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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

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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.

56

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

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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

65

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

80

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.

81

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

85

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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(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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

238

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!

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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.

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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

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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

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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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