RAWALPINDI: Pakistani Twitter has a number of topics that draw huge engagement with retweets, likes and animated dialogues. One such theme that recently emerged related to impish spirits, or jinns, which compelled a number of Twitter users to share their personal experiences with supernatural creatures that are part of Muslim and South Asian folklore.
Kayhan Suleman, 30, who consults for an international development organization and has started transitioning into writing and making films, decided to share his family’s experiences in a house where they lived in Islamabad for 16 years that was rife with the sort of hair raising scares that make for great television, including a house cook being harassed by jinns, unexplained appearances of children and the sound of their footsteps and, perhaps the most harrowing, visible beings lying beside them in bed and incidents of family doppelgängers moving about the house.
“There was no particular reason why I shared my experiences on Twitter other than the fact that I thought it would make for fun content and the people who follow me would enjoy it,” Suleman told Arab News over the phone from Lahore where he now resides. “I absolutely did not think it would blow up like this.”
The Twitter thread was picked up by a number of Pakistani Twitterati and the original post amassed over 2,000 likes, 1,000 retweets and hundreds of comments. The story was read by over 360,000 people on Twitter and Instagram, making several others share their own threads and crediting Suleman for inspiring them.
“I thought these paranormal anecdotes were something you shared when you were with family or friends on a Saturday night, but apparently not,” said Suleman about the conversation that came from the thread. “People want to talk about these things and explore their own curiosity about them while sharing similar run-ins.”
Islamabad-based psychotherapist Zaofishan Qureshi told Arab News that sharing and retelling conversations about scary happenings, such as jinn stories, create bonds among people.
“It’s akin to sharing an adventure with a person,” she told Arab News over the phone, saying the exchange of such stories often resulted in an empathetic response from listeners and sharers. “It creates a deep connection when you share common experiences, the retelling of what happened almost acts as a relief to the initial stress that took place.”
Suleman concurred with the assessment, saying that many people mirrored his experiences in response to his post which made him feel “a little better and less loony.” He added it gave him hope in humanity since a significant number of people suggested him ways in which he could protect himself.
“People gave me a whole list of how to protect myself from these entities and these scenarios and that was really nice,” he said. “It gave me hope in humanity that people out there care for other people's safety. I’m glad that it happened.”