Shivers Up my Spine

Do you get these shivers? I do and in different situations and circumstances. I don’t remember the first time I got one but I do remember some of the situations.

My father had to tour quite a lot and we were based in a place named Siliguri somewhere near Darjeeling in the eastern parts of India. Sometimes we used to accompany him especially on certain visits where we would visit dense forests and we had to spend a night or two in the forest rest houses. The charm was in the quietness, the dense forest, the birds chirping and the constant hum of the jungle insects. The days would normally be different from the nights in terms of sounds, colour and ambience.

I remember visiting a place called Chapramari where you had this wooden two-storey structure and we reached there late in the afternoon. The sun was slowly going down and there was an unexplainable expectancy in our mind on what’s in store in the night. The forest rest house was surrounded from all sides by a moat, so that wild animals couldn’t come in. I was not sure how that would stop tigers or leopards. It was about 7 PM when in the still of the night we were all having a cup of tea in the balcony. There were one or two oil lamps (no electricity out there) and that was all the light available. Suddenly my sister noticed a pair of glowing eyes at a distance of about 30 meters that I estimate was about the border of the moat. We quietly came into our room and from the window kept watching with terrifying eyes. The pair of eyes kept moving and we kept following them from one window of our room to another. I was petrified but kept watching in awe and later the eyes disappeared, not without some growls. Next day morning we found out that a tiger had taken away a cow from the caretaker’s home located in the same campus.

That was an event I still remember and recount many a times. But I do get shivers when I listen to some good music irrespective of language or nationality or type. I get shivers when Ian Anderson plays the flute. I get shivers when I hear a perfect tune played by Shiv Kumar Sharma on the Santoor. I also get shivers when I hear John Lennon’s Woman. It’s futile to recount all of them since there are so many of them. Perhaps I will talk about the Music I like sometime later.

I get shivers when I watch movies too. Like I was very excited when I first watched Sonar Kella (The Golden Fort) by Satyajit Ray, especially the sequence in the train in the dim blue light. I remember Roman Holiday and some scenes there. One movie that I have watched a number of times is Operation Daybreak and certain tense moments in the movie still give me the shivers.

Standing in front of a see, watching the raw energy crashing in the form of waves on the shore gives me the shivers. On a clear morning, watching the reflection of the array of colors from a snow-clad peak during sunrise gives me the shivers. Dark Clouds followed with heavy rains with me somewhere in the countryside watching the expanse gives me the shivers.

My shivers emanate when somehow I feel emotionally attached with the cause. Its not terror that is exemplified, rather its the emotion throwing my blood flow into turmoil. The best part is that they give me a sense of satisfaction and purpose. That’s the way I am, I don’t know about you. Sphere: Related Content