There was a doctor who was living in a big Govt. quarters in Kuala Brang, way back in 1974.

    Kuala Brang is the district head-quarters of the large district of Ulu Trengganu in the State of Trengganu in the east coast of Malaya. It is full of virgin jungles and mountains. It is cut by many rivers and there were ony two roads. One of them was of gravel. The mode of transport used to be by land-rovers or shallow draft boats.

    The place was noted as a tiger and elephant territory.

    Trade was by some form of barter involving cheques. A cheque which is issued may be circulating with other cheques for at least three months before ending up in someone's account. Thats because there were no banks in the vicinity. Petrol was bought in spare jerry-canes because there were no petrol bunks.     

    The folk living along the rivers used bring vegetables to a riverside 'santhai', twice a week. For three months in a year, the place would be flooded. It will be cut off from the rest of the world. The only mode of transport was by helicopter.

     At such times, food would be restricted to cracker biscuits, potatoes, tinned sardines, mochchai, tattapayiru, etc. And of course....you guessed it - fish, fish and more fish.

     It would be an adventure alright.....but then there were the hazards. Snakes, rats, iguanas, all forms of insects, and other animals might want to share your house with you. Sometimes, a tiger might stray nearby. Elephants might decide that your garden would be suitable for a short snack break.

     But our doctor fully enjoyed himself because he was an adventurous type who used to go boating in crocodile infested rivers. He was also interested in carrying out a historical study of the place. Hence, he would go around ancient sites which were covered up with jungle.

    That quarters was never fully occupied except once. Very young doctors used to be posted for about three months. But they seldom slept in that house......and none of them were married.

     The only full-time occupant was an Albanian (or was he a Yugoslavian?) contract officer. He was a funny kinda  guy. Nobody was allowed to enter into the house. Even the windows were latched and locked. He never allowed patients to come into the clinic. He went to the waiting lobby and prescribed medicine after asking for symptoms. There several stories as to who he was. One of the stories was that he was a former Nazi.

     Well. He died under mysterious circumstances. The thousands of dollars and that were found in house was stufed into drawers, almaris, pillows, matteresses, etc. There was also a fantastic book collection. Some more thousands of dollars were in the bank. Till today, all his money is held by court of trustees.

     After a short interval, our doctor found himself in that place. For convenience, shall we call him as 'Dr.JayBee'?
     Of course nobody cared to tell Dr.JayBee anything about anything.
     He stayed there for three years with his wife and two small children.
     From the beginning, he started having strange feelings and experiences. One night, he was sleeping as usual in the master bedroom. The doctor still beleives it was no dream. Suddenly, the walls vanished. He found himself in bed in the open space. Then there was a man who rushed past, helter skelter. Following him was another man, chasing after him, brandishing a parang - a sharp sword shaped like an aruvaaL. Both of them were screaming. They rushed past about five feet away from the doctor's bed. They did'nt seem to have noticed him. Then.... silence. The walls reappeared. The scene became normal.
     The doctor's wife and children were sleeping soundly. He woke his wife and went outside and had a good look  around. Everything was normal.
     But after that incident there were more and more disturbances. After a few months the doctor got an audio-tape of mantra recitals and played it in the recoder. But in a very short time, a storm cloud gathered and a lightening struck behind the house. The fuse went. The recorder died out.  
    The doctor put on the fuse and replayed. But a second lightening struck in the same place.
     Thus started a feud between the doctor and something that was already there.
     The last straw took place one morning. While in the bath-room, the doctor felt as if a hand grasped his ankle and jerked it off. He fell down soundly. The fall cracked an old fracture that he had sustained in a martial game of bull-chase (jalli-kattu) in India, some years ago.
     Finally, the doctor went to see his brother who was living in a town about 100 miles away. He took the doctor to see a bomoh(a sorcerer, black magician). The bomoh was living in a remote kampong - a very small village. The only road was a small mud-road which went winding through semi-jungles and small holdings of fruit plantations. The bomoh's house
did  have electricity. The bomoh was very old. He must have been more than eighty.
    After nightfall, he waited for a while. When it was well-past 9-00pm, he went into a trance.
    In the trance state, he started asking questions in Kelantanese. Kelantanese is a dialectical form of the Malay language. It is spoken by the people of  the State of Kelantan. Other
Malays cannot understand it. To whom was he addressing the questions? We did not know. We would never know. Not unto this day. Some sort of answer was also coming out of him
in response. It was in some strange language. My brother said, it was a colloquial form of
Thai language.
     After the seance, he explained to the doctor's brother. He gave a vivid description of the doctor's quarters and its surroundings.
     He said that there was a small rivulet behind the house (the place where the lightening struck - which he did'nt know). There was a hantu raya(a very powerful spirit - like a muni) dwelling there.
    "All the area belonged to him. Ask your brother to make perjanjian sireh-pinang with the hantu and leave the master bed-room. Your brother always goes along the riverside(Sungai Trengganu,Tersat,Brang) and interferes into old history. The spirits there do not like it.
Its all rahsia(secret). It is all hidden. Ask him to mind his own business."

     The doctor's brother told him to follow the instructions.

     'Perjanjian Sireh Pinang' is very special form of oath-taking or swearing. Betel leaves and betel nuts are taken and upon these, the oath is taken with the incantations of mantras.

     They got hold of the most efficient bomoh in Ulu Trenggaanu and asked him to do the necessary. But the most efficient bomoh was more inquisitive about the doctor's income and status and asked an exorbitant price. The doctor complained to his brother.

     The brother was thoughtful and brooded silently for a while. Then he uttered the pearls of wisdom.

     He said, "It seems that it is more profittable to be a friend of a hantu than being a friend of
a bomoh. You leave the bed-room to the hantu and don't talk ill about it. Just go about things normally in a peaceful manner. Let's see what it does. In a way it will be a pact of understanding."

     So the doctor let it be.
     Hence forth, the doctor did not have any problems. He left the place peacefully after a few months when a long overdue transfer was given to him.

     But his newly married successor's wife had an abortion.
     But wait. I heard that there is an interesting sequelae to this story.

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