Once upon a time, my father's sister came to stay with us. She was lean, with a white complexion, slightly anaemic, and often hunched forward. She spoke as if she were in a dream. We would ask her about our supernatural doubts, and to her, everything supernatural seemed more natural than real. Once, we asked if she had ever encountered a Yakshi. She told us she had met Neeli Yakshi twice.
Our grandmother would wake up very early in the morning and
go straight to a nearby pond to bathe. After her bath, she would sweep around
her house. By then, dawn would break, and she would go milk the cows, make tea,
and drink it. She lived alone.
One day, after waking up and going straight to the pond, she
saw a strange woman sitting on a nearby step platform. The woman didn’t look
familiar as she oiled her hair, which flowed like a small black waterfall.
Grandma remained silent, finished her bath, and returned to sweep around her
house. Even after completing her sweeping, the day still hadn’t broken. She
went inside and slept. She slept for a long time, only waking up to see
daybreak. It was then she realised that all this had been the magic of Neeli.
On another early morning, she saw the strange woman again by
the pond. This time, Grandma asked who she was. Suddenly, the woman turned
around, revealed her blood-sucking teeth, groaned, and lunged towards Grandma.
Thankfully, the Brahma Rakshasses came to her aid. They lifted my grandmother
and safely carried her back home. The Brahma Rakshasses are incompletely dead
innocent beings, and they were Grandma’s friends.
One morning, when we woke up, we couldn't find Grandma in
our home. We asked our father about her disappearance. He explained that the
Brahma Rakshasses had appeared to her in a dream and asked her to return home.
Grandma couldn’t say no to the Brahma Rakshasses because they were her great
friends.
Mukundanunni
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