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The Haunted India
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THE HAUNTED INDIA
Rahul Chauhan
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For My Family For My close friend Nakshatra who also helped me in this book.
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CONTENTS
1. Bhangarh 8
2. Aghori 21
3. Lohaghat 33
4. Tunnel-103 Shimla 37
5. The Lambidhar Mines 42
6. The Haunted Road 47
7. The Graveyard 53
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8. Ghost Need Cigarettes 64
9. The Sanjay Forest 71
10. Two Man And a Ghost Cow 74
11. The Little Black Tyrant 81
12. A Trapped Soul 86
13. Munja 90
14. Chudail 94
15. Brijraj Bhavan 100
16. Chhalava 107
17. Kurseong Dow Hill 111
18. Shimla 117
19. Khavis 122
20. Mussorie’s Incident 127
21. Qutub Minar 133
22. The Haunted Factory 138
23. Savoy Hotel 143
24. Ghost in Indian Army 152
25. Hotel Raj Kiran 157
26. Dumas Beach 160
27. The Sinhagad Fort 166
28. The Hostel Ragging 172
29. The Devil Child 181
30. Walk With a Ghost 185
31. Surathkal 197
32. Witchcraft 203
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33. Black Magic 207
34. Gurgaon 221
35. Haunted Call Center 231
36. The Haunted Railway Station 236
37. G.P Block Meerut 241
38. Roopkund 243
39. Hauntings of Mumbai 251
40. A Strange Incident 263
41. Delhi Cantonnment 268
42. The Haunted House 273
43. The Farmhouse 282
44. Kalyan 290
45. Army Ghosts 295
46. Meerut Cantt 309
47. Human Flesh 315
48. Banglore 318
49. Grand Paradi Towers 330
50. Kuldhara 333
51. The Haunted Encounter 343
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
There is just a few people who have directly and
indirectly made this book possible. I acknowledge
my sincere debt to all of them. I can say that
collecting tales of real experiences and encounters is
defiantely. As I wandered looking for these, I went
on a tough kind of journey, discomfort and anger.
Thankfully in the end the work is completed.
For this book the credit goes to my friend
Nakshatra and my family who listened and watched
my progress regularly with patience and
encouragement.
I must also say that the idea of this book was by
myself and by my friend who helped me a lot in this
book.
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BHANGARH Have you ever visited a monument where you enter the
place at your own risk? India is indeed a variant when it
comes to culture, language, religions and the
supernaturalism.Bhangarh is a place that is widely known
in India for its ghostly stories and the haunting that has
been witnessed by some people residing in the area
surrounding the deadly place.
BHANGARH is the most haunted fort of India. It
was built in 1573 during the rule of Maharaja
Bhagwant Das who was the father of Madho Singh
and Man Singh. But the ruler after maharaja
Bhagwant Das was Man singh not Maddho
Singh,hence after the death of Raja Man Singh the
next ruler was Chhatar Singh who died in 1630 near
Ajabgarh which was founded by Ajab Singh.When
Mughal empire become weaker due to thedeath of
Aurangzeb, Jai Singh-2 attach Bhangarh to his state
forcefully and after getting diminished in population
in 1783 the town of Bhangarh was abandoned and
has remained a ruin ever since.
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There are many stories of the fort of Bhangarh as
some people say that the fort is cursed. But actually
as far as I come to know there are two myths that
lead to demolishing of the fort, one myth is that the
fort was cursed by Guru Balu Nath as he had
sanctioned the construction of the town only and
only one condition i.e. the moment the shadows of
your palace touch me, the city shall be no more and
it will get destroyed. After listening the warning by
Guru Balu Nath the prince didn’t even consider it
once and raised the palace to a height that cast the
shadow on Guru Balu Nath after that the palace has
been destroyed and Guru Balu nath is said to be
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buried there to this day in a Samadhi.
Now the second myth that exists, it’s about the
princess of Bhangarh Princess Ratnawati as she was
believed to be the Jewel of Rajasthan. On her
eighteenth birthday she began to get married so
offers throughout all over India and from some
nearby regions came very fast as she was so
beautiful and very good looking princess. In one
nearby area a tantric (magician) lives who was well
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versed in a technique called as Singhia and suddenly
had felt in love with the princess as he also know
that his and the princess match or marriage was
impossible as she is a royal princess and he is just a
magician not a man from a royal family or a king.
So one day the magician saw the maid of the
princess in the market, suddenly he came up with an
idea by which he can easily control or marry the
princess as he would use his technique and
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hypnotize the princess to fall in love with him. So he
used his singhia technique or some kind of black
magic on the oil that princess maid was purchasing
for the princess and after using the oil the princess
would surrender herself to him or may fell in love
with him. But his plan had failed due to the princess
as the princess saw him using his black magic trick
on the oil, and pours all the oil on the ground
immediately as the oil poured on the ground it
suddenly turned into a big stone due the black magic
on the oil and crushed the magician, while dying the
magician cursed the palace with the death of all who
had lived or who was living in the palace. After one
year the time had finally come for the curse to come
true as there was a fierce battle between Bhangarh
and Ajabgarh in which the town of Bhangarh and
the princess Ratnawati perished. So because of all
that happened here the place is said to be haunted
and some people also say there are ghosts of
princess Ratnawati and the kings, etc. That is why at
the present day the entry to the fort only after sunset
and before sunrise is prohibited. The local people
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also believed that the Princess Ratnawati has taken
birth somewhere else and the fort and the town
Bhangarh is waiting for her to return and put an end
to this curse once and for all.
At the present say, Bhangarh is nothing more than
just ruins as there is nothing except crumbling walls,
temples and pavilions standing alone against the
silent wilderness of the dense forest cover hills
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which scream out about the town’s ancient
prosperity, the ruins of the arches and colonnades
built on various levels suggest that it was once a
lovely and awesome place. A portion from a
pavilion and a minaret are still intact by a little bit.
This is definitely the perfect place for a lovely picnic
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with some fun and adventure for sure.
Bhangarh also have lots of beautiful temples of Lord
Hanuman, Lord Shiva, Gopinath and Dev Narayan
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and also a shrine of a famous Muslim Saint, also
some great and beautiful gardens that are just
amazing and quite beautiful to watch. There was
also an evocative ancient bazaar which has also been
demolished, but now it has been restored and it’s a
truly fascinating place to visit and to roam into that
which is quite great. At nearby from the bazaar there
is awesome, beautiful and finely carved Someshwar
Temple in which there is an old tank that is still
being used by the villagers to bath to wash their
clothes and to fulfill other daily needs from water.
Also there is another famous thing which is known
as the Palace of Prostitutes, its usual name probably
comes from female courtesans for whom the palace
was built. In those days female court attendants were
also taken from harems of rulers, so by looking all
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these things Bhangarh is an exciting place to visit.
Now the Reality that I had come to know about
theplace is thatCountless personal experiences and
stories circulate to this day. People, including
myself, who have actually visited the place, do feel a
sense of impending danger. But I guess that's more
to do with the pre-determined factors of belief and
fear which a person acquires before visiting such
places. However, the locals vehemently believe in
the legend. The haunting are believed to be so
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frequent that none other than the Archaeological
Survey of India(ASI)- India's premier
Archaeological institution has erected a notice board
forbidding visitors to stay away from the place at
night. The government did try to set up an army
camp to dig the truth out. However that could not be
established as none of the army personnel were
willing to volunteer themselves for the operation.
Such is the fear and awe with which everyone holds
the legendary haunting of Bhangarh! Many have
been reported missing over the last years who failed
to return from the fort premises after having
challenged to spend the night there. Surprisingly,
none of the bodies were ever located. Legend or
reality- the fact remains that the ruins of Bhangarh
have a magnetic mystic occult associated with them
and does seem to impart the traveler with more than
one occasion for fear, eeriness, and the feeling of
being watched over by some unknown entity!
Among the scary incidents reported here after
evening are: -
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a. real scary female screaming is heard(The
princess?)
b. Loud maniacal laughter(Tantrik or the baba?)
c. Lights going on and off
d. sudden loud wind and dust storms occurring
all of a sudden.
e. Ghostly figures and shadows moving around.
Many have also reported the feeling of horror and
dread near the ruins even in the day time. Some
passages are dark without light and it is scary to
even think of going inside.
The ASI says that the "official" reason for the
warning is that wild animals could be present after 6
PM and since the area is not well lit, the place may
also present a safety issue. But ASI who are you
kidding; we all know very well why you have out
that notice.
Local legends speak of so many brave men who
tried to go here at night and never returned!!!
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Bhangarh is so scary and has such reputation of
being haunted; it always turns up in the list of most
haunted places in the world!
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AGHORI
What kind of feeling does the word cannibalism
arouses? Well most of us would get disgusted, but
there are people who follow cannibalism in India
even now.
INDIA a land of oldest society, oldest civilization,
but all this time in the Indian history there was a sect
which was dedicated to Lord Shiva in terms of
cannibalism and other very crude animal behavior.
The Aghori or Aghouri sect has its origin in ancient
Vedic system, even though these people don’t
follow the main stream vedic system but the root is
the same. The word Aghori in Sanskrit language
means terrifying ‘a- ghori’ most of the Hindi
speaking people like me would definitely have heard
the phrase Ghor Kaliyug, Ghor paap etc. It is the
same Ghor,theoretically these people don’t attach
them to anything mortal. They do things which a
common like me finds to be terrifying, so they
overcome the terror by going through it, since they
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do it regularly it’s a common thing for them.
In Hinduism “there is no evil, everything is
emended from ‘Brahman’, so how could anything in
the universe be impure? This is the philosophy of
these Aghoris or Aghori Babas that is what I come
to know about them and according to the Aghoris
anything in the universe is the manifestation of God
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itself. So everything is pure as God and is God like.
The Aghoris mainly worship Lord Shiva according
to the sect every human is a Shava (Dead Body)
with emotions and they should try to become
“Shiva” by denying the human pleasures and
involving in the strange rituals of Aghoris. The root
of Aghoris is old as Hinduism itself but the sect in
its present form has its origin in Kinaram, he was an
Aghori ascetic and lived for about 150 years. He
was believed to be the incarnation of Lord Shiva and
had many Siddhis through tapas, rituals and then
helped the people with his Siddhis. There is a temple
in Varanasi for the Baba and it’s the most sacred for
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Aghoris, the Aghoris are said to be the human
symbol of Lord Shiva itself. The Aghori lives in a
cemetery (Shamshan), the living place for Lord
Shiva; this is the representation that the final abode
for everyone is the cemetery. And many of the
Aghoris roamed around naked in order to represent
the true humans and their detachment from this
world of mortals who live in the world of illusion.
By this they transcend beyond human feelings of
love, hatred, jealously, pride, etc.
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There are many Aghoris walking in the streets of
northern India with Kapala (Skull Cup). These
Aghoris eat anything when I said anything it really
means anything like rotten food, food from the
dumps, the animal feces, animal urine etc. They
regularly perform rites (Some are so crude that I
can’t explain that here) in order to attain the highest
level in aghoratva, the enlightenment. The final part
of the ritual requires a minimum of one eating of
putrid human flesh, and also meditating on sitting on
the dead corpse, this is the symboli of their rise from
Shava to Shiva. They follow the simple rule that the
universe resides in them and then try to attain
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Enlightenment by self realization.
As the Ascetic advances in his search, he attain
many Siddhis, slowly they gain control over the
environment. They seems to posses power to cause a
rain or to stop one, this is strange but this is true,
even though they posses these kind of powers they
will not use it, as the basic rule of Aghori itself is to
deny human pleasure. So the change on climate is an
event which should happen on its own, whatever the
Ascetic says happens, I have also met few people
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who have direct relation with the Ascetic and I
cannot question the Veracity of the daatas. It is also
said or believed by the people that when he curses
someone, every wish of the person comes true.
There have been many Aghoris in the past. Some of
them are Dattareya, Kinaram, Talinga Swamy,
Aghoreshwar Mahaprabhu Baba Bhagwan Ram.
Now I will or describe you the work of some of the
Aghoris:-
1. TALINGA SWAMI- Talinga Swami of
Banaras was a very powerful Aghori and may
be the only one performed the worship of
Lord Shiva at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple
using his own filth. And he could do so
because he had full realization that filth as
much part of the universal soul as roses, holy
water, etc.The priest who saw Talinga Baba
doing such dirty and strange things slapped
him and ordered him to get out. But at the
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same night Lord Shiva appeared in the dream
of the king of Banaras and told the king about
his anger since someone insulted Talinga
Swami who was Lord Shiva’s very essence,
then the king set out to find the priest and
punish him, but the priest was mysteriously
found dead.
2. DHUNI WALE BABA- This is about a small
incident about an Aghori Baba who lived in
Burhanpur (near Khandwa, MP) and this is
what happen. There used to be an old Baba
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and the people used to call him Dhuni Wale
Baba, but now there is a Samadhi of Dhuni
Wale Baba in Khandwa where people still go
in a large number to worship him, as he used
to stay there and roam to the adjoining areas
and used to eat whatever came to his way like
rotten food or thrown away food. He used to
utter obscenities if anyone talked to him or
disturbed him even when he was doing
nothing, he used to stare in the sky for several
hours and talk to himself. One day I saw
person come to him and touch his feet and ask
him to bless his daughter who had not been
married in spite of their best efforts, the Baba
utter obscenities on him. Cursed his mother
and family members and said that his
daughter would go to hell. Then the man went
away contended and after three days he came
with some sweets and gave it to the Baba who
again uttered some obscenities on him. I
intercepted him on the way and ask him why
he respected this useless old mad man. The
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man told that he is a great Baba and has many
people problems, if he curses you then your
problem is bound to be solved, Aghori Baba’s
are like that and offered me a piece of Barfi
(Indian Sweet) which I gladly ate, then I saw
many other instances when the Baba utter
obscenities, people used to still go behind him
even while he used to answer the call of
nature. He even used to throw his feces all
over the people who come behind him and
they used to collect and take it home as a
Prasad (Holy).
Now the Philosophy behind this is as follows:-
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Aghoris are indifferent to everything. For them there
is nothing good, ideal or bad, everything that exists
in this world is essentially made up of the same
thing. Hence they utter obscenities, make take liquor
eat dead human flesh and do other things which
might appear to ‘Uncivilized’ to us.
We should respect the way chosen by these people
for enlightenment. After all Lord Shiva was also an
Aghori yes he was, his another name. Many people
think that Aghori Baba’s kill people for their rituals.
But there is no strong evidence for this, since the
sect has most of its rites and rituals a secret, we
don’t have exact number of Aghoris in India, but
you can always find few number of Aghoris in the
Kinaram Aghori Temple in Varanasi. Aghori also
believe that a maximum of seven human murders
will be forgiven. Human sacrifices do not count
towards the murder total but are themselves very
uncommon.
Aghoris are also in some popular culture as:-
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1. The Aghori was featured on the first episode
of the new Ripley’s Believe It or not
television series hosted by Dean Cain, the
program highlighted the Aghori’s
cannibalistic rituals.
2. In 2006 a Greek documentary by the name of
“Shiva’s Flesh” shows a Varanasi Aghori by
name Black Boom Baba and the existing faith
around Aghori’s in Varanasi.
3. In the Hindi film Raaz the mystery continues
by Mohit Suri, J Brand on hill plays the role
of an American executive who becomes an
Aghori.
4. In the Blockbuster Telgu film Arundhati,
Sonu Sood the Antagonist is a converted
Aghori.
5. An Aghori was the main character in the
episode of Adalat, an Indian Television
courtroom drama series; the episode was
named ‘Qatil Aghori’ meaning ‘Murderer
Aghori’.
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LOHAGHAT A beautiful place located in the foot of the mighty
Himalayas is also the beautiful state, undisputed in
terms of its natural beauty and grandeur called
Uttarakhand. Lohaghat is located in the Champawat
district of the same state and is famous for its
Ghostly Haunting that too in a Bungalow called as
‘The Abbey’. Readers and people would be
interested to know that this was the same district
where the famous hunter turned conservationist Jim
Corbett began his career of hunting down man
eating tigers and leopards.
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Now coming back to the story, the Bungalow named
‘Abbey’ was constructed in the early 1900’s and
named after the owner, this Bungalow then
converted in a hospital and that is when the spooky
experiences started to begun to manifest them. There
are reported to be some strange on goings that are
come to the hospital by which it prompted everyone
to raise their levels of suspicion, the most apparent
and strange thing was of a Doctor, who could
accurately predict a patient’s death. He would then
transfer such patients to his house which was called
as ‘Mukhti Kothri’, where the dead body of the
patient would be found the very next day! Naturally
the rumors’ were rampant as to whether be these
cold-blooded murders? Or were the deaths due to
natural causes? Or was the doctor indeed remarkable
in predicting death with such precision and accuracy
figure out the exact reason, however the gossip went
flying fast and high that since ‘The Abbey’ was the
first house to come up in this region, this could have
angered the gods residing on the hill-tops. And as if
to support the local rumors and gossips, it is
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believed that due to the wrath of the gods that next-
to-nothing development of the region has taken
place, to this day! Hence the place never really
prospered.
Lots of ghostly sightings including the ones called
‘Bhoot ki Daang’- where two ghostly figures are to
be seen walking on the road holding hands, continue
to this very day, Lohaghat apart from its unparallel
natural beauty does offer the adventures and thrill
seekers a good reason for an exciting visit.
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How to get there/Accommodation
Regular buses and taxis ply from Champawat. The
nearest rail road station is at Tanakpur, located at a
distance of 89kms. Champawat is also well
connected by roads to Nainital (130kms) Haldwani
(190kms), Tanakpur (75kms) and Pithorgarh
(74kms). The Kurmanchal tourist hotel, Chand guest
house, Kamal hotel and state tourism guest house
are some of the Accommodation facilities that can
be availed of by the visitors, however prior booking
is mandatory.
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TUNNEL-103-SHIMLA
The Kalka-Shimla narrow gauge railway travels
along a mostly mountainous route and is known for
the breathtaking views of the hills and the valleys. A
tunnel numbered 103 apparently contains a ghostly
Phenomenon in the form of a British Sahib or
Gentleman by the name of colonel Barog.All though
there is not much known about him other than the
fact that he was assigned the task of finishing the
construction of tunnel-103.So he began the work
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with real earnest and starting digging the tunnel
from either ends of the hill. However on reaching
the center he found that his calculations were
incorrect and the tunnels from the either and weren’t
aligned at the center. He was imposed a fine of one
rupee which was a big amount in those days, so
ashamed of his error that he just shot himself. It’s
the spirit of colonel. Barog mounted on a horse that
is most frequently seen the one interesting feature
about the spirit of this gentleman is that he walks
back to the humans who encounter him. Built
between 1901-1903 tunnel No 103 is the last and
one of the longest tunnels on the Kalka Shimla line,
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there have been numerous reports about people who
have confronted the spirit and have had long
discussions with him. Apparently the spirit vanishes
as suddenly as it appears, there have also been
reports of a woman whose Apparition is seen and
heard screaming down the railway line into the
tunnel and disappearing into the walls. Also seen is
a man asking for match sticks to light his cigarettes
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And many more sightings are a common order of the
day and most people avoid venturing into the tunnel
on foot even during the day, let alone the night there
are hardly any reports that indicate the sightings of
the spirits, while travelling in the train when it
passes through the tunnel. Tourists and
Adventurous, the next time when you are on your
way to Shimla in the Kalka-Shimla mountain
railway, just watch out for tunnel-103.
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How to get there/Accommodation
Shimla is well connected by road through National
Highway-22 and easily accessible by the buses and
taxis from the nearest city of Chandigarh. The Kalka
Shimla mountain railway as mentioned above is not
to be missed experience and is a fascinating way to
reach Shimla. Kalka is the nearest rail road station
and is well connected to all most all the major cities
of India. While in Shimla local buses and taxi can be
easily hired for sightseeing. There are numerous
hotels, rest houses, cottages and Guest houses
suiting everyone’s style and budget. Prior bookings
on most of them are possible through the internet.
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THE LAMBIDHAR MINES
Imagine a township thrilling with 50,000 people,
goring about their daily nerve wracking jobs of
Quarrying limestone from the mines below and
living a life of hardship yet contentment. Now
imagine the same township completely abandoned.
Surrounding by the mighty Himalayas and the
coniferous forests, you have come right to your next
Ghostly Dwelling in India. The location of the
lambidhar mines could hardly have had a more
ironical setting; mussorie was often treated as the
summer capital by the Britishers.
During the pre-independent era surrounded by the
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lofty Himalayan peaks and thick coniferous forests
mussorie is been a heaven for Indians and foreigners
alike, who during the peak summer season came and
visit here for a refreshing retreat. However the
discovery of vast amount oflime stones on one of
the eastern slopes surrounding mussorie, changed all
that. The minesbuzzed with activity and also
encroached on the lives of workers who faced the
wrath of the countless fetal diseases that came alone
with the job. Lime turns human tissue into stone;
hence the deaths were extremely painful, however
timely intervention by the government, both on
humanitarian and environmental grounds brought
the entire mining operations to a complete standstill.
The mines were closed and the entire work force and
the families abandoned the township in a hurried
evacuation, well not everyone left at least not the
one who is dead. It’s since the abandoning of the
township that the ghostly encounters started taking
shape.
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According to the local there are quite few
extraordinary phenomenon’s’ which take place here
at night. First are the painful cries and groans of the
patients heard from the town’s hospital. The once-
fully-equipped hospital, which now laysruins, is one
of the most haunted places of the township and
rightly so. Since some of the insured who later
succumbed to their injuries, were treated here.
Second is the ghost of young army officer murdered
a few years back? Apparently, his murder was
planned by his girlfriend and his newly acquired
boyfriend and took the victim completely by
surprise. His ghost is seen running to the spot his
murder in utter disbelief, the third is that of a black
shadow which attacks or blocks anyone traversing
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the mountain path skirting the township. The last but
not the least is the horrendous cries of fear heard
from the abandoned staff quarters overlooking the
deep valley where the mines are located. Many
trucks quarrying the limestone to and from the
mines have met their doom by skidding across the
narrow perilous road. Even a helicopter carrying
some high profiles dignitaries crashed here in 2001
killing 5 of the 6 abroad. Eye witnesses recall that
the helicopter started losing height as soon as it
entered the valley of the mines. To this day, many
car and buses which travel on the road adjoining the
valley at night are often swerved off the road by
some invisible force and sometimes ending in tragic
results. So the next time you are in mussorie, take a
day off to visit the township and check out whether
the spooky meter indeed crosses the threshold or
not.
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How to get there/Accommodation
Mussorie is connected to Delhi and other major
cities by road. Dehradun is the nearest railway
station; taxis are easily available for mussorie as are
the buses at regular intervals from Delhi and
Dehradun. Hotels, Rest houses/Cottages of all kinds
and needs are available for accommodation. A
through research on the internet and advance
booking can ensure a peaceful and memorable stay.
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THE HAUNTED ROAD
I myself strongly believe in ghosts and spirits and also do
believe in God too. The story that I am going to tell you is
about friend’s uncle after listening to this story I got
Goosebumps chill. So that’s why I am sharing this with
you.
The story is of Mr. Raja (My Friend’s Uncle) whom
I met on a few occasions he was really nice guy and
is in government job and was living in a village was
Himachal Pradesh in India at that time with his
family. His office 15kms away from his home and
he used to travel with his bike. It was the month of
March and you all know that is a closing time of old
financial year and starting of new financial year. So
the government offices have to work late night to
complete their pending logs and files.
It was around 12 am in night when he came out of
the office and it was raining heavily. Uncle always
used to travel by highway but that day, he want to
take a shortcut because it was raining and he want to
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reach home as soon as possible. The shortcut was a
kind of haunted road but he thought the nothing will
happen and these all are just rumors and nothing it
was a chilling windy winter night and rain on top of
that. The trees were shaking due to the face of the
wind and were making horrible noises. Uncle
frightened and started chanting SHRI HANUMAN
CHALISA (An Indian holy song) and safely
travelled some kilometers.
After travelling some more kilometers he forgot that
he was frightened and noticed that it is just about to
be morning as darkness was getting off, he thought
that now he is safe and its going to be morning but
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suddenly he looked at his watch and noticed that is
was 1:15 am, he said oh god how come its 1:15 am
right now as I thought that day light is just about he
come.
Then he noticed that it was not going to be morning
but it was moonlight and that was confusing him
with daylight and then he relaxed and speed up his
bike. After approximately 10 minutes of driving he
noticed a lady on the right side of the road asking for
a lift as first he thought she is in real need and then
suddenly something strike his mind and he again
speed up his bike. Again after 5 minutes of driving
he saw the same lady asking for the lift, Mr. Raja
said “Oh shit how come she is here, she was around
a half a kilometer back”. Uncle’s body started
shaking with fear and he just forgot about god and
thought that this is something unusual, he again
speed up his bike, as he want to reach home as soon
50
as possible before anything bad happens to him.
After sometime again he noticed the same lady
asking for the lift and this time, she screamed for
help“PLEASE HELP ME” I am lost here please
stop, she was wearing a white Sari with heavy
jewelry but uncle did not stop and said that “I am
going to die today” that lady started running with
the bike at almost as the same speed and starting
saying please stop and take me with you, I want go
home. Uncle was driving the bike at a speed of
seventy to eightyKilometers per hour at that time
and was shivering like hell. Uncle try to speed up
more but it was not possible as there was some
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strong force from behind which was stopping him
from racing his bike. The lady started laughing &
crying at the same time and suddenly said, I died at
this same road many years before and this is your
time today. Her face changed from sweet and
innocent to scary and weird, uncle was horrified that
he started shivering again but had not lost his
consciousness. He just changed the last gear and
move his arm on the accelerator until the end he
never looked back to see her. She followed uncle for
another two kilometers or so and after that he
reached a place where some guards were sitting
lighting up campfire, uncle just stopped the bike in
front of them and asked for some water. After
drinking water he told them what had happen to him
and the guards said to uncle YOU HAVE DONE A
VERY GOOD THING BY NOT STOPPING THE
BIKE, because if you would have stopped the bike
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you would not have been alive by now.
The oldest guard told to uncle that “I am living here
for the last fifteen years and in these all years, I have
heard about more than hundred accidents of cars and
bikes on that HAUNTED ROAD”. He told uncle
that God is with you that is why you are still alive.
53
THE GRAVEYARD
FOR this story, I would like to mentions the names
of my three colleagues who were to play an
important role in the incidents o follow. I was very
good friend with the three of them that are
Nakshatra, Vineet and Ashish, Nakshatra was my
neighbor and also from my hometown i.e. Meerut
and Vineet is from a Punjabi family and was from
Delhi and last but not the least Ashish who was also
from Meerut. We all shared a very good bond with
each other and were very close friends, so at one day
when we all were sitting in my home having dinner
and after having dinner, my friend Nakshatra told us
that there was an old graveyard near Victoria Park.
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One of my friends Vineet also told us about some
strange kind of happenings there, the road leading to
the Graveyard was lonely and was generally avoided
by especially at night. After that I told to Nakshatra
that he should inform everyone not to venture out on
that particular stretch, Ashish was a total non
believer and scoffed at the way idea of Ghosts and
the Paranormal. The rest of us were intrigued by the
story and wanted to know more but Nakshatra
himself have limited knowledge after we all slept
and soon it was the final day of my friends visit to
Meerut and we all had a great time.
Once after dinner my all friends started packing
55
their bags as they had to leave early in the morning.
After packing the bags they all sat down and started
to remember all the great time and moments that we
all have in the last couple of days, suddenly the topic
of the Old Graveyard was brought up by Nakshatra.
Seeing Ashish scoffed again, he was a bit irritated
and dared to go to the Graveyard and spend an hour
over there alone. Ashish was a bit high and in the
spar of the moment, he immediately accepted the
dare. He stood up immediately and began to walk
out of the house, we tried to restrain him but to no
avail. Being a teetotaler and in full control of my
senses, I reluctantly decided to accompany him in
his nonaccrual adventure.
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Ashish was in high as we walked towards the
Graveyard, the road was very lonely without any
signs of habitation. It’s must been two or three
kilometers away from my house and it was exactly
12 by the time we reached there. It was an old
cemetery not been used frequently by the locals, it
somehow had an air of Nostalgia about it also it was
very cold at night as it was the winter season and
nights in Meerut in winter can be quite cold. We
reached the gate and were stopped by an Old man
who introduced himself as the security guard
Rehman Chacha; he suspiciously asked us the
reason for coming there at such an unearthly hour?
Ashish immediately jumped in and told the guard
that one of his relatives was buried here and he had
to visit him that night as he has come to Meerut for a
short time and was to fly off to London from Delhi
the next morning.
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Rehman Chacha sympathized and told us to make it
quick, we slowly made our way inside the
Graveyard it seemed like a normal Cemetery and
there was a cemented path in the centre with the
graves lying on the either side of the road. There
was absolute silence except for the occasional
howling of the strays who roamed freely in and
around the Cemetery; there was also a bench at a
short distance away. Ashish who was still high told
me that he wanted to sit there and spend a couple of
minutes and enjoy the solitude, I was feeling a bit
uncomfortable but relented to Ashish’s persistent
request we all sat down and Ashish immediately put
his hand in his pocket and take out a Cigarette. I
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tried to stop him against doing so as it would disturb
the sanctity of the place, but he was in no mood to
listen and had his way. So after spending few more
uncomfortable minutes on the bench, Nakshatra told
me that he wanted to move further inside and want
to check out the rest of the place. We had already
walked a couple of paces ahead when he told me
that he suddenly had this overwhelming urge to pee,
I immediately told him to refrain in doing so and
that it was a high time that we left the place, but
stubborn as he was. Nakshatra didn’t listen to my
advice winking slowly at me he went off to some
nearby bushes which was a little away from the
place where we all were sitting, with a promise to
return quickly. The bushes were thick and I could
not see him at all from my current location, as the
place was not suiting me suddenly I felt weak and
found it very difficult to breathe as if someone was
trying to squeeze the living life out of me. I
immediately dropped to my knees on the Cemetery,
as my gaze turned further ahead of the Cemetery. I
could strangely see a shadow kind of form slowly
59
moving away from me, I seemed to stop for a
moment as if to cast an glance at me before slowly
melting away into nothing less.
My head was starting spinning and a feeling of
horror took over me affecting my ability to think
clearly. With a great difficulty I regained my
composure and then it dawned on me that Nakshatra
still hadn’t returned, I called out him but there was
no response at all. I slowly made my way towards
the bushes where Nakshatra was gone a short while
ago, and I got horrified by what I saw as he was
lying senseless on the ground. Not knowing what to
expect? I got down and shook him vigorously and it
60
worked as Nakshatra started slowly regained
consciousness.
Once Nakshatra was full conscious, he told me that
he heard some kind of movement near the bushes
where he was peeing and suddenly felt as if
someone was standing right behind him. He
instantly experienced the same feeling of weakness
and breathlessness as me, before he could call out to
me he felt a stinging bow on his back which
rendered him unconscious until the time I shook him
awake. He was still feeling some pain near his
shoulder, later when I had a look at it I saw a clear
imprint of five fingers clearly visible on his upper
back and the whole area had become blue due to the
clotting of the blood. Not wanting to spend another
minute over there, we proceeded towards the gate of
the Cemetery and suddenly we were stopped by a
young man who asked us what we are doing at the
Cemetery at such a late hour? We quickly told him
that we had taken permission from the old man
known as Rehman Chacha and also told us our
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ordeal; he was surprised at hearing the name of
Rehman Chacha and told us that no one except him
stood guard at the Cemetery for the last five years.
Some people had earlier told him about an old man
being seen around the Cemetery especially late in
the evening, but he had never come across Rehman
Chacha or whatever the old man was, this was too
much for Nakshatra to bear and he fainted at the
gate itself. We carried him slowly to the guard’s
cabin at the entrance after which I immediately
called my other friends to come with a vehicle and
take us back to home, it was close to 3am by the
62
time we were at my home.
On relating the incident to others they cursed us for
our folly and told us that we were very lucky to get
away unharmed. Nakshatra was down with high
fever for the next couple of days and had to stay in
Meerut. Being a religious person I promised to
myself that I would never be a part of such activities
in future, after that when I met Nakshatra a couple
of months later, I found that he had changed a little
bit and was also wearing a “Taaviz” (a Locket)
63
given to him by one of the Pundit at a temple in his
hometown. This is a definitely an amazing transition
of him from a skeptic to a believer.
64
GHOST NEED CIGARETTES
The incident that I am going to tell you in this particularly
story is a true personal experience by me which happened
in my hometown a long time ago.
THE story goes like this one day while I was
coming from my friend’s sister marriage around 1
am and the road was lonely attached with the park of
at side of the road was at peace and the trees were
standing motionless and quietly as I was starting to
fear a little bit as my home was still a little bit far
away from the place. The place and the park was
famous for its ghostly hunting’s and happenings
especially at the road on which I was walking at that
time also it was late night, so nobody was there not
quite like the day time at which the road was a busy
one with all the vehicles and people going here and
there for their work or whatever. So while I was
moving quietly for a few kilometers on the road, I
heard someone calling my name “RAHUL” from
back, was shocked to listen my name been called at
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that time and also from behind and also on a quiet
and calm road when there is no one around. So I was
a bit confused as what to do now?? Also there is a
tradition in India and the sayings of elders that
“DON’T LOOK BACK AT NIGHT WHEN SOME
ONE OR SOME KIND OF UNKNOWN VOICE
CALL YOU FROM BEHIND” as they believe that
it must be a ghost or a spirit. Well I would say that
it’s all about your belief in these things, and also at
that time I had nothing in mindother than that
reaching home as soon as possible, so I didn’t think
of it much and looked back suddenly and I was
shocked to find that there was a middle aged man
coming out of nothing but darkness from few meters
behind me and was calling me by name. (Let me tell
you that the road and the nearby area was totally
alone and lonely, so the possibility of somebody
66
there was totally ruled out.)
I halted there only and was trying to make out if I
know him, after that he started walking straight
towards me, I was really frightened at that time
anybody will be. He came towards me and asked me
“RAHUL DO YOU HAVE A CIGARETTE?”By
that time I was confused that how he know my name
as couldn’t recognized him at all. Suddenly I saw his
legs and to my surprise his feet were backwards, I
had already heard about it several times but saw it
for the very first time in my life and could hardly
believe my eyes. By that time I was that he was not
a human being as the feeling of his presence was
67
vey unearthly and the temperature around had
suddenly dropped, it was chilling out there and I
couldn’t do much and was stuck there looking at
him. He asked me again “Do you have a cigarette”, I
was startled as I don’t smoke at all so there was no
chance of me carrying a cigarette. I said “No”, the
man told “Ok” you can go now but do bring me a
cigarette tomorrow? Come here at the same time
tomorrow? I will be here waiting for you. Then I
don’t forget to bring it as I have no other option
agreeing him and left the place, when I reached my
home I straight away told the incidence to my family
and friends and one of my friend who was a believer
and knowledgeable person of paranormal
happenings. He told me that the man I met on the
way must be a ghost of some man who was very
fond of cigarettes and probably had died around the
place.
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But as he had demanded cigarette, it’s necessary for
you to provide him with it or otherwise he will
continue to haunt you in future as well. Now that I
know I met a ghost, I was trembling with fear and
was really afraid to go to that road again. My friend
assured me that he will come with me and will stand
at a good distance from the road as the ghost has
only called me and he will not like the idea of
bringing someone with you. Anyhow I gathered the
courage to go again, I bought a packet of cigarettes
and a matchbox and went on the same road next
69
night at the very same time. My friend was standing
at some distance which was actually a bit far away,
but still I had a surety that someone is with me.
Suddenly I heard my name from the back “Rahul
have you brought the cigarette?” I looked back and
the man’s ghost was there looking at me and his
feet’s were still backwards. Oh god! Whenever I
saw it, a chill run through my spine but I was trying
to remain normal and I told YES and gave the
packet of cigarettes and the matchbox to him, he
was very pleased to see the whole packet of
cigarettes and said “Thank you very much and now
you can go”. He move his feet’s backward and got
disappeared into nothing once again, I couldn’t
believe my eyes.
After he got vanished I felt a huge relief and without
wasting a second I straight away started to walk
away towards my friend, after a bit I reached my
friend and my friend asked if everything is fine? I
told him all that happened between me and the
ghost. We were relaxed now and left the place, after
70
that incident I never used that road even in daytime
also. I also kept hearing several incidents from other
people as well as about the road. I still don’t know
whether I should believe in them or not, but I do
believe what all has happened with me which I can
say was definitely a “SUPERNATURAL” thing.
71
THE SANJAY FOREST
THE Sanjay Forest in Delhi is a forest which is been
spread over a range of ten kilometers. ‘Sanjay Van’
is right at the middle of the busting capital of India.
The place is in the urban location but still is not
short of haunting that too reported on a daily basis,
there is also a road which runs through the heart of
this forest and it’s in this tract of land at where there
is a lady dressed in a white sari is often seen asking
the people for a lift in their cars or in other vehicle.
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The strange phenomenon though is that she never
actually accompanies anyone. The moment the
people stop near her, she just disappears. Now it
must be nerve-wrecking there have also been reports
of the people who have driven right through her
have seen chasing the car or any other vehicle at a
speed equaling the car. Many other reports just
claim to have seen her sitting right on the road, with
stormy cold eyes staring blankly into the jungles
beyond as there is something in the jungles or may
be something happened to her in the jungles. But
who knows what happened to her as that’s still
remains to be a mystery
73
How to get there/Accommodation
New Delhi is known throughout the world and is
connected by air with all the major cities of the
world. Every city in India which falls under the
railway network has trains connected to the capital
city, once in Delhi asking around for ‘Sanjay van’
would yield you the desired direction of the location
within seconds, many hotels, guest houses and
dormitories can be found suiting to everyone’s
budget and taste.
74
TWO MEN AND A GHOST COW THIS is an old time story and is from a lot of years
back and had been told to me by my friend who was
about fifteen years old when this incident happened.
He was from a poor family and was not educated, so
was employable to do simple work like laboring at a
milk farm.
In those days, the milk farms didn’t have machine.
Everything was done by hand, my friend and his
four other workers would milk the cow in the day
and in dusk they fed the cows and let gaze on the
pasture. After the chores were done everyone would
75
sit together, have chai (Tea) and watch this beautiful
secret. After having chai (Tea) all the men except
one would take leave and return home. The one
remaining was the lookout for the evening that was,
that was basically the daily routine. On one
particular evening the men let out the cows for
grazing, they thought they had let all the cows out
but realizedlater; there was still one inside the shade
didn’t want to leave. They tried to persuade the cow
out by pushing and pulling her but she was too
stubborn, so they brought in some dry grass just in
case she got hungry and left her alone. They closed
the doors to the shade and sat for tea.
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That evening was my friend’s turned to act as a
lookout. When the rest left, my friend prepared
some tea and sat to admire the final minutes of the
sunset alone. While he was engulfed by the beauty
of the Mother Nature, he suddenly heard a greeting
“Namaste Bhaiji” (Hello Brother).
Two men dressed like milk farmers approached
from nowhere. In the villages it is not usual to have
perfect strangers coming from nowhere and joining
you for the tea, so by considering that my friend
77
poured them tea and they talked right through
sunset. Their names were Manoj and Suresh and
claimed to have come from a village nearby,
although my friend knew almost everyone from the
neighboring villages but didn’t not able to recognize
them.
My friend remembered that night was a particularly
quiet night. Surprisingly he said he could hear frogs,
crickets and leaves rustling softly but clearly even
over their conversation. Not only he could hear the
sounds of nature, he also heard that sounded very
unnatural to him like he heard low rumbling sounds
that he thought are words being recited, but they
didn’t sound human at all. The words were coming
from the shade, he looked at Manoj and Suresh and
they said they heard the ‘words’ too. My friend and
Manoj went to check and found nobody except the
cow in the shade; suddenly Manoj accused himself
to answer the nature’s call. So he went behind the
shade and my friend returned back to Suresh, but
fined that Suresh was not there and thought that he
78
also had gone to answer nature’s call. He waited and
waited but the two men never materialized.
Bewildered, my friend searched the entire shade
from inside and outside and also went to the fields to
look for them, but both Manoj and Suresh were
nowhere to be found. He asked himself “Where they
could have gone to?” and found it impolite that his
visitors left without saying goodbye and was quite
crossed and made his way back to the farm from the
fields. As he was nearing the farm he heard a loud
moan, it was coming from the inside of the shade
and was the same low rumble voice that he heard
before, but this time it sounded like someone is
bellowing in pain. My friend rushed to the shade as
fast as he can and came to know that it sounding like
an animal who is been slaughtered, he fear for the
stubborn cow in the shade. He straight away crashed
onto the shade doors and they sprang open and find
out that the cow was not there and in place of cow
there was some grass and a huge pool of blood.
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My friend was very scared and run out of the shade
into the pastures with the other cows. He thought
again that how can Manoj and Suresh disappeared
so swiftly? The rumble sounds he heard, the cow’s
disappearance and now the pool of blood. The only
logic explanation he could come up with was that
the two men were really Ghosts!
He could not stay on the open field after all that
happened and returned to the farm and had stayed
awake the entire night, jumping at the slightest
sound or movement in the shadows. Just before the
sunrise the other workers started to come in, and I
told them about the ghostly incident that happened
here last night. To my friend’s surprise they all
started laughing as he was telling them some kind of
joke, and send that Manoj and Suresh had been real
and many of the men had seen their ghost too, and
told a story about them to my friend as many years
ago at the very same milk farm two workers stole a
cow and sell it to a Muslim butcher at the open
market. After that, both of them got caught and were
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very badly beaten and stoned to death by the angry
villagers. My friend still was still insisting that the
cow was butchered at that night and led his fellow
workers into the shade to show them the huge pool
of the blood, but he himself got shocked as the cow
was standing there safe and sound, there was also no
blood anywhere on the ground. But mysteriously
that cow died three days later.
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THE LITTLE BLACK TYRANT
KAVERI, an old friend of my Aunt was ill; my aunt
learning of the news met up with four of her friends
and went to see Kaveri at her house. All the women
were relieved to find out that Kaveri was doing
better. They stayed there and chatted all evening and
at nearly 8pm the five women left Kaveri’s place
with home being quite far from there. So if they
were to walk through roads it would save them at
least half an hour if they went through Amrtala.
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Amrtala is not a village; there are no houses or
people living there. It’s just a jungle centre spot
where there are only pathways that led to other
villages. The five women each had used Amrtala on
many occasions when going to and from other
villages; this day wasn’t any different for them. So
they walked blissfully in the dark without a concern
and reached a junction of pathways, they separated;
three of them said their goodbyes and left into
different directions. Lakshmi and my Aunt stayed
with Kaveri a while longer and talked sitting under
the moonlight shadows of the rustling leaves as the
night was cool and comfortable which made them
loose the track of time. When Lakshmi looked at her
watch she was shocked to learn that it was almost
10pm, my Aunt and Lakshmi stood up and give their
good bye to Kaveri and went their separate ways,
my aunt walked peacefully clutching a market bag
in her hand. Amidst the rustling leaves and the
shadow of moonlight on the ground, she suddenly
saw a figure up ahead and found out that it was a
little boy of four or five years.
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My Aunt was surprised to see a little boy in the
middle of nowhere and then she walked closer to the
boy, she tried to make out his features but she
couldn’t see very easily in the dark. When the boy
came forth into the light, she saw that he was very
black and ugly. The boy pointed his fingers at her
market bag and asked if she had meat in there, my
boggled Aunt shook her head and said she had
sweets in there; the boy didn’t believe her and asked
her to open and give him the meat that was inside.
My aunt was annoyed by the boy’s stubbornness and
she dug her hands into the bag and removed the
sweets she had in there.
“Here take these sweets little Boy”. She said
The Boy shook his head and shouted. “I WANT
MEAT!”
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My aunt became scared, although he was a tiny
figure but still she was afraid of him and realized
that how unusual is the situation was, because there
could not have been a mother in the village who
would allow her small child to wonder about in the
jungle like that. My aunt got passed him and tossed
the sweets on the ground; the boy began to pick up
the sweets up and throw them back at her. My aunt
was at the verge of screaming, but didn’t and kept
herself cool, walked fast and soon she had walked
almost ten meters away from the boy. When she
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didn’t hear the call for meat anymore, she turned to
look and find out that the boy was standing at the
spot where she had dropped the sweets. Suddenly in
a blink of eye the boy was standing right in front of
her barely a meter away, my aunt got panicked and
let out a scream and started began to run. The boy
gave chase and was still screaming for meat. She ran
and ran hearing the boy’s footsteps but saw nothing
when she turned.
Soon she was out of Amrtala and ran to the first
house she saw. The door opened after two minutes
of hard knocking and the women asked to my aunt
what happened? My aunt told her that what all she
had been gone through so far, but the women wasn’t
surprised at all and said she had also heard of “THE
LITTLE BLACK TYRANT” from the other women
too.
86
A TRAPPED SOUL
This story is an old story as in it you will know about a soul
which is immortal and is in every humanbody.
ONCE upon a time in an old forgotten village there
was a man who was very lazy, on one particular
summer night he woke up suddenly in the night time
while sleeping and had a nightmare after that he
tried to get back to sleep but was not able to as he
was feeling very thirsty. He looked around and find
out that all of his family were sleeping on cots under
the sky, on next to him was sleeping his elder
brother. Being the laziest of all he asked his brother
to fetch a glass of water for him, his brother
muttered something rolled over and snored on. He
thought that now he would have to go inside to have
a glass of water for himself. Summoning all of his
strength he got up went inside.
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After some time his brother woke up and remembers
the words of his younger brother as he was told by
his brother to fetch some water, then he turned
around and saw him fast asleep. Knowing that his
brother had never got up due to laziness, he himself
made an effort and went inside to fetch some water
and have some water for himself also. Inside there
was a earthen pot in which the water was kept,
suddenly he noticed that the lid which usually
cover’s the pot was lying aside and was a strange
88
observation for him, but being in a sleepy mood he
just shrugged it off and filled tumbler from the pot
and drank water to his satisfaction. Then filled it
with water for his brother and put the lid on the pot
and moved his way out, his brother was still
enjoying a sound sleep. He shook his brother
violently in order to wake him up but the brother
refused to open his eyes. Noticing that something
was wrong, he kept the tumbler aside and felt his
pulse. There was no pulse at all his brother was dead
in the dead of the night under the starry sky, beside
the shady tree and surrounded by peaceful cool night
breeze he was sitting beside the corpse of his
brother. Suddenly a weird thought stuck him and he
realized something, the truth downed upon him with
such a force that he screamed and fainted.The next
day, the earthen pot which was used to keep water
was flung in the river with its lid still closed. To this
day the villagers believed that when the lazy man
had got up, he left his body behind. His last wish
was to have some water, so the thirsty spirit went
into the pot and fell asleep? There in the pot itself
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when the elder brother put the lid on the pot the
spirit got trapped inside. So he spirit didn’t get the
time to go back in the body of his brother as the lid
was being closed. That’s why his brother got dead
and till now no one knows where the pot is, with the
soul of a man trapped inside.
90
MUNJA
India is a land of diverse religions, caste and sub castes and
has inherited a treasure of supernatural myths and legends;
there is a typical segment of haunted beliefs in the different
states of this vast land. The legendary ghosts are typically
classified based on their religion, time and nature of death,
place of death and so on. The deeper you study these
legends, the deeper you will gain an understanding of how
these Indian ghost stories actually support the traditional
and religious framework of India.
OF the many age-old castes in India are the
Brahmins- the highly learned community known for
their huge contribution to the esteemed knowledge
based in India. The legend of Munja an Indian myth
famous since ages has its roots within the Brahman
community.
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Of the many religious traditions within this
community is the Yajnopavita (also known as poite).
This ceremony takes place when a Brahman boy
(aged between 8to13) is admitted into Brahman
hood (i.e. he is eligible to recite the Gayatri Mantra).
This ceremony is marked by some holy offerings
and rituals onto a Havan (homa or consecrated fire)
and the wearing of the sacred thread. It is believed
that if a boy dies in ten days (roughly a week) after
his poite ceremony he is transformed into this
legendary ghost called Munja. The Munja is a
supposed a ghost having a sadistic profile, he haunts
a Pipal (ficus religosa) tree and is on the lookout for
vulnerable victims.
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It is said that a wrath of Munja can be invited when
a victim tries to disturb and/or insult his abode.
There have been cases where the victim have been
reported to have pelted the Pipal tree with stones
introduced domestic or human waste, consumed
liquor sitting beneath the tree and so on. The Munja
typically haunts girl and women who dispose off left
over’s of the meals (like bones, etc) have been
reported to be tormented by the Munja.The Munja
avenges this insult in furious ways, the simple
stories tell how the Munja pelted stones at naughty
children, the stones became grazing as reports tell
how this ghost haunts it victims possessing them till
they are ill to death, sometimes hitting the bucket.
There are also incidents wherein the Munja pricked
the victim using thorns or scorched them using fire.
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Indians believe that the best way to avoid the wrath
of such an Indian ghost is by adding any activity
which might invite the Munja’s attention. Villagers
used to build platforms around the Pipal tree and
tied the sacred thread around its bark; exorcists have
been reported to use water to ward off the Munja
from its victims.
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CHUDAIL
India is a land of myths and legends- centuries of profound
history has given this land endless fables rising from every
nook and corner. When it comes to ghostly icons, one
obliviously drawn to the globally acclaimed vampires,
werewolves and Halloween charades. However it is quite
interesting to note that Indian Ghost stories have its own
counterparts to complete with this global folk fare some of
which have more horrifying track records.
THE Indian counterpart for the Witch is called
Chudail or Chudel (which is pronounced as chew-
dale). In many places, it is also referred to as
Daayan (pronounced as Dye-en) although there are
many conceptual differences of opinions between
these two terms regardless of their common origin.
A Chudail is an Indian witch or a female ghost and
is believe to arise from the death of a woman during
child birth. Indian witch stories have many
variations across the different states of India. For
example- the north Indian states often believe that
the Chudail can change its physical form and lure
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young men. Once she lures them into a lonely place,
she pounces on them to either kill or to have
physical contact with them. In both the cases the
victim is supposedly drained off his life, the Chudail
is supposed to live near graveyard or deep inside the
forests.
To prevent the birth of a Chudail from the death of a
woman (during her child birth suicide due to social
harassment) the villagers (in older days) used to
spread mustard seeds at their doors. In rare cases,
tantric were called to conduct holy rituals (exorcism)
to bid the dead a peaceful goodbye. In the western
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and eastern parts of India, the Chudail is believed to
look like a Hag (an old woman with disturbing
looks) who lures small children away from their
families and then kills them. Some also believe that
she eats little children, so as to keep herself younger
through centuries. In the western regions of India the
Chudail is sometimes referred to as Haadal
(pronounced as huddle) however unlike the beliefs
of the north Indian people living in the western
regions believe that the Haadal haunts a chinch
(tamarid) tree or an old vad (banyan) tree. When
people prawn to ghostly attacks (based on their birth
charts) comes in the vicinity of this tree, she haunts
them to fulfill her unfinished business. A tantric is
then called to interrogate with the victim so as to
understand the Haadal’s story and negotiate her
demands. People from the state of Maharashtra also
believe that the one who dares to strike a nail
through the bark of the tree supposedly haunted by
the Chudail (or a Haadal) will not only free his
village from the Witch’s torment but will also gain
good luck for his family for the next seven
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generations. This act needs to be done at the stroke
of midnight on a no moon day (amavas).
Owing to Superstitions pertaining with- in the
Indian system, there have been acts of tragedies and
social injustice taking place through centuries. In
older days, it is believed that when a queen could
not have a child for years, she used to be
pronounced as a Witch or Chudail. She was then
banished from the kingdom or worse killed and this
isn’t the history as these scenarios are still there in
our modern India. In remote villages (and
sometimes in well civilized cities) a wife is held
responsible for any tragedy taking place with her
husband. There have been cases where the family
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members have been banished or burnt the poor wife
on account of her possibly being a Daayan.
A remarkable case that took place in a village close
to A the borders of Maharashtra and Gujarat. An old
woman living all alone by doing odd chores was
black marked by the villagers; apparently she used
to gather the little children around and used to tell
those stories. Some of the villagers found this
disturbing (since the children seem to enjoy her
company and visit her everyday) and called up the
panchayat (the village council), together they pelted
the old woman till she was running past her capacity
and finally fell down after her lungs gave up.
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I
believe such tragic deaths can sure result in the
formation of vengeful Chudails, who might strike
back for their rightful justice.
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BRIJRAJ BHAVAN
As we all know that India with its rich and long history was
ruled by the British for almost a hundred and fifty years,
until 1947, when rose to freedom. The first war for
independence popular as the Indian mutiny started long
back in 1857, and so did this ghost story from India. Back
then when the soldiers were called ‘sepoys’ and India was
divided into so called princely states ruled by the kings who
soon surrounded to the British.
RAJASTHAN, the largest state of the republic of
India is one such region which was ruled by the
kings for centuries. Surely there are many haunted
places in Rajasthan which would add up to the list of
ghost stories from India.
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Rajasthan even the name implies ‘The Land of the
Kings’ whenever we come across these
vocabularies, first thing we would visualize is wars,
kingdom, riches, palaces, mythology, murders,
betrayals, deaths and much more…And so this lead
to many ghost stories in Rajasthan as well as
Haunted places in Rajasthan. These places lures
ghost hunters from around the globe, one such
historical ghost story came from Kota; Rajasthan a
city on the banks of Chambal River, there is a quite
a few hundred of these places in Kota; one of them
being is Brijraj Bhawan- once a palace of the former
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princely family of Kota. It is one of the haunted
places in India, having a resident ghost of Major
Charles Burton who while serving as the British
resident to Kota was killed by Indian sepoys during
the 1857 mutiny as the Brijraj Bhavan palace was
the British residency and the home of Major Charles
Burton,40th Bengal native infantry posted to Kota.
He and family lived there for thirteen years, in May
1857 at the outbreak of mutiny Major Burton was
summoned by the British general commanding the
nearby Neemuch cantonment for the protection of
Neemuch, a town in Madhya Pradesh. Burton was
accompanied to Neemuch by his family, he returned
back with his two sons on the request of the king of
Kota. Nobody would know that this would turn in a
haunted palace in India, the burtons arrive on Kota
on December 13, 1857 meeting every mark of
kindness, and this didn’t last long! Two days later
Major Burton saw a large party approaching the
residency. He assumed these troops of Maharaja
have come to pay a friendly visit, but soon the
building was surrounded and entered by the soldiers
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who had mutinied. Abandoned by all their servants,
Major Burton and his two sons took refuge in an
upper room with few arms that they had been able to
snatch and waited for help to arrive from the King or
Maharaja, while the house was looted below them.
After five hours of firing, major Burton and his
son’s surrendered kneeling down they said their last
prayers. In March, 1958 Kota was retaken by the
British and the bodies of the Burtons were
disinterred and buried in the Kota Cemetery with
full military honors.
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After independence, the mansion became the private
property of the Maharaja of kota. In the 1970’s, the
government of India abolished the priory purses and
privileges of the Maharajas, renovating the building
and calling it as Bris Raj Bhavan. Today it’s not
only a heritage hotel but also a Haunted destination
in India where the ghost of Major Burton prevails. It
is said that Charles Burton ghost still haunts the old
building and susceptible guests have complained of
distinctly “discomforting and oppressive feelings”.
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The staff although reluctant to complain, have
discussed of an English voice being heard often by
the chowkidars (watchmen) that says “Don’t sleep,
no smoking”- followed by a sharp slap. It seems that
the ghost of Burton still patrols the mansion.
The Haunted royal palace will surely be
remembered in future, if not for the historical events
that took place here then as one of the top Haunted
destinations of India.
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CHHALAVA
India is full of myths and legends- the root of which
sometimes take you back to centuries, the historical
monuments, excavation sites, abandoned villages and dark
forests- each of them are haunted typically. Indians have
always loved these haunts and the Indian ghost stories
associated with them- the legends run through generations.
CHHALAVA (pronounced as Chhuh- lava) is one
such age old legend which still haunts north-Indian
villages. This legend is quite popular in the remote
villages of the state of Uttar Pradesh which is also
my home state. According to me a Chhalava is not a
ghost as such (no tantric would be able to locate and
destroy it) he is rather a spirit trapped between earth
and hell. A Chhalava is supposed to be a legend
dating centuries back, a notorious warrior who has
punished to be trapped in transition for centuries. He
is known to haunt single men (generally those who
have their marriages scheduled in the near future).
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Chhalava is different from the normal league of
Indian ghosts as he will never pounce or attack his
victim directly. He will follow you sometimes even
for months, the villagers say it walks in the daylight
in the form of an abandoned Ox-though it is much
bigger and fierce looking than the normal Oxen.
When it follows the victim, the chhalava gathers
information about the voice’s of the victim’s family
and friends (and of the victim himself). Finally
when it’s all set, he will confront the victim in the
middle of the night and call the victim in the voice
of his family, friend or himself and if the victim
looks back, the Chhalava will challenge him into a
duel which shall last long till the first rays of the
sun. If the victim loses the Chhalava will rip him
off, though a person cannot win over this Indian
legend, the people believe that the one who
overpowers the Chhalava will be granted enormous
luck for his next seven generations.
There is also a village in our Uttar Pradesh in which
a men was haunted by the Chhalava, Ramesh aged
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twenty-three was a farmer’s son, a bachelor and is
soon to be married. He was quite a well built and
had a good physique.
On a cold dark night (at about 11pm) Ramesh was
patrolling his fields when he heard someone walking
behind him and immediately felt a strong hand on
his shoulder, he straight away looked back and was
shocked to see a brawny tall person looking at him,
the only natural fact was that the person had the
lower half of an Ox and his eyes where pale white
without the pupils. Ramesh, well accustomed to the
local stories instantly understood what it was? The
Chhalava challenged him to a duel which he had to
accept and the duel started between them which
lasted till the sunrise.
Nobody (not even Ramesh) knows what had
happened next morning, the villagers found Ramesh
lying unconscious in the fields. After taking him to a
local doctor it was declared that Ramesh had
suffered a severe condition of paralysis, the villagers
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asked Ramesh what was actually happened to you.
Ramesh told that the last thing he could remember
was he started fighting the will. Today about five
years later, Ramesh is still inparalyses, though his
financial condition has been improved drastically
and earlier there were times when his family ate raw
vegetables but today he owns a fleet of luxury cars
and, is the owner of a big piece of land in his village
and beyond.
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KURSEONG DOW HILL
Indian ghost stories or Indian horror tales is widely spread
as India is the land of paranormal activities. So, one can
imagine the impact these paranormal activities impose on
human life. India is a country with its rich history, certainly
filled with mysteries is where you will legends and folktales
about paranormal activities. Are they really true- well
nobody knows that, but I think they are true! Does anyone
believe in them? Yes I do and there are many. Unknown
ghosts and deadly spirits are the points of discussion at
least once in a lifetime for everyone.
RESEMBLING these flickers with some places
have been part and parcel of the stories. Forests,
forts, railway stations, schools, schools, houses,
hills, mountains, hills, mountains and lot many
places seem to have reported some of the other
supernatural incidents. One such story is that of
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Kurseong Dow Hill.
Kurseong, a hill station situated in Darjeeling state
of West Bengal. It is blessed with a pleasant climate
for the year. Locally known as “Kharsang”, it means
“Land of the white orchids” in lepucha language,
this town is famous mainly for schools and tourism,
the mission schools and small guest-houses which
else out a meager existence today last from the
British rule.
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Kurseong is also called the ‘Good Castle by the
Tibetans, it is the site of an outpost of Tibetan
religious life a small lamasery. This town is quite
arguably an ideal place to relax and chill out.
Having known all these aspects about kurseong,
very few people are aware of the may be associated
with the beautiful location, this place secure its
position in the list of most haunted destinations. Yes
this place is definitely haunted as far as I know as
it& place of many murders. Many locals have heard
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the footsteps in the Victoria boy’s school especially
when the school is closed for long holidays from
December to March.
There are no footmarks found, neither of humans
nor of animals but the footsteps is heard and
countless number of paranormal behaviors and
murders are reported near the dark, strange and
haunted forests. They seem to be mysterious in their
own way , on the stretch between the Kurseong Dow
hill road and forest office, wood cutters claim to
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have seen a headless young boy walking
disappearing in the trees. Headless Boy!!- Damm,
even the thought of this gives an eerie and strange
feeling.
I cannot imagine what would be the people’s state
of mind when they actually saw this. The apparition
walks down the roads and then slips into the woods.
Locals feel as if they are been watched and followed
and also people here have been reported to have an
uncanny, depressive and strange kind of feeling.
However no proofs of any supernatural activity have
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been found, some say these are true even I also say
that this is all true, while some believe that these are
just rumors. But the fact remains that the miserable
and strange feeling of people has been so intense
that it has led to multiple suicide and murders.
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SHIMLA
After spending months of dreary routine, people love
spending a couple of days pampering themselves to the
freshmen’s and calm of a nearby holiday destinations- and
we Indians are no exception either. However, owing to the
vastness of this golden land the geographical density
changes the destination of ‘Holiday Destination’ in the
various parts of the country-up in the North West, it is the
adventurous great Indian desert, the northern region
adored by the great Himalayas, the east enjoying the mega
rivers and the Bay of Bengal while the west escaping to the
scene coasts. Lots of other regions enjoy in the more
fascinating ways, but kind of time consuming to focus on
them.
THE northern region of this country enjoys a fresh,
yet somewhat chilly weather all thanks to the
various mountain ranges (including the Himalayas).
Himachal Pradesh is one such state surrounded and
filled up to the brim with nature’s treasures, hill
ranges, flowered valleys and clean waters. The
state’s capital- Shimla was also the summer capital
during the British reign, the city is completely
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picturesque- toy like roofed houses overlooking the
mountains and a culture warm and inviting to one
and all, the city is famous for its old holiday homes,
bungalows and off-side cabins and is well publicized
through the Rudyard Kipling ‘My own true ghost
story’. This tinsel town also serves as a heaven like
abode for many unparsed specters many of which
have left a permanent mark on those who have come
across it.
Throughout the old decades (since 1870s to 1970s)
the Britons have claimed of experiencing lots of sup
mature activities within the various ancient homes in
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and around the city. One such Mrs. Fordyce (refer
Rudyard’s book ) who lived along with her unwell
mother, claimed to see a spirit standing against her
dressing at midnight- an old women leaning against
a wooden stick. Another such Mr. John tells us how
(in the old 1920s) he and his wife used to visit and
old rented place near the Shimla hills, Mr. John
apparently saw an old man in the dressing room
wearing a dressing gown. Before Mr. John could
reach for him (with quite a lot of guts), the man
escaped strangely and smoothly in the dark. The
next day the search was conducted around the house,
were there were no footprints at all. A local man told
Mr. John that around forty years ago, a man exactly
the same alike or exactly of the same personality had
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commit suicide within the same room.
Of the many famous paranormal spots in the city.
The charleville mansion ranks into the top five for
decades (as in the British decades) many sirs and
madams have claimed seeing supernatural activities
during their stay at the lavish yet supposedly cursed
or Haunted mansion. Also a man took his wife for a
short stay into the mansion during his appointment
within the railways, after being fed up by the
warnings of the local people, the man sealed the
room only to experience the room running and
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bringing itself down. During the same period an
Indian servant had seen a spirit of a Briton officer
walking around a solid closed door.
Though in Shimla the Ghosts and Spirits have not
been much of violence in the nature but their
presence itself has left many of their viewers into a
trauma that they can cherish for the rest of their life.
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KHAVIS
In India there a multitude of reasons to be famous for, but
that’s we are not talking about. One of the many reasons
though, is the way spirituality and supernatural activities
have been embedded within the centuries- old culture.
Every different state of India has their own perspective
towards such illusions (if it all they are so) Going ahead as
every state has its or their own set of ghosts and legends. Of
the many supernatural castes and religions, we shall now
look at a particularly interesting specimen- the Khavis.
There have been many Indian Ghost stories revolving
around this myth.
A KHAVIS is technically speaking a Ghost of a
strong person who had apparently passed away
learning unfinished business (or dreams). Great
Grandfather goes ahead telling us how a Khavis was
a reincarnation of a dead pathan person, especially
owing to their enormous physical strength. Old men
sitting idle across the villages (particularly those
located in the western and southern parts of the
country) will tell you lots of stories (swearing their
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grandfathers long lost in time ) of their encounters
with this muscular apparition.
A Khavis is said to be a call for one’s death or
severe consequence. They say if one destined to his
after life, he will start seeking a Khavis a couple of
days before his Death day. Many villagers claim of
knowing ‘someone’ who saw a Khavis and kicked
the bucket a couple of days later. When asked how a
Khavis presented itself? A very interesting person
told me a true life incident that happened with his
grandfather’s brother, when the brother was seven
years old, the kid was walking through the market
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and he saw a tall dark man standing across the road
watching him strangely. The kid took it pretty
casually till he looked into the eyes of this stranger-
they were fiery red, all of a sudden the kid felt
uneasy and scared at the same time. He gathered up
enough courage to run back home and tell his father
of what he saw. His father simply took it as a mind
play and asked the kid to forget it; the mother
however sensed something unusual and spoke so
with her neighbors.
All of them felt it necessary to consult the village’s
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priest who then conducts a small ritual wherein the
child was showered with Vermillion (Kum Kum),
turmeric (haldi) and some other items while the
priest challenged the kid’s resident evil. And the
person who tells me this did not remember, what
exactly happened throughout the ritual but days after
his grandfather lost his brother in a rather unnatural
accident. He was playing in the Verandah (porch)
when all of a sudden; he stood still uttering a loud
shriek. Within moments he had rolled back his eyes
and with a jerk, he was done through. The family
could only watch in horror as the eight year old
breathed his last in the most mysterious manner.
Some may call such associations more co-incidences
or even exaggerations, but go to a village in India
and you will find dozens of men who are willing to
take you throughout such accident zones which they
have known all their life. They say a khavis appears
only when you have reached your last steps of the
life, the wise say you can see a khavis (and he can
see you too) right in the daylight in the busy streets.
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However no one else can see or even sense him. Its
only those who are called upon by destiny can
experience such a horrifying end.
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MUSSORIE’S INCIDENT
THIS is a very strange yet true story that happened
in Mussorie with my very dear friend, the story goes
like this. On his first trip to Mussorie, the famous
hill station of India he started from Chandigarh at
around 7am in the evening and had reached
Dehradun at around 11pm as the GPS signals started
to drop he and his friends were lost in the streets of
Dehradun as he quite don’t know the route from
Dehradun to Mussorie but somehow later they were
able to find a road to Mussorie that too by having a
lot of difficulties. At around 11:30pm my friend and
his buddies were just about to reach Mussorie as my
friend was very good at driving, so he was driving
the car and also sitting on the navigator’s seat with
one of the phone in his hand and his other phone
was somewhere near the seat.
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They crossed Lord Shiva’s temple on the route to
Mussorie and he asked to one of his friend to take
the blessing of Lord Shiva as it’s a local ritual there
to stop before moving ahead. But regardless of
saying this friend ignored it and said he doesn’t pay
much of an attention to it and moved ahead. My
friend felt very bad but what could he do in it? After
around five minutes suddenly the phone in my
friend’s hand started ringing and he was shocked
and was very surprised and said to his other friend’s
that how could it be possible? And he picked up the
phone but no one replied from the other side, after
hanging up he told his friend that he got a call from
his other phone that was lying on the seat. He then
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checked his other phone and found it to be on
standby.
So, he was shocked to see that and his other friends
discussed about it and his friend took the phone to
check the call in the phone log and was amazed to
find out that no record of that call was there. He
heard the cell phone ringing but couldn’t find that
call registered in the phone log. My friend took it as
some technical fault and kept driving.
And after some time the car had some problem as
my friend was driving uphill and he tried to
changing the gears but it was not picking up at all
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even on the heavy gears (1st or 2
nd). He kept
changing the gears and pushed the throttle to the
max but second after hanging the gears, it felt like it
was switching back to neutral and there was no
throttle response at all. He told this to his friend and
him at first thought that my friend was fooling
around but later he understood, that they still have
some time to complete the journey, but my friend
somehow managed to take the car to Mussorie.
After reaching Mussorie they all checked in some
hotel and then checked the logs of both the phones
again only to find nothing registered in them.
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It was strange; the car problem could be co-
incidence but what about the phone call?
They later told a local friend about the incident and
he told them on one of the curve, the spirit of major
Ralston can be felt and funny incidences happen
there at night.
My friend told another local friend about the
incident and she was also not surprised at all and
told my friend about her own incident at the same
place where a big rabbit like animal stumbled on the
roof of their car and it felt as it was thrown on by
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someone at them and when they got down to see it
there was nothing at all.
An abnormally giant human like figure, dressed in
white and a beautiful young lady asking for lifts can
also be seen at the same place, she added. My friend
said that he was not sure if it was a ghost or
something, but the mysterious phone call was
certainly strange.
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QUTUB MINAR
DELHI, the capital of India and a larger- than- life metro
is one of the most ancient destinations of historical
interests. The city serves some of the most brilliant
historical interests (and would heritage sites) including the
Red fort, Qutub (Qutb) Minar, India Gate, Jantar Mantar
and so on. Each of these monuments has a unique history
associated with them; some of these monuments date back a
thousand years.
THE Qutub Minar, India’s largest Minaret scaling
seventy two meters is one of the world’s most
sought UNESCO world heritage sites, with the
construction dating back as 1000 AD; the monument
has been witness to generations of historical
revolutions in India. However these centuries also
brought with them tragedies some of which still
have their marks left behind. No wonder the Qutub
Minar is named one of the most haunted places in
India.
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As far as I know the surrounding place near the
minaret mostly in some of the evenings the people
have claimed to see some unexplained shadows
lurking around the guard’s cabin near the entrance.
Many have tried to explain the illusion as a product
of the sodium lamps installed within- but science
asks for an object against the lamps for a shadow to
be cast- But how can one explain shadows forming
with any (material) objects involved?
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In older days (about some decades back), people
were allowed to climb up the staircase into the
tower. However owing to the safety concerns, the
government has banned the entry into the Minar. In
the earlier days however there have been reports
wherein people climbed up the staircase and jumped
down, such events people claim are another source
for paranormal activities. Says Dr.Gayathri, a
veteran practitioner and a resident of Delhi, “I have
been visiting the Qutub Minar since decades, my
uncle told me how he was once climbing up the
stairs and stopped suddenly, he told me that he felt
very uneasy, but then he thought it might be
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claustrophobia however the discomfort increased
suddenly, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder, he
looked back but nobody was there. He started
feeling more uncomfortable and at the same time,
depression crawled over him.
It was as if everything has ended for him- he didn’t
want to go ahead in life. This feeling contributed for
a couple of moments till my uncle’s friend climbed
up behind him”.
Dr.Gayathri isn’t one of them who stand witness to
paranormal activities and surrounding this haunted
place in India. A local guide also claims to see a
white apparition in the adjoining garden. He claims
that the apparition is a female, and apparently from
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the royal genre (which he claims from her walking
style). He also claims that the lady walks across the
gardens and disappears across the trees.
Though the authorities claim that these Indian Ghost
Stories have no logical basis, there are still may out
there who have been close witness to these spooky
vibes.
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THE HAUNTED FACTORY
IT is said that stories leave behind footprints. A life drop
tiny pebbles of milestone at every little corner of its
stupendous journey. Most of the popular ghost stories in
India have always had a strange (a house, a cremation
ground or an office) which had a tragedy supporting it
from the beneath. A traumatic death, a mortal accident,
untamed love or whatever! Today we have a story that lurks
a bit away from the traditional genre of Indian Ghost
Stories.
THIS story starts about fifteen years back when a
big company extended its branches into a small
village close to Mumbai. The project building a big
bone crushing unit to produce bone ash powder
which at that time had a noticeable demand into
various applications like local bakeries, sugar
industries and other domestic uses. The company
acquired a huge plot besides a prime river and set up
a best- in- class industrial setup and hired dozens of
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local labor to run it.
And so it happened that the plant ran good and the
company was happy till the things began to
darkening. On the papers, it went something like the
company couldn’t afford running the factory, ethical
issues; drastically loses in demand of bone ash
powder and so on. There were also the health
concerns of the locals who worked with the
decaying remains and after remains of the animals,
bird (occasional humans).
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And yet, there is also another tinge to the mystic
cloud. Some locals claimed that the factory had, in
its course of time, become haunted all thanks to its
raw material coming from the abattoir (Slaughter
house/ Katakana) laborers claimed that the gears of
the conveyer stopped rolling suddenly in spite of
everything being perfect….!
The night watchmen had more to share. Very
frequently they heard some of the equipments emit
terrible scratching noises in the midst of the night-
like someone was scratching their nails (or hooves)
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against the steal wall of the equipments).
This was sometimes alternated by fluttering noises
or deep whispers. When being explored for the
source, the watchmen come across nothing. Many a
time the watchmen claimed seeing shadows whiz
across to the entrance to the shed. One of them even
reported seeing an apparition of a woman standing
near the edge of the river. But as he went closer,
there is nothing in sight.
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All in all, the factory still remain deserted as off
today, with nobody except a dozens of security
guards to protect the ruins. The equipment still
smells of their raw materials while the temperature
gives unholy shudders to any frequent visitor. From
all I know, this haunted factory in India has been a
ma diary for stories coming in and many more
flowing out.
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SAVOY HOTEL
After a very blissful morning meditation, I take
leave of the Ganges, and bid farewell to Beehm,
Hari and the Ganges at the Hotel Ganges Kinares.
It's only a two hour taxi ride to Mussoorie, passing
through the city of Dehra Dun, and the comical
highlight of the trip was the traffic of Dehra Dun
having to negotiate around a large herd of water
buffalo heading down street.My mood is light and
can beexpressed in Dickey Betts' "I was Born a
Rambling Man", but after getting carsick my tune
turns into Simon and Garfunkel’s "Homeward
Bound, I wish I was homeward bound." Emotional
states are fickle as the wind, and it has taken a long
time and a lot of work to not simply and totally be
an expression of my emotions, to find something
deeper that rides out the ever changing emotional
and psychic landscape. Quite a show though,
no?Beehm gave me a list of hotels to look at when I
get to Mussoorie, and I was planning on getting a
good hotel, as this is the off season in Mussoorie, a
place saturated with hotels, and many give 40-50
percent off now. Similar to the rest of the Himalayan
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Mountains, Mussoorie raises quickly over the Dehra
Dun flats, and there are many, many cutbacks and
sharp curves.
Similar to a lot of "arrival" scenes, when I get to
Mussoorie, I am approached by numerous
individuals. Beehm had told the taxi driver to go
with me to the various hotels to check them out, but
in looking over the hotels I wanted to see, they were
on the "mall" a place that is closed to auto traffic, so
that plan is shot. So I go to my plan B, which is
simply to stay at the Savoy Hotel, a former
Victorian Resort built at the turn of the
century.Taking a long driveway to the top of a
hill, I can see that the Savoy was once a large,
majestic and grand hotel, but now it is a bit run
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down, to say the least. The office for the hotel is like
something out of a Merchant-Ivory movie, with a
metal railing that says "Osho". Hmmn. What does
Osho mean?
An old porter lugs my heavy bag to my room, a
corner room that has a wonderful view of the snow
capped Himalayas. The room is obviously once
reserved for the wealthy, containing a study, large
bedroom and bathroom, about 800 square feet, still
with the same period furniture from the turn of the
century. Having once been in the used furniture
business, I'd like to back a truck up to this place, and
ship it all back to the US. I'd make a fortune. Again
being disoriented; I made the mistake of taking the
food plan, which comes to $30 a day for room and 3
meals, which still is a bit expensive,
relativelyspeaking (I know some of you must be
saying "What! 30 bux?!"). The place has a beer
garden and other recreation facilities, all run
down. The Savoy is famous because it was the
inspiration of Agatha Christie's first book, and the
owner, Lady Ormsby, was murdered here via
cyanide, and her murderer was never found.
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Lonely Planet said that the place is still haunted with
her ghost. Going to lunch; I realized I made a big
mistake. Except for a small conference, the place is
empty, and when I go to lunch, I am placed in a
dining room big enough to hold several hundred
people. I'm the only one in there, and the creepy
waiter is trying to serve me like I'm royalty or
something. This place is starting to give me the
creeps.So I visit Mussorie, which is really a big
tourist center, over the long single lane "mall". I can
see why this place has appeal, and I am taking this
time to recover and balance. As the day goes on, I
am feeling sicker and more depressed, but I continue
to walk the streets.
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I take a small ski gondola to "Gun Hill" to take some
snapshots of the Himalayas at dusk, which are really
beautiful, displaying all of the peaks that are
involved in the Char Dham Yatra.Night time
presents us with a magnificent view of the city of
Dehra Dun 6000 feet below, and also showing the
sharp rise of the mountainside upon which Mussorie
rests. I go back to my room, and as I am opening up
my door on this great outdoor verandah, I look to
the verandah across the way, and see a woman come
out of a dark room to look at me. It was so weird,
and when I got into my room, I said, "Wha? Could
that have been...? Nah...whoa!" I got a real shiver
down my back: could that have been the ghost or a
real woman? I'll never know but at that point it was
really capping off a bad day. The hotel at night
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really showed off its old, run down qualities, and I
was expecting Morticia, Gomez and Lurch to show
up any minute.I was feeling really sick - my
intestines ached and my great fear, the fear of
diarrhea (which rhymes!) came up strong, but that
didn't happen. But something was really off in the
intestinal world of Phil Servedio.
And feeling really down and depressed...hey, wait a
minute, I'm hypoglycemic! That's exactly what it
was, I hadn't eaten anything in 7 hours, and was
between a rock and hard place - eat and run the risk
of getting sick, or fast and getting even lower blood
sugar. I decided to eat, and it was like a drug rush,
it's really amazing - all of a sudden physical,
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emotional and psychic strength returns. But it was
still creepy eating all alone in that giant ballroom
and I got out there quick. And being 6000 feet up
getting close to winter, Mussorie is freaking' cold.
Knowing that I was going up to the high country on
this trip, I kept my down vest and other warm
things. It only got down to maybe the 30s or 40s, but
the place was drafty as hell, the curtains moving -
was that the ghost trying to get in? Man, this is
perfect for Agatha Christie! So I slept in my down
vest and woolen skullcap, and fortunately slept like
a baby. No night visitations by the ghost.The
previous day, while walking around, I stopped by
many hotels to view their rooms. I liked the Clark
Hotel (10$), Horizon Hotel (18$) and the luxurious
Connaught Castle ($30). I selected Horizon Hotel, as
it is the newest hotel in town, and things were not so
banged up.
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Indians seem to be real hard on hotel rooms. I want
something that may come close to passing the white
glove test. So after checking out of the Savoy, I
hired a bicycle rickshaw to take me to the Horizon
hotel. My driver was a 70 year old man who
weighed a helluva lot less than me, taking me and
my heavy suitcase through town. He took the
"Camel Back Road" a very scenic side road around
town, and very flat for the most part. But on tiny
hills, he has to get off and just push the bike with all
that weight. I offered to get off, but he flatly refused.
So there I was, thinking about my station and
this old man's station in life, which obviously
leads to the conclusion that life, is just not fair, he
shouldn't have to work that hard at such an age. At
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one point the old man has a coughing fit (I can see
the Willis brand cigarettes in his pocket), and I was
seriously wondering if he was going to croak while
pushing the bike. Finally at one point near the
destination, the hill was so hard that I did get off and
help pushing. I gave the old man a big tip.
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GHOST IN INDIAN ARMY
We have all seen Smart, young people of their
country doing duty in their country's Army. But
have anyone seen a Ghost doing duty in the Army of
any country.......Yes it happens & happens only in
India. Yes, in Indian Army the Ghost of "Baba"
Harbhajan Singh who died during the 1962 China -
India War still does his duty on Nathula Pass in
eastern Sikkim, India. The story goes like this......
"Baba" Harbhajan Singh was a soldier in the Indian
Army & worked in the Dogra Regiment during 1962
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China-India War. This soldier died near the Nathula
Pass in eastern Sikkim - India while on duty. Mr.
Harbhajan Singh got drowned in a glacier during the
1962 China-India War. He was searched for
everywhere & he was found three days later and was
cremated with full military honours. Legend goes
like this that Harbhajan Singh led the Search Party
to his body, and later, through a dream, instructed
one of his colleagues to build and maintain a
Temple/Shrine after him. A shrine was built at his
Samadhi in the hills. Army folklore holds Baba is a
stickler for discipline and is known to admonish
those who do not tow this line. In the camp at
Nathula Pass, a camp bed is kept for him and his
boots are polished and uniform is kept ready every
night. The sheets are reportedly crumpled every
morning and boots muddy by evening. The Ghost
soldier continues to draw a salary and takes his
annual leave also. Legend also has it that in the
event of a war between India and China, Baba
would warn the Indian and Chinese soldiers three
days in advance.
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Chinese do also worship him & during the flag
meetings between the two nations at Nathula Post,
the Chinese Soldiers have also set a chair aside for
the saint. Every year on September 14, a jeep
departs with his personal belongings to the nearest
railway station, New Jalpaiguri, where it is then sent
by train to the village of Kuka, his hometown in
Kapurthala district in Punjab.
A small sum is also sent to the mother of this Ghost
Soldier each month. Ghost Soldier's name still
continues in the army's payrolls, his mother has still
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been getting his salary cheques and he has also been
given all due time bound promotions. Though it may
look weird but it is true & Indian Army still honours
this soldier like that. After post death promotions,
late soldier is treated as honorary captain. Ghost
Soldier gets two months annual leave every year & a
First Class berth is booked in the train in his name
and his portrait, uniform and other belongings are
brought by army officials to his native village Kuka
in Kapurthala district for availing of his leave. This
year also under this annual drill, belongings of
"Baba" Harbhajan Singh were brought to Jalandhar
from New Jalpaigudi by Dibrugarh Express on
Thursday night. A JCO, a Subedar and an Orderly
accompanied the belongings. The family of the late
soldier received the belongings at the railway station
and later proceeded for their native village. On
completion of the leave the same team of the army
personnel will escort back the belongings to the
Nathu La region.
Now what you call of this weird but true story
happening in Indian Army. Interestingly, one of his
old colleagues Mr. Pyara Singh of Jallandhar
District of Punjab has put a Court Case against
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Indian Army & Ministry of Defense for allowing
such weird Dead worship of a person who was dead
long ago
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HOTEL RAJ KIRAN
From shadowy figures, strange mists and apparitions
to angels and demons, India has experienced it all.
Many of these incidents verified by the
experts, Indian ghost stories have been into the
talking since ages. Horror movies are being directed,
and T.V. serials are being shown, the world has
learnt to make a business out of Indian horror tales.
Apparently, when such an incident takes place in
Mumbai: the Dream City of India, the magnitude of
any incidence just doesn't remain the same. The
ever-increasing news media and other
communication channels, all of them get ready
upfront to cover the news and win the race.
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Mumbai - The Financial and Entertainment capital
of India. It is a city where every Indian foresees an
opportunity to grow, a metro where every Indian
believes that his dream would come true, and an
urban which generates highest revenue for the
nation, approximately 5% of GDP and 25% of
industrial output. A place where even the smallest of
episode takes it superlative form, how would an
incidence of such serious enormity remain unsaid?
So, which incidence are we talking about?
This dreadful thing happened in one of the spooky
places named Raj Kiran Hotel in Lonavala, Mumbai.
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This hotel is not so big, but surely one of the top
haunted destinations in India. One room in the lodge
has been stated to bewhen I got to know about such
incidences taking place; I just imagined some flop-
horror-Bollywood movie failing terribly to scare the
audiences. Jokes Apart! When I seriously tried to
give it a serious thought, few things came up to my
mind. A small paranormal activity happening in a
small room of a not-so-famous hotel, why was it
given such an importance? Isn’t worth it, right?
Wrong! Any paranormal activity can never be
quantified in terms of big and small. Doesn’t matter
if it happens in a huge city or a small village coz
anything that is beyond natural, is significant. In this
scenario, evidences are many but proofs are none.
So called victims are many, but eye witnesses are
none. Any non-believer of apparitions may be free
to call this as a competitor’s trick to achieve that
competitive edge, or any other reason to create a
story of haunted hotels in India to frighten the
people. The fact no one would be able to deny is that
these incidences have hampered the business of Raj
Kiran Hotel.
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DUMAS BEACH
Every country, religion, tradition, caste has its own
set of beliefs and disbeliefs. India leads this suite
when it comes to having a set of beliefs. India, a
country which believes in Unity-in-Diversity has
diverse beliefs right from a person’s birth till his
death. They believe that ghosts are considered to be
mere unfortunate souls exist as a result of being
cursed or having committed severe sins in their
lives. They are alleged to persist between the higher
worlds and earth. Indian mythology teaches that
ghosts are people without physical bodies or the
souls of people who died before their time, or bodies
created due to paranormal activities and tragedies.
This is another reason why Indian ghost stories have
a unique significance all over the world. It is trusted
that the apparitions hang around or just prevail
leading to buzz words such as Indian isolated places,
Indian deserted buildings, Indian ancient ruins,
haunted beaches in India, Indian hunted hotels,
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haunted destinations in India etc. Indian
mythologies also claim that ghosts, not having
experienced life’s joys, undergo a lot of sufferings
as the senses are intact but there is no physical body
to interact with the outside world. Hindus, having
majority of their population in India, do not bury the
dead bodies like other religions but cremate it with
an intention of releasing the soul from its earthly
experience. Hindus believe that cremation, as
compared to burial is most spiritually beneficial to
the departed soul. One such cremation place is in the
beach named Dumas which is supposedly haunted.
Apparently, this is one of the true Indian ghost story.
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Dumas Beach is located along the Arabian Sea, 21
kms southwest of Surat, a city in the state of Gujarat
in India. This haunted beach in India is famous for
its black sand. Although a popular tourist place, it is
considered as one of the top haunted destinations in
Gujarat. Several curious thoughts would be
creeping on your minds such as: Is there a
connection between Dumas beach being haunted
because it’s a cremation place? Are all the cremation
places haunted? Is this a true Indian ghost story?
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Well, we do not claim to have answers for all of
these, but numerous paranormal activities have
being reported around this haunted destination in
Gujarat. People have reported of hearing strange
whispers at nights near the oceans, warning them
from moving forward and leave to leave the place.
They say that the winds around this area are full of
spirits of dead people. Some tourists have been
known to have disappeared while walking on this
beach at night.
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Some Indians also believe that dogs have a slightly
wider spectrum to sense any paranormal bustle.
Locals have noticed a weird behavior and crying of
dogs around the ocean. Few locals claim that the
apparitions are chased by the dogs while others beg
to differ. Some people also complain that since
people burn the dead bodies as per their Hindu
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rituals, the bodies die but the ghosts in their bodies
remain in the air.
Call it a scenic Dumas beach or one of the haunted
places in Gujarat! Fact remains that although people
still enjoy visiting this place with the promenade
having several snacks shops, this is one of the most
dangerous and haunted destinations in
India embarking its name in the top Indian horror
tales.
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THE SINHAGAD FORT
The western region of the state of Maharashtra is
lavishly blessed with nature's riches - plush forests,
mountain ranges, water bodies and an amazing
range of life. The city of Pune, located on the
Deccan Plateau is one such metro who enjoys
natural, political as well as global pampering. The
city has an even richer history, dating back to about
1000 AD. Well, you can find endless resources
telling you about the city, the tourist destinations &
blah - that's not what we are here for, right? As I
mentioned, the city has an age-old history - wars,
revolts, natural calamities and so on. Such events
have a landmark contribution to the up rise of
supernatural activities. However, with the increase
in globalization, the pace of the metropolitan citizen
has forced him to bypass the presence of such
activities. There is, as a matter of fact, a very
restricted segment of people in here who have
something chilly to tell or listen to.
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Of the many historical tourist destinations is the
renowned fort of Sinhagad (Marathi: , The
Lion's Fort) which adorns the southwest boundary to
the city. The fort is so well constructed on the hill
that it easily allows (or allowed) a close watch over
the nearby mountains and the adjoining territories.
Some of the structures (like the Kaudinyeshwar
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temple) date back to about two thousand years.
Later, the fort changed hands as various royal bodies
fought over its custody. Today, however, it stays
silent, browsing back through its age-old book of
historical events. The fort is now a popular tourist
hangout. The road going up the fort-hill is even
more inviting - with the greenery pouncing on you
every moment of your drive.
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Since decades, many people have been experiencing
some distinguished events during their journey to &
fro this fort. People who stayed up the fort have
reported hearing faint sounds of war crimes (most
probably dating back to the Maratha Empire) during
the wee hours of the night. Though such an activity
has been very rare and reporters haven't been sure of
the origins - the villagers (residing near the base of
the hill) have lots of such stuff to tell. A decade
back; the road leading to the fort was open to every
kind of vehicle - buses included. A friend tells us of
a very tragic yet mystifying tale dating back to the
last decade. A bus carrying about 60 little children
(about 6-10 years in age) and a few teachers met a
horrifying accident at a rather sharp blind turn. The
driver, apparently, could not get a good hold over
the wheels and the whole innocent lot fell down the
valley. Not one of them survived. Our friend tells us
that many people have reported a weird
phenomenon at the same location. While you are
still on one side, you can hear a bus coming over
from the other side, full with children laughing and
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shouting. The moment you cross the turn - there is
nobody on the other side. Mindgames, rumors, call
whatever you wish - the reports do not cease.
Another very interesting tell apparently happened
with another ... ahem ... friend. This one too, dates
back to the last decade, when this friend was still in
his teenage days. This fellow dared himself to ride
halfway up the hill at 10 pm and stopped by for a
smoke and filling up his already alcohol zed tummy,
sitting on a stone bench overlooking the valley.
Between his parties, he suddenly sensed somebody
coming up from behind. He looked back to find a
local (probably residing within the above-mentioned
village) walking up towards him. Taking it up
casually, this fellow continued his booze. The local
came ahead and stood beside him, although he
barely noticed him. The local seemed to be in some
kind of trance, because he was blindly eyeing the
valley ahead. All of a sudden, before our fellow
could understand, the local climbed up the stone
fence and jumped down the valley. Now our fellow
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took quite a while to regain his senses and when he
did, he got up screaming, pushed down his urge to
scream more and rode all the way down the village
as fast as he could. The next day saw him all
pumped up with high fever.
There are still many more such thrilling apparitions
which surround this enormous monument. One, for
example, tells us about a sharp turn somewhere in
between, which might be a reside to something
supernatural. People who did not have the faintest
idea about this spot have reported that the moment
they crossed over, the hair at the back of their necks
stood up, the way it does when there is somebody
watching you from behind. Another such story tells
us of a silhouette seen particularly on the detour to
Khed-Shivapur. This and many such other stories
cover this usually cheerful place with a mysterious
blanket.
Do let me know if anybody else has seen anything
more over at this place.
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THE HOSTEL RAGGING
This story below is based on a true incident that happened
in a government medical college in India.
Raj was in his second year doing MBBS and it was
August, the time for new students to be admitted in
the Medical College. He was quite excited about it
though ragging was prohibited but who didn’t like to
play small pranks on a fresher? But obviously they
had to be extra careful so that the warden and the
professor didn’t come to know about it. When the
fresher’s started arriving, Raj and his gang were
looking for a prey to attack on someone who was
trying to act smart on his or her first day or someone
who was acting bold, someone good so that they can
have a good laugh about. They were looking for the
right person when Raj noticed a nice girl. She
wasn’t so beautiful but quite good looking. She was
tall and had a good figure. She wore a nice blue
salwar kameez that fit her very well. Her hair lied
lazily on her shoulder and a few of her hair strands
gracefully flowing in the wind as she moved
towards the college. She looked confident and she
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held her head up high as she climbed up the stairs
with her college bag hanging down her shoulder and
a few books in her hands. She didn't at all look like a
fresher but that clean white routine sheet she held on
her other hand proved that she was a fresher.
Raj had found his prey. He showed his friends the
“blue salwar kameez gal”. Jay one of his friends
called, “hey you, blue salwar kameez”, the girl
briskly turned her head towards them. “Yeah you,
freshmen right? Come here”, Megha said, another
friend of Raj. She boldly walked up to the gang. Raj
was amazed by her boldness. “Your name” he
asked, “guesses blue salwar as you named me” she
replied smartly with a sweet confident smile. A few
of the boys from the college smiled back at her but
the gals were annoyed by her boldness.
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Your name, everyone asked, Poonam demanded
sternly. “Trisha”, she replied. “Good now let’s see
your knowledge about medical
science…hmmmm...name the 3 kinds of tumors?”
Vishal asked her. “Well yeah see there is a nice big
library in this college and if you have any such
queries, you can easily find your answers there. As
for me, I have to attend my class and I definitely
don’t want to miss my first class” saying so she
briskly walked away from them as they stared at her
in shock.
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“Look at the nerve of that gal”, Poonam said, “just
wait she stays in my hostel and I will teach her a
lesson” “Yeah we will teach her a lesson all right,
her roommates haven’t yet arrived and we need to
think something fast”, Megha said. “I know exactly
what we can do”, Vishal said with a cunning smile
on his lips, as he was the one with the wildest ideas.
Raj feared what he might have come up with now.
When Raj heard about the plan he was scared and
didn’t agree. “What if she screams and shouts and
the warden comes”, Raj said to Vishal. “Don’t
worry we will handle the warden and it is just a silly
trick that will teach her to be good next time”,
Poonam said. “Plus you will be not there the whole
time and we just need her to know who is the boss
here, got it”, Megha said. “All right” Raj agreed
apprehensively.
Washing her plates after the dinner and washing
herself, Trisha went to her room. It was already 11,
what a hectic day she had, so many assignments
already. “Thank God my roommates haven’t arrived
or else they would go on chattering and I couldn’t
get enough sleep” she thought. Many of the students
hadn't yet arrived. Only three rooms were occupied
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till now on her floor with only 8 students and all the
students were inside their room. She opened her
room and locked the door. She quickly combed her
hair and changed her clothes, switched off the light
and quickly climbed on the bed. She was too tired to
make her bed. As she laid her head on the pillow,
she felt something hard underneath it. She didn’t
remember keeping anything under it. She slipped
her hand under the pillow and groped around until
she felt something long, soft and very cold like a
long soft branch, “a branch”, she thought as she
pulled it out from her pillow. She was not able to
make out what exactly is due to the darkness. She
got up and turned on the light and looked. What she
saw in her hand made her sick to the stomach. She
held a hand of a corpse and she knew it was a hand
of a dead man, as the hand was not bleeding. She
screamed and threw it on the floor. She ran to her
door and tried to open it but someone has locked it
from outside. She screamed and shouted and
pleaded for someone to open the door. She cried and
cried and begged to open it. After a while someone
turned off the lights and she got even more scared
and banged on her door continuously but in vain.
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Outside, Raj and gang were giggling away, as the
warden slept outside the hostel, so she had no idea.
They had quietly switched off the main switch of her
room and couldn’t wait to see her scared face when
they would open the door.
She was banging very loudly on the door and crying.
Raj felt pity on her and said “I think we should open
the door”. “Oh come on, don’t say you are now in
love with her?” Poonam teased.
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“We will open after two hours or so. Let her see
how bold she is after that”, Megha said. After about
an hour or so, she stooped banging and they were
hearing her sobs. Soon after her sobs died down, Raj
started getting worried. “We should open the door”
he said.
“Wait, what if she is trying some trick on us and we
will open after about an hour”, Vishal said.
At about 1:30 a.m., Raj got bored with the prank and
said “please open the door now, enough of pranks”.
“All right, we are opening” Megha replied. “Surely,
Raj is in love with her” Poonam said and others
laughed. Jay went back to switch on the main switch
and Megha unlocked the door and slowly opened it
and looked inside. What they saw they could never
forget in their lifetime.
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The whole room was messed up as if someone
ripped it apart and Trisha was sitting on top her
wardrobe. Her beautiful silky hair was tangled and
falling over her face. Her eyes were bright red and
she looked down upon them strangely and wildly.
Her cheek was scared as if someone scratched them
and she was smiling up at them, a horrible evil
smile, but there was something else that made them
nauseated. One her right hand, she held the hand of
that corpse and was staring at them.
She slowly took the hand towards her mouth and
smiling down at them, she started eating the hand.
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She was then taken to a general hospital and later to
a mental hospital where the doctors said that she
might have got some kind of stroke or something for
staying so long with the dead man’s hand, so she
kind of turned nuts and started feeding on the hand.
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THE DEVIL CHILD
This event happened with the most bully guys of my
college. I was a student of Babu Benarsi Das
Lucknow. My college was in a bit distant
area Chinhat after the last stop of city bus either we
had to walk for 2 kms or take auto. This incident
happened in the winter season when five of my
friends Guddu, Pankaj, Chandel, Bittu and Manoj
went to a marriage of one friend in Barabanki on
two bikes. Manoj, Guddu and Pankaj were on one
bike while Chandel and Bittu on the other.
They decided to take a shortcut to Barabanki as it
was almost evening at that time and they went to
a Pagdaandi (a small pathway) in between the
farms, after about half a kilometer when they
reached near a Pulliya (small bridge), they found a
little child playing around but no one was around
him; it was the exact time of sunset as it was winter
evening it was early. Guddu shouted a couple of
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times to check if there was somebody accompanying
the child. Suddenly a very old man came out from a
nearby forest and said that he is the father of that
child and they were about to go. He had a bicycle;
he held the child and started riding the bicycle while
carrying the child in such a way that the face of the
child was facing my friends, who decided to follow
that man for some extent to provide him light of the
bike to help. After 5 minutes the eyes of the child
were so still and holding the focus of my friends.
Guddu told me that around 15 minutes, he saw that
the child had a mischievous smile; he felt odd as it
was very strange for such a small child to smile in
that way but he was spell bounded, somewhat
hypnotized by that baby. Suddenly the man took the
opposite route and moved on towards the deep
jungle; my friends followed him for the next twenty
minutes.
Then there came a place where the lane became so
narrow that only one bike could have passed at a
time. At that time when the bikes crossed each other
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and Chandel’s eye contact with that child was
broken, he suddenly realized the reality as the dense
forest was about to begin around him and when he
noticed that the baby's legs were a bit more long
then usual and he was smiling viciously.
He shouted "Guddu saale ruk ja..." (Guddu, stop
you idiot). Guddu also came back to his senses. As I
had already told that they were bully kind of boys,
Guddu had a pistol in his pocket; he quickly took it
out and fired, but to their amusement the man rode
the bicycle at such an amazing speed that they
practically were out of sight within a flash. When
we told this incident to our security guard, who was
local, he told us that it was a well known specter
called as Chalawa (Chhalawa), pronounced as Ch-
Huh-Laava. This kind of ghost, often belonging to a
small child (who dies tragically within the womb or
off a small age) or a mesmerizing woman is known
to lure victims into deep forests, confusing and
exhausting them till they finally give up and
184
collapse. Once done, it may pounce on the victims,
and may ultimately kill them.
I think we were truly lucky to have escaped from
such a horror incident.
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WALK WITH A GHOST “Rubbish!” This is what most of you will yell. And some of
my rationalist friends would dismiss it as “ILLUSIONS” of
my fertile mind. Alright, dammit, you have your prerogative
to trash it. But what can I do? I have walked with a ghost for
a distanceof three KMs. No, I am not gassing. It is something
like “Ripley’s BELIEVE IT OR NOT”. I have undergone this
true experience and that’s why I turned into a believer in
THE EXISTENCE OF SOULS, SUPER NATURAL
POWER,PARA NORMALACY and the EXISTENCE of A
SUPREME BEING. Well!
The story goes back 36 years.
I was in the prime of my youth—an educated and a
modernyoung man of my own philosophies and
beliefs. To say the least, there was no scope for
superstitions and blind faith in unproven and
unscientific phenomenon. I was like any normal
young man of all times-- brash,
aggressive, unrelenting, uncompromising, and
uncaring as well as a non-believer in the orthodoxy
and a narrow minded worldview of religious
rigidity. GOD and RELIGION, then, were the
BACK BENCHERS, somewhere in the
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INSIGNIFICANTSLOTS of my MIND! My
profession had further strengthened my prejudices of
the uselessness of RELIGIOUS EXTRAVAGANZA
of MYTHS AND LEGENDS. In this profession,
you sleep with dead bodies littered around you. You
keep doing your job; while men keep falling DEAD
yourself DEFY DEATH. It was night 18/`19 December 1971. I was on my
way home, on some leave to my village, called
BALACHAUR, a tiny HAMLET of around 200
houses. It was then part of HOSHIARPUR district
of PUNJAB and now it falls
under NAWANSHAHAR district. The village has
now overgrowninto a township of around 30,000
people. Two nearby villages have been swallowed
by it and it threatens to eat a few more.Just on the
previous day i.e.17 December 1971, INDIA had
won a great victory in the BANGLA DESH war.
Whole Nation had gone crazy—MILITARY MEN
were the heroes everywhere---there were
celebrations and thanksgiving parties—girls of LSR
& MIRANDA HOUSE in New DELHI and some
other big towns of those days had made
brave statements of marrying wounded and crippled
soldiers---women were flocking and welcoming
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soldiers on the railway stations and bus stands and
applying “TILAK” (LONGISH MARKWITH
VERMILLION ON THE FOREHEAD) on soldier’s
forehead---Radio stations were blaring out patriotic
songs with soldiers as heroes. I can tell you most
SOLDIERS were BLOATING with such high
appreciation. By the way, I reckon the whole
CREDIT WAS BEING TAKEN BY THESE
“REAR ECHELON SOLDIERS” whom the authors
of “CRISISIN COMMAND”, Richard Gabriel and
Paul Savage, dub as “REMF”—with due apologies
to some sensitive friends, it stands for “ REAR
ECHELON MOTHER FU*K**”.I suppose this is
the way things are always—FRIUTSARE
ALWAYS ENJOYED BY PERSONS OTHER
THANTHE ONE WHO SOWED THE FRUIT
PLANTDuring the immediate wake of this HYPE of
VICTORYSONGS and perceived GREATNESS of
SOLDIERS, on 18 DECEMBER 1971, at around
0835hours, a poor me,
landed at SRINAGAR Bus Stand hoping to catch
some bus to go to JAMMU. What luck? A
Marwari’scouple, who had been stuck in the valley
during the war period, was negotiating with a
KASHMIRI TAXI DRIVER. I toolanded there. On
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seeing me, the couple extended me an invitation to
travel with them up to PATHANKOT. How could I
resist? They were a young twosome—
probably newly married—who had come
to KASHMIRaround 1st December but got stuck up
due to war. The name of the man was AMIT PATEL
and he addressed his wife as ASHU—I do not know
her exact name. We took off at around 9 AM and
made it to PATHANKOT—then a RAIL HEAD
FOR J&K, at about 2045 hours. It was an awesome
journey with army vehicles being given preference
everywhere. Roads were jam packed with boisterous
military men having a whale of a time in enjoying
their sudden MOMENTS OF FAME at every
village, hutment or road side eateries. They were
undoubtedly thrilled at so much attention being
bestowed on them through their countrymen’s
unabashed display of GRATITUDE to their Valour.
A lot of exaggeration and gibberish was being
dished out as episodes of personal bravery by ‘rear
echelon soldiers’. Some of them had never
been combat soldiers and some others had never
held a weapon in their lives in ‘olive green’. It was
crazy and I was missing the excitement by being
with a decent and a well behaved MARWAARIS
189
couple in the taxi. They had plenty of eatables and
we had our fill every hour.
At Pathankot, the couple bid me goodbye and
rushed to the railway station to catch the train to
their sweet home. I was charged no penny. I moved
to a road side DHABA (Eatery) and hoped to catch a
truck to HOSHIARPUR. While having a cup of tea,
a JALLANDHAR BOUND truck came and I asked
SANTOKH Singh, the driver, if he could take me
up to DASUYA. He readily agreed. The tea stall
owner did not take from me 25 paisa for the
excellent cup of warm tea he had given me. I
insisted but he stubbornly refused. I had no choice
but to accept the free hospitality of a poor tea stall
owner. When many years later, in 1998 to be
exact—I stopped at the same place, the stall had
gone and a fully fledged MOTELwas functioning. I,
then, saw the PHOTOGRAPH of the TEA STALL
OWNER FRAMED and HUNG on the WALL-I
knew what had happened.
That is a separate story to
be recounted some other time. Igot into the truck of
SANTOKH SINGH around 21.30 hours. Instead of
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getting down at DASUYA, I carried on to Jalandhar
and he dropped me at RAMA MANDI Chowk. It
was around 0030 hours on the morning of 19
December 1971. My place was still some 85 Kms
away—on Road Jalandhar-Chandigarh. Luckily, a
small convoy of military vehicles came by. They
were empty vehicles which were returning to
Command HQ at Shimla (HP). They saw someone
of their elk and in no time offered me a seat in the
co-driver’s seat of the leading vehicle. It was
around 1 AM that we might have started and the
vehicles went at full blast. At around 0230 AM I
was dropped at the “T” junction along
the BIST DOAB CANAL where the road
from CHANDIGARH bifurcated to HOSHIARPUR.
This canal takes off from River SATLUJ at ROPAR
Head works, some thirty kilometersaway
towards CHANDIGARH. The canal
was constructed in mid fifties. Today it has a
beautiful road running from ROPAR to
BALACHAUR---where it dissects itself to
HOSHIARPUR and JALLANDHAR.In those days,
at this “T” Junction, there was a single THATHED
HUT of a tea stall, owned by a person called YATI.
191
In this hut barely two/three persons could be
accommodated.
He had a mud room behind this, where he lived with
his family. Today, this place is buzzing with
activity, round the clock. In fact, it is the emerging
economic Zone of this township. There is a beeline
of Restaurants and DHABAS along the road for a
distance of two or three Kilometers on either side of
the Flag of the “T”.My village is at a distance of
three Kilometers from this T Junction. In those days,
there used to be the course of an EAST-WEST semi-
dry seasonal stream (CHOE or KHADD),
unabridged and sandy, some 400-500 meters away
from the “T” Junction towards the village. The area
around it had thick wild grass right up to the village.
At the other end of the stream, we had a FUNERAL
GROUND for the last rights of the DEAD MEN of
the village. To say the least, at around 0230 hours,
in the wintry night there was no means of
conveyance. Even during day hours, one used to
wait for hours before one could get a bus. Therefore,
I started on foot. I had only one small suit case.
Luckily as I approached the Dry Stream Southern
Edge, I met one of my Village UNCLES—who was
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going to his fields. Zaildar Balwant Singh was
a man of around sixty nine. When He saw me, he
instantly recognized me and fired me in anger.
“What are you doing here at this unevenly hour?” he
had shouted.
I explained to him as to how I had made it in one
day from SRINAGARto BALACHAUR. He
couldn’t believe that I had come in a day. “Have you
deserted?” he had commanded. “No, No, uncle I
have come on leave, because mother had suffered a
stroke”, I had replied. He was not convinced. He
started talking of the war with PAKISTAN. I started
narrating to him stories of our valor in
the KASHMIR VALLEY. He startedwalking with
me.He then, narrated to me the story of one
MUSLIM boy, called YOUSOUF—the ONLY
GRADUATE of the VILLAGE in those days—a
‘TELI’ by caste—who had become a BRIGADIER
in Pakistan Army. He asked me about him. I knew
nothing of him.Then, he talked of some
CAPTAIN RAO FARMAN ALI of ASRON village
(MUSLIM RAJPUTS—of GHOREWAHA
CLAN—a sub caste of KACHHWAHA RAJPUTS
of PUNJAB —owing ancestry to JAIPUR
193
in RAJSTHAN) whose father was a big land lord of
the area.
ASRON village is near ROPAR on the Northern
banks of River SATLUJ and tucked into SHIVALIK
HILLS. This used to be the crossing place on
SATLUJ before the BRIDGE AND HEADWORKS
CAME UP IN 50’s. The village is now
humming with lot of INDUSTRIAL activity. In
those days, in 1971, it was
a deserted village of MUSLIM RAJPUTS who had
migrated toPAKISTAN. The RAO SAHIB of
ASRON was a friend of ZAILDAR
BALWANT SINGH. His son, Rao Farman Ali, had
been commissioned into BRITISH INDIAN ARMY
in pre-independence days. I knew nothing of this
gentleman, too. His stories were so interesting that I
didn’t know as to when I had reached the outskirts
of my village. As we came near the by lane of the
SAINI MOHALLA (Group of houses where people
of SAINI SUBCASTE LIVE), he bid me farewell
and cautioned me not to venture alone at such oddly
hours.
He told me he had to go to his fields as his
TENANTS were waiting there for SUGAR CANE
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CHURNING (we used to call it BELNA or KOHLU
for extraction of cane juice). I touched his feet and
carried on my way home. I must have reached home
around 3 AM. My family was very happy. We
talked and talked of the war. I fell to sleep
around 4 AM. Next day, I got up and spoke to my
father about BRIGADIER
YOUSUFof Pakistan army. He confirmed and also
added that YOUSOUF was his class mate (my
father) and he had got VICEROY COMMISSION
(VCO) while in BRITISH ARMY. VCOs were the
forerunner of JCO rank of
INDIAN/ PAKISTANARMY. He remained in touch
with his village friends even after migration and
retired as a brigadier around 1969. I asked him about
Captain RAO FARMAN ALI—my father laughed
on my ignorance. “BUDDHU (DUFFER), He is the
same Major General RAO FARMAN ALI, who was
the Chief of Staff ofPAKISTAN ARMY in EAST
BENGAL (now BANGLA DESH). I was
flabbergasted at such crass ignorance. He had been
in the news for many days before surrender of
the PAKISTANARMY in Bangla Desh.
195
How could I not link hisname? Then my father
snapped, “why are you asking me all this?” “Oh, I
was just confirming because Uncle Balwant
Singh, Zaildar uncle, had told me about them last
night” had said. “Shut up, don’t talk nonsense”, my
father was suddenly serious. I was utterly confused.
I told him that he had narrated these stories to me
just last night. “What? Last night you met him?” my
father was shell-shocked. “Yes, He walked with me”
I replied. “I don’t believe this” uttered my father.
“Why”, I asked. Because, he died on 15 December
1971. We performed the last rites.” My father had
muttered. I was stunned and shocked. It was
unbelievable. How could that be? There was nothing
like GHOST about him. He was a normal man
walking with his stick,as I had always seen him
before this. Then the fear overtook me and I went
silent. I fell sick for week and my leave was a waste
of time. I remained fearful of his coming again but
he never came back. Whenever I narrate this
story, it raises a number of questions. Do you have
any? Tell you frankly; thereafter I never came across
any such phenomenon but this incident and episode
keeps haunting me for the last 36 years. There is no
falsehood about this—MANO YA NA MANO
196
(BELIEVE IT OR NOT).
197
SURATHKAL
I have decided to post some real life experiences of
mine as well as those which were recounted by
friends. Most of these incidents are from India. I will
not claim them to be the absolute truth. But they do
make you think about the unseen world.
By the way, I myself am not fully convinced about
the existence of Ghosts in the manner that we are
thought to believe. Are these simply a spiritual
reenactment or are these really the souls of the dead?
Or are these just demons or evil spirits? My research
so far has led me to tilt to the last possibility but all
of us should understand things and make our
opinions for our self.
This incident is an incident of mine. It happened
nearly 12 years ago in the South Indian coastal city
of Mangalore. A bunch of relatives including my
uncles, aunts and cousins had converged at
Mangalore; where our grandparents lived. The house
was actually in a town called Surathkal. It was a
198
large house surrounding by a nice garden on all four
sides. It was a good reunion and all of us had a great
time just catching up with each other and hanging
out doing the routine family bonding stuff.
The middle portion of the house acted as the living
quarters. A small guest bedroom facing this west
side and a bigger master bedroom in the middle.
199
Most of us used to sleep in the middle bedroom
while one aunt slept in the guest bedroom. There
was a single bed there and above it was a window.
That window faced out to a paddy field which was a
little far away from our house and in the midst of
that field was a very old temple and locals used to
speak in hushed tones about strange things
happening there and that one should never venture
out at late hours in the night around those parts.
200
One of those nights was exceptionally hot and
humid, Mangalore being a coastal city. At some
point during the night, my aunt let out a terrifying
scream. Most of us woke up, some went to see her. I
was pretty tired that night, having spent most of my
time in the day near the railway tracks that were
201
being laid nearby. That went on to be part of the
"Konkan railway" project. Anyway, in the
morningthe facts were clear as to why my aunt
supposedly screamed. She was sleeping on that bed
on her back.
She had kept the window open because it was hot.
The window would have been just inches above her
next region and she could even see outside to some
extent. According to her, at some point during the
night (around 2 am) she woke up feeling
uncomfortable. As she opened her eyes, she saw a
woman standing right outside the window and
staring sternly at her. She was terrified and rightly
so...Who wouldn’t?Just writing this gives me the
chills. She was frozen for a moment and then
gathered all of her energy to let out that scream
which woke most of us. She had closed her eyes and
by the time she had opened them, that woman was
gone. Listening to this, I was scared out of my wits.
For the next few nights nobody slept there that
window was shut tight. My grandmother made light
202
of the issue. But something told me that she was
perhaps hiding something from us. From the time I
used to visit that place, I always felt the chills even
walking around that place after 7 PM.
In 2008, when I visited my grandmother I had to
sleep in that room. I did not have the guts to sleep
on my back nor open that window. It did help as the
glass on the window was opaque and also the
curtains were closed. I slept on my stomach and
inside the bed sheet. Needless to say, I was praying
till I fell asleep. Exactly what was it that my aunt
saw that night? Was it a ghost/evil spirit trying to
warn us about something? Or was it her
imagination? Why did I feel restless and fearful in
that room and generally about that side of the house?
Psychological or truly supernatural. I don't know yet
but I do hope to find out some day.
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WITCHCRAFT
A chilling account of this witchcraft practice from
India which occurred in 2005.A six-year-old girl
was kidnapped, skinned alive and then beheaded.
GULBARGA: Salitha, six-year-old daughter of a
Dalit couple at Khajuri village in Aland taluk of
Gulbarga district, has become the latest victim of the
bizarre rituals of the practitioners of Banamati, a
form of black magic practiced in this region.
A team from two social organisations, Bharata Jyana
Vigyan Samiti and Samudaya, that visited the
village to study the mysterious death of Salitha a
couple of days ago has come out with details of how
the girl was done to death after being kidnapped
allegedly by the henchmen of the practitioners of
Banamati.
The members of the team included president of the
samiti K. Lingappa, its secretary Shivasharana
204
Malegaon, president of Samudaya Shankarayya
Ghanti and its secretary Srishail Gooli.
They told presspersons here on Wednesday that
Salita, who was kidnapped on November 6, was
killed by Banamati practioners.Mr. Gooli said the
police were yet to recover the head of Salita.
The torso was recovered from an agricultural field
on the outskirts of Khajuri village on November
10.Inspection of the decomposed body revealed that
205
the culprits had first cut her little finger on her right
hand, removed her skin from the shoulder to the hip
even as was alive and then beheaded her, Mr. Gooli
said.
Later, the killers cut the right hip, thigh bone and
right arm before leaving the body to rot in the field,
Mr. Gooli pointed out. It is said that Banamati
practitioners use the bones, the little finger of the
victim and the head of the victim in the night long
rituals in secluded spots. Salita, who was born at an
auspicious time on a Sunday six years ago, was
kidnapped on a Sunday.
Mr. Gooli said Salita was the third girl to fall victim
to Banamati rituals in the district in the past one year
and the police despite having evidence of the large
presence of Banamati practioners and their
henchmen have not acted against them.
Last year, a girl was murdered at Honnakiranagi in
Gulbarga taluk, and in April this year another young
girl died in a mysterious fire accident at Mantigi
206
village, which is just 8 km away from Khajuri
village. While the police arrested a few persons in
the Honnakiranagi case, all those arrested were
released on bail. In the Mantigi case, the police
belatedly booked a case of murder after the samiti
and Samudaya built up pressure on them and the
incident gained publicity after it appeared in
newspapers. However, Shivamma, the main accused
in the case, is yet to be arrested.
The police have also not registered a case against
Pujar, who is allegedly the main conspirator in the
Mantigi case.Even in the case of death of Salita, the
police initially did not book a missing person's case
when the parents approached them.
The samiti and Samudaya members said the
indifferent attitude of the police in dealing with the
Banamati menace had emboldened its practitioners.
They said the police should immediately act against
those practicing Banamati in the district
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BLACK MAGIC
Ifound the story of black magic really exciting and
that is why I am going to share it with you. The
story is about a Boy named Rajesh, who is a
computer engineer, became depressed. All he did
was stay in the house and he didn’t even want to go
to work. He didn’t want to do anything, not even
eat. Rajesh was in a deep depression. We had taken
my brother to almost every doctor, even to other
towns for check up. Nothing really helped him even
though all of our family talk to him and try to help
him if he had any problems. He was always afraid
himself. We went to a lot of voodoo priests too to
see if his depression was the effect of the bad spirit
in our house. All of them gave him some thread to
put in his hand but nothing really helped. One of our
relatives also practices voodoo and most of the
towns people would come to her. We went to her
and she told us that we have a bad spirit in our
house. It is not easy to control a bad spirit with
208
voodoo and when a voodoo priest does try it they
tend to get many problems so most don’t even try.
She told us she can’t help us with the problem and
that we need to find a very powerful priest who has
had much experience in using voodoo on bad spirits.
She knew of one such voodoo priest. He is of the
Hindu religion but he practiced many voodoo things.
He learned his voodoo black magic from a Muslim
as many Muslims are very powerful in voodoo. So
even though he was of the Hindu religion he used
the Muslims power. Because it is thought that using
voodoo to control bad spirits can cause many
problems for the voodoo priest he wouldn’t help us
until we pay him a lot of money. He was also not
very sure if he could even do it and we actually
didn’t want to spend a lot of money on this type of
voodoo things but we had tried everything else with
the doctors and nothing was working. Therefore we
went to see this man and as he respects our relative
voodoo priestess he agreed to do this for us. He said
that he needed three thousand rupees. From us to
buy the things he needed.
209
Finally we had a deal and he came to our house to
check on everything. He told us to go to his home
every day for one week to pay him the money he
needed to buy the things. The next day I took my
brother with me to the voodoo house. The man was
there waiting for us. He told us to sit on the floor,
my brother in the middle of the room and I further
away. The priest then got some roses and put them
in his little Muslim temple. He then burned an
incense stick and after that he opened one white
cloth and put it on the floor. Then he took a black
210
cloth and placed it over the white one.
He brought some water in a small pot and put it
there as well. Next he drew some lines on the black
cloth with some white and red powders, like the
ones we use in prayers. Then he took out some lime
and put them on the limes. He added more things
and then lastly added some meat in between it all.
Now he started to pray and ask for his power to
come. He took out a large knife and one of the limes
and proceeded to cut it over my brother’s head. He
211
moved it from the head to his feet. This he did with
all the limes that were there and after dragging the
limes over my brother from head to foot he added it
to the other things he had made. Now he put black
cotton on my brother’s arm. The priest then ties up
all the used things and gave me the instruction to
take these things and go to the place where Indian
people burn their dead. He told me not to be afraid
as no one can hurt me. He belongs to his baba,
which has about 132.000 SULEMANI POWER
SPIRITS. His baba always catches bad spirits which
add to his baba's army. These bad spirits all become
the slaves of his baba and so all of the powers then
go to his baba. There are no small spirits that can
oppose his baba so I would be totally safe.
212
I went there and did as the voodoo priest had told
me to do. I threw out all that was in the black cloth
and then I went back to the priest’s house. My
brother and the priest were waiting for me there. He
told me that the black cotton on my brother’s arm
could stay there until he himself removed it. This
will protect my brother since we had done all things
in the week. That was the first day and we went
almost a whole week. He was doing the same things
everyday of the week. Its mean he was taking
powers of bed sprit every day so in end of week she
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will lost most of her power… which she used to
scared to peoples. Sometimes he changes the
perfumes and meat and he put some eggs or chicken
on his prayer things. So we could see he really did
spend the money on the things he needed to do this.
During these days my brother was not supporting us
as he didn’t want to go to any voodoo priest. To get
him there was very difficult. The priest said that it
was just excuses of the bad spirit as she didn’t want
to come to see him. So no matter how angry or how
many excuses my brother made we didn’t miss a
day. When my brother was near the priest he
wouldn’t dare oppose him. After the seven days my
brother was really doing better day by day. In this
time my nephew had a birthday. This nephew is the
son of my brother and by that time he was almost
totally well again. We arrange a small party for the
family and he wanted to drink a beer. However the
voodoo priests told us that as Muslim religious don’t
use alcohol he shouldn’t drink any until the black tie
on his arm was gone or his baba would be very
angry. Still my brother went to drink beer. We all
214
tried to stop him but I saw him smiling after many
months and I suggested he take the black tie off for a
few hours, drink the beer and he could then tie it on
again.
He agreed. We were not really happy about this but
he did it anyways. The next day he was again
depressed as before. We were afraid to have to go
tell the voodoo what my brother had done but we
decided to go and tell him the truth anyway. Maybe
he could still help us as he was not done with his
magic yet. Therefore we went and told him the
whole story truthfully. The voodoo priest told me
“that was bed sprit. Who was really smart and she
fool us and my brother... So sprits think if my
brother will drink alcohol... May be Muslim baba
Power wont will be angers and don’t help us... So it
was not our fault. It was just how she makes us fool.
So he accepts to help us again. . He did the same
thing one more day and promised us that he would
come to our house one last time and work his
powerful magic. We had heard that voodoo can
215
control spirits with black magic but that it really was
very dangerous. Voodoo priests believe that bad
spirits can only be controlled by bad powers. I spoke
to him personally today and he told me that his baba
would take the spirit from my brother’s body. If we
wished to speak to the lady spirit she would speak
with baba through my brother.
But the baba would punish the spirit for all she had
done to all other people. So if the baba were to
punish the spirit from one to seven years, my brother
would have to accept it and he will get all
punishment. In other words the spirit will get
punishment in my brother’s body. My brother would
have to go to a special place where this kind of
people goes. The punishment would depend on what
kind of things the bad spirit had done to others. This
place is next to our state and some of my family
members had been there. There are about 300 people
there at each time being punished as bad spirits. This
place is called Javara in the MP state of India. The
punished people sometimes sleep in dirty water, or
216
go into high trees and jump up and down and
sometimes they hurt themselves. If you wish to see
this type of place it is shown in the Indian movie,
"Tere Naam (for you)". The star of the movie got a
bad spirit and punishment by some baba.
I became really scared as I didn’t want my brother to
go there so the voodoo priests told us he wouldn’t
talk to the bad spirit and his baba would just grab it
and take it away with him. I agreed to this as all I
wanted was for my brother to get well. Finally in the
night time the voodoo priest came to our house. We
opened my brother’s room and as Marilyn wanted to
see this too we put some chairs outside of the door
to watch from there. Only my brother and the
voodoo priests with my wife were in the room in
case there was need of help. Some of the family and
me and Marilyn sat on the chairs and we could
easily see what was going on inside of the room
with the door open. The priest put the black cotton
on the floor, and starts with preparing all his things
again. He had even more things this time. He started
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his prayer and invited his baba into his body. In
almost half an hour nothing happened. He was still
doing his power. I remember that in the middle of
his prayer he took one lime away from all the other
limes. Then in between the prayers he pushed the
limes into the corners of the room. Then slowly he
pushed them to the first lime he took away. I see that
he didn’t do anything but push the limes.
After about a half an hour the back side of the door
started to shake and a voice spoke and we saw that
the priest’s body started to shake as well. Suddenly
his voice change and he ask, "Who call me here?" (I
would remind you.Baba is not human. Baba is one
of Holly spirit which helps humans from Bad spirit)
(so he enters in human soul as Voodoo Priest) my
wife said that we had, to ask him to help us. The
baba's voice asked my wife what the problem was
and she told him about the problem our brother was
having with the bad spirit. The priest then dragged
his hand on the back side of my brother’s head and
took the hair and pushed him down on the floor. My
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brother was quiet after the thing in him spoke. We
could feel the smell of rose now, when baba spirit
came into the voodoo body. Then he left my brother
and the baba voice told my wife that she was to tell
his son, the voodoo priest that he was sorry he was
delayed. The bad spirit was a dirty woman spirit and
she had made a circle of her mother’s milk around
the house and no power, baba or even god can cross
the line of mother’s milk.
So he was not able to cross it but he really knew that
his son needed his help so he went back and brought
cobra soul. Cobra soul drinks all the milk and then
he was able to come to us. The baba told my wife to
tell his son, the priest to give my brother some water
for a few days that he had put all over the room.
After next Tuesday we were instructed to take the 5
limes and 5 iron nails all over to places where my
brother would not visit again. Here we were to put
the limes on the ground or floor and the nails dug
into each lime. One nail in each lime with the nails
pointing in different directions and in the center of
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the space a fifth nail and lime. This would create a
prison to catch the bad spirit and if my brother
would never set foot there again she wouldn’t be
able to come into him again. If he did go there again
in some future time she could catch him again. The
following Saturday we were to go to a place and dig
up two feet of ground to put the rest of the left over
water into. Then fill up the hole so that no one
would find it again.
After the baba voice within the priest was finished
the voodoo priest fell to the floor and started
shaking. Then he opened his eyes and he was back
to normal. We told him all that the baba had told us
and he gave us all the things we needed with further
instructions in how to complete it all. Then he
removed the black tie from my brother’s arm.
Finally the priest tie up our house with a very thin
silver wire with his powers so no spirits can come
inside the circle or the string around the house. He
only opened one little place so if any good wishes
want to enter they could do so.Many say that
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voodoo is just a game or nonsense but as my friends
and Marilyn know, my brother who was in a deep
depression for six months was no completely better
from it. This all happened about a year ago and my
brother is still doing well and happy in his life and
also nothing more has been stolen from our house.
The silver wire that the voodoo priest placed around
our house is still there. I don’t know if you will
believe in any of this, but people who believe in
ghosts and black magic will know this is a true and
real story. I truly appreciate if I read more about
black magic from you guys.
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GURGAON
India, Nov. 2 -- In the early 80s, around the time the
first construction license was being issued to a
private firm, DLF, to build a new metropolis more
efficient and accommodating than New Delhi, my
parents moved into a small gloomy, decrepit colony
for retired servicemen in Gurgaon.
It was a spooky, unfamiliar and unsafe area to settle
in, with heaps and mounds of barren, uncultivated
land stretching out to the horizon on all sides, and
only four to five houses to call it a neighbourhood.
A family living in the corner of the colony, who
became friends with my friends parents, would often
complain of strange, paranormal events taking place
in their home: unplugged electronic appliances like
geysers and music systems would blow up
randomly, servants would get into petty fights,
which would spiral out of control (man setting
woman's clothes on fire, or the cook getting fired for
attempting to stab the employer over less salt in the
meal), and their daughter would keep falling ill, and
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behave abnormally at night. At first they were
skeptical about spirits and would nervously joke
about a poltergeist at play. But soon their opinion
began to darken.
About the time they were considering to move out
of the house, a baba from Benares, who happened to
visit the locality one summer evening, began to
shiver uncontrollably while sipping tea in their
house. He said he felt a strong presence of a
woman's spirit. He was able to tell within minutes
what kind of mischief it was up to, leaving the
family stunned by his precise intuition. Before
leaving, he turned to the lady of the house and
warned her to move out at once; otherwise it would
destroy her family and split her marriage.
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In the old days, Gurgaon used to be a cluster of
impoverished, uncultured and arid lands. The
money, glamour and prosperity, which you see
today, came very recently with rapid flow of
urbanization. The poor, uneducated tribal and feudal
belt, which was languishing for centuries, struck
gold, and turned them into multi-billionaires almost
overnight.
This onset of mercenary modernization began to fuel
other problems, including a gun culture, depletion of
natural resources, khap diktats, pub brawls, gang
224
rapes, murders, organized crime, and real estate
mafia, of which you find a lot of mention in
newspapers today. But, something more eerie and
sinister went unnoticed. Many educated people and
migrants who were spilling in also began to report
strange paranormal activities.
Another house in the neighborhood, which had
apparently excavated bones and skulls in its
backyard while doing their garden, would have the
strange misfortune of a car accident in their family
every fortnight. They would also complain of
hearing footsteps, voices, and seeing apparitions in
their house.
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A couple, a businessman and nutritionist, who
rented out a floor of the house next door, would face
a harrowing time when visiting relatives would
throw inexplicable fits at night, hurling vile abuses
and shrieking in a different tongue. The nutritionist
herself would often say that she felt someone was
strangling her in her sleep, and within months fell
ill, and passed away. Cyber city,
My friends grandfather who was a visionary farmer,
educated in Mayo College and Doon School - who
descended from a royal family - would often deem
Gurgaon as the cursed lands. There's an ill omen
226
here, he would to say, that can't be washed away
with progress or development. He'd point to the
ground and say, "Something evil and unholy is
buried and a lot of innocent blood has been spilled
over it."
He would say, during the Mughal era and up till the
20th century, the area used to be infamous for being
infested with dacoits. The bandits would hide along
the arterial road connecting Delhi and Jaipur - a
thriving trade route - waiting to slaughter and loot
any convoy that would pass its way. The mutilated
corpses of these tradesmen and their families would
then be strewn and buried all over the place.
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Rumor has it that a few years ago, when a school
was being built near the Cyber City, the authorities
were having a hard time finding securitymen to
guard the premises at night. Strange sounds of men,
women and children howling and anguishing in pain
would emanate from the dark. By morning, the
guards would be so traumatized that they would
have fled without coming to even collect their pay.
This went on for quite some time, till the owners
had to organize a massive puja, and only now have
things begun to quite down a little.
Similarly, a call centre in Udyog Vihar, which was
believed to be haunted, had to be shut down
eventually. While there are many horror stories that
still circulate today of the place, there is one freaky
tale, which will send a shiver down anyone's spine.
A girl who used to work in the BPO had just
returned to work from a long leave. She must have
attended a few days of work when one of her
employees called her home to check on her, and
found that the girl had died about two months ago
(about the time when she went on leave). After that,
even her spirit vanished.
228
They say there are essentially two kinds of spirits
found in haunted spaces, intelligent and residual.
The residual ones are like a fragment of someone's
memory, like "a tape being played over and over",
which you can see or even pass through, but it won't
bother you. The intelligent ones, however, are more
childlike, stubborn and menacing, who seek your
attention and want to establish contact. They can
also be highly territorial and vindictive; or possess
you, if you're vulnerable and weak. If you ever
encounter such spirits, your only defense against
them is to have an impregnable belief system. Fear
allows them a window into you.
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Gurgaon, the so-called 'Millennium City', with high-
rises, metro, call centers and malls literally
mushroomed out of a rustic village in less than half
a century, over 8,000 hectares of land from a place
they call 'out there'. In the past decade alone, the
city's population has doubled from nearly 8
lakhpeople to over 1.5 million, with more trickling
in with every passing year. Despite the fresh whiff
of mint and opportunity wafting in the air, one is
still unaware of the cultural past and historical
significance of the land they dwell on and traverse.
230
Close to the Dwarka Metro station, legend has it;
you see the spirit of a woman wearing a white sari at
night who teases drivers and fellow travelers by
asking for lifts. If you ignore her, she sometimes
sprints along the car looking at you, and then
disappears after appearing to come under your tires.
Over time, too many people have seen her to vouch
her presence, and many visit the desolate spot just to
catch a glimpse of her for thrills, according to a
report in the HT.
While we may never know the exact evidence of
whether ghosts exist or not, there are areas in
Gurgaon on which great unrecorded atrocities have
been committed. These are places where time
doesn't forget and land doesn't forgive.
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HAUNTED CALL CENTER
This Story is a real life story based on a Call Center where
there were some unusual happenings going on or founded
as it was a Jungle previously on that place and now it’s
been a Call Center there at the same place.
Its night and a building is shown where it’s a call
centre with all the staffs talking on the phone and
one girl suddenly gets up and tries to open the
window and due to the wind, all the papers starts
flying and all of them see the girl trying to jump
down from the window while laughing and they
rush to her while she jumps down and is bleeding.
All these activities are captured by the CCTV while
the guard is were sleeping. It’s said that the place
used to be jungle which now has tall and high rise
buildings. Back in 2011, a girl is shown skippering
with her sister where the girl’s name is Divya and
she tells her sister that she has got a job in a call
center and she updates that the people there have
been saying that there are some strange stories in
that building and gives examples of stories she has
heard like a person giving a lift to a guy and
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moments later, he sees no one in the car and says
another story that one guy was in the lift and he
could feel like there is someone else behind him and
Divya says that she don’t believe in all these and the
sister makes Divya scared by saying that there is a
shadow behind Divya and Divya leaves for her
nightshift. Divya comes for her work and sees no
one around and as she gets inside the lift, there is
another lady to whom she smiles but the lady does
not react and the electricity suddenly cuts and Divya
tries calling the security and the light comes back
and Divya gets out of the lift while the lady remains
in the lift. Divya enters the office and there is no
one. Divya goes to the coffee maker machine to get
some drinks but the machine suddenly starts moving
and Divya runs in fear and gets scared seeing the
Photostat machine printing things and all the phones
suddenly starts ringing and Divya closes her eyes
and someone suddenly holds her and she screams to
see a few people laughing where all her colleagues
played the prank on her and their manager scolds all
of them that this is not a joke and not to repeat it.
They look at Divya in anger and leave.
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All of them complete their work and a start leaving
the office and everyone starts avoiding Divya since
them and Divya has no friends and even wanted to
stop the job but she still continued. One day while
Divya went to take drinks, she sees the same lady
she saw in the lift and sits on another table and looks
at that lady and decides to approach her and asks if
she can sit with her and the lady nods her head. The
lady says I’ am Navya and Navya says I am doing
the same work as you but you have not seen me
right? I love to be alone but others have made you
alone and Divya asks how do you know and Navya
says i saw what they have done and i would have
done the same and Divya says it was nice meeting
you and leaves. Divya thinks i remember where i
have seen you, in the lift and when Divya turns,
Navya is missing. Divya updates about her new
friend to her sister and the sister really sees a
shadow of a woman at the back of Divya and says
but Divya does not believes and off her pc as she is
leaving to her work. Divya is talking to Navya at
work while the security guard who is watching
through the CCTV sees Divya walking and talking
alone. Navya says when i leave from here, i will
bring you together with me and the ghost suddenly
234
appears on the monitor and the guard faints. Divya
is shown talking to Navya but to others, they see
Divya talking all alone where everyone is looking at
her and asking who are you talking to and Divya
says I am talking to her and they all laugh at Divya
saying she is mad. The other colleagues update this
to their manager and the manager speaks to Divya
saying what is happening is not good and you need
some counseling while Divya says all these is not
true as they are taking revenge against me and Divya
says Navya is my friend. The manager says what
name did you say? Divya says Navya Rajendran
who is our call center’s Sales Executive. The
manager and the colleagues all are shocked and the
manager says she used to be around and she died
after her commit suicide from this building and
Divya says you do not believe me and Divya goes
around calling out for Navya. Divya goes and sees a
ile that says Navya is dead and while anoter
colleague is watching the video footage and the
ghost figure suddenly appears on his screen. Divya
reads the newspaper about Navya’s death. The
colleague asks Divya to run from here and he leaves
while Divya goes and watches the footage where she
sees herself all alone and Divya updates this to her
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sister saying she don’t want to die and the real sister
shows that it was her sister’s last video call that she
had recorded. Divya is shown at work while
Navya’s ghost is behind Divya and says i have came
to bring you together hugs her fellow colleagues in
fear and says she is sorry for not believing them and
all of them run to the pantry where the door closes
as Divya enters and Navya is inside while her
colleagues are knocking to open the door. Navya
updates that one year ago while she was talking on
the phone, she hears a voice saying i am dying and i
can’t save you and says i was murdered and Divya
starts running where the lift is not working. Divya
runs back into her office and as Navya walks front,
Divya screams.
The next day, everyone comes to work and Divya
gets up and opens the window (same scene as the
start and the same that happened to Navya) and
Divya jumps down. 1 year later, a new girl is shown
joing work and as she enters the lift, she meets
Divya who says that she is Divya which means that
Divya is dead and this is keep repeating as new staff
joins
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THE HAUNTED RAILWAY
STATION
Paranormal Activities – some of the very few most
‘goggled’ keywords. When it comes to the
supernatural, India surely attracts a couple of extra
votes – and why shouldn’t it? India is a country with
diverse cultures, religions, diverse nature of people
and obviously so many different
superstitions. Paranormal Activities in India has
been setting up their own benchmarks. True or
False, Believable or not, these stories have certainly
mesmerized people for centuries.
Often, we overhear different incidents, reports,
myths of variousghost stories in India. These
incidents are rooted at various locales such as
historical forts, railway stations, hotels, hill stations
etc. Talking about railway stations - so many
apparition stories have been reported worldwide.
These are often referred to as ‘Ghost Trains’,
‘Haunted railway stations’, ‘Abandoned stations’
237
etc. One interesting thing when it comes to history
of railways is that there are loads of incidences
which may seem to be the probable causes to myths
& legends. Railway lines and stations have stories of
grisly deaths in which the victims stick around in
spirits form. People die as a result of accidents,
natural deaths and suicides. Obviously, the iron lines
mesmerize people who are determined to end
themselves. Some say many of these unfortunate
souls linger on and are trapped within the physical
boundary of their death.
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Though many railway stations in India have their
own set of tell-tales, there’s one who leaps higher.
Now, this is not just another one of the spooky
stories in India since this one affected the lives of
common middle class population localized in
Begunkodor. Begunkodor is a village in Purulia
district of West Bengal situated 46kms from Purulia.
The village included a haunted railway stationthat
remained closed for almost 42 years (from 1967 to
2009). According to villagers, one of the railway
employees died in 1967 after witnessing a female
239
specter draped in white sari (Indian female
clothing). All the railway employees were terrified
of the spook; they abandoned the station in fear.
Soon this station was no longer a stop for the
passing wheels. Basudeb Acharya, former chairman
of the Parliament’s standing committee on railways
argued that the railway staff ‘cooked up’ this story
to avoid their posting at such a remote location.
Mamta Banerjee, the railway minister in 2009
dismissed all the reports of the apparition appealing
“I don’t believe in ghosts. It is all man-made.” The
railway station was reopened calling it for
celebration for the locals there.
On one hand the facts still remain vague while on
the other hand there are reports affecting the locals
for nearly half a century. One question that would
certainly worry you would be: how did the senior
officials agree to such stories from their employees?
Isn’t India now way above ‘developing’ nations?
But all the bureaucrats are the same aren’t they?
You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours!Many
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thoughts rush up to me when I think about such
stories. Why remote railway stations? Why not
buzzing airports? What would have the ghosts done
even if the trains continued going through and
stopping by this station? Would the trains disappear
in thin air? How do the trains passing by trouble the
shades anyway? Would the noise of trains be
disturbing them? Some questions remain
unanswered (for the higher good) and yet, living
mortals continue to witness such unfinished
businesses.
241
GP BLOCK MEERUT
Meerut is a metropolitan city located in the state of
Uttar Pradesh in India. This is an ancient city having
its origins since the hay days of the 'Indus Valley
Civilization'.
In this bustling city lies an area called GP Block, in
which is to be found one of the most haunted
locations in the city's history. The most common
ghostly sighting reported correspond to a double
storey house in which 4 guys sitting around a table
with a single lighted candle are seen enjoying
themselves over a couple of beers! Reports have
also been generated about women dressed in red
clothing moving in and out of the building. The
scenes keep repeating all over the house- beginning
at the first, second floors and culminating at the
terrace.
The reasons behind the ghostly appearances remain
shrouded in mystery and the house has remained
locked for as long as people in the area can
remember. However the spooky sightings are so
242
frequent that people, these days, generally avoid the
road stretch lying in front of the house.
How to get there/Accommodation: The nearest
airport is at New Delhi, located at a distance of 80
kms. Meerut has 7 railways stations associated with
her amongst which the 'Meerut City' railway station
is the busiest and is well connected to New Delhi
and other major cities of North India. Certain
weekly trains from the southern and western parts of
India also ply to and from Meerut. There are regular
bus and taxi services connecting Meerut with all
major cities of North India. There are numerous
hotels and guest houses in Meerut. A little research
on the internet and advance reservation of the same
would save the travelers any last minute hassle!
243
ROOPKUND
Roopkund is a place in Uttarakhand state of India,
and it is the location of about three to six hundred
skeletons at the edge of a lake-Skeleton Lake in the
Himalayas.
In 2004 a team of Indian and European scientists set
off to the location to gain more information on the
244
skeletons. The team uncovered vital clues including
jewellery, skulls, bones and a preserved body. DNA
tests on the bodies revealed that there were two
groups of people, a short group (probably local
porters) and a taller group who were closely related.
Though the numbers were not ascertained, it is
believed that three to six hundred people perished.
Radiocarbon dating of the bones also accurately
pinpointed the time period to be in the 9th century
predating the earlier inaccurate tests. After studying
fractures in the skulls, the scientists in Hyderabad
and London determined that the people died not of
disease but of a sudden hailstorm.
245
With landslides in the area, some of the bodies made
their way into the lake. What is not determined was
where the group was headed to. There is no
historical evidence of any trade routes to Tibet in the
area or any places of pilgrimage. Tucked into the
remote corners of the Himalayas at an altitude of
5,029 meters (16500 feet) ASL in the Indian state of
Uttarakhand, Roopkund holds a mystery that has
intrigued generations of myth busters. Better known
as ‘The Skeleton Lake’ ever since a park ranger
came across a mass grave containing around 300-
600 skeletons. Following this awesome discovery of
1942, the skeleton abode of Roopkund has generated
246
a phenomenal sensation. A remote and un-inhabited
frozen lake, which requires a four-day trek to reach
from the nearest locality, has become a hotspot for
studies and speculations recently.
Carbon dating processes conducted on these
skeletons have revealed them to belong to any time
between 12th and 15th century. On a primary level,
it was assumed that the deaths were caused by some
247
form of natural disaster like a blizzard, landslide or
an epidemic. However, still today controversies
galore among locals, anthropologists and
sociologists on this topic.Some went ahead to
mystify the deaths with fictional possibilities and
creating folklores out of it. Others suggested
multiple causalities of the skeletons being those of
wandering Tibetan traders who had lost their way,
royal pilgrims, people committing ritualistic
suicides, vanquished army etc.
More recently in 2004, a team of European and
Indian scientists sent by The National Geographic
Channel visited Roopkund to carry on with the
probe. Their research has unearthed interesting hints
and information. Part of their findings includes
anthropological treasures like well-preserved
corpses, jewelry, bones and skulls belonging to the
dead. By conducting DNA tests on these bodies the
experts have found that the dead belonged to two
different teams. One team is marked by the shorter
stature of the skeletons while the other is
248
significantly taller. The first group is thought to be
of local artisans while those belonging to the second
group were possibly members of the same clan, like
porters.
A fresh set of radio carbon dating was carried out on
the bodies to reveal that the previous dating had
come up with incorrect chronological data. The dead
are ascribed a new 9th century date. The scientists of
London and Hyderabad examined the skulls closely
249
to find out fractures, which they deem to be the
result of an abrupt hailstorm. The hails were
unusually large in volume – about the size of a
tennis ball each!No wonder that anyone exposed to
such a calamity in a mercilessly open Garhwal
Himalayan plain were doomed to be perished. The
raw air and icy hail blasts contributed to their
holocaust. It is speculated that more than one
landslide has struck Roopkund ever since the
massacre. This has served in burying some of the
bodies inside the lake – the ones that are still found
intact, preserved under ice.Even if the dating and
possible causes behind such tragic death have been
hinted at, the mystery continues about a different
aspect of the Skeleton Lake. It still puzzles experts
to think about where these people were going.
Roopkund was never a historically significant region
and no traces of any trade routes have been found to
Tibet nor could it possibly be a site for pilgrimage to
attract large groups of people.However, the
documentary ‘Skeleton Lake’ made by the National
Geographic Channel has countered this assumption.
250
The film claimed that Roopkund was the venue for
the Garhwali religious festival called ‘Nanda Jaat
yatra’ held in every 12 years. A procession
consisting of a newborn four-horned ram considered
the familiar of a Goddess starts from the nearest
village and heads towards Roopkund.
Coming back to the Skeleton Lake riddle, probably
the skeletons were those of the devotees
participating in such a mass procession centuries
ago. The folklores say that a certain king had
participated in this religious ‘yatra’ with his
company of female dancers. This had offended the
Goddess Nanda and she vented her rage by bringing
down the snowstorm at the hapless revelers.
Such accounts might sound mere fairytales, but it is
quite possible that at least the taller bodies were of
royalty and the short statured bodies scattered
everywhere along Roopkund were of local porters –
all killed by a destructive hailstorm. Whatever may
be the reason of their death – no one still knows
what lead so many people to take such an arduous
journey so many years ago.
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HAUNTINGS OF MUMBAI
Neighbors swear that these properties take on a new
dimension after sunset. There are places in Mumbai
city that could inspire the likes of the Ramsey
brothers and Ram Gopal Varma, whose names are
synonymous with celluloid mystique and horror.
Stepping into the twilight zone, I had investigated
the phenomena of the supernatural, which allegedly
exists in the heart of this concrete jungle we call
home. Apparently, we are not alone.
With no intention to spread superstition, we provide
our list of 12 of Mumbai's Most Haunted. Own, the
unexplained in the city's twilight zones Over 16
years, a spacious, uninhabited bungalow, in the by
lanes of JVPD scheme and in the neighborhood of
many Bollywood stars including the Big B, is being
gradually reclaimed by the elements of nature. An
array of imported cars gathering dust in its
compound, a mass of vegetation and thick
252
undergrowth now cover the prime property worth
crores.
Neighbors swear that the property takes on a new
dimension after sunset. The chirping of birds, the
only residents of the bungalow, reaches a crescendo
and what follow is an abrupt silence and the
presence of an eerie energy. Neighbors further claim
that the owners of the bungalow, which is now
under government custody, apparently vanished into
thinair after they were accused of pilfering money
from a public limited company they had floated.
Numerous water wells of Mahim which never run
dry are not only a Mecca for the water tanker
operators, but also a source of forbidden
mysteries. With water tankers parked on the either
side of a lane, right behind the Paradise cinema, lies
a building called Ram Sakit and in its compound is a
sealed well, supposed to possess the spirit of old
lady Sulochana who met her watery grave on the
253
very spot, over 20 years ago. "I knew the lady, who
was in her fifties and hailed from a Maharashtra
family. It was around 10 am when she stepped out to
wash her clothes and slipped into the well and died,"
claims an old resident adding that the entire
neighborhood believes she still appears during
Amavasya and vanishes in the morning.
The belief is said to be so strong that a person called
Richard, who claims to be the landlord, carries out
exorcisms of laying flowers on the well every day,
to mollify the spirit, which is said to not be
malicious in nature.
In less than a kilometer radius of the Mahim railway
station, lies the dreaded Nasserwanj Wadi, where no
local likes to venture after midnight. "Don't venture
inside or you will get possessed. Don't expect any
one from the area to come and help you," warned a
group of ladies standing near the gate as this reporter
approached the wadi (old settlement) compound.
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Folklore has it that the property once belonged to a
Parsi gentleman called Nasser, who was brutally
burnt in a cabin close to a well inside the compound.
"The gruesome murder was committed around 16
years ago, but the Parsi landlord still takes his daily
stroll over here after midnight, keeping a watch on
his property. He is known to torment anyone who
crosses his path," alleged Francis, a resident.
Francis confessed that moving out of his house was
a total taboo for him and his family and they always
kept a crucifix and slept with a light on. "More than
seven people have lost their lives here, within a span
of one year after the Parsi landlord died, so we
concealed the well under a pile of rubble. But this
has not really helped," he alleged.
Eight months ago, in a scene right out of Omen, a
huge, black dog appeared out of nowhere and made
the second floor corridor of a building in Santa Cruz
(W), his permanent home. His uncanny presence
coincides with the death of a lady, simply known as
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"second floor ki bhabi", who committed suicide
after a tiff with her husband.
The dog simply doesn't budge from his place; he just
sits there quietly. But every night, he lets out a series
of low frequency howls and a veiled lady appears
and strolls in the corridor. Next, the silence is
broken as the building lift mysteriously comes to a
standstill on the floor, as if on command, casting
ghastly shadowsfrom its tube light. "The veiled lady
never harms anyone, but has all the neighbors scared
to death and they refuse to even speak out her real
name. You just have to be in the building at
midnight to feel her presence," alleged 23-year-old
Nadeem Sheikh, a local resident.
A famous South Bombay hotel is supposed to have a
friendly ghost in the form of its original architect.
Folklore has it that the Frenchman, who created the
blueprints, went off on a trip to his country in 1903.
On his return, he was stunned to find that the hotel
frontage had been made in the reverse direction, and
committed suicide. His ghost is still believed to
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manifest in the old wing, but has never bothered
anyone.
Close to the Pawan Hans quarters, near the Juhu
aerodrome is a century old peepal tree, which
residents claim is the home to a 20-year-old girl
called Salma who poured kerosene and set herself
ablaze for no apparent reason in 1989.
Her presence was so strongly felt that a resident
called Anthony D'Souza, a devout Catholic, built a
Hanuman mandir to protect residents from harm
after he was apparently guided to do so in a dream.
"On special nights, the girl can still be seen running,
with her clothes still on fire and disappears into the
tree," claimed Mehboob Sheikh, a local resident.
In the backyard of SNDT, Girls College, Juhu are a
few dilapidated structures, once used as staff toilets
by the gardeners and other menial staff workers.
Residents of the neighboring building swear that
post 1.30 am; sounds of a teacher thrashing her
students can be heard clearly.
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"First the lessons start, and the teacher can be heard
reciting mathematical tables, invariably followed by
thrashing sounds and the wails of children. It's been
practically heard by everyone in our building and
goes on till the wee hours of the morning," alleged
Riyaz Ansari, a local resident.
"Once, out of curiosity, we formed a group of 10
boys to investigate the phenomena, but found only
an eerie emptiness. By the time we reached back
home, the cries from the structure had restarted and
no one has ever dared to venture out there again,"
added Riyaz.
With mangroves on either side, a narrow strip of
road, which leads to Marve and Madh Island, is
notorious for many automobile accidents. It's said
that a lady in full bridal attire, seen especially on full
moon nights, distracts the drivers, which leads to the
mishaps. Dozens of uncharacteristic sightings have
been reported, not only by locals, but by staff of
beachfront hotels who return from late night shifts.
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The trick, they say, is to not look directly in to the
mesmerizing eyes of the beautiful lady and to just
ignore her. Legend has it that an unknown bride was
brutally murdered on her wedding night and her
body dumped in the isolated mangroves over 25
years ago. The spirit is apparently still on the
lookout for the culprits.
In the dead of the night, it requires sheer guts to
cross the dimly-lit Aarey Road, which connects
Goregaon to Powai. Danger lurks not only from the
leopards that come down from the National Park to
feed on easy prey, but also from the paranormal.
The spirits, which seldom attack the locals, are
known to target only outsiders, especially rickshaw
drivers who would rather take a longer route to
reach their destination than risk this terrain. A
strange old man in white kurta pajama is known to
hire a rickshaw. Within a span of 15 minutes, the
man disappears into thin air, leaving the driver under
a strange state of hypnosis.
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Said one driver who was 'struck' by the spirit, "I felt
as if I was surrounded by a flowing water body and
was helpless” Covered in perspiration, I was
vaguely aware of being approached by another man,
who slapped me to get me to my senses."
In the heart of IC colony, Borivali is an open garden
plot so dreaded that no child has played here for the
last 30 years. Old residents claimed that a gardener
committed suicide here after fearing he would lose
his job when the property changed hands. Said to be
so possessive of the land, the gardener allegedly
targets any child playing on the property, which is
now covered in undergrowth. The mango groves
surrounding the LIC colony at Borivali add a strange
mystique to the quiet area. But it is the tall water
tower, surrounded by huge boulders, known as the
'reservoir', which emits a creepy energy. Residents
make it a point to never go near there alone. Those
who have, complain of giddiness and vomiting,
beyond the spectrum of medical science that
vanished within a week. Moving across the newly
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completed Jogeshwari Link Road stands a row of
pink buildings, said to possess the spirit of an
airhostess who was allegedly murdered in her
second floor flat. Residents say that soon after her
death, the company flat was allotted to another
airhostess, who encountered a weeping lady on the
terrace one day. On enquiry, the sobbing lady stated
that she was unable to go home, as the flat she was
residing in had been occupied by someone else.
When asked for details, she quietly pointed her
finger at the same flat where the new airhostess
resided, before vanishing in to thin air.
Ghosts or not, all these 12 places are said to have an
unexplained energy... believe it or not if you will,
but fiction overrides fact in these Mumbai 'haunts'
One Boy told me that he have one ghost
acquaintance in his life. It was when He was
studying in collage back in India. Those days he
used to stay in hostel. He was around 20, and was
having his exams. Some friend of his saw it. It was
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around 1 AM, they all were in the study hall
preparing for the exam next day. There were a few
more girls in the study hall.
After feeling tired of reading, and because it was so
late at night was feeling sleepy, so just for a change
and to refresh, He looked out of the window. There
in distance he saw a lady in white Sari (Traditional
dress of Indian ladies), she was some 5' tall, had
long black hair (it was knee length long), was
combing it with her fingers. The best part is, this
lady was not standing on the ground but she was at
top of a house, he could see her so clearly because
there was light from the street lamp above her.
He blinked his eyes, but still it was there. He did it
again and again, but no change he could still see her.
He showed it to his friend, she too could see her.
They called the other girls, but by the time they
came it was gone. I should say it faded away.
The next day after their exams, they all walked to
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the direction where they saw this lady the previous
night. There was nothing, not even that house. The
lamp post was there, but the bulb was broken and
was covered with spider web. He had totally
forgotten about this incident, but now after reading
the other stories, He sometimes remembered it. And
told me that he still don't know what he saw that
night. Was it’s the mind playing trick after he got
exhausted studying, but how it is possible that my
friend too saw it... Guess it was a ghost itself.
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A STRANGE INCIDENT
It was May 13, 2011; I got a call from my friend
Ram. He wants to go for a long drive and then have
some Dhaba food and come back. I said I am fine
with it and immediately called up another friend,
Venkat, to check if he is free. He had agreed with
that plan. Next 15 minutes I get a call, it's Ram
again. He said that they are waiting for me outside
my house. Since it was mid-summer and the
summer heat was killing, they wanted to do a bike
ride. I took out my bike, 3 of us (on 2 bikes) started
towards Medchel and then too fran it’s around
60Km drive from my place. When we crossed
Medchel, the roads are free and the wind was
blowing. It was a good weather out there. We
crossed the toll gate in too fran. We found few
Dhabas out there, ordered the food and by the time
we finished dinner it was 11:45 Pm.
Now start drive back home. I don't know but I had
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some mixed feeling that something is wrong, as if
somebody is watching or following us. I ignored it,
was enjoying the breeze. The roads were empty,
very less traffic for some reason. We were
maintaining same pace of 50Kmph speed, all of a
sudden both me and Ram (bike drivers) both saw it
and pulled the breaks hard. We almost ran over a
black cat which was crossing the road. I have never
seen such a pitch black cat in my life. We looked at
each other, laughed and started to drive.
After few kilometers drive, just to check how dark
the night was, we switched off our head lamp for
few seconds and turned it on. Man that was really
dark pitches dark. We wanted to do it again for the
second time. It was fun driving in the dark, so tried
it for the third time. To our horror, for the 3rd time
when we switched on the lights, we were couple of
meters behind a halted lorry. If the head lamps were
switched on after a second, we would we would
have smashed on to the halted lorry. Trust me guys,
my heart almost reached my mouth. I realized that
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something is not right. No more switching off the
lamps. By the time we were about to reach some
village, Ram's rear tire was flat. We thought we
were lucky to have a flat tire few meters close to a
village. Thought we can get it fixed sooner.
We found the shop and the guy took out the tube
and was about to glue it. To our fate, power cut. The
shop fellow managed to fix the tube with some
emergency lamp. But the problem is, to put the blow
we need power. Since it was already late, the people
in the village might have slept off and it’s dark
everywhere. Suddenly I felt pat on my shoulder; I
thought Venkat was calling me. I replied what? No
response. When I turned back there is nobody. I
called Venkat, he responded and the voice was
coming from the other side. I was stunned again.
Ram was a meter away from me and I asked him if
he has seen some one behind me, he said no. It was
strange, now I know that something is following us.
After half hour, the power was back, the tire got
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fixed, and I was still in a thinking mood. Back on
the road again, I told them what had happened near
that shop. They laughed at me and told me that it
was my imagination. I tried to accept that I was
imagining, but my mind was not accepting it.
It was around 2:45 Am by the time we reached
Venkat's place. Since it was already late, we thought
to sleep at Venkat's place as he had a separate room
on the terrace, so no need to wake any one up. Took
the stairs and reached the room, it's a newly
constructed room. It was around 3:00am, the beds
were arranged, and both Ram and Venkat went to
sleep immediately. I was still thinking.
I was about to fall asleep. In fact, I was half asleep,
when suddenly I could see a huge beast falling
directly on me from the ceiling. It was very heavy. It
happened in a fraction of a second. I screamed. Both
my friends woke up, started shouting at me, "What's
wrong with you? Why the hell did you shout like
that? Do you want to disturb the entire colony?"
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I told them that something heavy fell on me from the
roof. They just ignored it and asked me to go back to
sleep. Apparently I had to sleep. I woke up in the
morning and told them that it’s not my imagination.
It was real. Even today I feel the incident fresh in
my mind and I still have that figure, that beast in my
mind. It was like a gorilla, a huge gorilla with long
fangs and green eyes. I can't forget that day ever in
my life.
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DELHI CANTONMENT
The Haunted Destinations in India! You’ll find
loads of them; even our National Capital has not
been spared. Yes, there are many haunted places in
Delhi. Many true Indian ghost stories have been
acknowledged here and one of them is in the Delhi
Cantonment. Delhi Cantonment popularly referred
to as Delhi Cantt is one of the three statutory towns
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that make up the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
These cantonments were originally established by
the British Indian Army. With few strange
incidences and bizarre events, this has become one
of the most eerie places in Delhi. So here goes this
real Indian ghost story.
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Delhi Cantt area is full of green lush trees and
haunted forests. It is reported that this place is
haunted by a vengeful spirit of the lady clad in white
sari asking for lift from the motorists. If people
don’t stop their vehicle, she starts running swiftly
with the same speed and reaching ahead of them.
Some people claim that possibly the lady was a
traveler while alive; hence she waves at lonely
passersby to stop. There is another true Indian ghost
story which says that a woman in white dress roams
around the Ashok Vihar flyover between 1am and
4am. Anyone who passes by at that hour, and stops
to ask her for directions, will not find their way
home that night. Their vehicles break down or they
go around in circles. She is also been spotted under a
fig tree in Dwarka Sector 9 and in Andheria (Mor)
Modh, where call-centre employees and their cab
drivers are strictly advised against pulling over to
have a chat. Sometimes, she appears in the middle of
the road, only to disappear under the wheels.
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Hold on! Do these white-sari-woman stories seem to
be heard somewhere? Ain’t this the Bollywood’s
foray into the empire of horror. Ain’t this a kick-off
to the genre of Indian horror movies? Remember
‘Bees SaalBaad’, released in 1988, in which Dimple
Kapadia stops the traffic as a vengeful ghost? There
are many more…..
The white-sari-clad spirit is an old cliché! Such
stories of Indian female ghosts have being coming
from ages as if wanting to increase the number
of haunted destinations in Delhi. On one hand,
a female Indian ghost wearing white sari gliding
around with a candle is a popular sighting in many
parts of Delhi while on the other hand; cynics refute
the eyewitness ‘justification of all ghost sightings.
They believe the limitations of human perception
and mundane explanations can account for such
sightings. However, it is difficult to believe how the
limitations of human perception could happen to
more than a dozen people. Keeping aside the facts of
the matter, these stories and incidences are proving
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to be another reason for ghost hunters to visit
these haunted destinations in India. In addition,
these Indian ghost stories have also been cooked,
boiled and fried by different media and guess what!
It is very well received by their target market. News
Media, Ghost hunters, Critics, Eyewitnesses and of
course the name – Delhi, they all combine to
brand as the top haunted places in India.
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THE HAUNTED HOUSE
A Personal Encounter by R. S. Raghavan (New
Delhi)
My experience is a true experience of the
unexplained. Though my parents didn't share these
experiences with anyone, this is the first time this
story is being shared.
I am now 44 years old. When I was 16 yrs old in
1984, my parents shifted house from janakpuri
where we had our own flat to a government quarters
Type 5 in Dev Nagar area of New Delhi.
Since i was an only son i was used to being in a flat
and i and my mother were initially not inclined to
shift base. However my dad was fully in favor of
this move as he was of the opinion that this was
quite a big house, of the European style of the early
part of the 19th century and had a servant quarters, a
garden etc.
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My first impression of the house was amazing, it
was quite huge, had two big bathrooms, 3 huge
rooms, a big garden etc. There were four such
houses in the block. Opposite house neighbors were
an old Bengali couple, who lived alone after having
lost their children in some accident. Next house
neighbors had gone for holidays and the third house
was unoccupied. Although i felt a bit uncanny when
I saw the huge garden with lots of vegetables which
had not been plucked and the fruit trees had fruits
which had perished as if someone had left the house
in a hurry.
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My experiences with the paranormal started, with
our visiting some old neighbors (From 1968 to 1973
we had lived in the same area although at a different
location, in a rented house and were close to a
family who lived right opposite the house. This
family mentioned to us that their grown up son had
died recently in a tragic car accident. WE felt bad
and since we had moved just that day, for a change
we decided to visit our Bengali neighbor couple.
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The moment we entered they mentioned that in that
house a girl, who was just the same age as me had
died the month before and since they had left in a
hurry as they couldn't bear to be in the house where
their grown up daughter had died due to some
illness. It was then something came to my attention,
there was a trace in the hall as if a garland had been
placed over a photo, and the trace of the garland
could be clearly seen, this i remembered while i was
sitting and hearing to the bengali couple's
comments. Further they mentioned that the girl's
body was brought and kept in the same house
directly from the hospital before cremation. Hearing
all this we felt bad that we had shifted in such a
house as normally people like to shift in houses with
pleasant memories.
The first night went off without incidents but the
second night the light turned on by itself. This has
been one of the mysteries which weren’t solved till
the last. For two consecutive days the light in the
bedroom turned on. The first day since myself and
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parents slept in the same room I yelled as to who
had turned on the light to which my mom replied
that it must be you, but I was sure as i am a very
light sleeper and wake at the slightest noise. Then
she turned to my dad who was snoring and on
waking him he said he had not turned on. SO we
assumed it was a loose connection. When this
happened the second night I and my mom both were
scared and didn't sleep the whole night. Since we
had shifted in, the whole place used to be dark and
the servant quarters was also unoccupied...so the
place used to be in total darkness causing an eerie
feeling as it is.
The second incident was around a week after we
shifted someone would continuously on the
bedroom door and if we opened no one would be
there. Since it was a heavy knock it couldn't have
been the wind also. This would go on every night
continuously till a month or so for which we didn't
find any explanation other than it being some stray
dogs knocking/banging against the door, but would
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they do it continuously in the same place at the same
time on the same door...Beats me! The third incident
was, about 15 days later we were conducting some
repair work and my mother’s nose ring disappeared,
she had been wearing and found it to be missing in
the melee. We searched everywhere and asked the
laborers even although it itself would create an idea
of stealing even if they found it. We even went to
the local police station as it was located at a yard's
distance. We asked the contractor to personally
check and search as it was a diamond nose ring
which my mom after taking bath had carelessly
worn loose. Well in the night while closing the door
we found it lying behind the door (the same one as
the dogs knocked) but the surprising thing was as a
nose ring is attached to the nose by a bolt like knob,
if the nose ring falls off the knob naturally would be
lying separate, but the surprising thing was that it
was screwed on to the nose ring which till the last
we were not able to figure. If at all a person had
taken it why would he bother to screw it and put it
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there instead of simply taking it away as there was
no chance of his being traced.
The last incident was things getting lost without any
reason, like money disappearing, books
disappearing, things we were sure we had kept in a
particular place which would disappear without a
trace.
Since we are south Indians we conducted a big puja
after which these incidents stopped except for the
one off sporadic incidents later on.
The next door neighbor returned and mentioned to
my mother that the house is as itself cursed, both the
head of the family or someone related dies and also
the family gets divided. This happened in case of us
as after that year I was forced to join college
elsewhere and since I was not in the best of health
afterwards getting epilepsy attacks and in one such
attack getting my arm dislocated, my mother was
forced to stay with me and my father stayed in the
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same house as he was a government servant and his
base was permanent in Delhi.
This continued from 1984 to 1997 in which I and
my mother were forced by circumstances to stay
away from that house as I took up a job in Chennai
and again due to health issues my mother was forced
to stay with me. During this time i had raised a cat
as my sister and she was in the best of health. We
took her to the ill-fated house in 1997 end, as my
father was about to retire and we had to vacate the
house in 1998 may. Imagine one day in Jan 1998 my
cat went out for her morning walk and was found
dead outside the walk just adjacent to the gate.
Till now her death could not be explained. We felt
like one of our family's own member had died. We
left the place in May 1998 with a heavy heart as we
could never explain what caused my cat bush’s
death, she was really healthy and not even a single
scratch could be found on her body.
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After leaving that house we learnt that the whole
area was being modernized and the houses were
being torn down. I visited the house last after i got
married in 2002 and found it to be in ruins, almost
like a forest and learnt we were the last people to
have lived there.
However to this day we live together back in “our
own house” Even though I was in the prime of youth
at that stage I can never forget those frightening
experiences in that house.
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THE FARMHOUSE
As I’ve mentioned it in another story what happened with
me and my friend at his grandfather’s place and since then;
we have developed some sort of addiction with
supernatural.
So whenever we hear something like that we try to
go and investigate if possible. We have spent couple
of weekends doing such things like setting up an
audio recording instrument, sometimes a camera too
and obviously night watches; but the experience we
had at a friend’s house last month was not only
scary but it was our first real encounter with
something supernatural. Let us stick to word
supernatural rather than ghost or spirit because we
didn’t see or felt something clearly distinguishable
like a figure but energy, So be it.
In our college a common friend had told us about
strange happenings at his farm house which is
located in eastern part of India close to one of the
most beautiful hill stations. So we decided to go
there in our one week festive vacations. We had
enough time to prepare so we were able to arrange
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a tripod camera stand, a good quality USB voice
recorder and our most longed instrument a DVD
recorder handy cam with night vision-recording
capability; along with our laptop and air pistols and
other baggage. Well here I would mention that
though people have commented in my previous post
it was foolish to carry air guns; but to be honest it
gave us some feeling of security so we did carry our
air pistols this time not the air guns for the ease of
carrying.
The farm house is an old two story building situated
on the north eastern corner of the field; almost 2
kilometers from the house where their family stays.
The ground floor is used for the tools and other
supplies and the upper floor is used as a living room
by the person who ever keeps the watch. This upper
floor has two rooms in the back and a big balcony in
the front along with the galleries on other three sides
to keep the watch. There are no trees or bushes
around which leaves a fair view of the field and
around.
We had our dinner and went straight to the farm
house accompanied by him. There we lashed our
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USB recorder with the front door and we took our
handy cam and laptop with us to the upper floor and
attached another high definition microphone with a
long extension cable to the laptop. Whole night we
spent watching for “something” but we didn’t get
anything except than occasional howling or
some wild animal wandering by. It was fun to feel
this thrill as we were very close to the jungle and
were quite safe due to the 15 feet height of our
balcony and the iron doors on the ground floor. And
nothing happened for continuous 4 nights despite
putting our devices at different locations and trying
other settings. Even on the fourth night we fell
asleep and woke up late due to the boredom and
tiredness.
Then all it happened on the fifth night it was a full
moon and Saturday. Two of us walked to the farm
house after we had our dinner and this time we left
our handy cam on the ground floor lashed to the
staircase and after shouting a couple of questions we
left our USB recorder to the gallery on the back of
our rooms. We attached the microphone with our
laptop and started watching a movie using
headphones. Suddenly around 2330 hrs a stray dog
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started howling so I threw a stone or two and it
disappeared in the dark. About 0020 hrs the
electricity was cut so we decided to
stop watching movie so that the battery could last
till morning. After 10-15 minutes our recorder graph
on the laptop started to flicker. And both of us got
excited. Then we put on our head phones and
listened; it was like scratching sound as if someone
was rubbing on it. We clearly felt goose bumps
rising on our hands.
It went on for 5-10 minutes and then we decided to
go and check the microphone which was placed on
the terrace. We slowly climbed the ladder with our
air pistols in hands. The moment we touched the top
a cat jumped out of nowhere; passed touching my
left hand and disappeared in the dark on the staircase
down to the ground floor. We were both pretty taken
by this and to make things normal again we spent a
couple of minutes on the terrace and then descended.
Well to tell the truth this was the first time when a
cat made me so taken away if not scared. But the
strange thing was yet to be noticed, when we came
down our recorder graph was still flickering and the
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same sort of scratching rubbing sound was on the
headphones.
This made us reconsider our situation.
We pulled the microphone and placed it in the room
which we had occupied for our stay, and the sound
stopped. Now we were at bit ease, but not for long.
After 10-15 minutes when tension was starting to
reduce suddenly the graph started flickering again;
and now we were scared, pretty scared. Whatever
the reason was it “was-in-our-room-now”. Once
again we gathered ourselves together and decided to
check out. We switched on the emergency lantern
and checked the room thoroughly but nothing was
there. It was an empty room except than our beds
and luggage. We decided not to spend the night in
the room and took our beds outside in the corner of
the balcony and bolted the room from the outside.
The sound had stopped once again.
We kept listening intently but nothing happened for
next 30-40 minutes. Then around 0230 hrs both of
us got the same scratching/ rubbing sound again and
this time it was wilder than previous as if the same
cat was trying to rip off the microphone from the
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cable. But it couldn’t have been possible as we had
checked the room thoroughly and had bolted it from
the outside so there was no way to for the cat to get
in or any other thing. This made us so scared that we
put aside our headphones and grabbed our air pistols
instead. The graph on our laptop was flickering
wildly. It went on for couple of minutes and then it
stopped again; and after a minute or two we heard
the scratching again but there was nothing on the
laptop. It was very faint in the beginning but then
we spotted it. It was coming from within the room
as if someone was scratching the door. And what
happened in those 2 hours we won’t forget for our
lives.
The faint scratching turned to tapping and then
slowly it was as if someone was knocking the door
from within the room to be opened. It got to wild
banging twice and we didn’t know what to do. Our
hearts were beating wildly, Goosebumps were all
over our bodies, we were sweating like anything,
our throats were dry and we couldn’t speak a word
and our air pistols were pointed in the direction of
the door while we knew if something comes out
these would be of no avail but still we did. We had
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barricaded ourselves behind our cots in the corner
opposite to the staircase and we were too afraid to
get the stairs in the dark as electricity was out.
This scenario went on for next couple of hours.
Sometimes the scratching almost stopped and then
suddenly it started again like someone was doing it
rhythmically to make as afraid and then to put us at
ease and then to scare again.
Around 0500 hrs we heard the second banging on
the door and then the sound stopped. It was getting
dawn and we were so exhausted that we don’t
remember when we fell asleep. Our friend came
about 0700 hrs to wake us up and was quite alarmed
to see us asleep behind the barricade. We told him
everything what happened that night and he laughed
heartily first and then he told us to move to their
family house what we did.
When we heard the recordings from the USB
recorder we got the same scratching sound along
with some grunts and screams, very faint, and it is
really hard to tell whether the screams are of
some wild animal or of some human being; these
lasted only 23 seconds. While on our laptop we got
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total 86 minutes of recording, leaving the duration
when there was silence in between. Our handy cam
recorded the fleeing cat from an opening in the
ground floor wall but there is something strange in
the video. The moment the cat jumped from the
staircase there was some sort of dust/ smoke rising
from there and moving up the staircase. It’s not very
clear, because of the night mode but one can make
out by watching those 8 seconds on the recording.
Now it could be simply dust or it could be that
supernatural energy which came “up” after we
disturbed the cat; at least that’s what my friend and I
think.
In the afternoon we were told that 4-5 years back
there was only a hut from which the fiends were
watched, and that a watchman was killed by the wild
animals, probably wolves, at that time; before the
villagers could have rescued him. Then the farm
house was build so that anyone can stay comfortably
and safely to watch the fields. But since the
watchman was killed there have been such haunting
despite the villagers’ efforts to put the dead man’s
soul to rest. And the interesting fact is that the cat
belonged to the same dead watchman.
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KALYAN
Well, I will tell you a very real incident which
happened with me...You decide if it involves the
paranormal or it's just a case of simple
misunderstanding...either way, it was the creepiest
experience in my life...
I am an Indian & I live in Mumbai, one of the
biggest cities in the world...An hour's drive from the
city and we come to a place called Kalyan, which is
one of the distant suburbs of Mumbai...it can be best
described as a village-town...It is surrounded on one
side by hills & woods, where there are many
villages & vast expanses of farmland...these places
are very sparsely populated & it gets quite spooky at
night...there is a good road running through these
places, but no light-poles or illumination...I used to
go to a farm-house in one of the villages called
Dahagaon, with my team to party & let off steam...
Once you leave Kalyan towards this region, you
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have to pass a bridge which is built over a small
river...the river-banks are said to be haunted & is a
favourite place for people who practice black-
magic...vehicles plying on the bridge at night
generally break down or lose control...
One of the guys with me had actually been involved
in a very scary case of black magic at that very spot
but that is a different story...We were a group of 7
guys on 4 motorbikes...It was really late (around
10.30 PM) when we reached the outskirts of Kalyan
& it started raining heavily, unexpectedly...we
stopped awhile & after the initial downpour, we
resumed our trip...It again started pouring & we had
a hard time seeing the road ahead & keeping our
bikes balanced...it was pitch-dark & rain was
pouring down our faces making it difficult to focus
on the road...we were driving real slow...
One guy who was driving his bike alone was having
problem in keeping his balance at such a slow pace,
on the slippery, sloping road and had to stop every
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often...
By the time we reached the bridge (must be around
12.15 AM), two of the guys on one bike had passed
ahead of me...I was on the second bike with another
guy...the third bike with the lone guy stopped
approximately 50 metres behind us & the fourth
bike (with 2 guys) stopped to help him...
We were just a few metres shy of the bridge, so we
stopped & looked back...we (me & the guy with me)
could see the head-lights of the two bikes behind
us...it was still pitch black, but the rain was now
drizzling, instead of pouring...we were talking to
each other & after about 10 minutes, we turned back
and there was......nothing !!!We were shocked &
went back to the spot where the 3 guys were
supposed to be...there was absolutely no sign of
them...we both were seriously spooked &
considered going back to the town...
Then we decided to continue ahead, atleast to inform
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the 2 guys who had gone ahead of us on the first
bike...so we crossed the bridge & there were the rest
of the guys (all five of them) standing waiting for
us.
I came to understand that the two bikes behind us
had passed us & one of the guys waved to us, but we
happened to miss them...now you can logically put it
down to the fact that it was extremely dark &
raining, so it was fair to assume that we did not see
them...or was there a more paranormal explanation
for what happened??? From what I understand about
incidents involving the paranormal, there are always
two explanations for such incidents...one would be a
logical explanation, though the logic would be
slightly stretched (for example our missing the two
bikes, which generally would not happen, but just
might be possible) &another a more sinister one...
I know that it does not sound so spooky when I
write it down here...but believe me, it was real
spooky when it happened & I am a guy, who do not
get spooked easily !!! Thinking about that incident
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still gives me goose-bumps...it is also not a blatant
ghost story, but a real story in which you can form
your own conclusions...
My wife thinks that I was extremely lucky not to
have turned back from the spot where my friends
"disappeared"...she firmly believes it was a
paranormal occurence & in case of such ghostly
events, you are supposed to go ahead, not return
back...if you had returned back, something bad or
evil was sure to have happened to you, she says...
I tried to be as descriptive as possible...but words
cannot sufficiently describe the atmosphere, the
surroundings and the chill that ran through my spine !!!
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ARMY GHOST
Soldiers at the Khalpara International Border Out
Post (IBOP), managed by the Border Security Force
of India (BSFI), have been facing a number of
unwanted problems for a long time. This has come
to light from an incident that took place in the BSFI
camp that lies on the India-Bangladesh International
Border under Haldibari Police Station (PS) at
Jalpaiguri district in the Northeast Indian State,
West Bengal (NEISWB).
The Jawan (soldiers) of the BSFI Khalpara IBOP
camp noticed a number of snakes within the camp
area. This caused anxiety among the jawans and
they were frightened. The snakes went away, but
after they tried to drive out the snakes, they
reappeared again later. As a result of this, they had
many sleepless nights. "On the 8th of June, 2009,
Pravin Kumar, one of the Santri (guards) noticed a
number of snakes in the camp areas. I saw them
myself, and so did others in the camp.
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At once, we had taken steps and drove the snakes
out of the camp. But, we can't stop the coming of the
snakes in the camp. The snakes come again and
again and have caused fear among all. Other Jawans
and I have tried their best to clear up the snakes; but,
the coming of the snakes cannot be stopped.
"The incidents have occurred repeatedly", revealed
Sub Inspector (SI) - Sunderlal Singh, the platoon
commander of 95-Battalion (BN), in-charge of the
IBOP BSFI camp in October, 2009. Apart from this
incident, the residents also confronted some
unearthly incidents, which have created a great fear
among the jawans of the Khalpara IBOP BSFI
camp.
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After 2-3 days, one night, one of the other guards,
while on duty felt someone slapping him. The other
guards also agreed to his story of an invisible man,
who was found slapping some other guards as well.
"This happened, when sometimes the soldiers were
negligent or became unconscious during their duty
(at night)", claimed Constable Prakash Singh, (BSFI
95-BN) who posted at Dangapara International
Border Out Post. But, initially, Sunderlal Singh
denied the matter or didn't want to believe the facts
and subsequently, didn't pay any heed to it. He
neither lit any candle nor burned any incense sticks
beside the martyr's alter. As a result of this, these
unwanted incidents begin to occur there. At last to
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mitigate the problem, Sunderlal started to light
candles and burn incenses sticks beside the martyrs
tombs. Not only that, he had also ordered all camp
residents strictly that nobody should show any
negligence in their work during duty period in that
particular Khalpara IBOP.
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This helped to solve the problem at the camp. But,
the people of this area neither believe nor disbelieve
in it. According to some, it is an imaginary matter or
a made-up story, while others say there may be truth
in the stories of Sunderlal or Pravin Kumar. But, the
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Jawans still believe in it and the incidents still take
place when there are any lapses during duty hours in
the camp. In fact, they believe that it was three
Jawans who had become Shahid (that is, courted
death) during the 'Liberation War, of 1971' who had
died in this particular Khalpara IBOP of Jalpaiguri
district, near the International Border Pillar 781/09-
s, opposite the Bangladeshi villages of Dangapara,
Jadurban and Vogdaguri (near the International
Border Pillar 781/07-s) in the Nilphamari district of
Bangladesh.
In the afternoon of 11th August, 1971, the Jawans
were killed by a bombshell of the then East Pakistan
which is presently Pakistan State (that is, popularly
known as - Purbo Bango or Purbo Bangla, presently,
called - Bangladesh) and were of the 73rd Battalion
of BSFI. The titles and names of those killed were:
- Head Constable (66733027) - Anil Kumar Sircar,
- Head Constable (66733112) - Mohini Mohan Roy,
and
- Constable (66733522) - Man Bahadur Rai.
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"..... It was around 05:00 pm; suddenly, we found a
jeep which appeared on the other side of the
international boundary, and about 3-4 soldiers of the
then East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) came out of the
jeep. They were carrying something (which turned
out to be a Mortar Shell) upon their shoulders and
then jumped to the ground. After around 25 to 30
minutes, a murmuring sound was heard and
subsequently a fireball exploded on the ground. We
were astounded and ran to a safer place.
These EPR soldiers also visited this place in the
early morning, around 08:00 am .....", said one of the
eyewitnesses, Ashok Roy, who was a little boy, 7
years old, at that time in the Khlapara hamlet. ".....
Our house stood just 250 yards away from the
international borderline between India and former
East Pakistan (that is, present Bangladesh).
Like other days, that day also, I went to bring jute-
sticks, which were lying beside the nearby field for
drying. Then, while I was returning from the nearby
field with jute sticks, unexpectedly, I heard a series
of unceasing firing. I saw volleys of bullets coming
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from the gun triggered by the EPR solders from
across the international boundary.
Hearing and seeing these, I rushed to our abode
bending my head down. While going to our hut, I
saw a BSFI Jawan on the ground with a bullet
injury, and the other Jawans were busy carrying
away that injured Jawan towards their camp.
Then after just a few minutes (perhaps 3 to 4
minitues), I heard another terrible sound but couldn't
see properly. In the meantime, I had already entered
into our courtyard, but I was feeling warm in the
right side of the waist. I reached out my hand and
found that I was bleeding profusely from my waist.
At once I cried out in fear and fell flat on the
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ground. Others,(my family members) who were
there rushed to my body after hearing my appalling
sound and my loud crying. When the family
members saw my ugly situation, they at once took
me to the Haldibari sanatorium, and subsequently
shifted to me the Jalpaiguri District Hospital at
Jalpiguri district headquarter town to pull out the
bullet from my waist.
After this, I do not know what had happened. But,
after a month, when I recovered from this serious
injury and returned to our house from the hospital, I
came to know that 3 BSFI soldiers of our Khalpara
IBOP camp that was pitched hardly 50 to 100-yards
from our hut, had lost their lives. Their camp was
totally burnt down by mortar shelling by EPR
soldiers of the east Pakistan side .....", briefed
Charan Dashi Mondol, who was about 14-years-old
at that time, but now, 55-years-old and residing in
Khalpara village.
Supporting the facts, 76-year-old Sumitra Roy,
mother of Ashim Kumar Roy recalled, "We were
drying our clothes in the Uthan (courtyard) of our
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hut, which stood just on the international borderline
(which is called 'zero-line') between India and
former East Pakistan. But, when I was sweeping the
courtyard of our house, suddenly, we heard a terrible
sound, which shook the area and subsequently I saw
a fireball drop flying onto our roof-shed.
At once, our house caught fire and began to burn
with a great flame. Not only that, the entire area was
covered by smoke and our villagers were running
here and there trying to save their lives. We also fled
from the house with others, and then, within a few
seconds of this incident, another ball of fire dropped
on our adjacent BSFI camp and burnt it to ashes. We
rushed to the camp and found 3 BSFI Jawans were
lying dead there. We cannot forget that frightful
incident of the day .....".
"..... 15 to 20 minutes later, some jeeps rushed to our
village and cordoned the area without any loss of
time. The personnel, who rushed to the spot where
our Sena Jawan of India (BSFI).
All of the village reached there in a body and found
that the BSFI camp that lay there was burnt to ashes
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and the grass had turned black, having been burnt by
the fire.
We also found the bodies of the three BSFI
personnel who lay dead there. The Indian BSFI
soldiers took the bodies from the spot. The scene
still floats before our eyes, when we think of that
day .....", evoked 46-year-old Naren Sarkar, resident
of Khalpara hamlet.
.
".....At that time, I was a boy of four, now, I am 45.
Around 15:00 pm, I was playing football in a nearby
field (beside the international borderline, between
India and former East Pakistan, that is, present
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Bangladesh) with my friends, while my sister was
reading in the courtyard, and my mother was drying
jute in the sun. Our house stands just on the Zero-
line, between India and former East Pakistan (that is,
part of former West Pakistan and presently,
Bangladesh). About 17:00-hours, when we would
have almost completed our daily football game,
unexpectedly, I heard a terrible sound and saw our
house was burning and everybody was running here
and there for a safer place.
Seeing this, I was also began to run for a safer place
.....", said Ashim Kumar Roy, who had a house on
the zero-line and has now shifted the house inside
Indian territory the International Barbed Wire
Border Fencing (IBWBF) was erected on the
international boundary in 1993.".....
Look, first Mukti Bahini (a freedom fighter) of
Bangladesh burnt down the Dangapara IBOP, at
Dangapara village, near Chilahati under Domar
Upazila in Nilphamari district of EPR of East
Pakistan, which was near the IBPN - 782) and as a
result of this, EPR withdrew their soldiers. Later in
retaliation, the EPR soldiers had visited Khalpara
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IBOP from their side (that is, East Pakistan side), in
the early morning around 08:00 am in a jeep.
Suddenly, at about 16:30 pm, some mortar shells
had been carried out by EPR soldiers with 3 vehicles
and then started shelling about 17:30-hours from
around 800 metres away from the international
borderline (near Dangapara village, where their
[EPR] company headquarter was situated) and left
the place. After a little while, I saw 16 or 17 EPR
soldiers come once again and set fire to the rest of
the huts of our village - Khalpara, the ones which
were not affected by their shelling", pointed out 78
years old Mukti Joddhha (that is, warrior), Balaram
Dutta, who was associated with Mukti Bahini during
the 'Liberation Movement of Bangladesh' in 1971,
and at that time was around 33 years old and living
at Pabna Colony, Ward 6 under Haldibari Municipal
Board.
"I was on duty in another nearer IBOP,
Hudumdanga, which is just three kilometres away
from Khalpara IBOP. It is a fact that there was a
heartrending sound, and I rushed to the spot, but
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everything had finished. Our brother soldiers were
dead.
Today, we are free from all these anxieties because
we are living 200 yards inside the IBWBF on Indian
land and Bangladesh got freedom and Pakistan is no
longer on this side. India takes such a good steps to
make this IBWBF safe.
We are happy, but commemorating the day for our
brave soldiers, who died to save our motherland and
to commemorate these three Shahid ( Martyrs), the
soldiers as well as the populace of this Khalpara
village area built this Shahid Bedi (Martyr Tomb) in
the name of the soldiers to show honour to those
victim soldiers. Since then, it has become a practice
to light up this martyr tomb and burn incense sticks
to show love and respect to those honourable
martyrs.
Not only that, if any of soldier finds lapses during
his duty period, he also faces the same situation
.....", disclosed septuagenarian Naren Roy, who was
working with IBSFI - and at that time was around 31
years old and living at the Khalpara village.
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MEERUT CANTT
A cold winter evening.Swirling mist... as you walk
down the Mall Road in Meerut, head down,
shoulders slightly hunched, battling the cold wind as
it howls and swishes through the trees lining the
road.
If you are a passer-by, out quite by chance, your
footsteps will hurry down the shadowy road, your
mind focusing on a warm hearth and home. But if
you happen to be a member of the elite Wheler
Club, you have just that well-deserved glass of wine
in the warm bar room taking up your attention.
Wheler Club – built in 1863 AD, by Col. Wheler,
under the aegis of the Her Majesty, the Queen of all
she surveyed. Suddenly, you look over your
shoulder…What was that you just felt? Who was
that shadow that flitted across your path? Can you
see the smart young officers wearing tail-coats and
hats over their eyes? Can you hear the laugh of the
lady in the evening gown? That talented artistic
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genius, that young British Officer, who is sitting
quietly in a corner of the bar, observing, and making
brilliant sketches of his colleagues. Why are they so
faded then, as they adorn the walls of the club? Did
you just find yourself in another time and place, a
hundred and fifty years back? - The high-domed
halls of the club, the white facade, the sprawling
gardens, and the clock on the table in the main hall,
which was presented by the Duke of Connaught -
are they really here, or also a figment of your
imagination?
The Duke of Connaught lived from 1884 – 1886 in
the building now occupied by Allahabad Bank. So
he must have presented his clock to the club as an
inaugural gift.
As you halt mid-stride, you see the dark trees
swaying to the cool breeze across the road. You
know you are near Gandhi Bagh, also called
Company Bagh locally. Ever wondered where the
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name “Company” came from? - The East India
Company, of course! It houses a musical fountain
now, and a grand cricket field inside. Walls of
prison height surround it now, built by the De fence
Estate Office some years ago.
Walk further, and you will see the famous Officer's
Mess of the 2nd Lancers..Where the 200th year
celebrations are going on. The Chief of Army Staff
and many of the top brass of the Indian Armed
Forces are here. It is a grand, warm, well-lit Mess,
but has no windows.. Because they say, Bahadur
Shah Zafar was once imprisoned here, and all the
windows were hence walled-up.
Lost in your thoughts, you just reached the Meerut
Cantonment railway station, which bears the mantle
of the legacy of history. It was built in 1869 and is
now managed by Northern Railways. There is also
the Martyr' Memorial (Shaheed Smarak, as it’s now
called), close to West End Road. It was supposed to
have been built in memory of Ashoka, the Great.
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Your footsteps have reached the Augarnath Mandir.
Sigh! You are safe! The ghosts of the past seem to
have been left behind somewhere. The comforting
clang of the bells shakes away your fears.
Then why did you just imagine the patter of
hundreds of horse’s hooves? And the battle cry of
the Indian soldiers led by their prince, as they reach
the Kali Paltan Mandir to seek blessings from their
deity, ready to ride out on yet another victory
procession. The old part of the temple has an ancient
“Shiva Linga”, which is fabled to have risen out of
the earth itself!
No, you are definitely not safe from the haunting
shadows of the past here too! You quickly retrace
your steps, and hurry back. This cantonment of the
town was after all established in the early 19th
century by the East India Company. Thoughts of the
glories of the lives of the British families who lived
in this town flit through your mind, and you find
you are at the other end of the Mall Road! The
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tolling of the church bell jerks you into the present!
You walk towards the St. John's Church, carefully
avoiding the ancient graveyard, where the moonlight
shines on the magnificently sculptured tombs of the
nobility and the officers and families of the British
Raj, that came, conquered and perished on this
fertile land between the Ganga and Yamuna rivers.
The first War of Independence of 1857 cannoned
Meerut Cantonment into a fireball of fame. You can
see the people dressed in their Sunday best, as they
emerge from a service in the church on 10th of May.
The icy fingers seem to clutch at your throat...Were
those shots you just heard? The Indian sepoys
clutching guns running out of the bushes firing
blindly! And nary had a shot fired inside or outside
the church premises on that fateful day! The screams
of the ladies and the frightened whimpers of the
little boys and girls, as the sepoys of Her Majesty's
Army rose in rebellion as one. The oldest church of
North India, established by Chaplin Reverend Henry
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Fisher on behalf of The East India Company in
1819, and completed in 1822 was dedicated to these
people by the Mitred Minstrel (Poet Bishop)
Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta. It is said that he
travelled all the way from Calcutta on an elephant,
and took three months to reach here! The church
that could seat 2,000 people seems suddenly empty.
The scars of the mutiny are here for you to see in
your mind's eye. The burial register with the names
of all who died here that fateful day lies carefully
and proudly maintained within its walls today.
No, you cannot shake off the ghosts of those that lie
buried in history. Not as long as you walk down the
Meerut Cantonment. There are too many of them to
fight. Just join them, and walk hand-in-hand with
them, and re-live the magical history that makes the
place what it is!
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HUMAN FLESH
This is really weird and strange. Read for yourself,
the following article from the Times of India.
In what could be termed as an advanced form of
banamati or sifli ilm, members of a nameless sect
have made eating human flesh a part of the pujas
they perform to find hidden treasures.
The human flesh comes in a package along with
other articles required for a special puja. The
samagri, as the package is called, which includes a
100 gm piece of roasted human flesh, is reportedly
supplied to members of the sect through some
agents in Hyderabad. "Maas to samagri ke sath hi
aati hai (the flesh comes with the samagri),"
Boudhey, a member of the secret sect, told The
Times of India.
Boudhey is presently involved in a puja on the
periphery of Dadgi village in Humnabad taluk of
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Bidar district. Though the sect is still in the initial
stages of formation, its practices are considered
much more dangerous than banamati and sifli ilm,
the two notorious forms of black magic in the area
that falls in the erstwhile Hyderabad state. Most of
the members of this new sect reportedly hail from
Hyderabad, Medak and Bidar districts.
But as the special puja must be performed only at a
secluded place, they hire houses in small villages in
Medak and Bidar districts. Most times, they are
forced to leave the place once the villagers learn
about their activities. In some instances, alleged
performers of this weird ritual have been killed by
villagers on suspicion of being practitioners of
banamati.
Since 1999, seven such suspected practitioners were
killed by villagers in Medak district while 12 others
were forced to leave the villages. Despite resistance,
followers of new sect manage to rent small houses to
perform the puja. The 40-day ritual, it is learnt,
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starts on a new moon day which falls on a Sunday.
At the conclusion of the puja, they believe, a
supernatural figure that looks exactly like the person
performing the puja appears and leads him to the
hidden treasure.
But to ensure success in the puja the ritual performer
has to eat human flesh. If he fails in the first attempt,
another puja of the same duration is conducted, this
time with a greater quantity of flesh.
The first incident that gave rise to suspicions of
human flesh-eating practice came to light about six
months ago in Hallargaon village in Bidar district.
Some villagers stormed the house of a person in the
village on suspicion that he was practising
`banamati. They were shocked to find a few human
bones and pieces of roasted flesh. "He was an
outsider and he never returned to the village," Abdul
Haneef, a villager said.
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BANGALORE
I am back after a break of 1 year. I have plans of
writing about quite a few awesome supernatural
topics so please stay tuned.
Bangalore is one of India's most distinctive cities. Its
status as an IT powerhouse has attracted people
from all over the country. Bangalore also has a great
amount of history attached to it. Since it is founding
by KempeGowda to the time of Tippu Sultan, going
forward to its use as a military cantonment by the
British to being chosen as the capital of Karnataka,
Bangalore has seen a lot. It is no wonder then that
Bangalore also has a few haunted places and legends
about ghosts. Let us examine one of them today.
Haunted house / mansion in St Marks Rd:
Most old timers in the city would name this
among their list of haunted places. The funny
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thing is I have walked past this place like a
million times when I was in Bangalore. I did
my high school (or PUC) a t St Joseph's
College and I walked past this house at least
twice a day on my way to Brigade Road to
enjoy the sights :)...Thought I did hear some
rumors I find it strange now that I was not
that curious about it back then. But I always
did get a weird feeling when walking past it.
Some places just give out that eerie feeling.
But was it really haunted back then in 2001
or was this a more recent occurrence? Read
below and find out.
It is still fresh in my memories. The dilapidated state
of the house along with that run down car just sitting
there gathering dust over the years. The whole place
is in decay and I haven't been there for quite a few
years now. Maybe those of you in Bangalore can
actually post some new pictures or maybe you will
tell me that this house was broken down and
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remodeled long ago.
Anyways here is the legend about it. The house
belonged to two Anglo Indian sisters who were
spinsters, Vera Vaz and Dolce Vaz. Dolce Vaz was
murdered in this house by an unknown assailant in
front of her sister. The legend then continues that the
lady was buried in this house. She was 75 when she
was killed and her sister was 80. The killer was
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never caught. The house was then deserted because
nobody wants to live in a house like that. And the
place was soon deemed haunted.
People claimed to see things, hear noises. A bunch
of folks even went in and were attacked by a
supernatural force.
But the reality is this murder happened fairly
recently. 2002 in fact. The Times of India actually
reported the murder. So all those times when I
walked past this place when I was in college (1999-
2001), it was actually not deserted. However I have
been walking past this house after the murder in
2002 and it still did not make much of a difference
to me. The place was just as eerie and rundown
before Dolce's murder.
In articles like statues, furniture and other stuff lying
around in the house but nobody has had the courage
to go steal them. From time to time, so called ghost
hunters (actually groups of students with no better
work to do) go here and post about their
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"experiences".
This one takes the cake. So what do you think? Is
this place really haunted? Or are we witnessing the
creation of a ghostly legend that over the next few
years will grow to be more frightening.
If you happen to be in Bangalore, please do visit it
and let me know. I would appreciate newer pictures
of this place.
Footnote: After this murder, the house and its
property is under litigation. It can be assumed that
poor Dolce was a victim of murder. But with this
haunted legend gaining steam, I wonder who would
dare to come forward and buy this property. I think
builders are one of the most superstitious folks out
there. Would you like to buy this place?
“We are not superstitious... we went there with an
open mind,” said Arjun Thimmaya of Spirit Seekers
Army, a group of friends curious about experiences
with no rational explanation. Aishwary Narolia,
Swapnil Jain, Arjun Thimmaya and Dinesh
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Choudhary, students of Jain University on
Kanakapura Road, have formed the group, and want
to be India’s first professional paranormal research
group.Narolia and Thimmaya went into the St
Mark’s Road house on March 6.“We were armed
with our cameras. There was so much of negative
energy in the house... And though it was abandoned,
there were half-full wine bottles, jam bottles and
pickles. There was an old Horlicks bottle too,” said
Narolia.
On the table, they saw a sign that they described as
“Satanic.”
“We saw an inverted cross. It may have been a
coincidence, but to be on the safe side, we put it
back in position,” said Narolia.And when they did
that, “I swear to God, I felt like someone was
burning my back. I kept telling Arjun to see if there
was something on my back. He didn’t see anything,
but there was a black hole in my shirt when we came
out,” recalled the 21-year-old Narolia, with a
shudder.
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The house has eight rooms, with each room leading
to another. The scariest, they said, was the last.
Here, they saw a statue that could have been either
Mother Mary’s or Jesus Christ’s. And shockingly,
they said, the head and the wrists were missing.
They felt a powerful presence here. “Next to the
statue, we even saw a white stone with a black mark
on it. And suddenly, we heard a loud noise. It was
like someone had just smashed something into the
floor or the furniture. It was scary. We were
planning to stay for some more time but after that,
we decided to get out,” said Arjun.
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Narolia said, “I was always interested in the
paranormal sciences. I wanted an explanation of
things that cannot be explained. I discussed this with
my other friends, and that’s when we decided to
form the army.”
Their interest was accelerated by inexplicable
experiences in their lives, as individuals and as a
team.
“About six months ago, Aishwarya and I had gone
to a cemetery in Ahmedabad which had a creepy
reputation. We were curious, so we went there with
our night vision cameras. Shockingly, the cameras
which were working perfectly outside started
blurring once we were inside. It was weird,” said
Jain.
Fear got the better of them and they quickly headed
for the exit. However, the incident just strengthened
their resolve to find practical explanations to such
occurrences.
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The marks on Aishwary’s back
The four boys want to go to cities across the
country, especially places like Bhangarh Fort in
Rajasthan, which has a reputation for being haunted.
“And once we have enough money, we want to go to
the UK and Scotland, which have violent histories.
And we would also like to visit the abandoned
mental asylums in America,” said Jain.
The group will take up other jobs to enable them to
live out their passions. “We did a lot of research on
the Net on the paranormal... though we have just
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started, we know about spirits. We hope to be the
first professional paranormal research group in the
country,” said Choudhary
“Oooo” says Anasuya, a 17-year-old student, “I
have heard about that house," with an artistic
shudder (do teenagers have any other kind?). "Isn't it
that the place where the gruesome murder
happened?" remembers Mrs. G, a housewife in
Sadashivnagar.
This is the kind of urban legend it's hard to get away
from, seeing as how it's based on a single, true
event. The more people talk about it, the more the
tone of the thing takes on a harder shade of black.
So why does one person scoff when hearing tales of
the 'haunted houses', her eyes getting round as she is
told what people in Bangalore are saying? Perhaps
because it's the house she grew up in since 1991.
The woman who owns the house on St Mark's Road
is a far cry from Vincent Price as Satan is from
Cinderella. And she does not believe in ghosts.
"I've never felt my sister is not there," she adds, but
not in sense of transparent entity whispering 'Boo' in
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her ear. "I remember her as warm, as alive. I don't
feel death." In the slow, easy way of many 87-year-
olds, she says, “I avoid anything that gives me
negative feelings. God has given me two things: A
sense of humor and a peace loving mind."
According to the laws of the universe, it is precisely
someone like this whose sister would be murdered
by intruders in (2002). Even though she continued
living there and giving piano classes, the Bangalore
police advise her to move elsewhere. "I don't know
why. I used to have several maids staying with me
when my sister went anywhere for a few weeks,"
she says, somewhat poignantly. "There were never
any signs of (paranormal) disturbance there. I never
felt frightened in the house. It was home."
What about religious figures, did she leave some
behind? "No. There was a statue of a boy-saint but
no other statues." And certainly none with limbs
missing.
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So unless cultists with unusual fetishes have taken
over, Bangalore’s people have nothing to worry
about.
But rationalists are not amused by the youngsters’
claims, and are taking the entire episode with a
bucket of salt. “All these things like negative
energy and spirits are what normally people say.
They think all this would add credibility to their
story. These things are nothing but a figment of
their imagination. Moreover, I will also say that they
should stop watching horror movies. If I were in
Bangalore, then my team and I would investigate the
place and prove them wrong,” said Narendra Nayak,
national president of the Federation of Indian
Rationalist Associations, an apex body of more than
65 atheist, rationalist and humanist groups.
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GRAND PARADI TOWERS
Arguably the most famous haunted house in
Mumbai is situated in one of the city’s most affluent
areas. On the eighth floor of the Grand Paradi
(sometimes referred to as the Grand Parrari) Towers
in Kemps Corner a series of freakish suicides drew
attention to what appeared to be a gruesome pattern
of deaths and accidents in the building. In 2004 an
elderly couple jumped out of the window of this
apartment. Their children and their grandchild
followed suit within the year. Residents who have
lived in the building for 30 years tell us, “There was
something unacceptable to our rational minds that a
whole family, three generations, living in one house
should commit suicide in the same way. There have
been up to 20 cases of fatal accidents and suicides
since the building was constructed in 1976. Many
involving children and even a maid who either
jumped or fell out of a window.” After the series of
unfortunate events the building society began to
believe that paranormal forces were at work. “After
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the suicides of the family the building society
decided to do a puja and a havan and since then
everything has stopped but the flat remains
unoccupied”.
Lists of suicide cases in the Grand Paradi towers:
June 14, 1998: Senior citizens Vasudeo and Tara
Dalal jumped of the balcony of their eighth floor
apartment flowing harassment from their son
Balkrishna (48) and daughter-in-law Sonal (45).
March 28, 2005: Fearing conviction for the suicides
of Vasudeo and Tara, Balkrishna and Sonal jumped
off the balcony with their 19-year-old daughter
Pooja on the day of the verdict.
April 26, 2001: Narayan Ramchander (36), a
domestic servant in the building, threatened to jump
off the parapet of the 19th floor apartment in a 10-
hour suicide drama after he was accused of stealing
by his employers. Mr. Jain, an employee with a
brewery company, in his early forties committed
suicide, sometime in 2000.
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“After the suicides of the family the building society
decided to do a puja and a havan (prayer
ceremonies) and since then everything has stopped
but the flat remains unoccupied," since then.
" So Friends what are you thinking, what you say
about taking permission and having a rocking
haunted party there!!!!!!!!!"
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KULDHARA
Kuldhara story is one of the weirdest and inspiring
stories I’ve ever heard. About 15 Km. west of
Jaisalmer a city in western Rajasthan lays the ruins
of a village which was called Kuldhara. The first
sight of Kuldhara village, more a town actually,
sends one imagination running to the time it may
have been inhabited. A well planned settlement, the
straight and wide streets ran in grids with houses
opening into them. All design elements kept both
aesthetics and utility in mind. A kind of a garage
opened into the streets to park carts in. Temples,
step wells and other structures were all signs of
sound development over the centuries.
Kuldhara was the name of the largest village in this
community consisting of 84 villages. The village
was established in 1291 by the Paliwal Brahmins
and was a rather prosperous community due to their
ability to grow bumper crops in the rather arid
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desert. Paliwal bhramins were a very prosperous
clan and were known for their business acumen and
agricultural knowledge. But one night in 1825 all
the people in Kuldhara and nearby 83 villages
vanished in dark. Why did the villagers decide to
leave their settlement after having lived there for
more that 7 centuries?
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The evil dewan or the minister in the ruling
kingdom saw the young daughter of the village
chief. He wanted to marry her and forced the village
chief for marrying his daughter. He gave them a
deadline for the marriage after which he would
forcefully enter the village and take their daughter.
All the chiefs of 84 villages met one night and for
pride and honor decided to leave the villages in the
dark of the night.
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Nobody knows where they went but it is believed
that they settled near Jodhpur another city in western
Rajasthan. Though nobody knows exactly how they
did it, everybody in all of the 84 villages completely
disappeared that very night. Nobody saw them
leave or figured out where they went – they simply
vanished. It is believed that they cast a curse over
the village as they departed that would bring death
to anyone who tried to inhabit the land. It is likely
that this is the reason why so much of the ancient
village still remains (though mostly in rubble, but
not stripped for materials). The crumbling brick
structures span out towards all directions and a
ghostly silence is all that lives on there. There are
still some double storey houses that are intact and
the awestruck tourist can well visualize how life
went on in Kuldhara, ages ago.
Today the ruins of these villages can still be seen in
western Rajasthan and are now tourist sites. The
government today maintains the ruins as a heritage
site. A walk through the village is akin to wandering
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onto the sets of a ghost movie. Only, this one is for
real. Anyone who is planning a visit to Jaisalmer
should keep aside a few hours to catch this haunted
setting in the eerie desert backdrop. Recently, Saif
Ali Khan’s “Agent Vinod” was shot in this ancient
village.
As the wind in the desert howls, a sandstorm
envelops you with haunted sounds. A bunch of
tourists sit in the middle of a near empty camp with
ultramodern tents. A fluttering bonfire lights up the
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pitch dark sky and traditional singers sing in the
romantic reflection of the yellow light. Tall men
with colorful headgear, royal demeanor and
humbling humility sing their souls and the desert
completely mesmerizes one and all. As the music
drifts away and the tourists get restless, the local
attendants are urged to join in and narrate stories
from their lives in the desert.
Flowing with the mood, the conversation soon
moves to ghosts and the powers possessed by
haunted spirits. The camp soon divides into groups
of believers and nonbelievers and as the powers of
persuasion go, the locals turn out to be more
convincing than the urban disclaimers. Story after
story is narrated as people talk about their chance
meetings with ghosts and spirits in various shapes
and sizes. Our thirty something cab driver pitches in
and starts narrating the story of his meeting with a
tantric guru. How he slaved with the well-versed
witchcraft guru to witness the power of spirits and
finally spent three nights in a cemetery to get lucky.
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When the spirits came they were more real than he'd
ever anticipated, real people--kids, old men with
bent backs, young brides in their bridal finery-all
real people with unfinished business but all with
their feet facing the opposite side. Some spirits came
too close to comfort and our cabbie had to use some
special exotic materials to woo them away.
Still unconvinced, real proof was sought for all these
claims and then suddenly someone mentioned the
name of Kuldhara. Kuldhara, a 13th century
deserted village on the outskirts of the tourist city of
Jaisalmer is considered an existing proof of the
power of spirits by the villagers. Charged up by a
real opportunity to prove their points, everyone
packs into and on top of a huge SUV in the middle
of the night hopeful of a meeting with the primitive
spirits. After an exhilarating drive through the desert
the car reaches the village which is in shambles. A
rusty board reminds one that the village has been
converted into a tourist spot.
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As the story goes, the village used to be the
residence of the rich and learned paliwal Brahmins.
The daughter of the village chief was a doe-eyed
beauty who'd just stepped into her sixteenth spring.
The notorious king of Jaisalmer happened to lay his
eyes on this beautiful girl and wanted to take her as
his wife. The king was famous for his debauchery
and some loyal friend tipped the chieftain about his
mal-intentions. The entire village of Kuldhara
evacuated bag and baggage in one night and all that
remained was an empty village without a single
soul. As the paliwal Brahmins left, they cursed death
upon anyone who ever came to live in that village.
Over the years, a few skeletons had been discovered
in the village.
As the old watchman, of the gnarled hands and
stooped back lifted the lantern in his hand and
opened the gate for us, we are informed of his
misfortune. We are told he lost his two sons, their
wives, his daughter and his own wife to a
mysterious illness, all because he decided to visit his
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ramshackle hut inside the boundary wall of the
village. As we entered inside we saw an entire
village--empty with broken walls and bricks strewn
all around. A self-sufficient village with a deep well,
a few temple like structures and houses.
Home to people several centuries ago, complete
with sleeping, cooking and bathing areas. The
feeling was like being at one of those old
archeological sites the likes of which you see on
Discovery Channel. The dusty little village had long
narrow lanes crisscrossing everywhere -don't know
whether it was the heightened senses but one could
really feel strange faces peeking from behind the
walls. A local guy came running, breathless and
nervous, saying that he'd heard a woman crying a
little distance away. Everyone ran in the direction
but all we got was a sense of something else in the
air.
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We could feel the spirits but never once got to meet
them. The believers still stayed believers and the rest
came back with a story to tell.
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THE HAUNTED ENCOUNTER
A Personal Encounter by Vishal Jadhav (Pune,
Maharashtra)
Hi everyone, today I am going to narrate a true story
that took place with me and six of my friends in the
year of August (2012). We planned an overnight
trek to the Sudhagad (also called as Bhorapgad) fort
situated near Khopoli village (ahead of Pali village).
We decided to go there on Saturday, at around 1 pm.
I had been there once, so I knew the road up to the
fort fairly. I also had a plan to cook some great
Chicken Biryani for dinner, just to add up to the
thrill. We rechecked our inventory – torches, extra
clothes, snacks and a plastic sheet banner, just in
case the rains worsened (yes, it was mid rainy
season) and we needed something to roof us.
If you have been to Sudhagad, you might know that
the fort is located within a dense forest, and the
journey was quite an adventure. Everything went
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well, except for the fact that one of our friends,
Ashish, who happened to be an Operation Theater
Assistant in Poona Hospital had to fill in some extra
time and told us that he will join us as soon as he
gets off his duty. He finally made it at around 6.30
pm. Finally, we left Pune in Sonu’s (one of my
friend’s) Scorpio (an SUV by Mahindra) – we were
very excited and were looking forward to the big
adventure, even Kushal (another of my friends), who
happens to possess a spiritual eye (I guess every
group has one)! We had hardly reached Hinjewadi
(about 20 kms away from the city), when our car
suddenly started to wobble. I was driving the car – I
asked Sonu what can be the issue – he told me that
he had no idea. I thought it might be a wheel
alignment issue and decided to visit a garage and fix
the problem. So we went back to Aundh (Dange
Chowk), a place closer to the city. We found a
garage but they had two cars in queue for wheel
alignment – so it would be quite some time till we
were done. We decided to wait.
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It was nearly 8.30 pm when our car was done.
Before proceeding, we had to buy some raw chicken
so that we could cook up at the fort. We figured out
that we will have to buy the meat from somewhere
nearby, since we won’t be able to get it at our
destination – since it will be nearly midnight. We
found a meat shop close by and bought 2½ kgs of
chicken. The butcher cut a live hen and packed the
meat in a black polythene bag. We reached our
destination – the foot of Sudhagad fort at about
11.45 pm. The rains had worsened – we had an
option to spend the rest of the night in a local school
or to start climbing right away. Some of us
suggested that we ask a villager to escort us up to
the fort. After talking with the village folks, we
found two young boys who agreed to take us up to
the “Wada” (an old residential complex) where we
had planned to stay. The fees were 200 bucks each.
We picked up our sacks from our car. I noticed that
the bag in which we had kept the chicken had started
leaking and there was blood all over the backseat. .
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Ignoring the stains, we changed into loose t-shirts
and shorts, comfortable enough for the trek.
It was an Amavasya (New Moon) night and our path
was quite eerie. The rain was pouring heavily with
occasional thunders. The village boy was leading
our pack and we all had our (electric) torches lit.
One of our friend’s brother named Makarand was
finding it difficult to keep up with the pace. All the
rest of us were hardcore gym rats and were quite
capable of trekking easily even with the heavy
backpacks. Makarand, however, was puffing and
panting, making all of us wait at every corner, all
thanks to his extra fats. We had just completed one-
fifth of our journey when he stopped again, trying to
catch his breath. Cursing him, we took a 15 minute
break. About an hour or so later, we reached a point
where we had completed about 70% of our journey.
At this point, the two village boys backed up – they
started reasoning that they need to go home ASAP.
Their tones, however, weren’t confident enough for
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their reason. All they knew was that they cannot
accompany us anymore – they took their 200 bucks
each and left us. I now led the pack, since I had been
here once. The rains were heavy, and the path was
quite slippery. Each of us slipped down atleast a
couple of times before we finally reached close tone
of the gates to the fort, known locally as the Buruj (a
tower or turret). A little ahead, there was a tree
branch which has hanging low – I wasn’t able to see
it owing to the darkness. I bumped my head against
the branch and fell down. I warned the rest of my
friends so that they could safely pass through.
All of a sudden, Kushal (the spiritual guy) started
shouting and cursing the branch. Then, another of
my friends, Ashish, started shouting back at Kushal.
We were unable to understand what was going on.
Since it was pouring heavily, we ignored the
incidence and moved ahead. The rainwater had
flooded the entire place and there was a river of
rainwater rushing through. We had just crossed that
small river when all of a sudden, our torches gave
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off. It was quite weird, since torches don’t just give
off – not all at once at least. There was dead
darkness everywhere and a deep valley just steps
away. To avoid any accidents, we decided to camp
down in a corner, holding the plastic sheet banner
above us. Some of our friends went to sleep, while
we decided to have some whiskey (we had brought
along), partly to cure the cold shivers and partly to
pass the time till the morning. Kushal asked me to
keep my sack (containing the raw chicken) away
from our campsite, since it might attract some wild
beasts (which were plenty in the surrounding forest).
I walked some distance and kept my sack on the
ground. It was around 3.15 am. We drank till 4 am
and then laid down to get some sleep.
We resumed our journey at about 6.15 am. I went to
fetch my sack, but it was not there. Instead I saw the
black bag containing the chicken lying around. I
returned back and found my sack near our campsite.
It was weird but we ignored the fact and proceeded.
It was pretty cold and to top it all, we were wet. In
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about ten minutes, we reached the Wada, where we
joined other groups of people who had stayed there
the last night. All of them, except us, were leaving
the place by the afternoon. In an hour or so, we
prepared some breakfast (Kanda Poha – a flattened
rice recipe). After breakfast, some of us went to
sleep for some time while us others played cards. At
about 11 am, we decided to start cooking our lunch.
Kushal took out the chicken from the bag and found
that it was half eaten (an animal had probably eaten
it). I told him to remove the part with any teeth
marks and use the rest. I gave the remains of the raw
chicken to a local dog (which resided in the Wada).
Surprisingly, he refused to eat it. I thought it might
be the smell of the meat that was driving the dog
away. After an hour, we prepared the Biryani, and
ate half of it, while keeping the other half for
tonight’s dinner and drinks. I tried feeding some
Biryani to the dog, but again he refused to even be
anywhere near to the Biryani. Again, this was quite
bizarre.
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By 5 pm, everybody, except the 7 of us had left the
Wada. We started making dinner, since it would be
getting dark very soon. We prepared some Veg
Pulao. At about 9 pm, we started having dinner and
drinks. After some time, it was just Kushal who was
drinking, and everybody else, except the two of us,
had fallen back to sleep. It was then that Kushal
started narrating his part of the story.
Back where I had bumped against that branch
(Kushal started narrating), he (Kushal) saw a spirit
sitting on the branch. When he started cursing the
spirit, it got down and entered Ashish’s body and
began threatening Kushal. Kushal said that at this
moment, Ashish’s eyes had grown fierce red. Going
ahead, he met two more spirits who demanded to
him to give them one of his friends’ life. Kushal,
instead, negotiated with the spirit and instead
offered him some food (raw chicken) and some
alcohol. At this point, Sonu got up and confessed
that he too had seen two blurry spirits around us.
Kushal went ahead and told us that it was yet
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another spirit sitting on Makarand’s shoulders, who
was causing him to lose his breath at every corner.
He said that if he had told us the facts then, we
would have been scared. It was the spirit (Aatma)
who had eaten half of that meat. The spirit told
Kushal that there were in all 7 spirits that haunted
the wada and the surrounding forests.
At about 12.30 in the night, it was just me and
Kushal who were awake. I was quite hesitant to
believe whatever Kushal was saying, since I hadn’t
seen anything ‘myself’. Suddenly, Kushal asked me
to keep quiet, as he could see three spirits sitting
behind me. I asked him to shut up and go to sleep,
but he instead threw his glass of whiskey at me
(rather, at the place where the supposed spirits were
sitting). I looked back and saw nothing, but then, out
of nowhere, I could hear a mixture of sounds
(animalistic) yelling at Kushal. I could not
understand what it was all about, but Kushal was
fiercely yelling back. All of a sudden, Kushal sat up
straight, looking directly at me. Apparently, one of
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the spirits, thankfully, a calm one, had entered his
body. I could practically see Kushal’s eyes bulging
out and turning blood red. Kushal narrated to me
many facts of my past life, which no one apart from
me and my parents could have known. He also told
me that I am destined to die in the coming morning.
This scared the hell out of me. But even before I
could respond, Sonu got up and yelled at me to go to
sleep. I was fear struck and sat still. Kushal (now
possessed) turned to Sonu and asked him who he
was. Sonu replied saying that he was Omkara.
Kushal asked him again who he was and Sonu
replied the same. The spirit possessing Vishal
couldn’t say his name, maybe because Omkara is
another name of Lord Shiva. Kushal challenged
Sonu to leave me to him, but Sonu did not budge.
About half an hour later, Kushal suddenly gave a
jerk and became alert. He shouted at us to light all
the candles. After some time, the candles started
giving up. Sonu then told me that he will sleep
besides me, but Kushal interrupted saying that he
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will sleep besides me. Sonu told me to sleep besides
him because he still sensed danger lurking around
Kushal. It was now that Ashish (another friend)
woke up and confessed that he too had sensed spirits
around and was faking his sleep in order to get away
from what’s going on. Deeply disturbed and afraid
to the core, we desperately waited for the morning.
At dawn, we left for the foot of the fort, ignoring the
heavy downpour. Suddenly, the same dog came out
of nowhere – as if he wanted to warn us - Pack your
stuff and get the hell out of here! The path back was
extremely wet and foggy. The good dog kept us
company at every point – actually it was him who
led the pack. Every now and then he would run
ahead to check if everything was okay, then come
back and signal us with a bark. Believe it or not –
there was something very secure about that animal.
Once we were down in the village, we turned to
check onto our buddy, and saw him turning back
and leaving up for the fort. He was indeed an angel
in disguise.
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Once all set in our car, we headed back for Pune. It
was Eid (al Fitr) that day (the final day of Ramzan /
Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting) and we
had promised another friend, Kasim, that we would
visit his place in the evening. However, overcome
with exhaustion and emotions, we first went to visit
the Mira Data Dargah (Raviwar Peth, Pune), which
is known for waiving off negative spirits off a
person. We then went to the Lord Shiva temple.
Later that day, we went to Kasim’s house, where we
narrated to him what had happened. It was then that
his father, a trekker himself, told us that he himself
had been to Sudhagad in the year 1984. He had then
found out that about a year or two ago (1982 – 83),
7 people were killed in that place. We were shocked,
and could do nothing more than to thank, for the
millionth time, the blessings of our parents and that
God in disguise.
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It is upto you to believe or laugh at my encounter.
For all I know, I have gone through this and it stays
alive in front of my eyes till this very moment. I
have pictures of tha dog and of the Wada we stayed
in, if anybody wishes to investigate the case, or the
genuine nature of my account. I also look forward to
your comments.
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