Q: Before we begin, who and where did you first hear about this story and the general context?
A: It happened in Bangladesh and I learned it from my brother.
Story: This happened in Bangladesh and I was told it from my brother but basically they were staying right next to this deep forest. And if you go there, a lot of kids love to play around and hangout, and it’s like a bunch of trees in the surrounding area. The thing is though, most people don’t really like to go there because they believe there’s Jinns. So for this specific story it was maybe around, like, 7:30-ish at night, and some of the kids were playing out there and just messing around. And because it was getting late, they thought they saw, like, this tall figure. So then they decided to, like, leave, because they were getting spooked down. Like, everyone knew there were Jinns already there, but they realized too late. And one of the kids apparently ended up getting the jinn stuck to him. So then that kid became possessed and took him and immediately the kids screamed and ran to the parents. But as they did so, the possessed kid started to act super weird talking about having a past life and how he was a soldier and some other nonsense. When the parents found out they immediately went to find an exorcist, but I don’t know what happened after.
Q: And what do you think about this story?
A: Well I think that if I was in that little kid’s position I’d definitely be scared y’know?
Interviewer’s thoughts on the story: I think this is a very interesting story. Especially because looking at the conversation, Jinns which are heavily present in islamic stories is the first thing to be thought of as the causation for the behavior and also as a cautionary for the unknown. As jinns have a will similar to humans, they can be both ‘evil’ or ‘good’ natured allowing them to freely express themselves. Yet as a result, most Bengali people tend to focus inherently on the idea that they can be ill-natured and cause possession, enforcing this idea to avoid the unknown much like in the forest.