Swetha Banda

In the summer of 1998, the construction of our house was just about complete and we had a house warming ceremony. Right behind our building, was a lake. People could rent a pedal boat and go boating on that lake at that time. Subsequently, water from the lake was drained out to a different lake and the boating stopped. I was about 14 at that time. Sravani and Sruthi, my friends whose houses were also in the same building were a couple of years younger than me. While the gruhapravesham was going on, the three of us felt particularly adventurous. We decided to go boat riding, but wouldn't be allowed to do it on our own if we asked for permission. Well, we decided to do it anyway. The three of us had a little bit of pocket money and we rented a boat. Our plan was to take the boat to the other side of the lake, closest to our house and surprise our parents and to show them, how capable we were to do it on our own. We would reach waters edge on our home-side, call out to our pare...

Every night, I would hear this particular sound. It was the one sound I was really terrified of. It was the sound of a really heavy, wooden log hitting the ground and then being dragged along on the road. It would happen around the same time every night. I would lie awake, imagining a terrible monster who had large, wooden logs for legs, walking along the street, looking for little children to carry away and eat. Then I would crawl up to my parents bed and sleep in between my mom and dad, hoping that I wouldn't be carried away. After all, which 8 year old would be strong enough to fight this monster and triumph. This carried on for a few months and my night terrors got worse. My parents were, at that time, trying to get me to sleep independently. But I would end up in their bed, almost inevitably. It was worse on days when the power went out. One day, I was home sick and missed school. It was just after lunch and I was reading a book in the balcony when the bell rang. I ran...