Tantra is a story about a mysterious woman Samantha, her rare societal behaviour, and her encounter with an equally mysterious man – Garv Raichand. Black Magic and Witchcraft are said to be unscientific and illogical practices, but there are certain spheres in the world, where even science fails. There are still many questions that remain unanswered in the dusty books of the distant library. There are certain people who die unexplained deaths every year. There are certain things, which are still hidden and are dangerous to explore. Tantra is about such notions, practices and cult culture.

Chapter 1

‘Good and evil – there is a bit of both in everyone. In a population of over seven billion, it’s very tough to find even one man with an absolute of one quality. If there is good, there is evil too, and so is the circle of life and death. If there is life, there is death. Just that not all deaths are natural. Some are deliberate, some happen by choice, while some by force, but some are plain innocent-deaths, masked under the veil of sacrifice, and some unjust, unfair deaths, which are said to be induced by ‘Karma’.

We live in a world, where there is a war going on. Constantly. Continually. Unstoppable war. A war between good and bad, Gods and Satan. There is something that is still fighting for power, and no doubt, Satan is winning! Every day we hear about so many deaths, murders, rapes, killings of the innocent, the bad power dominating the world. People may think it’s the fault of law and order, we need to implement rules, but even after we do so, justice is beyond accomplishment when Satan is breaking all the rules. Believe it or not, he is among us now, set loose on our streets. Free as a bird, Satan is back from hell!

Some people worship Gods and Goddesses, the good folks, powers who brought justice and righteousness into the world, while some believe in Satan. Pure-evil. Calling him pure evil would be unfair. There is a bit of evil in everybody after all. And even Satan has good qualities!

Karma is a power. Some say it’s a bitch, but actually it is reverberation. It is the same as – ‘what goes around, comes around’. It’s like a voice in the mountains, what you will shout, is what you will hear after a few seconds. It works the same way. People unnecessarily blame ‘karma’ for screwing up their jobs, but actually, it’s just a return gift from a party they attended in their past!

Talking about the goods and the bad, there is one simple question – Who made the rules? Who said good is good and bad is bad? Who gave them these names and who set the protocols? Killing a man is bad, of course you can’t go on a killing spree like that! You can be jailed, punished and even killed in some countries for a murder. But ‘sacrificing’ an animal in the name of religion is not a crime? What rule is this? The so called priests and good-people we worship, have made these rules. Rules which are full of loopholes!

If you see someone dressed in black, with a fire in his hand, loose, open hair, a black mark on his forehead, what we call a ‘tilak’, and the man chanting some verses, the first thought that comes in the mind of people is – evil – a man indulged in black magic. Without knowing the purpose of his prayer, he is termed evil. That man, is actually worshiping Goddess Kaali, who is said to be a terminator in the world of evils!

The same viewpoint is made by our friends from abroad, you guys, who think that Kaali worship is an occult practise and people who indulge in black magic worship the Goddess, but in reality it is not so. There are cultures and religions, there are practises all over the world, some we term as good, and some bad, it is nothing but our mind which generates a conclusion on the basis of our half-baked knowledge.

Colours, for instance, play a very important role in making an impact on what we want to show to others. Politicians are maximum dressed in white in India, ever wondered why? The ‘gurus’, ‘saadhus’ and priests choose saffron colour and the ‘aghoris’ are naked. If you give a simple flashback into your childhood, you will know that ‘darkness’ was scary. Not for a few, but for everybody. At some point of our lives, we were all afraid of the dark, the colour black. That is why we think black is evil. It’s automatically connected there. Politicians wear white just to induce a thought of positivity and purity in the minds of people. Saffron colour generates holy thoughts, that’s what we think because orange, in reality is a very pleasant and cheerful colour! Aghoris on the other hand, don’t believe in any kind of show-off, they show what they are in reality, what we all are inside. Beneath the layers of clothing, we all are naked! That’s what they show us, and that’s the ultimate truth of life.

If we stop thinking about colours for an instance and divert our thoughts to something else, like animals. Many animals are associated with occult practices like – crows, snakes, black cats, bats and there’s an unending list. What have these animals done apart from being black in colour? Reptiles are anyways considered unholy and evil just because they crawl? Who are we to decide what is good and bad? Who is holy and who is impure? Human nature and psychology concludes that since we don’t have control on many things going in the world, since we are afraid of so many things, so to simplify it we say that one thing is evil and generated by Karma, just because we can’t stop it or control it, or we are scared of it. Naturally by birth, we are advised by our mothers to stay away from fire. Fire is considered an unholy entity in some cultures but in Hinduism, it is considered a divine power. A couple completes their wedding only by walking around fire. But in some cultures it is considered evil.

It’s our own perception, the result of our brought-up and surroundings upon what we call good and what we consider bad, at the end, I would just say one thing – Satan does not ‘exist’, neither does ‘God’, they both reside within us.’

A thunder of claps filled the hall. A woman in her mid-thirties, walked down the stage after an enchanting lecture upon black-magic, occult practise and human psychology. Wearing a black top with a black jeans, she looked crisp and smart. Her black heavy framed glasses complimented her perfectly oval shaped face and her big eyes were hiding behind the glasses shyly. Her four inched black stilettos made her stand tall at five feet eleven and she smiled through her blood-red lips, as she addressed the audience for one last time before leaving. The lecture hall of University of Birmingham, School of Psychology department was overwhelmed with her presence. She was especially called from India to deliver a special lecture about the cultural practises followed in India, versus the mentality of modern people residing over there, just to remove the misconception that many people have in their minds about Indians and their relationship with occult-practise.

‘Ma’am, what do you think about witchcraft? Is it effective at all or it’s just a product of your mind?’ a Chinese student asked with interest.

‘Witchcraft is a powerful concept, and if you believe in something, it happens’ she smiled, ‘If you don’t believe in it, it is non-existent. Simple as that.’ she walked a few steps that she was again surrounded by a group of students who came to her for a photograph. She gave them her best smile and the young girl clicked a selfie. Her flight was in four hours and she barely had any time to do anything, but just to rush to her hotel room, pack and leave for the airport.

She boarded the flight and landed in Kolkata the next morning. Her hometown. She was here after spending a month in UK and the pollution had started taking a toll on her already. As she hired a taxi from airport to her home, the city’s polluted air had made its way to her lungs and she started coughing uncontrollably. The driver pulled the window-mirrors up and switched on the air conditioning for which he had already charged extra, but it didn’t help her much. She reached her home in forty minutes and fumbled her expensive Louis Vuitton hand-bag in search of her house keys. She found a bunch of keys with a key ring of a tiny black cat, selected one key that looked like a twisted snake and opened the door. Her three black pet cats welcomed her, she swayed their furs and closed the door of house number 13 behind her.