Back in 2001, my mother suffered palpitations of the heart. She was under tremendous stress and the doctor sedated her and recommended that she be placed under observation for a few days.
She was checked in to the ICU of a well known Cardiac Hospital in Delhi and given a room that contained a small table, a chair and a settee besides the bed on which she lay.

My father and sister were out of the country and couldn't come back on such short notice, so the task of taking care of her fell on me.
I was just 21 and had just joined an international Advertising Agency. The work hours were erratic and the work load heavy. I used to go to work by 9 in the morning, leave work at 11 in the night and head straight to the hospital where I would sleep on the settee (which was quite uncomfortable), wake up at 6 in the morning and head home to shower, change, make breakfast and head straight to work again. Mom would be in and out of consciousness and even when she was awake, the sedatives made her incoherent.
The taxing schedule, worrying about my mother and the workload that a junior copywriter on a big brand has, was taking its toll on me.
One night, I stumbled into the hospital at 12, checked on my mother and threw myself down on the sofa and was asleep before even my head hit the cushion. Suddenly around 3 in the morning, I felt as if something was trying to enter my body, through my solar plexus. I felt fear and my body was numb. It felt like a heavy weight was trying to push itself in. My breath came in small bursts and I felt like I was about to lose. I jumped up with a start but my legs were weak. I fell to the ground reciting the Lord's prayer. I used to practice Reiki, so I started giving myself energy and kept telling the entity to leave my body. I remember struggling with it for over 15 minutes and every second was touch and go. Finally I felt it go away. It took me another 10 minutes to come back to normal. I gave energy to my room and my mother and asked the spirits to leave me and her in peace. Finally, I felt strong enough to resume sleeping. I think it was the spirit of a person that might have died in the same room at some point in time and wanted to come back. And since I was emotionally and physically drained, it was able to fight me in my weakened state. And though it was attacking me, I felt no malice in it. At any other time, I wouldn't have minded helping the spirit but this time my mother was my priority.

Thank you for reading my story.