PELTING STONES

It was a fine evening which was slowly getting draped by the dusk. We were back from our school and was settling down for our evening routine of homework.My parents were watching TV. It was during that time , we heard it.
"THUD"
We stopped our routines and looked at each other.We were convinced that it might be one of those coconuts from the tree that fell on our terrace.It was not unusual, since ours was a coastal village where the strong winds frequent us.
A few minutes passed by.
"Thud..Thud "
This time , we were sure that it was not the coconuts.The sound was quite loud to ignore.Coincidentally , the power had gone off that time, which was also common during the windy conditions.So, my dad gathered all his courage, took a battery light and went to the terrace.
To add to our fear , he brought down couple of half bricks from upstairs.
"Somebody is throwing bricks at our house!!!"

We kids were already panicking at the falling objects and then utterly horrified to see what was fallling.As the minutes ticked and the evening getting darker, the falling became frequent and louder. So, my dad again went up the terrace amidst my mother's refusal.This time he shouted omnidirectionally, asking for the chucker to come and fight him like a man!!

Hearing his shouting, the whole street rushed to our house.Just like any other crowd, most of them were curious on-lookers and some volunteered to help.Since the crowd strength became big, a small group went up the terrace with sticks and did the same of transmitting the threats and challenges over the air.By then , our mood changed from panic to excitement.After that , nothing much happened that evening and the crowd dispersed.Interestingly , the stone pelting continued next evening too,this time with more frequent throwing . Now, it drew more crowd to our house since the news had spread already.

Some oldies in the crowd were sharing their knowledge about such stone throwing 'phenomenon'.They said "sometimes , evil forces of nature(Read Kaathu karuppu)try to show their power in such a manner and try to threaten the human beings".Now we are talking! The feeling was a mix of fear and excitement that time.The know-it-all people did not stop with the cause.They gave hints on the confirmation tests too.

The steps were as follows:
1.Take 4 pieces of bricks that were thrown.
2.Apply some lime(Sunnambu) on each brick in a unique way for easy identification.
3.Throw each brick in each direction.
4.If any one of the 4 bricks is thrown back at you , then it is confirmed that it is the mischief of dark forces.

According to them , the solution for this was to take one of the bricks to the Muneeswaran temple that was, and is always located at the end of the village limits.Muneeswaran is a guardian angel for every village.He is believed to be ruthless in punishing those who try to harm the village and the people He guards.The brick needs to be kept under the deity's feet along with some offerings.The single most important method of praying Muneeswaran is to pray to him and walk backwards without turning your back to the deity.The moment we show our back to Muni, He is believed to possess you and punish you for that.Talking of disrespect,huh?

Once the brick was kept under Him, we were told that if it was really a handwork of dark forces, it would stop immediately.But if it was done by some mischief mongers, then whoever did that would face the harshest wrath of Muni in a short time.Once the news of us seeking the help of Muni reached the village, the stone pelting stopped.We were also relieved about it.

One of my dad's tuition students was giving us the hint that some of our neighbours were interested in acquiring our house, which was considered very lucky in the village.We could guess who was it, because the guy next door was so keen on it and we did not share a great relation with him.Ironically, the boy who told about it, himself was a close family friend of our neighbour.
It was one of the age old tricks followed in villages to create fear of ghosts in the residents when they refuse to sell their properties.

After a few weeks, one evening we heard a shocking news that the boy who hinted us, was found dead due to snake bite in our neighbour's garden around the same time of the evening the stone pelting occured.
Couple of years later , we came to know that that boy himself along with our neighbour was throwing stones from our neighbour's terrace and joined the crowd below.