But have you seen a real jinn! Not the one you probably met in an abandoned structure or at night.
This is a jinn in flesh and blood, who walks the streets of Madhya Pradesh--Central India.
He looks like the jinns in Bollywood movies and their pictures in books-comics.
The djinn's name is Pappu Mastana.
But unlike the jinns who eat coal or bones, he needs real food. Also, he needs money to sustain himself.
Pappu Mastana is the friendly and ever-smiling djinn. He would be happy if you offer him a good dinner.
The photos are old. He doesn't tell us much about his personal life, though we gather his father and grandfather were also Djinns! Surprised!
No one has seen him fly or walk in air though he often vanishes--not visible on streets for long. When he is missed, he is suddenly out there in front of you.
Pappu Mastana belongs to Kannod in Madhya Pradesh. But you may find him more in Sarangpur. As he is a Muslim jinn, he is more visible in localities where there is a mosque and 'jinn food'.
Though entire central India is his territory, he is mostly visible in Sarangpur, Talen and Narsinhgarh towns near Bhopal.
But he is secular to the core though he doesn't know that secular is a bad word these days. People have seen him taking form of well-known Hindu personalities.
I don't know where he is these days. His pictures have not been clicked by me.
Who can click a djinn's photo? In good old days, the negative would be clear and the djinn would then enter the camera and get into your house.
I got these photos sometime back. If the man who captured the images, agrees, I will put up his name [due credit]. But the story about our jinn is not over.
Once his grandfather met the king [ruler] of the princely state. The ruler was so delighted that he gifted a tiger cub to the djinn family. Where's the tiger? This writer has no clue.
Talk about a djinn and there is always a djinn near you, that's an old saying. Some don't believe that he is a real jinn. But there are eternal skeptics who never trust anyone. In local parlance, they say, 'Arrey khaan. koi jin winn nahi, ye to bahroopia hai'.
They feel that he is an ordinary man who dresses up to eke out his living. Whatever. Pappu Mastana remains a Djinn for me. What else could be more real? You see him walk, sip 'namak wali chai' and talk to people.