Vetala: An Indian Vampire in London

Namaste, Bitch! (2012) Deadly Indian Vampire, designed by Sabina England

"Vetala: An Indian Vampire in London" is the third story in Urdustan (get a copy!).

"Vetala: An Indian Vampire in London" is the only horror story in Urdustan. It's about a British Asian punk rock girl, Killer Khan, who works in a slaughterhouse in the East End of London. She must fight for her life to defend herself against a blood-hungry Indian vetala. What is a vetala? I have been gracious enough to write you a SAFETY GUIDE on protecting yourself from vetala and bhoot. Please read on, dear readers.

GUIDE TO PROTECTING YOURSELF FROM VETALAS

While you are in India and if you are ever confronted by a vetala (which is like a vampire, but instead of sucking blood, they eat the whole human body!!!)

you can keep yourself safe by sprinkling turmeric all over the vetala and you can recite holy Sanskrit prayers. It also helps if you lure in the vetala and quickly kill it by setting it on fire.

A vetala is some kind of a horrid creature that likes to kill humans and eat them - including their blood and organs. Sometimes, a vetala might kill a human and then possess its body. You need to understand this: a vampire can either kill you and leave you dead, or a vampire can suck your blood and turn you into a vampire, right? Well, vetala don’t do that. A vetala doesn’t “turn” you, it POSSESSES your whole body and keep your body moving, even after you are dead.

So: if you have a vetala being burned to death in a pyre, you must hold a proper funeral for the poor person whose body was killed and possessed by a vetala. Because, if you don’t hold a funeral for the person who was murdered by the vetala, the person will transform into a bhoot (ghost).

So, even if the vetala has been successfully killed, the human spirit still remains within its body. Without a proper funeral, the spirit cannot respectfully leave its body, because it needs a channel into the afterlife.

What happens if there is no funeral for the poor human who has been killed by the vetala? Its spirit will transform into a bhoot.

Bhoot are really horrible - they like to terrorize young children and they like to scare pregnant women into giving them miscarriages. Sometimes bhoot like to seduce men and have sex with them and then kill them afterward.

P.S never go into the jungle late at night or you just might get killed, eaten, and inhabited by a vetala hanging from one of the trees.

Please buy a copy of Urdustan and find out whether Killer Khan has managed to kill the vetala, or if she's been bitten, eaten, and/or zombified by the vetala!

NEXT WEEK: "THE BEGGARS OF OLD DELHI" (fourth story in Urdustan)

Leon, Her Hasidic Jewish Friend

"The Praying Jew" (1923) by Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

"Leon, Her Hasidic Jewish Friend" is the second story in Urdustan (get a copy!).

If you open your heart and your mind and accept people of different backgrounds, your life will be truly enriched... I have many friends all over the world, from different walks of life, including Hasidic Jews, gay African American men, Deaf Native Americans, mixed Afro-Arabs, half Muslim, half Hindu Indians, and so many more. The world is beautiful. Beauty comes in all sizes and shapes and colors and creeds and nationalities. I love to meet people from all over the world and I love being exposed to different cultures. Yet, I am ashamed to say that I know a few people who are anti-Semitic and hate Jews. I've often argued bitterly with them over this.

When I was in high school, I made a conscious choice to wear hijab (the Islamic headscarf). Now, let's make this clear. Nobody forced me to wear it, nobody pressured me to do it. I did it because I wanted to. It was MY choice. Already being a deaf brown female, people treated me differently. But, as a deaf brown girl in hijab, I was even treated more differently. In fact, a lot of people thought I was fragile, dumb/mute, and even oppressed. My own parents were against my choice to wear hijab--my father often worried that people would treat me badly.

As a deaf hijabi, I was quite lonely. I was already an angry alienated teenager, but the hijab made me even more alienated from society. When I had just turned eighteen years old, I was at the railway station. There, I saw a group of young Jewish schoolboys in uniforms with yarmulkes. They were taken to the railway station on a field trip from a private Jewish school. One of the boys wore a yarmulke, but that didn’t catch my attention. I stared at him, unable to take my eyes off him. He had two hearing aids in both of his ears--just like me.

Everyone in the group ignored him, like he didn’t exist. It was just like how everyone treated me--I was invisible and ignored, yet I was the elephant in the room. People treated me weirdly and felt uncomfortable around me, like they were afraid I would judge them. They didn’t know how to communicate with me, choosing to ignore me and act like I didn’t exist. I already hated people before I wore hijab, but during the hijab era, I hated people even more. People disgusted me.

Staring at that little deaf Jewish boy, I felt so much closer to him than I felt around hearing Muslims or South Asians at the local mosque. He and I were brother and sister in arms. I just knew deep down inside that he and I could relate to each other, both being Jewish and Muslim, him in yarmulke and me in hijab, yet 100% deaf.

He sat there, slumped on the bench, quiet while everyone else ignored him and chattered loudly. I wanted to reach out to him and greet him in American Sign Language. He was me, and I was him.

“Leon, Her Hasidic Jewish Friend” addresses the friendship between a South Asian Muslim punk and an older Hasidic Jewish man. They met online and chatted online almost everyday for almost a year. And finally, they meet in person for the first time.

It is based on a true story. Is it based on me? That's for me to know and for you to never find out.

Please buy a copy of Urdustan and read this story.

NEXT WEEK: "Vetala: An Indian Vampire in London" (third story in Urdustan)

a great quote on my book URDUSTAN

Most writers are too arrogant and insecure to truthfully and creatively explore the themes in @SabinaEngland's Urdustan. #RecommendedReading
— Krupa Patel (@kru_pa) June 17, 2012

Get your copy of my book for just $9 now!

My weekly blogging on my book will continue--"Leon, Her Hasidic Jewish Friend" post coming soon this week.
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Broken Pakistani Heart

TIME Magazine: the bloody, violent Partition of India. October 27, 1947

"Broken Pakistani Heart" is the first story in Urdustan (get a copy!).

I am Indian, and I am Muslim. When I was a little girl, I went through a phase when I thought we were Hindu. Why? Because being surrounded by Indians most of whom were Hindu, I assumed we were Hindu. We looked the same, we dressed the same, we ate the same food, we listened to the same music and watched the same movies,  we all obsessed over Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Jackoe Shroff, Kajol, Juhi Chawla, the Big B, Rekha, Sanjay Dutt. Being a deaf child, no one ever told me anything. Everyone ignored me, so I didn't receive any information and didn't "hear" anything. Looking around me, I perceived things through my eyesight. So, I assumed we were all the same because we looked the same.

Then as I got older, I found out we were Muslim, and not Hindu! Being young and clueless and ignorant, I was very baffled by this. How were Muslims and Hindus any different? What exactly was this "religion" thing? Try explaining that to a little deaf child who was ignored by everyone and rarely explained to by adults, so I thought everyone were either white, black, or brown. There was even a time when I thought we were Mexican when we lived in Texas, because we were surrounded by Chicanos (Mexican Americans).

As a pre-teenager, I became aware of Pakistan and Pakistani people. Again, as a deaf child who was rarely talked to and informed by adults, I thought all South Asians came from the same nation. So, I found out that Pakistan and Bangladesh were two seperate nations from India. There are hundreds and hundreds of different languages, different religions, castes, ethnic groups, regional communities, traditions and customs all around the Indian subcontinent. We all come from different nations but we share the same land and history. One of my best friends (during my pre-teen years) was a Pathan girl from Peshawar, Pakistan. So we wore the same clothes and ate the same food and gossiped about Bollywood stars, but she was from Pakistan and I from India.

During my time as a student in high school, the 2002 Gujarat train massacre happened, which resulted in communal violence and riots. These affected both Hindus and Muslims. A lot of people were murdered, raped, and even set on fire. This caused very serious tension between Indian Hindus and Indian Muslims, both in India and overseas. It was something that we didn't like to talk about but none of us could ignore it. 

Through-out high school, there were a few instances when I was told by Pakistani people that I was not a "real Muslim" because I was from India. And then there were Indian Hindus who told me I wasn't a "real Indian" because I was Muslim and not Hindu. I was even called a traitor at least once or twice!

North Indians and Pakistanis pretty much share the same history, culture, food, languages, customs, traditions, etc... with a few differences here and there. For thousands of years, Pakistan, along with Bangladesh, was part of India until the 1947 Partition. For thousands of years, Pakistanis were called "Indian." For thousands of years, Muslims in the Indian subcontinent shared the same culture and food and traditions and customs, with some differences here and there in various regions. North Indian Muslims and Pakistanis are the same people. We are all brothers and sisters, one large community.

"Broken Pakistani Heart" is inspired by a real-life incident in which an Indian Muslim woman was dumped by a Pakistani man because she was not Pakistani. The Indian woman's sister decides to seek revenge on the Pakistani family. Aaaannndd...

Sorry, I don't wish to divulge in any more details in fear of ruining any spoilers for ya. 

Please buy a copy of Urdustan and find out for yourself.

NEXT WEEK: "Leon, Her Hasidic Jewish Friend" (second story in Urdustan)

Urdustan--MY FIRST BOOK, FINALLY OUT

Urdustan is finally out. It is available for purchase on LULU only--you will NOT find this anywhere else online, not even Amazon. Urdustan is available in PRINT only, and it costs less than $10. It is a collection of short stories. Jean-Marc Lederman, based in Brussels, was kind enough to write up a review/article of my book. You can read it here.

BUY THE BOOK HERE

Please subscribe to "The American Dream is Dead" for a weekly post on Urdustan--I will cover each story and explain the meaning and motivation behind writing the stories.

Seven stories, four nations, one people.

Whether it’s a slaughterhouse in the East End of London or a run-down hotel in the holy city of Al-Madinah, a tiny township in Northern Michigan or a fishing village on the Bay of Bengal in India, people yearn for the same thing in common--life--to experience life and to feel alive.

Urdustan tells the stories of North Indians and Pakistanis; Muslims and Hindus; Desi Americans and British Asians. All come from the same land yet each leads a different life and tells a different story; each shares the desire to experience love and friendship, the insatiable urge to connect to others on a human level.

Urdustan reveals multiple personalities of the South Asian diaspora that are often ignored. The stories are richly interwoven with different characters from many walks of life--Hasidic Jews, African Americans, punks, deaf teens, gay males, and even supernatural creatures such as vampires and angels. Romance, horror, racism, homophobia, audism, love, death, spirituality, fantasy, friendship all play important factors in the storytelling of Urdustan. Each story is a small reflection of the greatly diverse world we live in and call our home. 

BUY THE BOOK HERE
Article/Review of Urdustan

Urdustan contains seven stories. These are called (in order of listing) :

"Broken Pakistani Heart" (a story set in Texas, which deals with the India-Pakistan division)

"Leon, Her Hasidic Jewish Friend" (a friendship story set in Brooklyn, New York)

"Vetala: An Indian Vampire in London" (a horror story set in both London and Ranchi, India)

"The Lady of Lake Superior" (a fantasy/friendship story set in Negaunee, Michigan and Orissa, India)

"The Beggars of Old Delhi" (a ABCD American Born Confused Desi story set in Delhi, India)

"Love and Death in Al-Madinah" (a supernatural religious love story set in the holy city of Al-Madinah, Saudi Arabia)

"Bushra, Phylly Jane" (a story set in Kansas City about deafness, audism, and homophobia) 

Thank you to Robb Grindstaff, Jeffrey S. Callico, Jean-Marc Lederman, Billee 3000, and family 'n' friendz for the support in my endeavor to self-publishing my first book. 

Please subscribe to "The American Dream is Dead" for a weekly post on Urdustan--I will cover each story and explain the meaning and motivation behind writing those seven stories.

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Whore! Magazine Issue #3

Whore! Magazine has published an interview with me for Issue #3. Checkkkk it out.