied my dad . " I was here the entire time "
But something did walk in . It was a stench - terrible rotting smell . Overwhelming stench . Like rotting meat or maybe burned hair or melted plastic or burned chicken . I could not make out

We are a late night family . Our preparation for next day typically starts around midnight . So I prepared my school bag and went for my bath and my dad went to kitchen to make his mid night tea and also to check the burner .
I turned on the tap . He turned on the burner

Both tap and burner were well behaved . The water poured seamlessly from tap . The flames danced carefully from burner .
But just then there was a loud cry filled with anger and unbearable pain that came out of kitchen . My dad stepped out in shock.

The tap stuttered, the water struggled a bit then stopped . Somethings fell out of the tap into my cupped hand . It took me a moment to realize what it was . It was burnt hair and charred eye ball.
I stepped out in fear .

The thing about unexplained fear is that one tries to ignore it as much as possible . Thats what we did . We justified it by blaming it on some animal or some thing and went to our respective rooms.
I went to my room .
My school bag was burnt to ashes. The burnt pages

were flying in the room . I had no explanation .
I curled up in bed , not knowing what else to do . I do not when I fell asleep . I do know when and how I woke up though .
It was when I smelled overwhelming stench of rotten meat right next to me

Actually on me . Charred , burnt hand with the sheets of skin sloughing off the body , the blackened chunks of flesh hitting the ground and continuing to smoulder and blood bubbling and steaming as it spills out from the wound .
Just the hand . No body . Exploring my face

almost trying to recognize me . As if trying to figure out if I was responsible for what happened to him . If I was the person who did this to him.
I fainted or slept . I could not make out if this was dream or reality .
When I woke up again , the burnt bag was still there .

The bubbling blood had cooled down and staring from the floor . Charred pieces of skin were lying on the bed . Leathery and curled away from the skin below it.
Then I saw my dad . While , pale and haggard . I saw the hand , he saw the entire body . A burned boy - 16-17 year old.

Flailing his handless arms and screaming out demented moans of glory.
The peon of the school finally told the chilling tale . During the Mandal commission protests in 1990 , many school children from this school self immolated. Taking advantage of it some children took out

personal animosity with Abhinav . They went to his house knowing his parents are out working and immolated him , making it look like suicide for Mandal commission protests.
You can still hear him and see him - sometimes in school, sometimes in the house and on many nights

walking the lanes of sarojini nagar market ........