u/digitalbattleape

Demons are real. At least, that's what I believe after something that happened to me years ago, when I was around 19 or 20.

Before I get into what actually happened, let me give you a little background.

I'm a Indian Christian, and I come from a family that's quite religious and, I guess you could say, a little more open to the spiritual side of Christianity. Most of my aunts and one of my uncles on my mother's side are pastors. They have their own ministries and are full-time pastors.

And some of them, believe it or not, claim to have spiritual gifts.

For example, I have an aunt who gets what she describes as visions or premonitions through dreams. I've personally witnessed a few things over the years that made me believe there might actually be something to it. Another aunt of mine, my mother's eldest sister, is a fairly well-known exorcist in her town in Andhra Pradesh(a southern state in India).

Now, here's where the story actually begins.

At the time, I was living with my parents in Bangalore. My dad worked for the Central Government and had been transferred there, so we'd eventually settled in Bangalore(One of the metropolitan cities in India).

The incident happened when I'd gone to visit some relatives in a rural town in Andhra Pradesh.

My aunt, the same aunt I mentioned earlier, the one who performs exorcisms, had been invited to the house of a mutual friend of my uncle. So my mom, dad, aunt, uncle and I decided to go along.

As far as I knew, it was just going to be a normal visit.

It wasn't.

When we got there, we were told that the family's youngest daughter, a little girl who was probably around 11 or 12, had been behaving very strangely. From what they were describing, they believed she was possessed by some kind of spirit or demon.

My aunt doesn't automatically assume that every strange case is demonic possession. In fact, most of the cases she deals with turn out to have some kind of psychological or mental-health explanation. So initially, she thought this was probably another one of those cases.

But then she started praying for the girl.

That's when things got really strange.

The girl suddenly became extremely violent.

There were four or five grown men trying to restrain her, and she was fighting them with a level of strength that, honestly, I found difficult to comprehend. She was a small 11- or 12-year-old girl, yet it took several grown men to hold her down.

But that wasn't even what scared me the most.

Throughout the entire ordeal, this girl kept looking at me.

I mean, really looking at me.

She would scream, shout, curse at people and thrash around, and then, suddenly, she'd stop and stare directly at me with this really sinister grin.

It was one of the creepiest things I've ever experienced.

It felt like she wasn't just looking at me. It felt like she was looking through me.

And here's the thing: at that point in my life, I had a secret.

I'd already lost my virginity to my girlfriend at the time, who is now my ex. We were sexually active, and we'd kept that completely private.

Nobody in my family knew. Sex is a taboo topic in India, it's a bit ironic, considering us being the most populated country in the world.

In fact, as far as I knew, nobody there knew anything about it except me and my girlfriend.

And because I was a Christian, I felt extremely guilty about it. Sex before marriage was something I'd been taught was sinful, and I knew I'd crossed that line.

So when this little girl kept staring at me like that, I started getting this horrible feeling that somehow she knew.

I know how ridiculous that sounds.

But then something happened that I still can't explain.

It was toward the end of the whole ordeal. The girl looked straight at me again.

And then she said my girlfriend's name.

Her actual name.

I froze.

For a second, I genuinely felt like my heart had stopped.

How could she possibly know?

I'd never met this girl before. She lived hundreds of kilometres away. I'd never told anyone in that family about my relationship, and certainly not about the fact that we were having sex.

Yet somehow, she knew the name of the girl I was secretly sleeping with.

And the way she said it made it even worse. It felt like she was deliberately taunting me, as if she knew exactly what I'd been doing and wanted me to know that she knew.

I can't properly describe what I felt in that moment.

Fear, embarrassment, confusion, all of it at once.

Even now, years later, that moment still bothers me.

I've tried to think of rational explanations for it. Maybe there was something I didn't know. Maybe somehow the information had reached her through someone else. Maybe there was another explanation entirely.

But I genuinely don't know.

All I know is what I experienced that day.

And based on everything I witnessed, I believe that the girl was possessed.

Not by the spirit of some dead person.

I believe it was something else.

Eventually, after another roughly 45 minutes, the girl passed out. Things finally calmed down, and we left.

A few months later, I heard that she had apparently recovered after her family spent a lot of time praying for her.

I have no idea what ultimately happened to her after that.

But that experience has stayed with me all these years.

Because no matter how many times I replay that day in my head, I still can't answer one simple question:

How did that little girl know her name? There's just no freakin way!

Okay, apparently this is how dating works now, so here goes.

I'm 29, 6'0" and based in Bangalore. Fairly broad build, dusky, short and thick hair, beard, glasses and usually somewhere between "I made an effort" and "I just threw this on." 😅

I'm pretty easygoing and probably more sarcastic than I should be. I like good conversations, random plans, going out for food, movies, music and generally finding something interesting to do. At the same time, I have absolutely no problem spending an entire weekend at home doing nothing. I'm also the kind of person who can start a conversation about something completely stupid and somehow end up talking about life at 2 AM.

I'm a Christian, and I can speak, read and write Kannada, English, Hindi and Telugu. Not sure how useful that information is for a dating post, but there it is. 😛

Career-wise, I'm currently in a bit of a career gap. I've got 6+ years of IT experience, including leadership/managerial experience, and I'm working towards getting back into the right role. I've been using the gap to pick up a few new skills and figure out what direction I want to take next.

I value humour, honesty, good conversation and people who are comfortable being themselves. I'm not really into the whole "too cool to care" personality either. If I like talking to someone, I'll actually talk to them.

Anyway, that's me in a slightly uncomfortable Reddit post. Let's see what happens. 😅

29M. Thought I finally found someone after years of being single. Instead, I feel completely broken again.

I'm honestly embarrassed to even post this because almost no one in my life knows about it.

I stayed single by choice for years after a really painful relationship that left me emotionally drained. It took me a long time to heal, and I finally felt ready to put myself out there again.

I joined a dating app and matched with a girl within minutes. We shared the same faith, wanted something serious, and hit it off almost instantly. We spoke for hours every day, exchanged numbers, and went on a wonderful first date. I even gave her a knitted bouquet, and she told me no one had ever done something that thoughtful for her.

As we got closer, she opened up about her past. She'd been through several toxic relationships and carried a lot of emotional baggage. I told her I understood and that I'd support her if she wanted to build something healthy together.

I genuinely started falling for her.

Then the smallest disagreements would turn into something much bigger. She'd immediately say the relationship felt "toxic" or that history was repeating itself. Once, after a minor argument, she sent me a message saying she wanted to end things because she didn't deserve to feel that way. A few hours later, she called, apologized, and admitted she'd overreacted. I accepted her apology, but those words never really left me.

Things continued to spiral. One night I told her I was having a drink to relax, and she compared me to her alcoholic ex because he'd apparently said similar things. I felt like I was constantly being judged for someone else's mistakes.

Eventually, we met to figure things out. I suggested either ending things or taking a short break before trying again. She couldn't decide and kept going back and forth. In the end, I made the decision and said we should end it.

The truth is... I didn't want to. I was hoping she'd stop me and say she wanted to work through it together.

She didn't.

She just said goodbye, I dropped her off at her music class, and that was it. I blocked her afterwards because I knew I'd keep hoping she'd come back otherwise.

Now I'm sitting here wondering if I missed something. Was I too patient? Too available? Did I ignore obvious red flags because I liked her?

I know relationships don't always work out, but this one has hit me much harder than I expected. I'd appreciate some outside perspective because right now, all I feel is emotionally exhausted.

Can anyone who has recently visited BES College, Bangalore (Ignou study center 1301) to submit their assignments tell me what the timings are? Is the study centre open on weekends, especially Saturdays? If so, what time should I visit on weekends?