Halloween Havens of India

‘Light as a feather, stiff as a board. One wrong step, and you’ll end up a toad.’

Hehe. Talk of twisting quotes to one’s whim.

But hey, it’s spooky season. Things tend to twist around a bit.

So without further a-boo(‘ado’ in its spooky version), here’s presenting an absolute rollercoaster of spooks, as told by people with experience. Destination: India.

Now, in India, Halloween is a rather nascent trend. There is a large amount of people that are unaware of the festival, however, it is getting popular among the younger generation. Despite this, the country is no stranger to ghost stories. In fact, India is home to the most haunted place in Asia a.k.a the Bhangarh Fort in Rajasthan.

In this post, I’m going to describe certain paranormal activities in different parts of the country, as told by people with first hand experience. These are stories taken from five regions of India, in every direction i.e Central, West, North, East and South, in that order.

Disclaimer: This post and its author is not responsible for sleepless nights.

The Durg Haunted House, Madhya Pradesh.

In the district of Durg, there is a residential area by the name of Padmanabhpur Housing Society. It’s a quiet place with big houses which are placed rather far from each other. Most of the houses here were either occupied or rented out, however, there was one house which never managed to get a tenant. The people in the neighbourhood claimed that this house was haunted and the story was about a young bachelor who previously lived in it. The young man was known to be a chain smoker(keep this in mind) said to have been killed in a car crash on the way home and the people believed that he haunted this particular house owing to his untimely demise.

Once, a family moved into this house, disregarding the warnings from the neighbours and at the beginning, nothing uncanny fell upon them. However, one night when the husband was away, the wife and the daughter began to get a smell of lit cigarettes from the balcony. No one smoked in the house, or in the neighbourhood for that matter, so the smell alarmed the two of them. They ignored it at first but the smell began to stay, all through the day. The wife and the daughter hadn’t seen anyone so when the husband arrived, he was met with a lot of agitation and a strong whiff of cigarettes. That night, the husband decided to keep a watch, when all of a sudden, he saw a man smoking right outside the house. The husband called out to the man and in a matter of seconds, the guy jumped and disappeared. No one else claimed to see this guy, nor was he ever seen before by the guard who stood outside the vacant house.

The family moved out of this house soon after, dismissing the incident as a potential theft prevention, however, the house went back to its former abandoned state. One day, on a whim, the husband decided to go to the house after work, just for the thrill. He entered it with the help of the guard and what greeted him was a strong whiff of lit cigarettes.

The Yerwada Jail Ghost, Pune, Maharashtra.

This one’s from my city.

Yerwada Jail in Pune houses one of the most notorious criminals in the country. It’s gallows have executed some of the most dangerous people. This is a tale about two engineers, who had been assigned the job of fixing the cctv cameras at the jail and imparting basic technical knowledge to certain prisoners.

These two guys were put up in the guest house which was surrounded by the women’s wing of the jail and the gallows and a huge empty field. At the beginning, the security guard outside the guest house warned them of a restless spirit of a woman who had been wrongfully framed and executed in the jail but being brave, young men, the two laughed it off. Now these guys moved in during the rainy season and the path leading to the guest house was rather mucky. During this season, if anyone walked from the gate to the front door, it would be very evident to the people living in the house as the rest of the area was engulfed in silence. Besides the gate was rusty.

For the first week, nothing substantial happened, the two of them went about life as usual but the next week, both the men heard someone walking up to the front door at 2 am. They looked out to see no one and blamed it on the rain and went back to bed that day but the sound kept waking them up at the same time for a fortnight. The men went to the extent of getting used to the sound and being rather comforted by the phantom footsteps. One night, when the men were fast asleep, they heard the sound again. No one batted an eyelid but in the next ten minutes, one of the men woke up shaking with sweat and woke his friend as well.

The friend got alarmed at the man’s state and asked him about it but all the guy said was, “Slap me in the face.”

The friend got confused but the guy kept insisting and the friend finally relented. After this, the guy went back to bed, leaving his friend bewildered.

The next morning, the friend asked for an explanation, rather demanded it.

The guy finally spoke. He said that a while after the regular phantom footsteps were heard, he felt someone shaking him awake by his feet. He thought it was his friend but when he woke up, he found his friend fast asleep. He looked at his feet when the sight sent him pale. He saw a woman dressed in white, sitting at his feet and looking at him. He withdrew his feet in shock but the woman just quietly stood up and walked out of the room and out the front door without opening it, her footsteps echoing as she walked out of the house.

Plot twist: The bewildered friend was my dad.

#secondhandghostsighting

Khooni Nala, Ramban, Jammu and Kashmir.

‘Khooni Nala’ or ‘Bloody Stream’ is a place infamous for road accidents at night. There is a bridge that runs over this stream, used commonly by Army vans and buses. At night, this place gets very foggy owing to the cold and most vehicles passing at night require certain guidance to get across. However, most of these vehicles end up falling into the gorge, owing to a wrong turn. It is believed that at night, vehicles stuck in the fog are approached by an Army MP in uniform who offers to help them cross the bridge. He navigates them very skilfully at first but at the last leg, he offers a wrong turn, causing vehicles to fall into the stream. This he does before disappearing, as if he never existed.

Mayong Village, Assam.

This village is said to be the black magic capital of India. The natives around here are believed to be pros at black magic but there is a tremendous effort to keep the details of this ability among themselves. It is believed that they can do their voodoo to turn human beings into animals.

Imagine offending one of these folks. Like you don’t like what’s for dinner? Boom! You are now a duck.

I’m assuming that’s not how it works.

Bonacaud Bungalow, Kerala.

This little homey-home is said to be one of the spookiest places in Kerala. Apparently, back when the Brits ruled India, this bungalow was a part of a tea-estate, housing its owner. One night, the owner’s children died of mysterious circumstances, following which the owner and his wife left for London.

Fast forward seventy odd years, today, people claim that at night, this place encounters the activities of a child’s spirit like shouting and breaking glass. Once further investigated, people claim to have seen a ghostly kid walking around the house.

And that is a wrap.

Disclaimer alert! I warned you. In fact,, I’m going to go one extra step to ease the jitters.

Here’s wishing all of you a very happy Halloween.