A Beach Resort Haunting

Anand is my best friend since school and one of the few ones whom I have been in regular touch. Like me, Anand too is interested in the paranormal and we have experienced one such occurrence together as described in my story "The Ghostly Hitchhikers". Anand and I are both Engineers by profession and hence life is very hectic. We rarely get a chance to meet each other though we are in constant touch on phone or via e-mail. This incident happened couple of years back when we were in Mumbai, India. Due to a couple of public holidays in India falling in line together, we had a long weekend of around five days ahead of us. Since we had not taken a holiday for quite sometime due to our busy schedules, my wife immediately suggested that we go to a beachside resort for a couple of days to unwind. I immediately called Anand to check his availability. Anand and his wife Jyo immediately agreed and the plan was finalized within minutes. We decided to go to a beachside resort at Murud which is around 180kms away from Mumbai and takes around 3 hours to reach. Murud has a pristine beach and is a very popular destination among tourists. There is also a fort named Janjira in the middle of the sea. Janjira fort is also famous for being the only fort along India's western coast that remained undefeated. Since all of us are interested in history, it seemed like an interesting proposition for us. Another thing to be noted at this point of time is that Murud is just 7kms from Kashid and one has to pass through Kashid to reach Murud. The highway leading to Kashid is where we had met the Ghostly Hitchhikers a couple of years ago. Though this incident was at the back of our mind, we nevertheless decided to go ahead with our plan. We started for Murud at 7.00 am in Anand's "4X4" SUV. It was a clear morning and we managed to reach the resort at around 10.00am. Anand and I were very careful not to mention our previous experience to our respective spouses since it would frighten them and dampen their spirits. We checked in at the resort which was really very beautiful. It was situated on a hill very close to Murud beach. It had a great sea facing view from the front and a dense forest cover at the back which made us feel one with nature. We immediately rushed to the beach where we had a great time swimming and splashing around in the water. We came back to the resort at around noon, had a quick lunch, rested for a while and then set off to see Janjira fort which we were all anxious to see. The visit to the fort was great and we were back in the hotel by around 8.00pm. After a lavish dinner consisting of several local delicacies we decided to retire to our rooms. I was tired but Anand insisted that we go to his room for a game of cards before hitting the sack. My wife and Jyo too didn't mind and so we went to Anand's room. Immediately after entering his room I suddenly felt a chill in the room which made me feel uneasy. I told Anand about it but he shrugged it aside and suggested that it might be the cool sea side breeze which might have made me feel that way. We played cards for around 2 hours and really had fun. At around 12. 00 am we decided to call it a day. We had however not reckoned that this would be the start of our ordeal and chilling events to follow. The long day had taken its toll on us and my wife and I immediately fell off to sleep. It must have been around 1.30am when I heard a knock on my door. I cautiously opened the door and

was surprised to find Anand outside. He looked a little worried and told me that after we left Jyo suddenly started feeling very cold and started shivering. Anand had found it surprising since he felt no such chill. I asked my wife who is a doctor to accompany me to Anand's room with her medicine box. Upon entering his room, I felt uneasy and could immediately sense that something was amiss. Two woolen rugs had been wrapped around Jyo but she was still shivering and her teeth were literally chattering. When my wife examined Jyo, she was stunned to find that though Jyo was feeling feverish and her body had become icy cold. Shrugging aside her fear my wife gave her a couple of tablets which would put her to sleep and give her a much needed rest. We did not want to leave Anand alone in this condition and decided to be with him. This was perhaps the best decision which I took considering the events which happened subsequently. Anand was sitting on the bed, caressing Jyo's hand gently to put her at ease. My wife and I made ourselves comfortable on a couple of chairs available in the room. It was around 3.00 am, my wife had dozed off and I was about to follow suit when something really creepy happened. Jyo suddenly sat up straight in her bed with a look in her eyes which we had never seen before. Anand, who was sitting beside her tried to put his arm around her to comfort her. She suddenly shrugged herself free from Anand, caught him by the neck and pushed him. The force with which Anand was pushed was so great that he was literally flung like a puppet, six feet away from the bed. To do that to a person like Anand who is close to 6"3 inches tall and weighs around 90 kgs really required extraordinary strength. Jyo suddenly said the following words "Mujhe Jaane Do... Jaana hai " (Let me go... I have to go!) This still is a mystery to all of us. The voice that said those words certainly wasn't Jyo's. Jyo stood up as if in trance and was trying to go to the balcony. I have to admire the courage shown by both my wife and Anand at this point of time. Anand and I used all our might and pinned down Jyo to her bed while my wife ran out to get help. We got a couple of housekeeping staff from the hotel in the room within a couple of minutes. I immediately told them to help us shift Jyo to my room. It took five of us to lift Jyoti and shift her to my room. All this while Jyo was only uttering the words "Mujhe Jaane Do... Jaana hai ".As soon as she was laid on the bed in my room things started to return to normal. Jyo stopped resisting and soon fell asleep much to our relief. All of us were shaken by the turn of events. We thanked the bewildered Hotel staff for their help. I noticed that it was around 5.00am at that time and perhaps with the coming of daybreak the hold of the spirit on Jyo had weakened OR Shifting her out of that room had helped. We decided to check out the next morning. Though a little tired, Jyo was perfectly fine the next morning with no recollection of the previous night's events. She was however surprised to find herself in our room. Anand however put her at ease and told her that he would explain everything once we left the hotel. While Anand was settling the hotel bills, I was called aside by one of the hotel staff who, under the condition of anonymity told me that the room had been the scene of a gory incident a couple of months back. A couple had checked in, they had a big fight which lasted late into the night. The man walked out off the room leaving the lady behind. After sometime the lady flung herself from the balcony of the room killing her instantly. The police had made some enquiries but were unable to trace the man who had accompanied her that night. The case was subsequently closed. The housekeeping staff had themselves felt a creepy feeling sometimes in the room, though no incident was reported by any of the occupants who occupied it after that.

We decided to let the matter rest but before leaving, advised the manager of the resort to do some sort of purification or a cleansing ritual to free the tormented soul. Whether he performed the ritual or not is not known to us since we did not visit the place again. We were just happy at that moment to have escaped without any harm. Anand subsequently told her the events which had occurred that night. She was shaken at first, but has now come to terms with it. However what would have happened if Anand and I would not have been able to subdue Jyo that night is a thought which still gives me the shivers.

A Ghost Scared of Yamraj

I have heard the stories of ghosts and paranormal experiences of people in older times from my grandmother. But today, no one believes in such things because we are living in the 21st century where such incidents are considered to be a symbol of mockery. But the supernatural happening that occurred to me a few days back compelled me to believe that in this world, there is a real evil. I was sleeping when I saw a man in my dream. He looked sad and flogged. He was painfully thin and there was a bruise on the side of his cheek, the size of a man's fist. He was trying to convince me of something. Then he looked back and told me "Get Lost" as he told that Yamraj (Hindu god of death) was approaching. His blutering hadn't worked so he began to whine. He then told that if I failed to rescue him from Yamraj, then he will haunt me every night and he won't let me sleep. I was terrified. My dream broke from fear I felt even during the sleep. To my horror, I saw someone sitting beside my bed who looked still. His figure was similar to my father but he was not my dad. I recognized him from his cheek. He was the man which came in my dream. He looked so real that I asked him about his problem. Now with an aggressive face he turned towards me and he passed through my body. I was paralyzed. I gave out a loud shout which awakened my parents. They asked me why I shouted. When I told them all this, they were not convinced. They thought that I had seen a dream. But I'm sure that it was something more... More than a dream. From that day, I never saw him again and he had never haunted me. Maybe god Yamraj has sent him to a proper place where he deserved to be!

A Haunting In North Bengal

This unforgettable incident took place in October this year when we (my father, mother, sister and myself) were on my way to North Bengal to celebrate the Durga Pujas (a festival of Bengal). . We boarded the Teesta Torsha express from Sealdah. It was going good until night when my uncle called us up and told us that 19 oil tankers were derailed at Kishanganj. We were now 34hours in train. Day 2: We suffered a lot as the train stopped for hours at stations and the attendants switched of the A.Cs in the train. We were tired and slept off after we reached NJP at 12. 30 at night. After some time, I woke up for some fresh air as I was feeling uncomfortable being confined in a small area for so long. So I went out and after refreshing myself, out of sheer curiosity, I opened the door latch. The train was stationary. I checked the cell info, which showed that it was GAISAL and the time was 1.28A.M by my watch. It was steady when suddenly a gust of wind passed through me. Then I heard the honk of an engine which was gradually approaching closer. Then suddenly I heard a loud noise as if there was an explosion. Then our train began moving with a jerk and suddenly I regained my senses and everything was as quiet as before. I closed the door latch and as soon as I looked behind, I saw a shadowy figure which suddenly disappeared within a second! I quickly went back inside. I kept thinking about what had happened exactly as I did not believe in paranormal activities before and thought it was just a dream. Day 3: We reached my maternal uncles home by morning. I decided to surf the net and check whether anyone had experienced the same at GAISAL... Then, to my surprise, I found out that GAISAL was the site of one of the worst railway accidents in history of Indian Railways!

A Strange Story From Mumbai

This is a good forum to exchange personal experiences. I am a well educated working woman and was living in the US until 4 years ago, when me and my husband decided to move back to India for good. We had a completely routine life like any other working couple in Mumbai. But what I am about to share is something that is so strange, that I do not have any other explaination for it other than it being a paranormal incident. Maybe you guys do... I was 27 at the time and 8 months pregnant. I was on maternity leave and like any other expecting mother was looking forward to welcoming my new baby. On that day, after my husband returned from work, we decided to go for a stroll to a nearby park called Shivaji park which is very close to where we live. It was around 9.30 pm at the time and as usual the place was bustling with people. We had driven to Shivaji park and decided that it was time to go home. My husband sat in the driver's seat. As I opened the front door of the car to get inside, an old begger woman nudged at my dress sleeve. It was a lunar eclipse on that day. It is a very

common thing in India for beggers to ask for alms under the pretext of an eclipse. I looked at her face and she looked just like any other ordinary begger woman. I didn't give her any money, sat in the car and we started driving home. We drove for about 3 minutes and had almost reached home, when I saw the same begger woman at a red light where my car had stopped. I was surprised but not scared and didn't think anything about it at the time. We went home, nothing untoward happened that night. Next day, my husband left for work. It was around 2.30 pm in the afternoon and I was taking a post lunch nap. Suddenly, I felt very very cold, almost like... Close to shivering. I opened my eyes, and I just couldn't believe what I saw. I saw it crystal clear and believe me when I am saying this, the old woman from the earlier evening was standing at the edge of my bed. She had one arm stretched and was moving her hand in a "come to me " motion. For a second, I thought I was dreaming. I closed my eyes... Mentally said a "Wake-up Anjali" and opened my eyes again. She was still there. At that moment, I completely lost my nerve. All I could think of was... What if she harms my baby? I ran out of the room and the house and kocked my neighbours door. I didn't tell my neighbour what happened because I was afraid that she would think I was crazy or it was the pregnancy hormones talking. I called my husband home immediately and only after he came did I enter the house again. Obviously he didn't see/feel anything. I was advised by my mother to get a small puja done in the house which I did. Everything turned out OK with us, our baby etc. And I never saw the old woman again. But we did move out of that apartment (on my insistance of course) and bought a new place soon. OK, I know many of you may think. She was pregnant. Hormones were all over the place. She must have just imagined it. But believe me it was nothing of that sort. I am very skeptical about paranormal activity, but this, man. Still gives me the creeps.

A Trip Back In Time

I make it a point to visit my ancestral home which is around three hours from Goa at least once a year. The unpolluted surroundings, pure air, greenery and the pristine beaches ensure that I am fully recharged and rejuvenated at the end of my vacation. I would like to describe my ancestral home for the benefit of the readers. I am told that it was built sometime in the 1850's and housed generations of my ancestors for more than a century. Generally people of that time lived in large joint families in India and palatial houses were built to accommodate them. My ancestral home is no different and has around ten bedrooms, a huge dining area capable of seating at least thirty people at one time. A huge courtyard and a garden in front of the house must have definitely made a lot of people envious. An area which needs a special mention is a large store house located outside and a little away from the main house. My ancestors were zamindars (landlords) who owned huge areas of land that was leased out to the farmers every year for paddy plantation. They must have been a rich lot and prosperous too. The joint family system continued until the 1970's after which individual family members started

branching out to the Indian metro's to seek their fortune. Currently only one of my uncles stays there with his wife. Coming back to my story, I visited my ancestral home in November this year with my wife. It is an eleven hour drive from Pune and we were really tired by the time we reached there. My uncle and aunt warmly received us with hot tea and a couple of homemade delicacies which made the pain of the journey worthwhile. The next couple of days were spent in just lazing around in the mornings, going for long walks in the evenings and visiting nearby acquaintances. It seemed like a refreshing change from our daily routine and we were generally happy with our visit. India generally has fixed seasons namely Monsoon (June- Sept), winter (Oct - Feb), summer (March- May). But this year was different as we had an extended monsoon due to which many areas experienced intermittent rainfall well into November. 12th Nov 2010, I remember the date quite clearly. It was just two days before we were supposed to head back home. Most of the time, the weather was bright and sunny except for some stray showers at night. I woke up early that day hoping to catch up on my early morning jog, a routine which had been liberally relaxed over the last couple of days. However to my dismay I found that it had rained that night making the ground wet and muddy, practically impossible to jog. Cursing my luck I just stayed in the house and sulked. It was just after lunch at around 1 pm that I started feeling claustrophobic. I came out of the house to catch fresh air. It was then that I saw the store house a little away from the main house. I had never gone there before and decided to explore it a bit. It seemed like a sturdy structure but unfortunately in ruins currently due to neglect. However it still had a roof and provided shelter to a few stray dogs who roamed about in that area. I went inside and was looking around when it suddenly started drizzling. I tried to come out and run towards the main house but it started pouring heavily within a short while and I was stranded there until the rains stopped. Luckily I found an old chair inside on which I perched happily and waited for the rains to stop. I might have been there for around fifteen minutes or so when I suddenly became aware of something burning inside. Getting up from my seat, I carefully ventured inside hoping that it would be a false alarm. To my surprise, I saw three young boys probably twelve years old inside trying to light a "Beedi" (a cigarette, commonly smoked by locals in India). I thought they might have sneaked in when I dozed off perhaps. Since they were not known to me, I tried to shoo them away and shouted at them for smoking at such a young age. I was just standing a couple of feet away from them, yet they did not seem to notice me and continued lighting their beedi's. I was really annoyed at the lack of respect shown and moved towards them in order to give them a piece of my mind. Suddenly I noticed that a haystack kept in one corner of the room had caught fire. Surely the boys weren't the culprits since it was quite a distance away from them. The boys had not noticed it and merrily continued with their activity. I rushed towards the burning haystack and tried to put out the fire. However my efforts had absolutely no effect and the fire grew in intensity. It was indeed eerie that I was in the room but no one was acknowledging my presence nor was I able to do anything to help the boys. It seemed like I was watching a movie being in the movie itself.

Before any of the boys could realize it, the whole room was engulfed in flames. The frightened boys tried to run towards the door and get outside. I was a nothing more than mute spectator observing the hideous scene without being able to do anything. It was also strange that even though this whole incident was happening right in front of my eyes, I wasn't affected at all. Under normal circumstances, the boys should have easily got out of the room, but there seemed to be something which was preventing them from doing so. As they tried to get out, I saw a man standing outside the main door who was preventing them from escaping. There seemed to be something wrong with the man, he seemed to have unusually large arms, quite disproportionate from the rest of his body. The boys were helpless against the sheer strength of the brute. I heard the poor souls scream in agony as the fire singed then. I wasn't able to move even though I wanted to rush out of the room. Then I suddenly felt an arm over my shoulder. This seemed to have woken me from my trance. It was my wife who was worried because of my prolonged absence and had come to search for me. I was definitely relieved to see her but I also realized that everything in the room had gone silent. There was absolute silence everywhere. The boys, the fire, the screams & the strange man, all seemed to have vanished into thin air. I also felt very weak. Realizing that something was wrong, she immediately escorted me to the main house and gave me some water to drink after which I slowly started to feel better. By dinner time I had sufficiently recovered to approach my aunt who has been living there for almost fifty years now. When I told her about my strange experience, she was astonished at the way I narrated the details to her. She just couldn't believe it especially when she knew for sure that I couldn't have known these details unless I had been around at that time. Then she told me the actual story which she had heard from my great grandmother. My aunt's story: In the early 1900's, there were 5 families of my ancestors living in that house. Around twenty five people stayed there at that time. The sons of three of the brothers were the ones I had seen that afternoon. It was a great year for the family, the harvest was bountiful and everyone was very happy. However one of their relatives who lived nearby had fallout with my family over money matters. He couldn't touch them directly since they were reputed people with contacts at the high places; hence he devised a devious scheme to get back at them. In this part of India, black magic performed to rid yourself of your enemies is called "modi". In this, a spell is cast on the intended victims in order to cause bodily harm. A ritual animal sacrifice is also performed among other things. I will not be able to divulge anything else as this practice is too ghastly even to write about. The three boys had a habit of sneaking into the store house sometimes in the afternoon after school to smoke bidi's. This was probably known to the person very well as he had planned the whole thing quite meticulously. The spell was cast accordingly to kill the innocent children which explains the mysterious fire and the presence of the man with unusually long hands outside the room, an evil spirit perhaps, who prevented the safe exit of the three boys. The poor boys were burnt to death in the sudden fire that broke out in the store house. Efforts were made to douse the fire but the intensity of the blaze was so strong that it was all in vain. A

couple of days later, three black dolls were located near the store room buried in the soil which lead to the suspicion that there was something more to it than just an accident. Upon further investigation, it was found that the relative in question was seen frequently with a local tantrik. He along with the tantrik were caught and after days of interrogation finally confessed to the heinous crime. They were lynched by the angry villagers and their bodies burnt at a secret location to avoid any police investigation. All this seems ghastly, but at that time, lynching was commonly used as a punishment against people who practiced black magic. However the irreparable damage had been done and three innocent family members had been killed for no fault of theirs. My family had to pay a heavy price indeed. The store room was rebuilt after a few years but no one dared to stay there at night because of the tragedy that had occurred. The question before me is that, why me... Of all the people was transported back in time to witness the gory scenes which happened over a century ago. Or perhaps on second thoughts... This incident repeats itself periodically and I was unlucky enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. My Uncle performed a pooja (a cleansing ritual) at the store house the very next day to set the restless souls free. I sincerely hope that their souls rest in peace and things are fine of now, but I'm definitely not going there again to find out.

A Visit To The Graveyard

In early 2009, I changed my job and joined an Organization which had its Head Quarters in Bangalore (India). Though I was based out of Pune, I was called to Bangalore for an Induction session and meetings with the Company's Senior Management. The whole schedule was for around 5 days. After I reached Bangalore I found out that there were around eight others who had recently joined the Organization at the same time as me. We were all housed at the Company's guest house a short distance away from the office. The induction sessions were from 9.00 am in the morning to 5.30 pm in the evening. Past that all of us had a lot of free time on our hands and used it to get to know each other better. For this particular story, I would like to mention the names of three colleagues out of the eight who were to play an important role in the incidents to follow. I struck a great rapport with Ajay, Shailesh and Navin. It's not that I was unfriendly with the rest but I got along with these guys like a house on fire. Ajay was a Punjabi from Northern India, very talkative and always ready to take up a challenge. Shailesh was from Mumbai, quick witted but generally quiet. Navin was a resident of Bangalore whose personality was similar to Shailesh but he had a great sense of humor and his one liners kept us entertained all throughout. We had a great time together during this period and got to know each other really well.

During one of our conversations after dinner, Navin told us that there was a graveyard near to the guest house. Our housekeeper Sri had also told him of strange happenings there. The road leading to the graveyard was lonely and generally avoided by people especially at night. He had asked Navin to inform everyone not to venture out on that particular stretch. Ajay was a total non believer and scoffed at the very idea of ghosts and the paranormal. The rest of us were intrigued by this story and wanted to know more but Navin himself had limited knowledge. Sri wouldn't tell us anything more so we let the matter rest there. Soon it was our final day in Bangalore. After the induction sessions were over, our seniors had arranged for a dinner at a nearby hotel. We had a great time and were treated to a lavish dinner. Ajay in particular enjoyed the most and had one drink too many. Once we were back at the guest house after dinner, all of us started packing our bags since we had to leave early the next morning. After packing our bags we sat down reminiscing the great time we had spent in the last couple of days. The topic of the old graveyard was again brought up by Navin. Seeing Ajay scoff again, he was a bit irritated and dared Ajay to go to the graveyard and spend an hour over there alone. Ajay was a bit high and in the spur of the moment immediately accepted the dare. He stood up and immediately began to walk out of the guest 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 nocturnal adventure. Ajay was in high spirits as we walked towards the graveyard. The road leading towards the same was very lonely without any signs of habitation. It must have been one km away from the guest house and it was 12. 30 am by the time we reached there. It was an old cemetery not used frequently by the locals. It somehow had an air of nostalgia about it. It was particularly cold that night since it was winter and nights in Bangalore in winter can be quite cold. We reached the gate and were stopped by an old man who introduced himself as the security guard, Abu Chacha. He suspiciously asked us the reason for coming there at such an unearthly hour. Ajay immediately jumped in and told Abu Chacha that one of his relatives was buried there and he had to visit him that night itself as he had come to Bangalore for a short visit and was to fly off to London the coming morning. Abu Chacha sympathized with us and told us to make it quick. We slowly made our way inside the graveyard. It seemed like a normal cemetery. There was a cemented path in the center with graves lying on either sides of the road. There was eerie silence except for the occasional howling of the strays who roamed freely in the area around the cemetery. There was a bench at a short distance away. Ajay, still high told me that he wanted to sit there and spend a couple of minutes and enjoy the solitude. I was feeling uncomfortable but relented to Ajay's persistent request. We sat down and Ajay immediately put his hand in his pocket, taking out a cigarette. I tried to dissuade him against doing so as it would disturb the sanctity of the place. He was in no mood to listen and had his way. After spending a few more uncomfortable minutes on the bench, Ajay told me that he wanted to move further inside and check out the rest of the place. We had hardly walked a couple of paces ahead when he told me that he suddenly had this overwhelming urge to pee. I told him to immediately refrain from doing so and that it was high time that we left the place. But stubborn as he was, Ajay did not listen to my advice. Winking slyly at me, he went off to some nearby bushes a little away from the place where we were sitting, promising to return quickly. The bushes were thick and I could not see him at all from my current location. Suddenly I felt weak and found it very difficult to breathe as if someone was trying to squeeze the life out of me. I dropped to my knees on the road below. As my gaze turned ahead further down the road, I could see a shadowy form slowly

move away from me. It seemed to stop for a moment as if to cast an eerie glance at me before slowly melting away into nothingness. My head started spinning and a feeling of horror took over me affecting my ability to think clearly. With great difficulty I regained my composure and then it dawned on me that Ajay still hadn't returned. I called out to him but there was no response. I slowly made my way towards the bushes where Ajay had gone a short while ago. I was horrified by what I saw. Ajay was lying senseless on the ground. Not knowing what to expect I got down and shook him vigorously. This fortunately worked and Ajay slowly regained consciousness. Once Ajay was full conscious he told me he heard some movement near the bushes where he was peeing and suddenly felt as if someone was standing 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 blow on his back which rendered him unconscious until the time I shook him awake. He was still feeling pain near the 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 blood). Not wanting to spend another minute over there we proceeded towards the gate of the cemetery. We were suddenly stopped by a young man who asked us sternly as to what we were doing in the cemetery at such a late hour. We quickly told him that we had taken permission from the old man, Abu Chacha and also told us our ordeal. He was surprised at the mention of the name Abu Chacha and told us that no one except him had stood guard at the cemetery for the last 5 years. Some people had earlier told him of an old man being seen around the cemetery especially late in the evening. He had never come across Abu Chacha or whoever the old man was. This was too much for Ajay 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 colleagues to rush there with a vehicle and get us back to the guest house. It was close to 3.30am by the time we were at the guest house. On relating the incident to our caretaker Sri, he cursed us for our folly and told us that we were very lucky to get away unharmed. Ajay was down with high fever for the next couple of days and had to stay back in Bangalore. Being a religious person, I promised myself never to be a part of such activities in future. When I met Ajay a couple of months later, I found that he had mellowed down quite a bit. He was also wearing a "Taaviz" (a locket) given to him by one of the priests at a temple in his hometown. This sure was an amazing transition from a skeptic to a believer.

Accidental Death

This is an experience which I would like to share with all my friends here. This happened last year when I was associated with Wipro BPO. I was doing an evening shift. My shift timing was 5:30 p.m.-3a.m.I took the drop at 3:15 a.m...While we were passing by a place called Bowler's Den, a strange thing happened. All of us in the cab suddenly started feeling extremely warm and suffocating. It was unbearable. It felt as

we were about to die because of suffocation. Strangely, as soon we went ahead for just 1 minute from that place, everything became normal once again. The temperature was normal, that suffocation was gone, and we were able to breathe in normally. We came back the next day and got in touch with some of the local people of that area. Then we came to know that a couple of years back an extremely sad incident had taken place. A lady who worked in a BPO was returning from her workplace. As she resided nearby, so she did not use to take the office drop. She used to commute by herself. On that tragic night she was on her way home when a cab came and hit her and killed her. After that these kind of strange and horrible incidents have been happening and many people have faced strange and weird incidents. I still do not know what that was, but those 2-3 minutes were perhaps the most horrible moments in my life.

Aghori

This incident dates back to my engineering college days during one of my visits to Pune, a place very close to my heart and my current home. It was vacation time and I decided to visit Sushil, my friend from Mumbai. He had shifted to Pune to study engineering in one of the colleges there. He lived in a rented bungalow at Nigdi with some of his college friends. It was a nice place but isolated and far from the main city. This was exactly how the guys wanted it and loved their privacy every bit. Sushil had been inviting me to come over to his place for a long time. His buddies had all gone back to their hometowns and would return only after a month. He was the only one who had stayed back. We planned to stay at his place for a couple of days and then return to Mumbai together. Another friend of ours, Vikrant, who was studying in Bangalore, was to join us. As planned, I reached Sushil's place late in the afternoon. The time it took me to reach Sushil's place from Pune Station was nearly the same as my train travel from Mumbai to Pune. Sushil had meticulously mentioned the directions but as my luck would have it, I missed a turn which led to the delay. Another reason for the delay was due to the fact that there wasn't a living soul to be seen around that area who could help me with the directions. Sushil had a hearty laugh when I narrated my woeful tale to him. I soon settled down and after a while went around with Sushil as he showed me his house. It was a nice house with a spacious dining area and three bedrooms on the ground floor. There was a nice terrace on the first floor which was quite airy. In fact we had planned to sleep on the terrace as we thought that it would be fun sleeping under the open sky. One thing which I noticed was that there wasn't a single house for at least a kilometer from where the bungalow stood. Sushil mentioned that Vikrant's train would be arriving at around 1.00 am that night. Since

I was tired from my afternoon adventure, Sushil asked me to rest there while he would fetch Vikrant from the station on his motor cycle. We finished our dinner by 10:00 pm that night. Sushil planned to leave at around 11:45 pm so that he could be in time to receive Sushil. I made myself comfortable on his sofa in the sitting area at around 11:15 pm and soon fell off to sleep. Sushil went off to receive Vikrant as planned. It was after an hour of sound sleep that I was suddenly awakened at around 12:15 am. The whole house was pitch dark, I suddenly felt uneasy. I slowly got to terms with the situation and consoled myself saying that I wasn't in Mumbai but in a city which suffered multiple power cuts throughout the day. I was in the midst of one of them and surely this time would pass soon. I lay back on the sofa waiting for my friends to come back. I slowly became aware of a humming sound coming from just outside the window of the room where I was. It unnerved me a bit but curiosity got the better of me and I slowly moved towards the window to check the source of the sound. I opened the window pane a bit so that I could look out and see what was happening. The humming sound suddenly became loud and a projectile hit the window pane just missing my head by a whisker. I was in a daze but slowly got hold of myself, crawled near the shattered window pane to see who had done it. Till then my eyes had become quite used to the dark and I was able to see things clearly. As soon as I glanced out, I could see the perpetrator of the dark deed right in front of me. He was a thin man with long matted hair and a beard. He was naked except for a small loin cloth covering his body. His body was all white, smeared with ash perhaps. I was immediately overcome by a feeling of repulsion for the barely human creature standing around 15 meters from the house. He was standing there doing nothing except moving a sling like object in his right hand and smiling eerily at me. The sling in his hand was what was creating the humming sound. Before I could realize, he picked up another stone, fixed it in his sling and took aim for his next shot. This time I was lucky as the second shot went astray but smashed another window pane nevertheless. I pinched myself to make sure that I wasn't dreaming. I was in a nightmare which just refused to end. Scared to death, I crawled to the farthest corner of the room and sat there hoping that my friends would arrive soon and relieve me of my misery. Suddenly things became silent for around 10 minutes and my senses were slowly limping back towards normalcy when there was a thump on the door. My first instinct was to rush and open the door for my friends Sushil and Vikrant who might have returned. But then, I remembered Sushil telling me that he would lock the door from outside, so that when he came back with Vikrant, it would not rouse me from my sleep. I fell back paralyzed with fear not knowing what would happen next if the thing outside managed to break the lock and enter. There were a few more knocks on the door, this time harder than the earlier one followed by the humming sound of the sling in the creature's hand. I was sure that it would be a matter of time before he would break the door and enter the house. The best possible place to hide in that case would be the terrace. I rushed to the terrace

and locked the door praying desperately to God for an early arrival of my friends. Till then I had thought that it was a madman on the prowl & had not thought about the paranormal angle at all. Imagine my horror when I became aware of a noise behind me on the terrace. It was the same creature sitting comfortably in a cross legged position on the edge of the terrace wall. It was just impossible for him to climb up so soon, that too, without making any noise. I could see that the creature was enjoying my ordeal immensely. "This is it", I silently said to myself. I would have to face him since I had no other choice left. Picking up a small iron rod lying beside me, I silently uttered "Om Namah Shivay" and rushed towards him with an adrenalin rush which I had never experienced before. When I was about ten feet away from the creature, I stopped and threw my weapon at him. He managed to dodge it but in the process fell back from the terrace to the hard ground below. That was the end of him, I thought. But I soon realized that though he had fallen down, I hadn't heard the sound which broke his fall. Gathering courage, I slowly moved towards the edge hoping to see his body lying on the ground. Imagine my surprise when I found no one down below. The area was absolutely empty without any trace of the creature which had attacked me a short while ago. This was too much for me to handle and I slumped to the ground dazed. When I woke up, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself on the ground floor and that my friends Sushil and VIKRANT had returned. They looked concerned and told me that they had found me unconscious on the terrace a short while ago. After I related them my entire tale, Sushil told me that it was his mistake to have left me alone in the house that night. He told me that he and his friends had seen the man, whose description I had just narrated outside their house one month ago. But since they were together they went out immediately with sticks to challenge the intruder. But to their surprise, there was no one outside when they opened the door. Later on they heard from some villagers that a man who was suspected of ritual sacrifices, cannibalism and necrophilia had been lynched by a mob some days ago. He was suspected of being an Aghori. No one was arrested, as is the case with all such incidents in smaller villages. But Sushil and his friends never saw the man again after that. I did some research on Aghori's and this is what I found out: Aghoris are a Hindu sect which is said to have deviated from mainstream Hinduism. Most other Hindu Sects shun and condemn Aghori's as "Non Hindu" because of the extreme practices followed by them which include cannibalism, living inside cremation grounds, consumption of intoxicants, hallucinogens and engaging in bizarre sexual rituals including necrophilia. They believe that such activities bring them closer to God and bestow them with great power. Unclean and nearly naked with ash smeared all over their bodies, they definitely aren't pretty to look at. The lifestyle of the Aghori's is shrouded in secrecy and they are seldom seen in public, living mostly in cremation grounds in seclusion. They consume corpses, which may be either pulled from a river or obtained from cremation grounds. These are consumed either raw or cooked on open flame, as the Aghoris believe that what others consider a "dead man" is, in fact, nothing but a natural matter devoid of the life it once contained.

A plausible explanation for my ordeal could be that the Aghori's spirit fed on the terror and horror of his intended victims and grew stronger once the victims lost hope and felt helpless. The moment, I felt strong within, the spirit lost its hold on me and immediately vanished. After this incident, we immediately left the house and returned to Mumbai the next morning. Sushil and his friends did not stay there after coming back to Pune and rented a flat in the heart of the city where we enjoyed many a memorable vacations in the following years.

An Encounter In Bombay

This incidence happened in the year 1975. My father, then unmarried, along with his family, used to live in the Mulund East suburb of Bombay, now Mumbai. He used to have a friend and neighbor, Jadhav. Jadhav just got a job with a Pharma Company in Mulund West suburb, and had to daily cross the railway lines to get across the suburbs, and used a cycle for travelling to work. One night, when Jadhav was returning home at around 1:15 am after completing his third shift, he encountered a strange thing. He saw a man standing in front of him on the railway tracks, accompanied with a cycle. This man was blocking the whole crossing by placing the cycle across the road of the crossing. Jadhav saw this man, but was unable to see his face since the man was facing away from Jadhav. At first, Jadhav asked the man to leave his way, but there was no response. After a couple of requests, Jadhav started using abusive language to persuade the man to leave the tracks, but there was still no reply. Finally, Jadhav decided to get rid of that man using some physical force. Jadhav was pretty confident about himself since he had a good physique with a height of 5 feet 11 inches and a weight of 85kg, whereas the man confronting Jadhav seemed a physically weak guy of around 45 kgs, and was only somewhere around 5 feet 2 inches tall. Jadhav stepped ahead to grip the shoulder of the man, but when Jadhav touched him, the man suddenly turned around facing Jadhav. Jadhav saw his face and felt that it seemed something different, his face was totally white and his eyes were so deep that they weren't visible. Before Jadhav could make any move, that man landed a tight slap on Jadhav's face. The slap was so hard that Jadhav fell five feet behind on the ground. It would have been a really difficult task for a man of that height and physique to overpower a huge guy like Jadhav. Jadhav somehow managed to get up immediately but found that the man, along with his cycle, were both missing. Fear ran through Jadhav's mind as he realized that it wasn't human. Jadhav started running towards the railway platform, which was around 200 meters from the spot. Jadhav somehow reached the railway platform and then ran all the way to his house. From that night, Jadhav suffered from high fever along with dystentry for one week. His family performed some Puja and Havan to rid him of this fever.

Today, Jadhav lives in Pune, India. Even after more than thirty years after that incident, Jadhav still remembers that night. I still hear people saying that the railway tracks near the crossing are haunted, and some years back, a flyover bridge was constructed on the railway crossing.

An Existence After The Wax Objects

When my friend invited me to stay with him for a long weekend, I was only too happy to oblige. His house is around 2 hours drive from Pune (India) and in the rich sugarcane farm zone. He himself is very rich. And who does not want to be pampered for few days without any real work? I accepted. But he is also a very keen researcher in the field of occult so this invitation must have some angle to that, I thought. But then I knew it will all come out in a good time so I did not ask. I told him that I will take a bus from Pune on Thursday evening which he said was not required. He would send a car on Friday morning and to pick me up. The car did arrive late morning and after breakfast on the way, by the time we reached his home it was almost lunch time. His house is a two storey bungalow that was built around sixteen years back. It was a farm land that was converted to the residential area. There was nothing picturesque about the house as such. Not much of a show-off but a plain, solid house with rooms that have most of the basic facilities and few good quality guests rooms with air-conditioning. My friend took me to one of these AC rooms on the second floor which had a balcony that opened into the main entrance of the house. I came downstairs after a while and we chatted about this and that had lunch and then went for a leisurely and long afternoon siesta. To cut the long story short, we did practically nothing the whole day and when I went to the room given to me, I had slept 4-5 hours in the day time with very little or no physical exertion. From our conversation I had guessed that there was a peculiarity about the room that was given to me and I was supposed to experience something. But I did not know what it was going to be, neither was I given any clue. I looked at everything in the room. It was a perfectly normal guest room. Only thing that did not fit in was a small cupboard. It was not from the new furniture and looked different. When I opened it to my surprise I found seventy odd small red wax objects with different colors. Now these were not the candles. These are specific shapes that can be enlightened at night for a very dim sort of light. The shapes had six sides and a very specific form. These are used in the rituals that I had only vaguely heard about and what I had heard was not good. So this visit was related to this wax objects that much I understood and then I tried to go to sleep. It did not come easily and when it came it was late. I was half-anticipating that I will wake up in the night sometime and witness what my friend wanted to me see. But nothing happened. I was woken up by my friend at 7.30 in the morning asking me to get ready for a small but pleasant trek. Before leaving the room I checked in the cupboard. For a brief second I had a feeling that numbers of wax lights were less that what I had seen last night. But then I might have been wrong. This time I counted and left the room This day was exactly opposite to the previous one. The "pleasant" trek turned out to be a six mile hike and a steep climb in the nearby hilly area. To make the matters worse my friend had bought no food with him and I realized that we can get something only when we walk back to the

town. Then the rain came. Finally we reached the house past noon, tired, wet and hungry. Post lunch my friend decided to show me his new private workout room. Once again to summarize, on that day I did so much physical activity that I was dead tired by 9.30, skipped the dinner and somehow staggered into my room for the well deserved rest. At the back of my mind I had started to think of this as some sort of practical joke that my friend was playing on me. I went to sleep the moment I hit the bed. I woke up at 2.30 AM with a start. I woke up with sensation of numbing fear inside me. Nothing has changed in the room but all of a sudden I understood that this is relayed to what my friend wanted to me experience. At this moment the room was empty but something was about to enter the room. Perhaps there was someone on the staircase. I always respect feeling of fear. This is what the God has built into all of us and it must have been there since our creation thousands of year back. I was about to come into contact with something that also existed since our creation and our paths were not supposed to cross. But something had gone wrong, the rule was broken and my primitive instinct was telling me to protect myself at any cost. I wondered what my friend had brought me up against and started to pray quietly. Remember that even now there was nothing in the room and my feeling that someone was about to enter the room could have been a pure imagination. Only argument that was against it was the fear. It is not the sort of fear one feels when one watches horror movie alone at night. That is very superficial. My experience is that real fear or hatred towards the abnormal cannot be artificially generated, neither does it show typical symptoms of fear that well all know. Well, what was on the staircase perhaps was also in two minds whether to enter or not. I was not sure whether the prayer would help but I knew that the faith would. No matter how it is implemented, in what religion it is expressed, the faith in the God always helps. So I continued praying and thinking at the same time. At the physical level I did what any other person would have done. I was just lying in the bed without moving a muscle. Finally whatever that was outside made up its mind and entered the room. I will not describe in great detail. Mainly because I could not see much myself as there was hardly any light and in my opinion for an existence at that level our dimensions of color and shape do not matter. To me it looked like an overgrown cat that slides ahead instead of walking. Whatever it was, it did not have any legs as such or at least I could not see them. It was grayish with tinge of black moving slowly and in one direction. The room temperature was dropping and it was like an extra dimension was added to the room. Something that was not supposed to operate in our world had been summoned and now there would be consequences. The "cat" continued to slide or slither towards the cupboard. There was a very mild hissing sort of sound which was definitely not breathing sound. But the thing was doing something that was causing this. I started to feel very acute pain in my temple region. All this must have happened in maybe less that a minute. That means the speed of the "cat" was not really that slow either. But then I don't think our understanding of time makes any difference here. What had entered was eternal and had its own set of rule and units. It clouded your mind by its sheet presence that intention. The presence was near the cupboard now. If the cupboard door opened I did not hear it. At that time the pain was unbearable and I moved. It was a mistake. A very big mistake and perhaps my luck and sadhana saved me that night. For a second hissing sound stopped. Mind you, there was no one looking at me as such. But it had shifted the focus somehow. I could sense that. The scene changed for a perhaps two seconds. Very quickly few images went past my eyes. I had a quick glimpse of ritual being carried out, the "cat" being forcefully summoned from the evil but secluded zone it existed in and the anger that the "cat" felt

at those who had done this. It did not have thinking capacity and could not bifurcate one human being from the other. It was angry and did not know what to do. I continued to pray. This lasted for few seconds and the focus shifted again. I don't know what happened after that. I feel bit ashamed to admit but I think I lost consciousness. Perhaps finally the basic protection inside me started to work and did what was required to save my soul. I woke up next morning at 6.30 AM, very tired and fatigued with lot of body pain. But there was no fever and the muscle pain must be because of the physical exercise carried out on the last day. I checked in the cupboard, two more wax things were missing. I was convinced about two things. This is not what my friend wanted to me see. He was whimsical to a certain extent but not stupid and cruel. There was difference in our levels of sensitivity and I had seen what he did not anticipate. Also what had entered the room yesterday was not a ghost. It was a thing that existed in the zone about which we are totally unaware and was summoned by someone for a specific purpose. This is beyond any mortal crime. This is like crossing the boundaries that the nature has defined for us and the consequences can be really very bad for whoever was doing it. It can be dumb but we don't know their world, their powers, their hunger and reasons for their existence. I also think I realized the reason behind the strange behavior of my friend for the last two days but did not understand the logic. I was not tired and hence must have slept lightly on the first day. On that day I noticed nothing even though the same set of events must have taken place that night also. On the second day I was dead tired and must have slept like a log. Still I reacted to the presence and woke up when the danger was around. So there was a certain link between being soundly asleep and sensing the presence. Generally it is other way around but this case was different I guess. Any way the second question I had was why my friend had put me in this situation? Did he not realize the danger or what he had seen is something different? I asked all this in the morning. He answered truthfully. Yes, he was aware of the connection between quality of sleep and the experience. That's why he ensured I remain in completely different physical state on both the days. He did not know the reason. But he used that room for himself during his sister's marriage for a week and from his own experiences his drew this conclusion which proved to be correct. I was very cautious and guarded in explaining what I had seen. I did not share all, as this is a very dark and dangerous area. But my friend had not seen what I had seen. What he had sensed at the similar time was cupboard door opening and closing sound when there was no wind. In the morning he used to find few wax objects missing. Less than half of what were there originally were remaining now. I asked him where he got these objects from; he told me he purchased those along with the cupboard exactly a week before his sister's marriage from one exhibition. The person who was selling those had no customer at his stall and my friend just out of curiosity went there and ended up buying those at very cheap price. The conversation ended there. All I have to say is I convinced him to throw the thing away by separating the wax objects and the cupboard. I did not mention the shape; neither did I mention the theory of summoning the existence or the short scenes that had passed before my eyes that night. I was more or less clear in my mind though. Certain tantrik in that small town was practicing something that he was not supposed to do. It was evil and to get something from the other world for assistance was even worse. Things work well for a while when you are in control of things but a slight mistake and in most of the cases the first victim is the master itself. I

apologize to the readers for not going into any more details than required but believe me it is better if this is not explored further. Those who leave by the sword die by it. Any way, my friend listened to my advice and disposed of the cupboard and the wax shapes separately. As to connection between quality of sleep and the experience I do not have any answer. That is the way it worked and better if we leave it at that.

An Experiment

March 2002 - Place Pune, India. Although I personally witnessed the below incident, I was not the driving force behind it. For me, it was always going to be more like an experiment and I had already decided to be just a spectator with an open mind and that is exactly what I did. Let me share it. Zoyanal was my senior colleague and friend in the amateur forum that we had formed sometime back to discuss the paranormal. His was a strongly opinioned personality and he paid little attention to what others had to say. He firmly believed that the smallest of the discussions or the conversations that occurred in the past always remain alive at certain level. They fade away only when the majority of the wandering souls that were part of those scene or discussions are reborn somewhere else. Since for each soul, the waiting period can be different, the scene can remain intact for few seconds or thousands of years. According to Zoyanal, each scene has an aura associated with it depending on the underlying emotional intensity felt by the characters involved. This aura forms a handle when one tries to witness the scene again using certain mantric techniques and chants. Stronger the aura, more are the chances that mantric will succeed. At times, especially in case of tragedies, deaths and other violent incidents, the aura associated is so strong that the scenes get reconstructed without any invitation. When we witness these uncontrolled scenes we call them haunting. I did not really fully agree to this but I was aware of the large collection of powerful chants Zoyanal had and was very curious to find out how he managed to witness something that happened in the past. He never used Ouija boards saying that it added no value. It took me some effort to convince him to let me be present for one his experiments. Once he accepted me he was quite informative and helpful. He said that it was only the second time when he would be attempting the reconstruction in the house he lived in now. He said, he preferred his ancestral house in the northern part of Goa to carry out these activities, because it took less effort overall. Perhaps because the place was quite old and more responsive. But we did not have time for a two day trip so decided to carry out the experiment on one weekend when Zoyanal was going to be alone in the house. He explained to me that he had no control over what we would be seeing. Factors like humidity, weather condition, state of the moon, position of the stars and aura of the incidents hovering in the zone at that time, will largely influence what we will see. I went to his place on Friday right after the dinner. His study room was dimly lit except for the small but strong red light bulb which he had wrapped with a towel to reduce the intensity. On

the ground there was a fairly large shiny brass plate. One half of the plate was coated with some sort of thick black material that Zoyanal had created specifically for the occasion. He was carrying a small sack in his hand in which he had kept all the material he would need for the night. Zoyanal pulled out a white chalk from his sack and drew a rectangle on the floor. The rectangle was slightly larger than the brass plate. He then kept the brass plate at the center of it. Zoyanal then pulled out few hard flour balls from his sack and pressed them on the material coated side of the plate. He then took out a piece of coal and started drawing symbols outside the rectangle. He placed four lemons on the four corners and inserted a pointed pin in each of them. He then applied touch of wet vermilion to his forehead as well as mine. The rest he scattered in the air. Finally the preparation seemed to be complete to his satisfaction as he sat cross legged outside the rectangle and opened his notebook of chants. Before he began, he told me not to get diverted by anything that I may hear or see happening in the room. I was supposed to focus in the other half of the plate that was not covered. I leaned forward and took a look. The surface indeed was very shiny and I could see my face clearly. I asked Zoyanal if this was going to be something like a crystal ball viewing to which his nodded and smiled. Once we settled back, Zoyanal folded his hands and started a prayer. It was not fully Sanskrit but sounded more like a fusion of Sanskrit and some other native language which I could not understand. I did not realize when he jumped from the opening prayer to the main chants because the pronunciation was quite similar. After every couple of verses, Zoyanal would pull out a candle from his bag and light it. He did not bother to check if they remained lit or not. Some of them burned and some of them did not. For the first few minutes I felt nothing. After that I started getting a mild sensation that there was some kind of charge building up in the atmosphere. I could hear very faint chatter like noise but could not exactly figure out where it was coming from. Still I could see nothing in the open section on the brass plate. I then remembered Zoyanal's instruction of not paying attention to the change in the atmosphere and tried to focus on the plate itself. Zoyanal himself seemed to have moved into kind of trance now. He was no longer referring to his notebook and was reciting chants from his memory. Quite a few candles were now scattered around him. He was not lighting any new ones though. Instead of that, after every few seconds he was throwing some kind of black powder behind him by stretching his hand over his head. I still could think clearly but at the same time was having a feeling that if I let my guard down, I may get dragged into some kind of hypnotic spell. I shook my head and focused back on the plate. It happed all of a sudden. There was no prelude. One moment the shiny surface was empty and next moment a scene was unfolding on it. It was like switching on a television. Only indication I got before the surface became live was the strong smell of fried fish. The first thing I saw was an old primus stove and lantern with a small tank that fits with it. Something was cooking on it in a half burnt aluminum utensil most probably rice. On the ground there was plate full of fried fish. It looked like a cheap river fish variety. It was like watching live telecast of what is happening inside the house from a small window. You get a clear but restricted view. A radio was playing Hindi songs somewhere in the background. Looking at the kind of furniture I could see and what I could hear on the radio, my guess was we were around 50 years back in the past. I was looking into a household of lower middle class

working family. A middle aged woman in her late forties was sitting on the ground near the stove and was talking to someone. She was wearing a cheap sari and almost no jewelry. I could not see with whom she was speaking to, as the other person was out of focus. It was a female voice and the casual friendly tone suggested that she might also be from the same age group. For a brief moment I shifted my focus from the plate to what was happening around me in the room. The room was still charged up; Zoyanal's face had a strange withdrawn look as he continued his chants. He was looking into the plate as well but his eyes looked vacant. I doubted if he was actually seeing anything. He had pulled out a rosary from either his sack or his pocket and he was holding it tightly in this right hand. The visibility in the room had dropped and the room felt colder. I shifted my focus back to the plate and tried to hear the conversation. They were discussing a family marriage that must have taken place recently. I could hear the other woman saying that the guests were happy and elders were satisfied. It was a good ceremony which pleased everyone. For couple of minutes the conversation dragged on the similar dull lines when all of a sudden I heard the sound of a crash, then a thud - as if - someone was falling to the ground followed by a female voice yelping in pain. Most probably the other woman whom I could not see seemed to have fallen down. Perhaps the chair or whatever she was using broke. The woman that I could see stood up and rushed out of the focus. I could hear angry voices and moans. I then heard someone coughing but that sound was not coming from the scene. It was Zoyanal who had gone very red in the face and could not continue his chants. He seemed to be hit by bout of cough. He waved at me, indicating to relax back and close my eyes. I was reluctant to but did what he suggested. Zoyanal still continued to say chants but was gasping for breath intermittently. The charge in the room was diminishing slowly. I could sense that. I cannot account for the next two minutes. Perhaps I went into some sort of trance. But when I came back to my sense, Zoyanal had got up and was drinking deeply from the jug of water on the center table. The brass plate was clear and all I could see was my own reflection. The air had cleared up and the room felt normal. I helped Zoyanal to wrap things up. He looked very tired so I decided it best not to ask any questions that night. He could not throw much light on the scene itself. He said sometimes, setting up this experience could be very demanding on the body and he had little energy left to actually witness the scene. We both tried to think why we witnessed this particular scene. But except for a rather lame guess that the women who fell might have sustained serious injuries, we could draw no conclusions. Zoyanal, however was sure that the location of the house that we saw in the scene was the same as the one where we carried out this experiment. Before the new six storey apartment was built and Zoyanal's parents moved in some 22 years back the area was occupied by families of workers from the nearby garment factories. They had this habit of building makeshift houses, just about better than a typical slum or a hut. Zoyanal had seen these houses from other angles in his previous attempts and had recognized the surrounding area. From my point of view this was a novel experience but I had never doubted Zoyanal's ability as a mantric or tantric whichever he preferred to call himself. But this did not help much either to prove or disprove his theory. In 2005, I accompanied him to his native place for one more

session in which he used similar technique to find out a thief. I will write about it some other time

An Office Haunting

The incidents which I am about to relate occurred at my office a couple of years back. I have already described one such Office Haunting in my story "The Parking Lot Ghost". The events which I am about to narrate were experienced in a single night and the people associated with it had one hell of a scary experience. This incident occurred about a year after my encounter with the Parking Lot Ghost. My nerves were on the edge for a couple of months after the incident but had now calmed down sufficiently. Work was monotonous and the night shifts were long and boring. And then one night something happened. It was a Saturday night, a time when most of us are enjoying a gala time with our families and friends and here I was in office working in the graveyard shift. Really frustrating but nothing much could be done about it. There were only a few people in the office that night, mainly the housekeeping and administration staff and a bored receptionist who was busy idling away his time. Unfortunately for me there was an IT implementation for V-Sat equipment going on. We had to install an Antenna (VSAT out Door Unit) on the Terrace. There were two unfortunate colleagues helping me that night, equally unhappy as me for having sacrificed a beautiful evening in such a manner. But work it was and it had to be completed that night itself. It was around midnight when we finally managed to shift the heavy antenna to the terrace of the building and installed it at its final resting place. It was a tough job considering the weight of the antenna. A few minor configurations and we would be done for the night. Everything was normal until this time. Then things started to happen. Incident One: - The Receptionist We were sitting in the cafeteria on the ground floor hungrily gobbling up our dinner and enjoying the fruits of our labour when we suddenly heard a loud scream. We were all surprised and rushed outside. The receptionist, as we could see it, stood huddled in one corner of the room sweating profusely and scared out of his wits. One of the guys went up to him but he was really very hysterical and it took us around 15 minutes to calm him down. He then related his account: As usual, he was sitting at the desk, whiling away his time. With nothing much to do, he had probably dozed off when he suddenly felt a stinging slap on his face. He woke up in a daze, frantically trying to locate the perpetrator but to his dismay, found no one around him. His ordeal wasn't over as an invisible hand caught him by the neck and slapped him once more. He was literally thrown off his chair by the force of the second slap. Scared as hell, he retreated to one corner of the room and started screaming at the top of his voice asking for help. On closer examination we found that his face was red and swollen. Someone or something powerful had struck him really hard. We quickly checked the CCTV logs to check whether anyone had recently

entered the area. What we saw was really scary. The CCTV footage showed that the receptionist was dozing on his seat when he was struck twice by an unseen force. We could see that he was being hit but his attacker was invisible. He was badly shaken and was immediately sent home. He was too scared to come back and left the job subsequently. We were all shaken and trying to come to terms with the situation when the second incident occurred. Incident 2: The Shop Floor Ghost There were two housekeeping staff who were on the shop floor doing their routine chores like cleaning and dusting the floor. The shop floor was big enough to seat around 200 people. It was empty at that time as all the staff using that floor had left for the day. Suddenly one of them noticed a girl at the far end of the room working at a frenzied pace on her computer and singing at the same time. The sound of her voice and the keyboard on which she was working literally reverberated throughout the empty floor. It did not seem normal for someone to be working on the floor at that time. Both the housekeeping staff came out and reported this to the security guard. The guard immediately went inside but found no one at the desk where the girl was seen. However there was something strange. The noise of the keyboard and the singing was still heard in the room as if someone was still there. The guard was scared and called everyone to the shop floor to witness the strange occurrence. We all went there and could actually hear someone singing eerily and working really hard on the keyboard but strangely no one was visible. One of the guys had a bright idea and suggested that we could actually see a ghost through a camera even though it wasn't visible to the naked eye. For this, he had all the lights in the room switched off. He then switched on his mobile phone camera and moved it around the room trying to locate the entity. We could not locate anything for the first five minutes. Then suddenly the camera picked up a faint outline of something moving, around 30 feet from where we were standing. The figure was moving from one desk to the singing and at the same time pressing hard on the computer keyboard keys. The song of the entity along with sound of the keyboard was heard from exactly the same location where the figure was seen from the camera. Five of us who were present there were glued to the camera when I suddenly noticed something which the others had failed to pick up. The entity was slowly proceeding towards us at a steady pace and was only ten feet away from us. I snatched the camera from my friend's hand and literally pushed everyone out of the room. I can't imagine what the entity would have done if it had caught up with us. Once out of the room we could still hear the song and the sound of the keyboard inside. Thankfully nothing happened to us. Perhaps the entity just wanted to have its fun and since we played spoil sport, it tried to shoo us away. Incident 3: Ghost on the Terrace It was around 3.00 am by now. Half an hour had passed since the last incident. We were scared but at the same time anxious too. Something inside told me that there was more to come. At around 3.15 am, we heard a loud crash on the terrace of the building. We went upstairs and to our dismay, saw that the antenna which we had installed with so much difficulty that evening had toppled over from the roof and fallen down on the floor. The screws had been literally ripped away from the hard concrete floor on which the base of the antenna had been firmly fixed. It seemed very unlikely that something like this could happen on its own. We just couldn't believe our eyes. I sent one of the guys downstairs to check whether we had a spare antenna

available. My friend and I were waiting on the terrace when it started to rain. We ran to take cover under the terrace roof waiting for the rain to subside. It was really very depressing as all our hard work had gone waste and we would have to install the antenna all over again. Just then I heard a voice coming from the roof of the terrace exactly above the place where we had taken shelter. Instinctively, I looked up and was aghast at what I saw. It was a girl in a gown standing on the top of the roof merrily singing a song and enjoying the rain. I just saw her for a couple of seconds before she disappeared. Suddenly my colleague screamed. I looked back and saw the same girl standing around five feet from where I was. This time her expression was more serious and she was angrily staring straight at me. That look is something which I will never ever forget. Just thinking about it gives me the shivers even now. This was as much as my jumpy nerves could take. My friend and I ran downstairs until we came right out of the building. We narrated the incident to all present and decided to stay together in the cafeteria until dawn. We reported this incident to our superiors the next day. They asked us to underplay the whole thing to avoid panic among the staff. The CCTV footage was a too strong an evidence to be shrugged off. Surprisingly nothing major happened afterwards. Even to this day the staff has reservations about moving alone within the office premises at night. We had encountered three paranormal occurrences that day: 1) Slapping of the receptionist caught on CCTV 2) Ghostly apparition seen on the Shop Floor 3) The Girl on the Terrace Why did we experience these paranormal occurrences that night only? Was it a single entity or multiple ones who caused so much havoc? What actually triggered these events? Was it a particular person or something that we did? I tried hard but could not figure out a plausible explanation for the above questions. Your guess is as good as mine.

An Unforgettable Night

It was during the cold winter night of January this incident occurred, a night; we tried to forget but just can't get it out of our minds. It was a Saturday and the three of us, Sanju, Ajay and Jeetu (me) had been all day together, enjoying ourselves. 10 p.m. Was the time; we were at Sanju's house, passing our time by talking,

playing games and cracking jokes. Ajay asked what the plan was for dinner. Sanju said he knew a new place that had opened up and had great food. Pritam's Dhaba was the place at the outskirts of the city; at least an hour drives from Sanju's place. We did not argue much, and decided to go ahead. Sanju picked up the keys of his Honda Accord and we left around 11 p.m. We reached the Dhaba, we ate and were done by 12 midnight at which point it was time to head back home. We sat in the car; Sanju drove, with me on the passenger seat and Ajay alone on the back seat. 10 minutes passed and I realized Sanju had taken a different route. He said it would save us some time getting back. The road was deserted as it had only swamps around it. It was a no-moons night and the temperature was around 12 degrees. It was a long stretch of road, and for some reason I was getting the chills. 12. 30 a.m. We were in the middle of this dreaded road around the swamps and our car started to slow down and with a few jerks stopped in the middle of nowhere. "What happened Sanju?" I asked. "Wait, I'll check" he answered. Sanju opened the Bonnet and started to check what the problem was. I sat in the car and Ajay got out of the car saying "I want to pee". Sanju finished off playing with the engines and came sat in the car. "Prob solved, where's Ajay?" he asked. He's gone to pee. I said. Ajay returned and sat back in the car. "What took you so long dude?" I asked. He did not respond. Sanju was wiping his hands, when he asked Ajay the same question and turned back to have a look at Ajay. Sanju turned back and froze for the next 10 seconds. I looked at Sanju and asked "What happened, what's the matter with you?" Not getting a response from him I also turned back to Ajay who was sitting right behind me to see what the problem was. Ajay just stared at us angrily, with utter disgust. His nostrils flared up, his hair was a mess and what even spooked me more was when I saw his eyes. Brown coloured cattish eyes, whereas Ajay had black eyes in reality and did not wear lenses. Five Seconds later Ajay's hands were on his neck choking himself, he screamed in a shrilling Feminine voice and his eyes had rolled up, only the white of it could be seen. God, that scream was just horrible; it still gives me the creeps. Sanju and myself got out of the car. I opened the back door and tried to stop Ajay from choking himself, that's when he pushed me with his left hand and I fell at least six feet away. Physically, on normal day, it was not possible for Ajay to do that to me. Sanju helped me get up. We both were in shock and scared for our friend. "What do we do?" Sanju asked. I went to the car and removed the small idol of Lord Ganesh (Hindu God) that was kept next to the steering wheel. I gave Sanju the idol and a bottle of water. We opened the back doors again, Ajay was still choking himself, I started to recite the Hanuman Chalisa (Sacred Hindu Mantra) and this time held his hand's firm and pulled them from his neck, Sanju at the same time put the Ganesh idol in his pocket and poured the water on his face. It worked; Ajay started to calm down and fainted eventually. Sanju and myself were still in shock and were trying to figure out what had happened in the last 15 minutes. I signaled to Sanju that we should leave ASAP. We went to Sanju's house and carried Ajay to his bedroom. We sat next to him.

He woke up at 7 in the morning and looked at us and asked, "What happened, how did I get here and why are you guys awake and staring at me? "Nothing, you just fell asleep in the car and we brought you here." I replied with a nervous smile. Later we dropped him home, and told the incident to his father. We kept a watch over him for a few days to see if anything about him had changed or not, but he seemed to be fine. His father thanked us and asked us to forget it and never discuss it again. We never discussed it with anyone, but cannot forget that night and may not be able to forget it, a night when we almost lost our friend.

Astrologist Warned Us

If you have read my previous story 'Encounter with a Burnt Child' you would know I came for an interview in Hyderabad. After landing the job I was married after a year. My husband and I moved into a new flat with my husband. We used to have spiritual programs in our house and we had this little temple where we used to offer prayers and sing bhajans (Indian devotional prayers). The house was mostly fragrant with incense and ghee lamp (made by clarified butter). I think this is why we did not encounter anything weird. There was nothing to be afraid of and it was just a normal flat. Also, we never had only one person in the house at anytime as we both used to go to work together and come back together. Also, none of us ever went outside alone for shopping etc. We always liked to be together in whatever we did whether outside grocery shopping or inside household work like cooking. One day during one of our spiritual program, an astrologer also came as he was friend to one of our regular visitors. After the program ended, we had a small chit chat and before leaving he just said - 'I can sense a negative presence in this house'. Initially we did not like what he said because our belief is if you surrender to God you have nothing to worry about. Even if there is some negative presence let it be as we are having regular prayers and that is countering its negativity. After he left we continued with our lives. We forgot about the incident. One day I was not well and so could not make it to office. My husband left and asked me to take some rest. I had not taken any medicines as it was just a common cold and mild fever. The afternoon was warm and after eating my meal I already started feeling drowsy. I lay down on bed and closed my eyes. I was not yet asleep when my senses suddenly felt something in full speed, in a split second rush through the door in a curving angle right on my top. I was not able to move. I tried hard getting up but could not. As my eyes were closed I tried opening them but could not either. It was as if someone was choking me up. All this time I kept chanting the holy names of the Lord from the Vedas in my heart. After I think 30-45 seconds the force was suddenly lifted up. It felt as if the entity could not stand any more and had to give up. I rose up sitting on my bed sweating. I was very frightened. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I did not know what I would see next. I picked up my mobile to call my husband but later

thought he will worry unnecessarily. He can't do anything sitting there in office anyway can he? Then I put some shamans (devotional prayers) on which were on my mobile and lay down again. I was unable to control my sleep. In the midst of the dim sounds of the shamans I slept like half asleep. There was no second attack. It is worth mentioning I did not have sleep paralysis anytime before at least not in last 5 years. After my husband came back I told him what happened and he consoled me. He asked me to be spiritually a bit stronger because these entities try to attack only vulnerable people. Anyway after that we never had any second such attack. But the story doesn't end here. We lived for next few months without any problems. In fact we forgot about the entity and became happy with our peaceful lives. One evening when we came back home the electricity was gone. It is common in many Indian cities even today that power gets cut off occasionally. So it was already dark and in pitch darkness we went up our flat using stairs. We opened the door, took the torch and lighted some candles. I went to the kitchen to fetch water. Kitchen was in one place in this house I did not like. Because the kitchen window used to open near the apartment stairs which meant there was no source for direct sunlight to enter the kitchen and it was mostly grey. Anyway we took some water and snacks and then we decided what to cook. The electricity still had not been up. I went to kitchen to get ready things while my husband was getting freshened up to join me shortly. I had this candle on the platform and was pouring oil in a wok. Just above the platform were these wooden cupboards with doors. They were extended from the wall which means the top of the cupboards were flat extension from the wall where something can be kept or stored. The land owners had these very heavy glass panes around 2-4 of them on the top of this cupboard for future kitchen renovation work. Let me tell you these glass panes very well fitted the width of the cupboard top. I.e. The cupboard was 2-3 cm wider than the panes and so the panes were well settled inside the cupboard width with no part swinging outwards. They were very heavy and completely flat lying there safe and sound. After I had hardly poured the oil and the wok was heating up, I heard a very high blasting sound right in front of me. Several thoughts came in my mind in a split second. Has the cylinder burst? No can't be because I am still alive. Is it a blast on the road? No the sound has come right here in front of me. The candle had gone off so I could not see anything. By this time my husband had already come rushing to kitchen with candle in his hand and a panicked face as to what has happened. Now in the candle light I could see very small shards of glass spread all around on the platform, in the wok, on the floor and everywhere. We both got confused. How can the glass panes fall on their own unless they don't have an external force? There was no wind there anyway and even if there would have been, the panes were too heavy to be moved by wind. Can a home lizard do it? Lizards are common in Indian houses but they are just too small and weak to even move a pane by a millimeter. There was no cat or dog. And why would a cat go up the cupboard? The panes cannot fall on their own because as mentioned earlier they very well fit within the width of cupboard top without any of their part swinging out. We had no option but to conclude it can be that entity the astrologer talked about. But what we thanked most was I was standing right in front of the platform right below the cupboard top. If

the pane had fallen on my head I would be dead. But it didn't although logically it cannot be explained why the pane skipped my head. I was singing bhajans while cooking as it is my normal habit so I think God was merciful on me. After this incident we continued living there for another few months until the landlord asked us to vacate as he had his relatives move in. I am still skeptical if there was an entity at all in the house or if my experiences can have any other logical explanation.

At Paul's Place

After some quality time at Paul's house I headed back home, it was dark already. I had my motorcycle and within a few minutes I was halfway through. Thanks to my Yamaha I was able to make it up fast; I paused for some tea and cigarettes. A cold evening and the hot tea and cigarettes were soothing. There wasn't much traffic on the roads, after some time I started again. I had my helmet removed for some fresh air, and whilst moving I suddenly felt some additional weight on my bike. Hmmm was a little weird, but wasn't much bothered at first, later my vehicle started wobbling. Now this was totally unusual. Before I could further think what it was about, I felt my body heating up, as if something was trying to hold me tight. An eerie feeling, but because of the chillness outside, I thought I must be getting sick and stuff. The intensity of this kept increasing, as I went through the roads, I saw a nice church on the left side. The moment I saw the church I felt the weight behind the bike and the heat on my body suddenly come off. In a few meters I slowed down to halt and turned back. Before I could step on the brakes I heard a huge blast, it was my tire going pop. I got off my bike, to see no one on the road. I knew there was something behind my bike but because my tire popped out I convinced myself for it to be a problem with my bike. It was late night and I couldn't find any mechanic shops and I didn't try either. I called Paul and asked him to come and pick me up. I parked my bike near the church and planned to take it back the next day. Luckily I had bought a pack of cigarettes, and they kept me company until Paul came. He came in his dad's car. I got into the vehicle and we speeded through. He wanted me to stay over at his place. The moment we crossed streets, that is the second we moved away from the street, I could sense something else amongst us. This wasn't much of a sense, it was a feeling. I could feel the warmth around my body even with the visors down. He knew I was a little uncomfortable and asked me if I needed help. But as always I refused to say anything and asked him to turn on the music. We reached his place. We had some dinner and hit the bed immediately. We were in his room, a nice largish room, but the small cot didn't provide enough room for the two of us. He agreed to sleep on the couch. Even in his house I was a little uneasy. The lights were off; his air conditioner wasn't turned on because of the chillness around. He dozed off in a couple of minutes. But what seemed to be happening in a lighter tone intensified. I felt I was tied up tight and my body's heat went up to an extreme, I was suffocating. I could feel the presence of a spirit for clear now, but wasn't clear enough what it wanted from me, right from the roads

this heat has been engulfing me. Now it intensified and I couldn't move a muscle. Everything came to an end when Paul's mother suddenly opened the door. The lights came on, and lit brightly and fused off, all after his mother entered in. I could find myself relieved off the pressure that was holding me. I was dripping with sweat. The sound the lights made when they turned on and off woke up Paul too. We were in the dark, and an odd smell filled the room. Paul's mother immediately took the two of us out into the living room. Paul's mother spoke to me for half an hour about this. She was a lady who could see and sense apparitions. She has been having this power from her childhood. The reason why she busted in was that, she heard mourns let out by a girl, the sounds they let out whilst having sex. She also could feel an eerie feeling that was keeping her awake. And thanks that she had come in and I didn't have to experience it any further. There were two phases in his house and the living room was lit and bright. I could see my face very pale in the mirror. Though Paul's mother and I understood what it was, we easily came out of it in a few days but Paul just witnessing the lights going on and off and his mother busting in is still in a hell of a lot of confusion. When thought about it still gives the creeps to me, as if what I would have done without his mother coming.

Attacks From Incubus Or Ghost?

Iam a 26-year-old male and I live in India. About a year back I broke up with my partner. I was very depressed after the break up. I trusted that person very much. After the break up I started to stay up quite late when I was of on days off from work. I would sit and browse the internet as well as interact with other people on the net which helped ease my pain. I also visited prone sites, which I was interested and curious about as I never had a sexual relationship as such. The days were going fine until a few weeks ago. I only ever heard about demons or incubus/succubus attacks and was thinking that it was just some kind of psychological problem with people. However I am now being attacked by an incubus or ghost, which I am not able to tell clearly. One night whilst sleeping I awoke to the feel of someone touching my legs (I used to lock my room door before I sleep) when I got up to have a look no one there. Later whilst I was browsing I felt a tingling sensation on my hairs and also on my shoulder. In the days that followed these touches continued but moved to other parts of my body which was not scary as such. About 3 weeks back, I started to feel touching sensations near my pubic sides and also on my penis. One night I just closed my eyes and tried to concentrate to establish whether my mind was playing with me or if this was a real phenomenon. The sensation was somewhat kind of feeble. Pulsating touches with some silk thread or like a very feeble electric current, which increased from the toes to head like passing electricity and I could feel that pulsation in my groin in a very intense manner and felt like someone was touching me. I quickly shook this feeling away and immediately laid on my side. Within seconds I felt the same pulsation on my back near my shoulders and also on my buttocks at the same time. I could feel that pulsation down on my anal opening as if some male was trying to have sex with me. I unlocked the door and went to my brother's room and slept in his room with the mattress on the floor. (I am still sleeping in his

room as I am not comfortable to sleep alone now) Even as I lay on the mattress in my brother's room I was still feeling the sensations again and again. I never let that thing enter in me. I always shook it away, but these sensations come in waves. I am losing sleep and my asthma has triggered of again. I go to work and in the office I am experiencing these sexual touches. This is really happening, this is not a dreams or something. I can't tell anyone because here no one believes it. Please someone help me by giving suggestions to get rid of it away.

Barnstorm Kashmir

During this summer vacation -- back in Kashmir -- every morning we would get up to hear the latest lowdown about Abdullah, the ghost in our neighbor's newly built home. My sis would religiously narrate the Jinn's slate of activities from the previous day. She would in turn get the dope straight from the horse's mouth - that is - lady of the haunted house. Anyone who visited my neighbors' home would ostensibly find his/her shoes/sandals/floaters instantly thrown out of the place. The Jinn - they named him Abdullah -- seemed to harbor some kind of a strong revulsion for the footwear, I was told. In my characteristic style, I tried to rubbish the supernatural claims until my neighbor himself confided in me about the strange paranormal occurrence. He even invited me to witness the spectacle - shoes flying off - which I politely declined. On a personal note, I am a little scared of these phantoms, which tease at will. A significant part of our idle talk invariably used to center around Abdullah, the boot hater. My pals -- Wasy, Raj and Salus -- were all curious, like me for the latest ghostly update. Stories like the Jinn swinging doors at odd hours or digging up the lawn at midnight or talking in eerie voices continued to come. Frankly I'd get goose bumps. The last I've heard -- on phone -- is that Abdullah has started talking in some exotic language and he still continues to chuck shoes out of the beautiful one-story house of my good neighbor. Ever heard of a spick and span spook! Happens in Kashmir, only.

Black Magic

This has been the most dreadful experience in my life. I had never imagined I would see such a day. Me and one of my friends used to go to private tuition in a quite remote place. I have always heard of black magic stories but always took them for a joke. My grandmother and my mum always said that many people practiced black magic in my locality.

On that particular day, we saw some ten rupees coins in the middle of a crossroad. At that time we of course didn't bother about silly superstitions. We both picked them up, and nothing strange happened to us on our way. But I didn't know what was waiting for me in my room. At night, around 9:30, I was combing my hair when I felt someone playing with my hair. I didn't bother about that and thought that I was imagining things. But then I saw a white woman looking dreamingly in the mirror! When I talked about it to my mother she immediately called the priest who did many rituals with a yellow lemon which significantly turned in a reddish type of colour. Then he asked me whether my hair was loose or not. And effectively it was. He said that it followed me by holding my hair. Then I realized that the stories about roaming spirits that my grandparents and parents used to narrate were in fact true.

Black Magic

As mentioned in my earlier story, I do believe in the other side of life. This story is about black magic/Voodoo. This actually happened to my mom. In 2007, one morning in March my mom woke up as usual around 6 am and got about her work. She finished brushing her teeth and was coming out of the bathroom when she slipped and fell. It was not a dangerous fall or anything major. But since she did fall she screamed. Me and my sister came running down our rooms which are upstairs. My dad had gone for his morning walk as usual, so we came down to find her on the floor near the bathroom door. We panicked, and tried to help her up but she was unable to get up at all. I asked what happened and she said she slipped, and that it was not a big deal but now she is not able to get up. So with a lot of difficulty my sister and me picked her up and laid her down on the bed. It looked like she was still in shock or something because she could not believe that a fall like that would make her unable to walk. We made sure she was comfortable, and waited for my dad. Once my dad got home we called the Ortho (Doc) and asked him to visit us at home as my mom was now complaining about pain in her hip. The Ortho came, checked and did not seem to understand but suggested a scan. So the next day we took her to the hospital; and got all the scanning done. Meanwhile she was on painkillers until the report came out. Ortho informed us that there was no visible damage or reason for the pain that she was undergoing. By now it was weeks since the fall, and my mom was getting very worried. I will de track from this story a bit to give some information on the events in February which has relevance to this situation. My mom has a cousin who stays in a nearby town, she is not someone we all like and she is not very good at heart mainly because the family is into the dark sides of the supernatural world. I mean this lady believes in black magic and stuff like that. We are not on great terms with the family but yes we used to invite them over if there was a function or family event. One weekend in Feb she arrived at our house with her son and daughter in law. She said she wanted my dad to help her son get a job in the city. My parents are really nice people, they

believe if we can do something good and if it's in our limits let's try. So my dad told her he would try. She arrived at our house like an abnormal, but since she was here with her family we let them stay that weekend. All the three of them stayed in a guest room upstairs for the weekend. They all left on Sunday evening and we all forgot about the visit. Coming back to my main story, so at this point my sister and me started to wonder if that lady had probably done something. We went upstairs and started to just check the whole room they had stayed in. We pulled everything out and started to search for anything that did not belong there. After looking through the whole room we found nothing, at this point the caretaker of our house (he is a distant relative but was helping us during my mom's illness) came upstairs and suggested we also go through the cabinets above the wardrobe where we store a lot of useless stuff. I climbed up on a chair and opened the first cabinet which was empty and there was pretty much nothing except dust and few crumpled pieces of paper and waste. Then I saw something, there was a piece of wood, about 3" long and inch in width. It was rolled in with a piece of black cloth and there were some strands of hair and a paper put in with it. I freaked out as it seemed weird. I asked the caretaker to sweep the whole thing on to a dustpan. When he got it down, we saw a ball of my mom's hair (she has curly long hair unlike my sister and me who have straight and short hair) and a piece of her petticoat wound up on to the wood. Also the piece of paper had dates starting from the day my mom fell until April 12th. The dates were random, I did not understand on calculations of the dates marked, but it seemed like her falling ill and getting worse would all end with something bad on April 12th. We went outside and burned the whole thing. My sister was in the house and she said she sensed a strong smell of hair being burnt after we came back. All of this was very disturbing; we told our dad when he got home. We turned to a priest, who is a great friend of my dad. We told him about the situation and he said we did a good thing by burning it outside the house. He came over and blessed the house one day after we had told him. My mom got better and completely recovered in about a month. We did not mention any of this to her until one day. And she took the news amazingly well. She also mentioned that during those days she had had sensed very big levels of fear and always felt like someone was there even when none of us were around. Luckily we were able to get past the experience and today we hardly ever think of it. That lady is no more welcome to our house and we have completely cut her and her family out of our lives.

Black Magic

This was an incident that happened to my sister a couple of days after my uncle's death. There were a couple of relatives in my grandmom's house the day after my uncle was cremated and for some reason they all decided to sleep in the same room though there were two other big rooms.

My sister was sleeping next to my mom on a mattress spread out on the floor and she was woken up by the sound of an alarm. It continued to ring and strangely she was the only one who heard it. When she woke my mom up and told her about this, mom thought she was just hallucinating but my sister heard the sound loud and clear. She told me that she was not hallucinating and that she was wide awake and no one heard it other than her. After some time she managed to get some sleep and this time she felt something falling on her head. At first she was really puzzled as to what it was but she tells me it was hard like someone was dropping marbles on her head. She was so freaked out as she could feel it but she couldn't see anything. She just pulled the blanket over her head and prayed that it would be morning soon. Nobody believed her, but I do, she's definitely not the kind who would fake such things and when she was narrating the story I could see genuine fear in her eyes. We later learned from an expert that someone had performed black magic on that house and the only reason that we were not facing the full consequences of that was because the spirit of my granddad (who had died a couple of years before my uncle) was preventing it from entering the house. We then asked this person to rid the house of all the evils and we sold it. I still remember this eerie feeling my sister and I would get when we were in this area facing the backyard the house. We would always feel that someone or something was there. Till date I get shivers when I think of what happened. I was just fortunate to not have witnessed anything my sister did. I still wonder why that happened to my sister

Black Magic - What Happened Before And After

As my name obviously states I am Logan's sis, I thought it would be interesting to post my stories related to the original 'Black Magic' posted by Logan on this site. There are two incidents that happened before and after the night that Logan and our caretaker found the 'hex bag' in our house. On the Night - Logan and our caretaker took the bag outside our house. I stayed back at the house as my mom was sleeping (due to the fall she was still ill). I was in the kitchen and suddenly I smelt something burning, a very, very strong smell of hair burning and I felt like something was very wrong, I was completely freaking out. As soon as Logan came back I asked them why they had burned it so close to the house as I smelt it, but she was shocked and said it was about 15 minutes walk to the place where they burned the bag! I felt really weird and it felt so unnatural. Before the Night - I slept one night as usual and at about 2 or 3 am I kind of woke up, not completely awake but kind of aware of being awake. I just changed sides and turned to my left to make myself comfortable on the bed. I was vaguely aware of something behind me (my head was to the door of the room), I recall that it was a black idol. Something like a diety, but it

looked very scary and it had kind of a red mark on its forehead (in India we use something called the KumKum on the forehead also known as bindi usually used by girls). I just thought to myself that I was only imagining it and forced myself back to sleep. That image is still very clear in my mind and it sends chills down my spine when I think of it. I believe that what I saw was related to the bag because during those few days when that bag was at our house almost all of us felt scared being by ourselves in the house, except my dad. I am sure a lot of people may think it is all in our minds but what happened to us will only remain with us!

Contacting Spirits Using Ouija Board

Hyderabad, India, This is the place I was born and bought up and still working in. I love this city. I saw this site 2 days back and I thought of sharing my real experience with you. Ouija board this is the famous word I used to hear when I was in 12th class. Being interested in paranormal activities me and 4 of my friends (sruthi, anu, preethi and vaishali) planned to use Ouija board to contact some spirits. One fine day when anu's parents were not in we planned to stay in their house until 8pm. We informed our parents and went directly from the class. It was around 4pm when we settled down and started to talk about the Ouija board, we didn't have one so we used some reference from the internet and prepared one. I have good artistic skills so it was assigned to me, it came out very good. It was around 4.30pm so it was pretty bright outside; selecting the darkest room in the house we removed all the hanging pictures and symbols of god. We settled down in a nice corner and referred to the internet for precautions to be taken. We made sure that we should never ask "what you want?" keeping a coin on the board we just thought of calling our dad who died when I was 7yrs old, everyone was excited and at the same time tensed and afraid of what was going to happen. Whole heatedly we called his spirit and automatically the coin under our fingers started moving. Tears were rolling in my eyes. Some strong force was pulling the coin I asked "dad is that you?" the coin moved on to "yes" then some questions by my friends the coin kept on moving to symbols "yes" and "no". Then we asked him to leave as I was unable to control my tears and sadness. Before leaving the coin moved on to some alphabets "ILOVEYOUDEARTAKECAREOFYOURMOMANDSIS" it is "I love you dear take care of your mom and sis" I was literally crying and then the coin moved on to end indicating that my dad left us. For the next half an hour I was unable to control my tears and I kept on crying... It was around 6pm when we planned to have some snacks and coke. After that around 6.30 or so we thought of calling our classmate who died 2 months back in a car crash. Talking about her she was the naughtiest girl in the class she loved to make fun of others. We settled down in the same place it was darker than before, we were not much afraid because nothing happened when we called my dad.

Now it was time to call aishwarya's spirit, after 3 minutes the coin moved to "start" we asked her some silly questions. One of these was "there are many spirits around did you flirt with any one?" the answer was "yes" we asked "who?" to our horror the answer was "DEVIL" we expected some name starting with DEV when the coin moved to I and at the end L we were shocked and asked her to leave just to avoid serious consequences. The coin moved on to "NO" we almost peed in our pants. Now we started pleading with her to leave... Always the answer was "no" this repeated for around 15 times the fingers on the coin shouldn't be removed before the spirit leaves or else it would never leave this world after that, there were tears in all our eyes and something heavy was getting in our heads the coin under our hands started moving awkwardly to the empty spaces in the board after half an hour or so the coin started stopping on alphabets "GOTAFRAIDKIDS" finally to our relief coin went on to "End" after 2 minute when we confirmed that the spirit left us we took our hands off the board and took it out to burn away the board. That night would be worse for anu so I asked my mom weather she could stay that night with us as her parents were not in the city. My mom agreed happily. I couldn't sleep for next 2 days and I never told my mom or sis about this. It's the same with my friends too Sruthi, Preethi and Vaishali couldn't sleep for next one week properly. Everything settled down now and we promised each other that we would never do such stupid things again. To our relief nothing fishy happened in anu's house.

Creepy Attack On My Room Mate

This is the experience that my room mate had in our paying guest apartment. In my earlier post 'Encounter with burnt child', I have mentioned that I came to Hyderabad city for interview. Prior to this, I was working in an IT company in Pune. I had recently joined this company after my graduation and was temporarily staying in this PG accommodation (my hometown is another place). I had one room mate Deepti (name changed). That time most of us did not have mobile phones. Her boyfriend was in Mumbai whom she used to call daily from the nearby STD booth mostly in the evening after coming back from office. Sometimes the calls used to prolong until late nights. This is how it was. As soon as you come out of the PG, you need to take a right turn and again another right turn and again a right, to come to the main road which is just opposite/parallel to the PG. And that's where the STD booth was located. I.e. You need to take a U-turn to go to the STD booth. At the front of the PG, across the road was a boundary wall on the other side of which, are a lot of big trees spread across a piece of land. Anyway, so that means when we are taking U-turn to go to main road, we have to walk side by side that wall. Now this is what happened. It was Diwali time so I went to my hometown on leave of about 15 days. When I returned, I found my room vacant. I thought Deepti has gone to Mumbai which she normally used to do over weekends.

When I enquired from the aunt (owner of the PG) she told something very weird has happened with Deepti. She asked me to check with other girls staying in other PG room as she was too tired to narrate everything. In the evening when most of the girls were in PG, I approached them to know what had happened. What they told left me in utter shock and dismay. One night when Deepti was returning from STD booth after talking to her boyfriend it was almost past 11:30 pm. It was a dark night (Amavasya) and there was no moon in the sky. Just when she was taking the U-turn, she was right in front of the wall when she screamed at her topmost pitch, as if something jumped over her from the tree. Her scream was so high that people in their houses heard it and girls and aunt in PG heard it too and immediately came out. They never knew it was Deepti's scream until they came and saw she was lying there in utter shock, sobbing, not able to believe what is going on. I was left shocked on hearing this and asked those girls what happened next. They told Deepti did not show any weird symptoms after she was taken inside the PG. She slept that night somehow but was very disturbed. They called her mother who came to pick her up to Mumbai. So she left. The girls also guessed that Deepti was the victim of the proper timing for that 'thing' to attack as it was nearly 12:00 in the midnight on an Amavasya. They told that in between one of the girls in PG who also used to go to Mumbai over weekends, went to Mumbai last weekend and also visited Deepti's house just to check everything is fine. She told that Deepti's condition has worsened. She sits in the corner of the room one moment silent and next moment she starts crying in horror pointing her finger in some direction crying 'there he is, there he is, can't you see?' After listening all this I was scared like hell. I had to sleep in that room alone that night and my bed was just by the window. I was so scared after listening to all that the girls told. What if that 'thing' on the tree comes here through the window? I was not able to sleep and kept chanting Lord's name most of the night. Anyway as I had already planned, I shifted to a new flat shortly. Deepti still hadn't returned. After moving to a new flat, my contact with PG aunt and girls was cut-off slowly. I never knew what happened to Deepti until one fine day I found one of the PG girls in market place and enquired with her. She told Deepti has returned and is now fine and whatever it was she is over it now. I don't know what it was that attacked her from the tree but one thing is sure, its intentions were not good.

Creepy Experience

As told in my previous story "Unforgetable Experience" I have come across some unusual situations in my life. It is often said that these type of experiences are faced by people who have a lighter Zodiac sign. But my Zodiac sign being a strong one, I still face these situations. This happened to me almost an year back that is in 2010. I work in Pune, in a IT company. This company is based at a place called Viman nagar. The building is called giga space. I always heard about some paranormal situations faced by people in this building and often thought if they lied. But I personally went through a situation and agreed on the same. It was a Friday night and I was about to go to a party with my friends after my office hours (Friday nights in Pune are always considered to be party nights as Saturday and Sunday are weekly offs). I was at the parking lot and was in a hurry to reach the party spot. In this building 'Giga space', the security guards do not allow you to exit from the same gate you had entered. Instead you have to take a full round of the building and then exit through a different gate. And I tell you the back side of the building is totally dark with no security guards at all. The tall trees surrounding the area make the scene extremely creepy at night. I was on my bike and was heading towards the exit gate when I saw a headlight image in the rear view mirror of my bike. I thought that some four wheeler is coming from behind as I could clearly hear the voice of the engine as well. I was moving at a normal speed and could still see the headlights in the mirror when suddenly the vehicle from my back took speed and came very close to me. I was scared and thought that the vehicle would certainly hit me hard. So somehow I maintained my balance and stopped my bike on the left side. I turned around to see who was the driver and had a terrific shock as there was no vehicle at my back.'How could this be possible?' I said, as there were no turns in the entire passege so that the vehicle would have turned to the right or left side. Then where did the vehicle disappear? Was it my imagination or a paranormal encounter? I still don't have a clue. Many employees in the same building also say that they have come across a lady image on the 4th floor of the building. Still a mystery...

Darkness Shows Something

This is Venki from India and what we call them ghost or sprits real. These are not fake entities but there world is different than not supposed to understand. I am not a Psychologist not even them or feel them. I am 23 and have seen this spirits two times incidents believe me. Now coming to story- Please read it carefully and understand.

whatever a paranormal thing is us which we can't see so we are any ability person who can see in my life. These are 100% true

1 Story: Nightmare on my friend street. When I was in 4th class. I went to my friend house to take a notes of English in which we have to complete homework. I gave my notes in morning in a school to him but forget to take it back. In night I realized I should complete my home work otherwise my nightmare teacher will kill me. So I went to his house for notes and I am bit lucky that I have got 1 experience with ghost. Actually I and my bro both went over there and we stand in front of his house and start calling him. But stupid house main door was closed and time is near 10 PM. We are start calling him again and we saw straight that one person is coming towards us from that road end. Actually that area was underdeveloped. We can clearly see and differentiate that this is something different than normal person and we realized one dog is standing beside us and continuously start screaming. My bro told me to wait don't run let that object to come towards us. And we stand there and allow it to come near us. Then it came at the distance of 15 ft below street light and clearly we can see that it's not a human being it's a paranormal thing. It's actually a women looking thing but she don't have face, just a black spot on face and in white dress. We both ran towards our house and as we opened the gate we heard some voice in very high volume (A Girl Screaming Voice). But only we heard nobody else and we told this happening to our parents but they did not give much stress on this incident. We also forgot that incident but someday before we were watching a horror movie in home then after movie we had a small discussion on this topic then suddenly I remembered we saw sprit in my childhood and I told that story again to my parents and my bro also continue it and told them about that girl scream also then I realized what I remembered and what we saw is a real sprit. 2 Story: A Stranger This is the story three years back. Me and my mom went to my native a small village in Anadra Pradesh near vijaynagaram. Two hours journey from Vijaynagaram. We have completed our tour and we got a train in night 12. 00 am on some date did not remember exactly. So we thought night 12. 00 means come in another day but my father told me on phone it's on other day night but we thought train will come this night. Nobody is 100% confirmed and railway authority is also not responding properly and railway timetable changed in that month only so we thought why should we take risk and we went to railway station. But later we come to know that train will arrive on next day night. Then we decide to stay there until morning but back to our native but its 12. 30 near about and not getting any buses not even auto nothing. Suddenly one auto came near us and ask us were you need to go and we started planning to move to our home or hotel and finally decided to move to home. We asked him to take our native place and he agrees because in night it will not take more than hour as there will be no traffic. But he agrees for double rate. And we also agree to go our home than spend on any room for 7-8 hours. Here the real story began Me, my mom and my uncle in auto back seat and driver along with his friend in driver seat. We were started discussing about railways fault and other stuff. And after 1/2 hour we were on

straight road were no light, no village nothing. We are moving near about 40kmph and we saw one person is standing on the road moving his hand up and down. I said the driver to stop auto and carry him also. Driver start reducing auto speed and when we reached nearer to him we saw that he is not a human being some unnatural thing looking like a man but something other than human world, which is difficult to explain. He is in white dress moving his hand smiling continuously and his eyes are completely red. Driver raises the speed of auto and that abnormal man try to catch us and missed. I looked back but it was completely dark can't able to see anything. Then my mom and me were looking one another without saying anything and completely silence in our auto. After 5 minute auto driver said he is not a man not even human being. He is a sprit, a ghost. We are lucky that we saved our life otherwise this road is famous for accidents. Now I come to know why that road is famous for accident because that road is being haunted. Many people near our native knows that road is haunted road but they disclosed it after the incident took place. Believe me its true, I saw them. I don't know how I am able to saw this weird things but I had experience two times may be it's my achievement.

Demon On The Tree Near The Cowshed

Iwas brought up in a metropolitan environment. In this background, we never used to hear about incidents relating to ghosts, demons, devil etc. However, through books and usual stories narrated by my grandmother, I got interested in this field. The incident I would like to narrate had happened when I was doing my sixth or seventh standard. In summer holidays, generally we used to visit our maternal grandparents house situated in a township around 60 kilometres from Madras. The house was an old-fashioned village house with lot of open spaces inside, garden, cowshed with lots of cattle. Because we were used to city life, the independence and the spacious surroundings had come like a boon to the children. We used to play a lot in the garden, tried to learn milking the cows from elders etc. We were also mischievous. In that particular year, we were advised not to go near the cowshed. We enquired about the reason and were informed by the elders that nearly for the past 6 months, whenever a cow bears a calf, the calf dies within 3-4 days, however, healthy both the cow and calf are. Nothing happens to the cow but the calf dies eventually. This has made the cows somewhat erratic. Hence, we were advised to stay away from playing with the cows, which we generally used to do. There were more than 20 cows at that point of time. When we were staying, one more calf died. On that particular day, the milkman was talking to my grandmother to contact a priest, Ponnambalam, who was residing nearby since he feels that something unnatural is happening continuously. The belief in the villages and towns in those days cannot be understood with the background of rational and metropolitan atmosphere and surroundings, which we are used to. My grandmother contacted the priest Ponnambalam and he also consented to come the next day, being Wednesday, early in the morning.

Next day, at around 6.00 a.m., the priest arrived. I was quite ready since I was from the beginning interested in these kinds of fields. He went to the cowshed, garden, the well with a stick in his hand and went back to the shed once again. Then he went around a tree situated near the cowshed. He stood there for a few minutes with closed eyes as if meditating. Thereafter, he returned to the house. He told my grandmother that it was because of a demon that was present in the tree near the cowshed, the calves are dying. My grandmother asked as to why the cows are not dying and only the calves. To this, the priest said that each demonic appearance manifests in itself different characters and that this demon takes the lives of the calves as and when they are born. He asked us not to worry and stated that he would perform poojas to drive away the demon. He also told that he would start right away and would take minimum of two days to complete the pooja. He asked us to buy some pooja materials for that purpose. The priest, Ponnambalam, started the pooja around 9.00 a.m. And went upto 12. 00 noon. This he did for nearly three days. The reaction we got was unheard of and unthinkable. I never experienced such reactions from the demonic force. On the open spaces, there were flurry small stones hurled at the house. We initially thought that it was some mischief from some persons staying nearby. We went to the rooftop and started watching. But, even in our presence, the incident was happening. There would be a gap of 5 minutes and once again, there would be black sand thrown in open spaces as if it was being showered from the sky. But, the one that came next was the most nasty happening. From out of the open space, human excreta were thrown at the house. We were shocked. This continued until the pooja was over at around 12. 00 noon on the first day. The priest said that these are the acts of demon trying to scar us and advised us not to be unduly worried and said that he would come back the next day. We were really shocked and afraid and asked him what if the demon comes inside the house and started attacking us. To his, he smiled and said that we have the Thulasi plant (Holy Basil) inside the house and no demon or devil dare come inside the house. But, we were still worried and had sleepless night that day. However, nothing happened. But, the stones were hurled in the open spaces on a frequency of 3 hours, however, without much intensity. Fortunately, no human excreta was thrown inside the house. Next day, once again when the priest started the attacks. But, this time, the frequency increased to such an extent, we went inside the pooja room to request the priest to do some thing to stop the attacks. He said that these cannot be stopped and told that he is also experiencing pain in his back frequently as if someone is beating him with a stick. He has continued his pooja. When he was leaving the house, we were able to see the scars on his back as if someone had really beaten him with a stick. The problem with the whole aspect was cleaning the ground of these stones, sand and excreta. But, after the second day's pooja, there were no attacks thereafter. On the third day, there was no stone hurling or sand throwing etc. But, the priest was put to a lot of hardship and tears were coming out of his eyes. He must have been facing a lot of pain during the pooja. On the third and last day, the pooja was extended upto 3.00 p.m. By 1.30 p.m., there was some clarity on the face of the priest, Ponnambalam, and he finally did some "Yenthras" and nailed it in the cowshed and the tree adjoining the shed. One more Yenthra was nailed on the front door. He said that there would be no more demon attacks and that he had successfully driven out.

My grandmother wanted to give him some money but he refused to take it. He said that he was not in the habit of taking money. Despite our persuasion, he refused to take any money or gift etc. But, as things stood, there was no untoward incident since that day either inside the house or the dying of calves as it used to happen in the previous six months. This particular incident made me take more interest in the occult and parapsychological phenomenon. While that happened more than 30 years ago, I still so vividly remember the fear and anxiety with which we were put to during those 3 days.

Did Grandpa Save Our House?

I remember sharing with you the last story about my Deceased Grandpa's spirit and the way he had saved my mom and her family, in the story "the warning- A Brush with Fate". The story I'm about to narrate today is something on similar lines... Through this I will relate yet another instance when Grandpa called on our Family from beyond. The incident, which my mother shared with me only a few weeks ago, dates back to 1981, the year my mother had graduated with her B.Com degree from College. My grandfather's death had brought on a great deal of financial difficulties that my Grandma had to work a great deal to cope with, and thus my mother's sailing through her college was a great relief to the family, which was wading through troubled waters to finance the education of all the four kids in the family. After my mother's results were out, it appeared that she had passed with flying colours in her tests... In the resulting celebratory mood, my Grandma decided to take a short break to a holiday spot, to unwind from the dust and grind... They chose Digha, a nearby Beach in the South 24 Parganas, and a popular tourist destination favoured by people looking to unwind for a cheap price. On their last night at Digha, mom had a dream. She dreamt of a very dark, listless night. The stars were almost missing, save a few stray, gleaming ones. She stood in front of her home at Budge Budge (Budge Budge was the name of the place my Moms family lived in, by the way)...and, in front of her, before the wooden gates, stood the tall, slightly blurred outline of my Deceased Grandfather. My mom said she saw him standing tall, with a bamboo staff in his hand... As if earnestly guarding it. The next day, they headed back home. In case I forgot to mention it, while they were away, they had assigned the task of looking after the house to a neighbour in their absence (they were away for two nights and three days) The neighbour, Malati, was a kind, motherly soul who had been one of the greatest supports to Grandma and her children in the strayed times. She had kept the keys with her while the family was away, and had stayed for one night there. While returning the keys to Grandma that day, she told them of a very strange occurrence that had happened the last night. Malati narrated that the night before; she had gone to bed early, and after some TV. She switched off all lights and T.V and had just lain down on the bed. She had drifted off to sleep when she heard a loud scream come from the Hall... She rushed in to spot the outline of a man

running jumping out of the large window and running down the street... She looked at the hallway and saw that a few pieces of furniture were lying sprawled on the floor... And the open Grill-less hall window gave her the impression that someone, possibly a thief, had tried to break in, but someone, or something, had scared him away. She stood there for a while, shaking in the confusing impact of what had happened. After a while, she gathered back her nerves and started back for the Bedroom... When she suddenly felt unnerved. She, for some reason, felt somebody around her... She felt the air grow icy and cold, and felt someone staring... This was only for 3-5 minutes, then everything grew back to normal and she went to bed... But with a distinct feeling of un-easiness...After narrating this, she stopped a while, and added, hesitatingly..."Ma'am (addressing my grandma) I don't know why, but I feel that yesterday's incidents have something to do with Pancha-da...I felt his presence" (Pancha was my Grandfather's pet name). My grandma and her children were amazed, not knowing what to say to this treatise of the friendly neighbour. She was not the kind of person to be making up such stories for fun, and she wouldn't. Plus, above all, the flustered expressions on her face, and her red, weary eyes at this point, betrayed her honesty. But the question was that WHY ON EARTH did the thief run away without stealing? And, if Malati was to be believed at all, what was it that could've made him cry in such a manner? The others were busy pondering and chatting over these things, while my mom went to the room to unpack their stuff. SUDDENLY, like a flash, she remembered yesterday's dream - of her seeing grandpa standing with a staff in front of the gate- like a watchman, keeping out a watchful eye for intruders! She was overwhelmed with a strange feeling- she immediately rushed in and broke the details of her dream to her family members. All were amazed... Most of everyone my Grandma. She sat in silence for a while, and then whispered in a somewhat strangled tone about my grandpa's never-ending duty towards the family... How he had refused to take his eyes off the family, even from beyond! Mom was in tears too... My aunts were aghast, not knowing what to think. They, unlike my Grandma and Mom, had never been great believers in the Paranormal. After a while, my Grandmother, my mom said, had pulled her aside and confided her thoughts about what had happened that nightcould it be, according to my Grandma, that it was my Grandfather who had saved our house from getting robbed that night? As for the mysterious shrieking of the thief for reasons unknown, well who knows what could have sacred him away from stealing that night? It will remain unknown forever... To everyone, but for my Mom and Grandma... They already know.

Dog's Creepy Shadow

This is a very short experience that my grand mother had. My mom told this after I grew up a little. My father bought an MIG flat in 1981 in a locality still under construction in my home town. At that time, that area was just like a jungle. Today it is well developed and posh, and one who had seen it during construction will not be able to believe that this is the same colony which was like a jungle. So when my father bought the house, that locality was still developing but my family had already shifted. I.e. My mom, dad, grandmother, elder brother and elder sister. I was not born that time.

My grandmother was reluctant to move because it was deserted with other nearby houses still under construction. Anyway they all got shifted. So it was night time and my grandmother was in the kitchen. The kitchen window was open. The tube light in the kitchen was ON, and its light was being spread on the ground outside the window. There were no houses nearby as most of them were still under construction. So it was just plain ground with little sand, bricks, dry grass etc outside. Now my grandmother was doing something facing the window when she saw a dog walk on the ground. The only source of light was the kitchen tube light that was falling on the dog making his shadow on the other side. Something my grand mom saw freaked her out and she shouted like hell. My mom who was in the other room came running. My grandmother was bold and so did not face any difficulties telling what she saw. By the time my mother came to the kitchen, the dog had already gone past window so my mom could not see anything. But my grandmother informed that what passed by the window was a dog but his shadow was of a human! My mother could not believe and told it could be that due to sand and bricks, the dog's shadow appeared distorted. However, my grand mom retorted that she was wearing her glasses, the light was going very clearly outside the window from the kitchen and hence the dog's shadow was very dark to be mistaken. It was definitely a human shadow formed by a dog's body. There was no other human presence nearby the window as it was night time so no possibility of any other human forming the shadow behind the dog. Also as the dog moved, the shadow moved with him, so no possibility that it was grandmother's shadow herself. After this creepy vision, they immediately closed the window. Now the locality is well developed and we have not encountered any further such experiences in that locality.

Dreadful Experience On The Terrace

This experience happened when I had completed my schooling and was waiting for the college to start. As it's common in India that summer holidays are spent in maternal grandma's house, even my case was the same. I was in my Grandma's house and this happened when I was sleeping alone on the terrace during the night. It was around 1:00 am that I heard some voice calling out and I being a light sleeper I immediately woke up and was straining my ears and expecting the voice to resurface again. After

few minutes of waiting I clearly heard someone humming in a very clear tone which still sometimes rings in my ears. It was like someone was in pain or was mocking, I still can't understand but the voice was very clear and I felt goosebumps hearing it. The voice increased and I felt that someone was really faking it. However, considering the time and the fact that I was sleeping 4 storeys high with no construction as high as ours, I had to conclude that this is not normal. I was now wide awake and decided to go down to my grandma's house to sleep but I did not want to disturb anyone of their sleep, hence decided to spend the eerie night on the terrace. I recited my religion's chants and lay wide awake on the big open terrace with the moonless sky above my head and the wind blowing peacefully. I suddenly felt a shock through my body as if some one shaking me suddenly. I immediately got up and sat on the mat. Then out of no where I very clearly saw a white form pass in front of me humming the same sound I heard few minutes before. I took my pillow and quilt and ran down and fell on the stairs and had a sprained ankle. I can't forget this experience in my life. After this incident I did not want to take chances any more. I heard some old folks say later that spirits roam around at night searching for young boys to make them as their source to communicate to the living world. Thank God I was not the chosen one...

Dreams Come True And So Do Nightmares

Last weekend was all set to head towards my grandma's place, all the hustle and bustle was for my cousin sister's first holy communion we had to attend. My sister and my dad left Friday evening and I had to wait until Saturday to take my mother along with me. Finally we were all set to go and hit the road. After a couple of hours on my motorcycle we reached the place, I was dead weight and couldn't carry myself after the long ride and my body was craving for rest. It was a very long time since I had been there at least eight months or so I had to go along their chit chat and after an hour was the first one to hit the sack. Ours is a very big family and we are the only ones living nuclear. All neighbors there were related in some way or the other, I was sleeping in my aunt's place, the house was quite empty but I could still hear them talking and laughing outside, all these noises vanished in seconds and I dozed off. Dead tired there was no way for a dream but a sudden nightmare popped up. An eerie feeling that the cot I was lying on was surrounded by spirits. It was just a dream but I was getting restless. In an instant I could make out that one of the spirits was coming right at me, the closer and closer it approached, my trembling went higher and higher and I jumped out of the bed gasping for air. A little relieved that the dream was broken but before I could take a second thought from the foot of the cot popped up a dark thing. Structured just like a man, I could see its limbs racing towards me I moved behind for self defense but to my shock woke again from a dream.

I realized that I had been dreaming of having a dream. A little complex but was a headache after the tired day. Before I could hit the bed again I heard some noise and turned towards my right hand side where my aunt's small bookshelf was. From behind it ran a creature towards the bedroom door and vanished in a second. I was almost out of my wits seeing something rush out from where I was sleeping at midnight, it took a couple of seconds before I could digest the sight of it and then I headed towards the hall to find no one there. To add more mystery to it the house was latched from the outside and they were all at my grandma's house. I had to knock and then ring my aunt to get off there. Couldn't share it with anyone on that day but something that convinced me was that I didn't have to sleep there everyday. I really don't know how it feels to you but for me it was too complex than being scary. Because the creature that rushed from the bookshelf was the same kind that came in my dream.

Encounter With A Burnt Child

Iexperienced this when I came to Hyderabad for a job interview. I stayed at my brother's friend's house. This friend used to stay with his elder brother (not blood but very close) and sister-in-law. Both elder brother and sister-in-law had gone out of station for few days. The day I reached there, this friend gave me breakfast and asked me to get some sleep as the next day I had the interview (in the friend's company only). He then left for office. I was alone in the house and I felt really drowsy due to long journey so I went and lay down and fell into a deep sleep more or less straight away. They had just moved into this house, they didn't have beds and so I was lying on a mattress on the floor with pillow. In my subconscious state I felt a small child completely burnt standing behind my head. Subconsciously I was seeing his whole body with my eyes open straight up. I was actually sleeping but in the sleep I was actually not asleep, I was alone and it was afternoon so I was subconscious. Suddenly the child disappeared. I couldn't understand. So I shouted (sub-consciously I think) that "don't you have courage to show up? Come in front of me if you have guts". Suddenly this child started appearing behind, to the left and to the right of my head with an interval of few seconds repeatedly. I became scared like hell. I tried to call out for Lord Krishna (I am a devotee of Krishna) but no sound come out. I knew I was asleep and if I opened my eyes that would solve the problem but I was not able to open my eyes either as if some force is preventing me. With full concentration and power I finally started shouting Krishna! Krishna! In full voice and suddenly my eyes opened. There was silence in the room. I was shocked. Thousand of thoughts came in my mind in a single shot. Not in my farthest thoughts was I thinking about ghosts before sleeping so how come I had such close experience with a ghost? I could not sleep after that.

After the friend returned I told him what happened. This is what he said, "Oh so you saw them too" Now I was scared and asked what he is talking about. He told me that his sister-in-law also used to see (not one) three burnt ghosts - the father, mother and child and used to scream like hell overnight while he and his elder brother could not see anything. Mystery still remains who they are? By the way, there was a kabristan (cemetery) next to this apartment and it was in a very dirty state. People used to throw garbage there. Don't know if that has any connection.

Encounter With The Devil

Guys this is the first story which I intend to share with you. Those of you who are from India may know that there are people and families as a whole which have practised sorcery and black magic for generations. We have associated the name Tantrik with them. Well I have had the good fortune to belong to one such family. People often misinterpret our art for BLACK MAGIC. Let me inform you that black magic term should only be associated only if the work is done to harm others. Our family have not done any work to harm others. My grandfather excelled at the art at his time. He even used to own two Jinns. This incident occured when I was seventeen years old. My experience in this art had already risen to a great extent. One day while searching for a thing in the attic I stumbled upon a diary which belonged to my grandfather. On examining it I found that it had certain chants and incantations which I immediately understood to be of immense power. One of this fascinated me the most. It was an incantation to call upon Yamraj, or the Devil. It said that if you could please Him, he would bestow you with immense power. I made up my mind to perform the ritual. However, on that very night, I had a dream in which my grandfather warned me not to venture so much at such a young age. But I ignored the warning and continued with my task. The prayer required many preparations and the actual work was to be performed from midnight until 3:30am for twenty one nights. I wholeheartedly did the task. Now, let me tell you that I had never mentioned this to my father who himself is a powerful tantrik and would have never allowed me to do this. And as we live in seperate floors, he never had the slightest hint. On the twenty first night, it was raining heavily. I started my prayers at midnight. At around 2am, I was disturbed from my meditations by an audible knock outside my door. The knocking continued to last for around 2 minutes. I ignored it and continued my chantings thinking that maybe sombody wanted to spoil my work. Suddenly and without any warning, the door was blasted apart from the hinges. I threw the holy water towards the door upon which there was a

loud scream and I thought things had subsided. But in an instant, all the candles were blown out and a musty smell engulfed the room. I fainted at this point. When I woke up, I saw my father at my bedside. When I confided in him, he became angry. Then he said that he could not sleep because of the heavy rain when he felt an immensely strong aura in the vicinity but had not guessed anything. When he heard the sound of the door collapsing and the loud inhuman scream, he had rushed up and found me fainted. He could also feel the smell that represented the death but nothing was present and the aura had fainted. He also said that my grandfather had met his end while performing the same ritual. I was shocked as hell and immediately realised how lucky I was to have escaped unharmed. Even today, I cannot understand whether it was the Devil that had blasted my door that day, or was it the spirit of my grandfather who spoiled the ritual beforehand so that I would not suffer the same fate as him. What do you think?

Encounters, Feelings And Clairaudience

I've been living in an apartment for roughly about 2 years now with my family. I have had experiences (or at least what I THINK are experiences) related to supernatural stuff. My most persistent "feelings" is this one. In my apartment, there are two doors, side by side, and then there is a long empty corridor-type space that leads to the main door of the apartment, used for entry and exit. Now the space starting from where the doors are, until the dining table is big and empty enough for 3-4 people to stand side-by-side, in a horizontal line. More than ever, I have that constant feeling that three people ARE standing there, watching me. I don't know how I know this but I just sometimes get that feeling that 2 sometimes 3, once I thought or felt that 4 people were standing there side-by-side, watching me. I remember thinking for some strange reason that it might be a tall man, a very short woman, and another man of medium height. I swear I'm not making this up, these thoughts just came to me. My biggest... "encounter" has been twice up until now. Once when I was watching T.V at 11:15am in the morning, I was standing right next to the tv and the volume was high enough so I could hear it. All of a sudden, in the middle of the program, I heard some say "wha?". It sounded like a female, around my age, maybe a year or two younger than me, and also it sounded like she said "what" only I never heard her finish the word, I never heard the 't' of 'what'. Another time, I was lying down in bed, with light switched off, I remember thinking about some tv program I had just seen, when I heard someone say "ha' loudly right into my ear, as if they were about 5cm's away from my ear. I got freaked out so bad, that I went and sat with my mom and basically stayed with a family member until I fell asleep.

Also, my sister fell terribly sick last week, and her condition has been the same (nothing serious, just super high fever that goes down for an hour or two, then goes up and remains there) Every time someone in my family goes out of the house, or fall sick, for some strange reason, start thinking that they might end up dead. Like right as I was talking to my parents, I felt fear hold me with such intensity, that I got even more scared. My throat closed up and as I spoke to my mom I got so scared I almost started crying. This just happened RIGHT NOW as I was writing this story, so I just had to mention it. My other most persisting feeling or encounter has been every time I'm in the house, it doesn't matter whether I'm lying down or am doing some activity, at the most random moment, I feel a very cool, almost chilly breeze on some part of my body. Every time this has happened, I have always checked that particular room for any open doors or any open windows or anything else that might have caused it and there is nothing to indicate that this was, or is, some normal occurrence. Having read somewhere that every time there is an entity or a spirit or a ghost (what's the difference between these two?), the temperature is suppose to go down in an instant and your suppose to feel cold. This piece of information really creeps me out. I had read somewhere that on Oct. 31, the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest, so I tried contacting a spirit, but nothing happened. I think this was because, although I wanted something to happen, and was anticipating it, in my head I was a little skeptical. Do you think this had any effect on me or on the situation while I was trying to contact a spirit? I know I'm no mediator or anything but I'm just curious as to what is going on. I remember taking a quizz somewhere which was about finding out your "Sixth sense". When I saw my result, it said that I was claire-something, basically meaning I'm attached and in tune with sounds (which is true because I hear the most random things at night, and they sound 'very' far off, and I do listen to a lot of music!) normally I don't believe quizzes like these, but this one got me thinking. I really, truly appreciate you taking your time out to read my now-almost-novel-like story and would really appreciate any comment on what the Heck is going on with me! Addition by the author I have noticed that almost every time I'm up awake with or without my sister I see flashes of white in the dark. When someone switches off one of the main lights in my house/apartment, its almost pitch black. The only way to see your way around is if the kitchen or the bathroom light is on, otherwise its pitch black. But I have often seen flashes of white in the dark, sometimes several times in a row (longest being 2-3 times in a night). Every time I see one, I try to figure out what it was, and almost every time I come up with the same answer- it almost always seems like a lady or a child (girl in a white long night-dress). Can anyone please tell me if what I'm thinking is right or just plain crazy. Also, this I've noticed almost always happens in the dark, and after 12:00am. Sometimes the thoughts that come in my head, I'm not sure if they are mine. In the sense, that it sounds like my own voice in my head, but a little evilish, and its always making me think about

the worst case scenarios (eg: every time a family member is late for coming home, I always start thinking maybe they got into an accident, maybe, heaven forbid, dead?) Also, in the summer vacation, I got really sick, and developed a case of claustrophobia. After this my confidence level kept going down, and usually I'm a VERY positive person. But ever since, say, June, to me, it seems like my own confident voice is fading away, it sounds extremely distant, in my own head, and now the other negative in my head, sounds very diabolic and is very strong and very... loud. My mom says its all about the attitude, but there's something that I can't explain about this. Sometimes I can't tell apart the positive and the negative voice. It's like I'm confused in my own head, and now I'm confused. Is this a case of attitude problem or is this in any way related to something supernatural? Also, since there are no psychics or mediums where I live, I can't even got one! Please help!

Father's Haunted Encounter

Iam a descendant from a wealthy landowner's Hindu family from the Punjab, India. This incident happened with my father in 1981 when he was sixteen years old. My father unlike his other siblings was least interested in studies so he helped my grandfather in the family business; which was wine contracting. My grandfather owned twenty two liquor stores at one point but the whole family being orthodox never tasted a drop of liquor. My family home was in a town about sixteen km away from Sub Division Dasuya in Distt. Hoshiarpur in Punjab. It was late at night all the servants had left and my father was there doing the accounting. He looked at the time it was midnight! My father quickly packed everything and locked up the shop and started his Bullet. He was driving really fast as it was a chilly night and since it was 1981 his only source of light was his bike's headlight and the occasional streetlight. Midway through my father was getting close to a place where there was a railroad crossing on the side of the road not the middle. All of a sudden my father claims, he heard the blow of a train coming from a distance and saw headlights and he began to slow down until he stopped in front of the crossing opposite a peepal tree. He then said he saw his front tire go off his bike and it kept rolling back and forward in front of him, the train was coming closer... Jerk! My father jerked his head, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop except the sound of the night, no train and his wheel was okay! My father felt a breeze on his right leg. In front of him he saw a state bank of India which had a wall light he rolled his bike forward and went under the light, his wheel was fine but his pants on the right leg were ripped from his groin region to the ankle! What was this my father was confused. He started his bike and did not stop until he reached home. My grandmother and grandfather were worried sick! My father explained the whole situation, suddenly my grandfather's face had an expression, he said he knows the reason that happened; many years ago on that exact spot, two women who were presumably Sikh women, were hit by a truck there and died on the spot but no one performed there death rights so they still haunted that place. Now my family are Shaivities and

we worship Shiva and Devi but also a regional child God called Baba Balak Nath who is an incarnation of Shiva and his son Kartikeya. My grandparents did not have a heir after three daughters so they worship Baba Balak Nath and were granted my father and followed by my uncle. The males in my family wear a raksha kavach of Baba Balak Nath and that is why my father was unharmed. Many people had this experience before and after my father, so the Sikh community holds a special service on the exact spot every year to appease the souls of those two women. Even to this day when my father drives on this road when we visit India, he always says a prayer when we pass that peepal tree.

Freaky Incident - I Had My Proof

My second publishing and I am very excited about this, especially after the great review I got on my previous story. Well I hope you have read my first before reading this because only then would you be able to feel the rush I went through when I passed this experience. After my first, I started to narrate the experience to all my friends as a paranormal event as and when we would talk about it. However, for me, it was still very unsatisfying as there wasn't any concrete proof that it was indeed a ghost. I came across many stories and many incidents from many people around but I still craved for that spine-chilling encounter which I have been chasing for a long time now. My ghost hunting seasons had started again and I would visit all the places I knew from the stories I heard in the search for something REALLY freaky but never came across anything more than the hot and cold spots, etc. This incident takes place a few months after my first experience in the year 2005. My friends and I would take frequent 2-3 day road trips and this time we decided to go to a village close by which was about 8-9 hours drive for a nice quiet vacation. All the days went by in a jiffy and we were on our last night on the trip and we decided to spend it on a circuit house (It's place which has many guest houses for Ministers and Members of parliament who come to stay in the village) which was a distance away from the main village and the area too was quite deserted. The circuit house is located in one corner of the village with a huge cliff on one of the sides. We were given a single room in one of the sides on the ground floor in which 5 of us were supposed to accommodate. The room was a small 20*30 place with two big windows and one king size bed next to the first window. The second window was sealed and was straight in front of the entrance with glass panes above the AC vent, which also was a little ahead from the feet of the bed. We returned from our sight seeing at around 8 pm and finished our dinner and after a few more hours of playing cards and stuff, we decided to crash around 1 am. I wasn't in the least bit sleepy and decided to watch a movie on my friend's phone. Half way into the movie I was almost falling off the bed and decided to hit the sack. It was pretty cool that night and very quiet as well. Just as I was turning in, I got this weird feeling that something was unwell and restless.

After a few moments from then, I heard Payal (Anklet with a small bells which make a typical "Chhann" sound) sounds right outside the second window. It was partly funny and highly strange for such an occurrence even though its a very common accessory for girls in the village to wear but that late in the hour and around that place? It was very unlikely. So I decided to go and check it out. I reached the window and was looking out through the glass pane above the AC vent trying to figure out the source of the sound. The sound was as clear as someone was walking right in front of me. Back and Forth. But I was unable to see who it was! It was obviously dark but due to the moonlight I was able to see quite a lot, but nothing of what was making the sound and that is when it struck me that I might just be experiencing yet another paranormal activity! I sprinted across the room to fetch my N73 and shoot a video with flash. Before going to bed, I see the video again and it has captured all that was visible very well. (It is still quite freaky) I went to sleep, thoroughly content of what I had captured! The next morning I woke up and had completely forgotten about the video I had taken, until we start talking about Ghosts and spirits that people in the villages have experienced halfway through the journey. Smiling with joy of having captured something unusual I took out my phone and showed everybody what I had recorded and everybody was quite amazed, amused and left speechless. One of my friends, however, wasn't pleased or even amused and asked me to delete the recording right away which I did not bother listening to for obvious reasons. During the course of sharing the video it had started to rain very heavily and the roads were barely visible. The AC was on in the car and as a result, all of us decided to halt for an emergency visit to the restroom at the next petrol station. Within a few moments our car abruptly shuts off leaving us all clueless. Two of us decided to push start the car and we successfully managed that only to have it shut off again. This happened about 3 times and we decided to take a small detour to a famous resort nearby and call a mechanic. My friend suggested again for me to delete the video I had taken and I ignored it conveniently. We tried reaching all the mechanics in the area, including a service station, but none were available. We tried to figure it out ourselves, but have no clue of what had happened. Then, again, my friend suggested the same thing and frustrated of his orthodox lookout and waiting for 5 hours for something to happen, I decided to delete it. I called up my other friends and made them listen to the video and told them to ask for an explanation later. With immense disappointment, frustration and tiredness I deleted the video. Within 3 minutes of doing so, the rains that were pouring had stopped, the mechanic who was trying to reach us finally got through and fixed the car and we were off from there with my friend, who was suggesting to me to delete the video all the while, having a big smile on his face saying "I told you so". Putting this across as paranormal wasn't the way my friend (who's village we went to) would put it. He always said that it was just a coincidence but was never able to explain the sounds of someone walking outside our window. This was taken care of last year when his relatives came by to his place for a few days. In general discussion they asked about our stay at the village and

my friend narrated our incident to them, and curiously, they asked him about the place we lived in. It was only when they found out that we lived the circuit house next to the cliff they told him what was there on the other side (Right) of it. It was a very old Graveyard. Many of the people of the village have had sightings, possessions and a distinct eerie feeling and hence many ministers refused to live there and instead lived in another circuit house in a nearby town. As an example of how times change, my friend who was a non believer then, does now tell our story as his own first paranormal experience.

Friend's Grandpa Is Still Around

Afriend of mine called Jabez lost his grandpa recently. I've been to his house a number of times and have exchanged few words with his grandpa. I couldn't make it to his funeral, so after two weeks I went to his place. Jabez's parents weren't home; they had gone to a church nearby. I could still notice that he wasn't much off the incident; he was quite close to his grandpa as his parents were working abroad. I greeted him, he was glad to see me; it's been years since we met. I didn't want to talk about the incident either, I met him outside his house and he walked me in. He stays at the outskirts; houses are far apart from each other. We walked into the house, the moment I stepped in, I had a weird feeling set within me, because the moment we opened the door and stepped in, I felt someone walk upstairs, I didn't hear, I felt. This thought stayed longer in my mind, as I knew I would be troubling him more if I were to start with my creepy stuff. Before we could exchange a word, he started acting a little weird and really kept me troubled. He suddenly turned around, and ran upstairs. He walked into every room. I was startled with his behavior, he didn't respond to any questions I asked him. He kept chasing something or looking for something and he continued this for about fifteen minutes. Quite fed up and confused, I called out for him. He responded this time, he returned from upstairs dripping in sweat. He looked at me and started crying. I couldn't react to this situation as I had no idea what was going on with him. Before I could console or relieve him from something that was bothering him, I heard a loud noise from upstairs. I rushed upstairs alone, to find no one there, but the noise was precisely from a room on top. It was his grandpa's room. The moment I broke into the room I felt something rush away from inside, to confirm this more, a flower vase fell down by its own. It felt really creepy and I rushed down. I got his neighborhood friends to come down, Jabez had now calmed down. We asked him what happened and why he rushed to the top. He responded in bits and pieces. He said that the moment both of us entered in, he smelt his grandpa, and then he started to hear his grandpa calling for him from upstairs. This kept us both freaked. But still he hadn't had this kind of a feeling for over a month after him grandpa's death and his parents didn't have anything either. This feeling he had continues every Sunday. Though I've had a lot of paranormal experiences this one is confusing.

Why is he seeing his grandpa's soul? Why does he feel and hear from it only on Sundays? Why doesn't anyone else feel the same thing? Though I partially have a few answers for all these questions this is really confusing me. He is still experiencing this. Any ideas why these things are happening.

Ghost Calling Name

Iwas one of the witnesses to the incident that had happened four years ago. I happened to visit my friend's house in the outskirts of Madras. She was with her three year old daughter and her husband was not in the house. She was visibly shocked to know the untimely death of a boy, who was living in the same street. The boy, I was told by her was quite charming and used to play for hours on with my friend's daughter. The boy used to call my friend 'akka', meaning elder sister. The boy's parents shifted their residence to a nearby place in the same vicinity but not in the same street. But, unfortunately, in a fire accident, the boy had died the previous day. The husband of my friend went to attend the funeral. The time was around 6.30 p.m. My friend's daughter was sleeping in the bedroom. We were together in the hall. Then we heard the voice calling 'akka'. I just casually went out to see if there was anybody outside. There was none. I thought it was my imagination and went to the hall. Once again I heard the voice calling 'akka'. This time my friend also heard it. It got repeated 3 or 4 times and she was bewildered. I asked her why. She told me that the voice was that of the boy who died in the fire accident. It kept on repeating for nearly 15 minutes and we were shocked, confused and scared. Then we went to the pooja room and after praying my friend took camphor and lighted it in front of the door. We could clearly hear the voice "No, no, no" and then there was silence. We were virtually chilled to the bones and scared. We were praying to God that nothing more would happen. Fortunately, there was no disturbance. Subsequently, after the return of my friend's husband I left her house. I was told by her that she could hear the voice regularly for nearly 14 days until the rituals were completed in the boy's house. After that there was no incident that happened. But coming to think about that fateful evening in retrospect, even now I get a nervous and cold feeling and could in fact get the voice hearing in my ears.

Ghost Couple On The Clearing Field

The story happened about 20 years ago. I was working at Namakkal, interior part of Tamilnadu, India. At the time of the incident I came down to Villupuram by bus, public transport, on my way to Injamkuppam, a village about 30 kilometres from Villupuram. I did not know the route or the distance at that point of time. While I was working at Namakkal, I received a telephone from my house stating that my uncle in Injamkuppam has passed away and that I was to go and attend the funeral. I started from Namakkal and reached Villupuram at around 11.30p.m. On that night. It was summer and the sky was clear. I enquired about the bus to Injamkuppam and I was told that there is no night service to that particular village and that the last bus has left Villpuram around 10.00p.m. I asked one or two persons, who were standing in the bus stand about the route to Injamkuppam and could not get any further information. I came out of the bus stand and asked about how to reach Injamkuppam by catching a lorry or any other mode of transport. Nobody could give any correct way of getting to that village. Then, one of the shopkeepers told me that this Injamkuppam is about calling distance (koopidu dhuram in Tamil) from Villupuram and advised me to go to the cross-roads from where I could hitchhike to the village. I honestly thought that if it is calling distance, it would be at the most about 2-3 kilometers and went to the main road. I asked for the direction and started walking. I had walked for about an hour and there was no sign of any village in the vicinity. I was all alone in the road in pitch dark and now and then a lorry would pass by. I tried to get lift but my luck was against me. There were fields on either side. I was getting tired and thirsty. I started looking out for a hut in the fields where I could sit and if possible, drink some water. Generally, in villages, there will be a hut in the fields. But, in the place where I was walking, I came to realize that I was the only one person in the entire area spreading in all direction. At that point of time, I began to feel some unknown fear gripping me. I turned around me and saw there was nobody on any direction within my eyesight. My walk started slowing down due to fear and tiredness. The time would have been well past midnight. Suddenly, I saw a clearing in the field and there was an aged couple sleeping. I started walking towards them. There was a pot in the clearing with a glass mounted over it. I reached the clearing in the field and started walking in the direction where the elderly couple was sleeping. The old man got up probably due to the noise made owing to my walking towards them. I judged that he would have been well past 85 years but he was looking hale and healthy. The lady also woke up from her slumber and sat on the mat. The old man was eyeing me questioningly. I told him that I need some water and requested whether I could sit and take rest for a few minutes. There was a small wooden stool where I sat down. The old man gave me water and I drank the water. The couple did not speak and I told them that I got down at Villpuram and enquired about the village Injamkuppam and started walking towards the village. The old man started laughing and said in a somewhat weird voice, "Will you reach without my help. Don't walk to the village. Take a vehicle. Don't go walking and take my advice, otherwise you will be in trouble." The voice was stern and to some extent frightening. I gazed at them for a few seconds. I was shocked and looked down at the ground and closed my eyes for a few seconds thinking about the advice given by the old man. Then it happened. When I opened my eyes, there was nobody in the clearing. There was no sign of anybody to have been there. There

was no pot. The clearing was looking as if uninhabited. At first, I could not realize that it could have been true. It was not a dream because I did not sleep and at that time and I still had the sensation of having drunk water. I instinctively got up and started running away. I would have definitely run for about 10-15 minutes. Then I saw lights coming from my behind. I stopped and saw that it was tractor carrying sugarcanes to factory. I begged and stopped them and asked for a lift to Injambakkam. I sat near the driver and started explaining to him what had happened. He told me that Injamkuppam is about 34 kilometers away from Villupuram and that he told me that especially place where I saw the clearing was called Kuppam and that many people have seen ghost activities. He told me that I was very lucky not have been harmed by the ghosts. When I write this narration, I still feel the fear even after such a long period of time and that had happened so far away. I still do not know why the couple had appeared, why they offered me water and why they asked not to walk and take a lift in the vehicle. I feel that they are benign ghosts. But the experience was shocking and still sends chillness in my spine.

Ghost that Looked Like Me

Iwould like to tell you guys a small story that happened years ago in Mumbai. I was about 9 years old at that time. During the summer vacation my uncle used to take me and my other siblings to a nearby park to play. Every evening we went to the park, played on the swings, the slide and the jungle gym. I was very naughty and many times jumped off the top of the slide to show off to my younger siblings. One day I was very sick and could not go to the park so my uncle just went with my younger sisters. My youngest sister was about 4 at that time. Well, they were back early that day and my youngest sister had bruises on her hands and legs, she was taken to the doctor who said she was ok and had to rest a bit. When we asked her how she got hurt, she told everybody that she was just following me, she said she saw me jump off the slide and thought if I can do it, she can do it too, it was very weird and we did not know what to make of it. She kept insisting that she was following me, I was very wearing a pretty white dress. Mum thought that she must be imagining things cause I was home all the time watching TV and I did not have any white dress. She was not very badly hurt cause she fell on a man who was exercising next to the slide. But I still wonder what could she have seen?

Ghosts In My Residential Hostel

This is my scary experience when I was studying my undergraduate course in India. It was the year 2003, I was studying in andhrapradesh, a state in India. First let me describe the hostel I was staying in. The Hostel is isolated from the city and has to one travel about 40 minutes in the outskirts to reach our college. This experience happened on the first day of my college admission. It was around 5pm. My parents left so I was not accompanied with my roommates. Due to heavy pain, I started walking to the toilets. Since it is the very first day the campus looked deserted. My heart started pounding due to the fact that no one was around me. Slowly I opened the toilets door. No lights. I was shocked. I heard some one tapping outside the door and within minutes the door was locked, I felt scared and was shaking with fear, out of no where I heard some one calling "kiiii...ran, kiii... Ran "bewildered I banged the door. But since no one was there outside, no one opened the door, still the sound continued even I am puzzled to hear my name being said by ghost. No one believed me. They treated me like I was mad. To this day I do not go to those toilets I go in the other floor in campus. I'll write my other experience in other post

Ghosts of a Couple

Iwas in college and was required to stay in Bombay India with my maternal uncle. Since the accommodation was short, I was required to stay on the room in the terrace at the end of the staircase. The lights in the terrace were put off after 12 midnight. I did not get good sleep so I came out of the room and tried to spend time outside the room on the terrace. I saw a young couple standing in the corner of the terrace. I thought that they were real human beings and tried to go near them. The nearer I went to them, they vanished and that made me scared. I turned back and wanted to go into my room when I could see the same couple standing in my way to my room. I avoided looking at them and ran into my room. I closed the door and got myself inside the bed sheet to keep myself away from the couple ghost. I had no guts to go out of the room until the sun rose on the next morning. The watchmen of the building had seen the couple ghost earlier on many occasions and they told me to avoid looking at them, ignore them and do my work without interfering with them. I feel that the couple ghost were nor harmful if you do not get into their way. If you try to get into their way they may harm you. I shivered even today when I remember the couple ghost.

Grand-dad

My maternal grand-dad, a very affectionate person, was diagnosed with a cyst in the brain. That slowed him down a lot and it was painful for all of us to see him suffer. The incident relates to the last few days of his life. His health had deteriorated considerably and doctors were not too hopeful either. However, with help, he was able to do his own chores. It was early in December, and at that time it can be quite cold in Delhi, as it was those days. During one of the nights, 2-3 days before his death, he suddenly woke up my grandma and said "they want to take me, they want to take me, I do not want to go". My grandma, also an old lady, and quite understandably a bit irritated to be disturbed so late in the night, told my granddad not to worry and told him to sleep. My grand-dad told her; no please hold me tight, I do not want to go. My grandma helped him out by keeping her hand over his chest and holding him tight. Then next day in the night, once again my granddad told my grandma that "they are here, they are below our bed, they will take me with them". My grandma by now had sensed that something was about to happen. However, she helped him out again by assuaging his fears. Then the next night my grand-dad passed away peacefully in his sleep. My grandma tells me that she felt his presence in the house for 6 months subsequent to his death, but once she communicated to him that he should go where he has to go, and go peacefully, he has not come back to her since. That was close to 4 years ago now. I sometimes wonder whether it was the cyst in my grand-dad's brain which was bothering him in his last few days, or whether he was actually seeing someone who would escort his spirit. May he rest in peace.

Grandma's Still Watching Over Me

India is blessed with certain traditions and customs. It has innumerous religions and castes unlike any foreign country. I belonged to the religion of Hindus and of Brahmins caste. Our caste is considered as high ranked caste. My father works as a main priest in the Shiva temple of Mahabaleshwar, in Andhra Pradesh. We are restricted to watch erotic pictures and other stuff. There was rule in our caste that if a person deserves to see or feel erotic, strictly speaking he will loose his religious characteristic and finally he should perform poojas and homas to relieve the sin. I am a man of lust and I could not control myself. One fine day when I returned home from school, I sprinted to my computer room and started watching some porn movies in my two door bedroom. I forgot to bolt the back door. My

grandma without making any kind of noise came and saw me masturbating on the chair. As soon as she saw me she yelled like anything that everyone came to the room and scolded me and the day ended. They never revealed what they had caught me doing to my father as I would loose my religious characteristic. Regardless I continued this twice a day. My grandma died on 5th January 2009. So realizing the fact that she was not there anymore, I sprinted to the computer and bolted both the doors from inside so no one could come in. I opened the erotic videos. After some 5-10 minutes my computer switched itself off. At first I thought this may be due to low power. I switched it back on and again it switched off but only when I kept the porn movies. The computer went off 4-5 times. Then I realized that my grandma was not dead and her soul was warning me. This incident truly changed my life and never again have I watched erotic stuff. I got rid of all porn from my computer.

Guardian - Blessed To Cursed

This happened in the business property we own. This property is rather a big one for a small business, it is building surrounded by big yard. The place where this property is located is not a safe place. It is surrounded by slums. This place is very popular for thieves, gangsters, drugs and every bad thing you can imagine. So even though we have employees sleeping inside the building we also have guard dogs for protection. Above all of this we have a Guardian or a protection god who protects this property. This Guardian is called "Muni" one of the village gods', south Indian villagers worship for protection against theft and evil entities. The usual offerings given to this God are meat preferably chicken and Cigars. Sometimes alcohol is also offered. We have a small temple built in the property for him and everyday one of us will light the lamp inside this small temple. According to my late father who was the fourth occupant of this property this temple and the Guardian was established more than 60 years ago by the first occupant. It was before the English occupation of the country. Since the establishment every occupant mostly depended on this guardian for protection. I have to mention no one ever had anything stolen from the premises. Several times thieves have attempted to steal things from this place but have been caught every time. I also have to say the property and the people who were inside were never harmed even when India was experiencing some of the worst riots ever. Somehow the property seemed to be unharmed even though the surrounding properties had taken damage. Everyone believes the Guardian is protecting the property and the occupants. On several times the Guardian has been seen or experienced by people including my father, some employees and some outsiders.

One of the strange things my father and others have noticed is that at night when it's around midnight the guard dogs never go near the Guardian's temple and also at night these dogs never take a particular route inside our property something like a walkway which is believed to be the guardian's usual walking route, when he's on duty protecting. Sometimes dogs scream and bark for no reason and have woken employees and. Some employees have seen moving shadows of some unknown person or thing and they swear it could never be a human because of the strangely tall shadows. None of the employees or occupants have feared or complained of this guardian since they believe he is protecting them. I like to mention a few things happened in this property. This happened to my father several decades ago when he used to stay at night in that property. One night after a day's work he felt very sleepy and tired, so he placed his folding bed in a random place in the property and fell asleep. He forgot or was too tired to notice that his bed was on the pathway where the Guardian took his usual walk. Not realizing this he had slept there. After sometime closer to midnight suddenly he was thrown aside by some unknown force. The loud noise this created had woken everyone and when they saw what had happened everyone was shocked. When this happened all the dogs were barking like never before. He said it seemed as if the dogs were seeing something humans could not and they were very scared of it. My father is 5'11 and may be about 80kg or more. He was well built at that time. It is not possible for some human to throw him just like that not to mention he was thrown around 6 feet away, not only him but also his steel folding bed which is even weirder. He had felt as if someone had kicked the bed with an enormous force. After this everyone had concluded it was the guardian and he had become angry because the bed was put in his walkway. It seems the guardian had seen it as an obstacle to his duty. To this date the walkway is kept free and we have never experienced something similar. The second incident happened in 2004 when my grandfather died. When someone in the family dies Hindus usually don't light lamps which are used to worship god. They will start lighting after two weeks. I do not know the exact reason behind this custom but this has been the case for thousands of years, at least in my family's tradition. It is also believed when someone dies the God's will not be present in that house or place for a few weeks, until some Poona (A special worship) is made. The reason behind this is also unknown to me. Because of my grandfather's death we were not supposed to light any lamps in our home or at our business property. So none of the holy lamps were lit including the Guardian God's. In one of the mornings of the few weeks without lamps some people from the neighbourhood (slums) have told our employees that the previous night one of the guy's from the slums who walks to his workplace early in the morning, had encountered something near the gates of our property. They have also told that this guy was so scared now he is having high temperature. It seems this guy usually walks to work in the road where this property is located. He seems to start work early and as usual he was walking along this road at around three in the morning. When he was closer to our property he had seen some unknown shadow near the gate. He was very curious what it was so as he's walking in the other side of the road he had just stood there and stared. What he saw had made him so scared that he ran back to his home shivering and became sick shortly (but he was alright later). I have to mention here that this guy and people

who live in the slums are not the usual Tom and Bob. These people are very poor, very brave and at times very violent. They are usually not scared of anything since everyday they do all sorts of dangerous things to feed themselves. The word scared is not in their dictionary. So there is no possibility that this guy had seen some random shadow and got scared. There are not many people who have the nerve to play some practical jokes on these people because they know the result would be severe. So there is no way someone had played a bad joke on him. He had described the unknown shadow or thing as human shaped and more than 7 feet tall. In this country there aren't many tall people. He has said that the shadow was smoking what looked to be a cigar. It also had a huge body enough to crush an elephant. With this physique the guy was so curious who it was or what it was the guy had tried to see its face and for some unknown reason got scared. The rest is history. The people who came to inform us had also told us that a few days ago another guy also has seen something strange near the gate but he didn't inquire what it was and just went on. This was the first time something like this has ever happened in that premises. From the things we had heard we all accepted it to be the guardian but something which created doubts in our minds at that moment was why should he leave the place and stay outside the gate. The accepted explanation at that time was because there was a death in the family; his lamp was not lit for many days in a row. Then again I got the question, the temple having been there for more than 60 years why at least not once this guardian was seen or felt leaving the property gates? I never got the answer nor anyone gave it any thought, things went back to normal after those few weeks and everyone believed everything was fine. Still I am not fully convinced this was the case. One year after this incident almost half of the mentioned properties were acquired by someone else. We lost so much in money in this deal. My father had his reasons for making this deal which was acceptable. Four years after this incident my father died of ill health which was unexpected. He was sick for one week and he just died. We never saw it coming. In the years to come I started to believe very strongly that this was all connected. The day the guardian left the property was very significant and would impact the future of the property and people involved in it. Still my family and employees strongly believe this Guardian is guarding the premises. Later I will explain the other abnormal things happened after and before the Guardian was seen outside and all the impacts. Everything happened so far had made me believe destiny can be changed not only by hard work but also by evil.

Encounter With A Woman Possessed

This incident happened last year and is one of the most eerie incidents ever experienced by me.

My close friend Manish dabbles a bit in the field of occult. Since his childhood days he has this gift whereby he can sense paranormal activities with amazing accuracy. His parents were earlier worried about this but have now come to terms with it. Manish has channeled this gift of his very well to help people having trouble with ghosts and other paranormal events. He doesn't expect any monetary benefit out of the services rendered to clients. I have accompanied Manish out of sheer curiosity to some of his clients and this incident is one of them. Manish received a call from a person called Mr. Narula asking him for his help. His son, Rohit who had recently returned from the US with his wife and a 4 year old daughter was experiencing weird occurrences in his new home. Manish fixed up an appointment with Mr. Narula at his house and we reached there as planned. Mr. Narula greeted us warmly and we sat down in his spacious living room where he related his harrowing experience to us. Mr. Narula was an elderly man who had led a fairly comfortable life working at a high position in the Indian Railways all his life. He had retired a couple of years back and lived with his wife. Money was never a concern with him and he wanted his son Rohit to have the best possible education available. That is why Mr. Narula had sent his son to US to complete his post graduation in Computer Engineering from one of the best Universities there. In the US Rohit met a girl called Rochelle, a fellow student and fell in love with her. Going against his parents wishes he went ahead, married her and settled in the US. Mr. Narula however reconciled with his son after the birth of Rohit's daughter Anita. He wanted his son to come back to India and live with them. It was a tough decision for Rohit considering that both he and Rochelle were well settled in the US. Rochelle was very supportive and they decided to return to India. Rohit initially stayed with his parents but once he got a job, they decided to purchase a new house. The house which they purchased was a beautiful one with a sea facing view. Rochelle and Rohit were very happy to have got such a beautiful house at such a throw away price. They however did not realize what was in store for them. Initially everything was fine but then things started to happen. Incident 1: One night Rohit woke up at around 1.00 am and found that his wife wasn't in bed. He looked around and found her on their terrace. She was in some sort of a trance staring blankly at the dark sky above with an eerie smile on her face. He shook her and she came out of her trance like state. Rochelle had no recollection of her getting out of her bed. Rohit, though concerned, comforted Rochelle by telling her that she might have been sleepwalking. But Rochelle was sure that she had never sleep walked ever in her life. Both of them subsequently forgot about it and got along with their daily routine. Then something really strange happened which scared Rohit out of his wits. Incident 2: Rohit had to attend a late night dinner meeting with one of his client and came home at 1.00 am. He was surprised to find the door open. Surely Rochelle would not be so careless so as to leave the door open at night. Fearing for the safety of Rochelle and his daughter Anita he quickly entered the house and called Rochelle. All he heard was a low scream coming from his daughter's bedroom and it seemed like Anita's. He quickly went inside and was horrified to find his daughter crouched in one of the corner of the room and Rochelle sitting close and staring at

Anita with the same blank expression and the eerie smile on her face. Rohit shouted at Rochelle which again brought her out of the trance. Again Rochelle did not have any recollection of anything that had happened. Anita scared out of her wits on seeing her mother in such a state was crying inconsolably. Anita told Rohit that she was tucked into bed as usual by Rochelle at around 10. 30 pm and left alone in the room. She was fast asleep when someone shook her vigorously literally throwing her down from her bed. She saw that it was her mother... But it couldn't be, she thought, for the woman in front of her was cursing her in a language which she had never heard in her life. The woman (her mother) was speaking loudly like a mad woman laughing and crying at the same time. Her voice seemed different and her long hair all over her face. This was just ten minutes before Rohit stepped in the house which probably saved the kid from suffering any further harm. Without any further adieu he sent her off to his grandparents place the very next morning. In the next few days Rohit found his wife very aloof and withdrawn, a marked change from her generally bubbly and extrovert personality. She hardly spoke to him. Rohit informed his parents about it and he had planned to take her to a psychiatrist as soon as possible. Incident 3: Then the final terrifying change in Rochelle began. The same night Rohit spoke to his parents, he found Rochelle missing from her bed. She was in Anita's empty room standing right below the ceiling fan staring at it. Rohit went near her and tried to wake her. Rochelle gave him an icy stare and immediately started abusing him in Urdu, screaming at the top of her voice and throwing things about. Gathering his wits, Rohit immediately locked her in the room got one of his neighbors and tied her to the bed. She was very aggressive for sometime bud calmed down subsequently and fell into deep slumber. Thinking that it might be a case of split personality, she was immediately shifted to a hospital and was subjected to thorough checks by the doctors. They could find nothing wrong with her and all the while she was in hospital there was no trace of the aggressive trait she had shown earlier. Immediately after she was discharged and sent home the aggressive behavior started again. One important thing was that this personality change occurred intermittently. It did not occur everyday and would happen suddenly when you would least expect it. Frustrated at the inability of the doctors to provide him with a conclusive answer, Rohit had asked his father to contact Manish who was known to them through an acquaintance. As planned, Manish and I reached Rohit's place late in the evening since we wanted to get a first hand look at the changes which were happening to Rochelle. Rochelle looked very sick and was bedridden. Rohit was very worried and tired since he hadn't slept in the last couple of days. Apart from them there was a housekeeper along with Mr. Narula in the house. Anita and her grandmother stayed back at Mr. Narula's place. From the time we entered the house, I saw a troubled look on Manish's face. I immediately knew that we were in for a tough time ahead. He was concentrating hard as if to locate the exact cause of the problem and from the looks of it he seemed pretty close. Then something unexpected happened which still gives me nightmares. We were in the living room when we suddenly heard a loud noise in little Anita's bedroom. We immediately rushed to find Rochelle standing on Anita's bed. She had tied one of the bed sheets

lying nearby to the ceiling fan, fastened the other end into a noose, put her head into it and was trying to hang herself. This was really very creepy. Regaining our composure Rohit, Manish and I immediately pulled her down, lifted her and put her back in her bed. All the while she was abusing us and kicking about and trying to free herself. She did so with such tremendous power that it took three of us to subdue her. She was tied firmly to her bed. Manish then asked everyone except me to leave the room. Once we were alone, he took Rochelle's hand in his and started chanting a holy mantra (a hymn). He was concentrating very hard. This seemed to work as it seemed to calm her down initially. But suddenly I found Manish sweating profusely; he was finding it difficult to get words out of his mouth. The evil entity within Rochelle was clearly winning the battle. Something happened in the next split second which I cannot describe even to this day. I got up and tried to pull Manish away from Rochelle. I had to use all my strength since it was now the evil entity that was holding on to Manish as if it was sucking the life out of him. With great difficulty I managed to separate them and get Manish out of the room. Manish fainted immediately once we were out. But being the strong man that he is, Manish recovered within half an hour. He got up and immediately asked everyone to vacate the house without losing any more time. The task in front of us was to get Rochelle out of the bed, leave alone the house. The entity within Rochelle resisted with all its strength but somehow this time Manish seemed to have the upper hand. With great difficulty we got her out of the house and to Mr. Narula's place. There was a lot of commotion in the building but nothing except Rochelle's safety seemed to matter at that time. Once out of the house Rochelle immediately calmed down. It seemed as if the hold of the evil entity on her was waning. She had calmed down fully by the time we reached Mr. Narula's place and was deep in slumber by the time we left. Manish assured the Narula's that there was nothing to worry now and everything would be fine. He promised to come over again the next day. Thus ended an exhausting but eventful day for Manish and me. We went to Mr. Narula's place the next morning and found the whole family relieved with Rochelle resting peacefully. Manish's explanation: He had immediately felt the presence of some evil entity as soon as he entered the house. He could also make out that it was a spirit of a woman that had possessed Rochelle. The spirit initially managed to overpower him because it was around 3.00 am at that time and perhaps its power was at its peak. He was happy at my quick thinking which enabled him to separate himself from the evil force without suffering any harm. He was probably able to hold back the entity next time around probably since it was nearing dawn and the power of the evil one on Rochelle was on the wane. He told us that Rochelle had been saved from certain death that day. He also warned the Narula's never to venture into that house again as we had only temporarily subdued the spirit and not completely finished it. Rohit wept inconsolably and thanked us for saving Rochelle's life. Manish and I made some enquiries later on and found that a Muslim couple had been living there prior to Rohit and Rochelle. The lady had committed suicide by hanging herself because of her husbands infidelity in the same room which incidentally was little Anita's bedroom. The husband hushed up the matter using his contacts with the police and immediately left the place. This is why Rohit had got the place at such a throwaway price.

We checked on the Narula's after a couple of months. Rochelle was doing fine and had found herself a job too. No incident had happened after that night. Rohit too had resumed work and they were still staying with their parents place. Little Anita was happy to be with her grand parents and so were Rohit's parents As for the haunted apartment, it is still lying vacant and deserted. Rohit resisted all temptation to sell it saying that he did not wish to put someone else through the same ordeal as himself. What happened to the entity inside the house? No one had the courage to go there again. Your guess is as good as mine.

Hangout With Mohini

This incident happened some 10 years ago right in the heart of the city of Madras. In Madras, there is a place called Kodambakkam, which is quite popular for housing many of the cine studios for several decades. Over a period of time and due to advancement of technologies in film industry, some of the studios were sold out and apartments have started mushrooming. In one of those sites, this particular incident has happened. For the reason of the fact that there is a well located apartment complex as on this date, I do not want to give the studio's name or the apartment's name, which is actually named after the studio in Saligramam in Madras. I would also like to mention about the aspects of Mohini. Mohini is a feminine ghost, who generally comes after bachelors, especially in certain places. They come after these persons for quenching their sexual appetite. Persons who have experienced Mohini attacks have opined that it requires superhuman stamina to withstand such seduction and it would generally be two days before they become normal-self to carry out their normal routine work. Such would be the exhaustion on the part of the person attacked by Mohini. In the site meant for construction of apartments after the demolition of studio, generally in these areas where it is tropical, thatched huts would come up for housing the persons guarding the construction materials etc. Generally, the construction workers take turns in staying overnight in those huts or in hot summer time, they usually put up a cot outside the thatched hut during night time to sleep. The incidents started happening as and when the person watching the site stays outside the hut to catch the night sleep. These assaults are made only to bachelors. Whenever a married person stays overnight and even sleeps outside the hut, there was no report of incident. On one night, a bachelor was staying and he had experienced as if he was having an experience of sexual relationship with a woman, however, not visible to him. After that night, he overslept and was not able to get up from bed even at around 9.00 a.m. He could not discharge his normal duties throughout that day and even next day. Everyone, at the first instance, thought that this man drunk a lot and hence due to hangover, he was not able to perform his duties. A couple of days later, the same kind of experience happened to another person but this time, to a person who never drank in his lifetime. While everybody was skeptical about the narrations

given by the two persons about the experience which were almost similar, nobody could dispute it either because married persons never experienced such happenings. The construction persons gave a serious thought for solving this peculiar problem only when the incidents started repeating itself for a few more persons and on two occasions to the same individuals. They have approached my friend's father, Mr. Subramaniam, who was a religious person and who knows about the designs and activities of such Mohinis. Myself and his son, Bala, were with him when he visited the site. He stopped us at one particular place and not to venture further into the site because we were also bachelors at that time. He immediately felt the presence of one Mohini. He took some sand from that place and in his residence; he started reading some old books and consulted one of the elderly persons well-versed in Mantras. Myself and Bala were not allowed to discuss this issue at that point of time with anybody and were not even allowed to stay in the room when he was discussing about these aspects. However, we overheard what was going on from my friend's room. Mr. Subramaniam stated that this Mohini had an unquenched sexual thirst in the previous birth as a spirit and owing to the fact that in the previous birth, the spirit expired in an accident; the spirit transformed into a Mohini and started quenching its desires through these kinds of relationships with bachelors. He did some poojas and gave one Sudarsana Chakra (a highly religious and potent piece of tin loaded with mantras) and asked the persons to nail it before the thatched hut. One more chakra was nailed at the far end of the site, where one more thatched hut was located. After that there were no attacks until the construction was over to anybody. Myself and my friend were really scared for months about such incidents and did not go to that site even after its construction for nearly 2 years even though my friends were staying in the newly constructed apartments. But, no incident is reported until now. My friend's father Mr. Subramaniam still says that Mohini would have gone to some other place for quenching its desires and advises bachelors not to venture into lonely places especially in the evenings or late in the evenings. When I narrated the earlier incident of Mr. Narayanan (which was reported in my earlier writeup Lady Ghost calling Nam), he said that it was also one of the manifestations of Mohini and had Mr. Narayanan turned his face, he would have met the same fate as what has happened to the bachelors in the construction site and probably something more fatal. In retrospect, if I think about this incident, I still have shivers in my spine and my friend, Bala also feels the same way.

Haunting Near Old Well

This incident is not scary. But it throws open some questions for those who are doing research in this field and are keen to actually witness the hauntings. This took place in Maharashtra, India in a town of medium size. There is a very old well near the campus of Agriculture College. It is at least 150 years old and still has some water but mostly unusable. The road that passes from around a few meters from the well is not in much use. Only students and sales staff for fertilizer companies nearby use that road. A friend of mine, who has taken up a rather low paying job of a travelling salesperson, was coming back to his hostel at around 1am. As he approached the well he saw a man of seventy plus, drawing water from the well and taking a bath. There was something unnatural about the man. The clothes lying near him were very old fashioned and one could make that out even in the dim moonlight. Also my friend was surprised to see someone taking bath as the water was too dirty and was not used. As he got closer to the well, the man disappeared and there were no traces of anyone taking a bath. But he felt no fear, nor did he get any uneasy or unnatural feeling near the well. I believed my friend. He was not the type who would lie or imagine things. I asked around. This scene had been witnessed before as well but very rarely. A somewhat incoherent story that came out was like this. In 1891 a very old women in her nineties died a natural death due to old age. Her son was seventy-four as in those days women used to marry before seventeen and generally gave birth to their first child in year or so. The son himself was not too well and suffered from asthma. In those days there was no relief medicines as such and it was a miracle that the man had managed to live for so long in the first place. He had not married and was devoted to his mother. He insisted he would do all the last rites at the time of cremation. He did that as well but while coming back from the cemetery his condition deteriorated. In Hinduism all those who visit the cemetery are supposed to take bath before they enter the house. The son also wanted to do the same but his relatives did not allow him. He was taken home in a semi conscious state where he continued to insist that unless he takes a bath, the soul of his mother would not rest in peace. The man died in the morning and after that he was seen occasionally, near the well doing something, which he was not allowed to do at that time. I was very keen to witness the scene myself. Walking down that road past mid night was not a problem at all because I stayed only half a mile away. So I tried walking past the well at odd hours. There was nothing scary about that road. It was lonely but a peaceful one. I did not see anything near the well during all those nights. Using whatever little I knew about astrology, I tried auspicious nights, inauspicious nights, full moon nights and nights with no moon. Generally these are the days when there is more activity and if you have the ability to "see" things then you can do that. Nothing worked. I tried being present for the cremations of the people I knew very remotely as long as it took place in the cemetery nearby. I then walked past the road on purpose but still no "luck".

I questioned my friend about that night. Did he do anything specific that he remembered, during that day or night? No. It was a very normal day he told me. He was late because he was tallying his monthly statements of sales and revenue. It took him time and hence he was coming late. The family of priests that looked after the rituals have been doing that for last few generations. They had the date of the record since 1870 and could easily find the day when the old woman had died. The date was only two months away. I waited and tried on that night as well and did not see anything. Some six months had passed now and the incident was fading away from my memory. I was on the verge of giving up. But before doing so I happened to come across my Guru to whom I briefly narrated the incident. He told me that I was looking at this from completely wrong angle. He did some calculations, gave me a date and told me to go near the well past midnight on that day. He also told me to throw few white flowers taken from a certain temple, two lemons, a tender coconut instrumented by mantra and told me to pray near the well for uplifting on the suffering souls. I did exactly that. On the given date, I went near the well, and managed to see the haunting and it did not disappear when I went near it. I could very clearly see the man who looked very very ill. Each breath was difficult for him and the movement pouring water over his head from the bucket was making him almost breathless. He looked at me only once in a very vacant sort of way. I must say even then there was no fear. Not because of my courage but because I was indeed afraid but I think there was no evil as such in the haunting in the first place. I then turned to the well and did as I was told and then went ahead without looking back. I could hear a very soft rustling like sound in the background but did not know what it was. I think the haunting stopped after that but I will not be able to say that for sure. I asked my Guru several times as to why I was wrong and what mistake I was doing. He just smiled and never told me that. There was something that I was missing in this. Perhaps you all can figure out. At least I am stumped and for me it will be a mystery forever.

Hauntings At Cousin's Place

Alittle background information: This is a pretty old house from the British Era. Surrounded by a garden on two sides and a ridge on the third. The window about which I would be talking about faces the ridge. A really old ruined castle is nearby which probably has something to do with this. This thing happened to me a couple of years ago. My cousins were seeing off our family. We had come over our place for a week. It was a real chilly December night and everyone was shivering. Just as the taxi came, I remembered that I had forgotten to take a CD. I went inside to look for it. As I was looking in the cupboard for my CD, I saw a face in the window above. I stood still, and then it gave me an eerie smile I was totally freaked out. I ran out and told everybody what

had happened. Nobody believed me and told me that I was seeing things. My cousins told me that they had also encountered the same thing but the grown up's would not believe us (I was 12 at that time). Another scary thing happened to me in that house. Me and my cousins were alone in the house. I was in the room that faces the ridge. My cousins were in the garden. I was reading, suddenly, I heard someone call my name in a very hoarse voice. I got up and asked them if they were calling me but they hadn't. It still scares me to go into that house...

Hotel Sangam

This experience happened about 20 years ago to a friend of mine. His name is Murugan. Now he is a professor in Annamalai University at Chidambaram. But, at that point of time, he was working as a Manager in Pondicherry Road Transport Corporation Ltd. His work involved travelling throughout Pondicherry and also parts of Tamilnadu. He used to combine his trips so that he could save his time on travel. On one occasion, I happened to be with him in Erode. He told me that he would be reaching Erode and staying in Hotel Sangam on the Monday. I told him that I would be reaching Erode on Tuesday morning and would be willing to stay with him for the rest of the day before we started for our individual journey. I went to meet him on Tuesday morning at around 6.15 a.m. And he was sleeping on a sofa just in front of the reception. I woke him up and asked him what happened. He told me that he reached Erode around 12. 30 in the night and went to the lodge. Since he was regularly staying in the lodge, the person on duty told him that even though no double rooms were available, he would be willing to allow him to stay in a five-bedded room but would only charge for a double room since Murugan was to stay only until next evening. My friend was happy enough to agree to the proposal. He went to the room and he told me that he had a shower before he went to bed. But during the shower, he was hearing noise in the bedroom as if 3 or 4 persons were talking, discussing among themselves. He came out and saw twice before he got to continue his bathing. But, he told me that he had a nagging feeling that someone was watching him even during he was bathing. He came out and went to bed immediately. But, what followed was a nightmare. He was in bed but could not get sleep. He was hearing voices as if some discussion was going on among 3-4 persons and it was like an argument. He also heard someone was crying. Somehow, he told me that he was getting some half sleep. Suddenly, he felt that someone was sitting over his chest, not allowing him to move. He was gasping for breath before he could shake the feeling. He came out and saw whether someone was there in the corridor. He could not see any person since it was well past midnight. Again, he went to bed. This time, he told me that the moment he fell on bed, it was as if some 2 persons were sitting over him and that made him feel somewhat shaky besides being not able to withstand the apparent weight. He started to yell but told me he could not get his voice and his voice was almost throttled. After much struggle, he was able to get out of bed and immediately came out of the room and went to the reception.

In the reception, the person, who allotted him room, was not available. But, the room boy was present. The room boy asked him what had happened and he narrated the whole story. The room boy asked him if he would be sleeping in the sofa opposite the reception for the night. Murugan readily agreed but asked him about the 5-bedded room. Then the room boy told that about 2-3 months ago, a family of 6 persons came and stayed there for night and consumed poison and the entire family committed suicide in that room. From that time on, the management was not allotting the room to anybody. But, since no rooms were vacant, the person in-charge happened to give the room to Murugan, perhaps because he did not visualise any problem. But it happened that Murugan experienced a nightmare of his life. He was very shaken when I spoke to him in the morning and he did not dare enter the room again even after sunrise. The room boy, however, brought his luggage and we were given another room. Years later, the hotel is still there. I heard that even now, they are not allotting this room to anybody. But, in the nights, they used to hear voices even from outside. The mystery continues.

I Saw A Girl, But She Was A Ghost

Iwas visiting my family in Kerala, India. That is where I am originally from. I have lived there for periods of time and even gone to school there, but I grew up in California. This is a completely true story. So, I was in Kerala, my mom has three sisters and they each have 2 children, except for my mother who has 3 (Including me). My oldest Aunt's children are grown and out of the house, so that left bedrooms open for the rest of us. My brothers shared one. My little cousins shared another and my aunt offered me the single room. My cousin's room. It was very nice. It had the plushest bed and was warm. I was excited I got to sleep there. I should mention That day earlier I was wondering about a little girl and boy I saw when I was 5, like I said, my family and I have been in and out of India for ages. Once there where these two very poor children and I remember they were my age or a little younger. I was feeling bad that all we could give them was a few dollars. That's all my parents they had on hand. I was wondering what happened to the little girl because I remember I couldn't stop looking at her, even when I was 5 I was scared for her safety. I could remember that the little girl had long wavy hair and only had on a purple skirt and no shirt. So at night, my brothers went their way and my mom and her sisters got ready to sleep in the living room on mats and little beds. I put my stuff in my cousin's room and got into the bed. I immediately felt completely uncomfortable.

I felt like... I didn't want to sleep in that room. I just couldn't. My stomach felt queasy the moment I touched the bed, so I told my Aunts and Mom I didn't want to sleep there and they set up a mat for me to sleep next to my mom. It was like a can of sardines and I was at the left end. I woke up in the middle of the night with my stomach hurting. I thought maybe it was something I ate. I was kind of sleepy and I sat up. I rubbed my eyes and I saw in front of me, a woman sitting cross legged with her hands in her lap. I wasn't scared but logically thought it was my mother. I rubbed my eyes and said "Mom my stomach really hurts." She wasn't saying anything and I was getting frustrated so I tapped her saying "Mom!" That's when my fingers went right through her. I remember when my fingers went through her, and hit the floor. I was shocked. However, the girl sat unblinking. My eyes widened and I realized this was not my mother. For one she was very skinny, she was wearing a purple shirt and skirt, with long wavy hair. And she had a creepy grin, not malicious, but not nice. I've had dreams of Devi (which is a goddess in our religion) before and it didn't feel like that sweetness so I knew this is not a divine being, which of course I do believe in. She looked younger than me, but very aged. (I was 15 at the time) Like she had been through a rough life. I quickly tapped my mother who I realized had been sleeping next to me. I shook her and said "Mom wake up! There's a girl in front of me! She's sitting right in front of me!" My mom got up annoyed and said, "Meera, what is it?" When she sat up she sat right in front of the ghost. I was so shocked all I could say was "Mom, there's a girl right there. She's sitting right there." I was pointing like crazy. She wasn't getting it, she was still sleepy and the ghost was behind her. What happened next I still can remember like a movie being played. The ghost tilted her head, she was still sitting cross legged, but like she tilted her head to the side and smiled at me, a full smile then to the other side and smiled at me, like she was playing a game. That's when I said loudly, "Mom look look! There's a girl!" Then one of my Aunts got up, switched on the light and the girl was gone. First they thought I was hallucinating or something. But I knew I wasn't. From thinking about that little girl I saw when I was 5, to sitting in my cousin's room and being uncomfortable, and then seeing her. Not a coincidence. I'll tell you honestly though, I only made the little girl connection to this girl a few years later, just randomly.

Now I remember thinking what if I had been alone in a room with the door shut? I had always been slightly scared of these things, and alone... After a day they believed me but my aunt was angry I'd say there was ghost in her home. My mom was scared and asked me if I was scared and I said no. I was shocked I really wasn't. That's probably because I wasn't alone.

Is This A Ghost?

My husband and I have been in our house for 6 months now, and we have a ghost; or at least we are convinced we do. My husband is a skeptical person and does not believe in these sort of things. There has been a few times where I've come home from office and saw broken cups. Recently my stove burners have automatically started burning. My husband doesn't believe all this stuff. He just told me that accidentally they might have burnt. We Indians do pooja and have some rudraksha and other stuff on top of the entrance door. Those are missing and there is no chance that children can take them. Sometimes I and my husband felt something kick our backs from under the mattress. One day after reaching home from office I was startled to see my kitchen filled with water. And there was no leakage in the taps or pipes. And moreover our kitchen wall is the common wall to our neighbor's flat too. But they did not even have a drop of water. I never hear voices and I've never seen a ghost, but I am so afraid of my house now. No one ever died there. But I am unable to conclude whether a ghost exists or not? And as an Indian we follow vasthu during a building construction. And many a times my mom told me that my house was not build on good vasthu. What should I do?

Kali Choudas - Dark Fourteeth

This is my first experience I am sharing here; actually this is not my experience, but my cousin's. We have a day in the Hindu calendar called "Kali Chaudas" (Dark Fouteenth). It proceeds the day of our new year. This is comparable to Halloween, minus the trick treat and many times darker.

There is a community called Tantriks (performers of black magic) in India, known to ward off ghosts, but pretty scary themselves. Well, these Kali Chaudas brought home to us the weirdest thing: I must have been about two years old or so. We were at my cousin's place for the New Year. My cousin sister is four years older than me. She was six at that time. The Tantriks are known to set off wandering on this day. One of them was wandering outside my cousin's house. We are pretty used to this, so we didn't pay much attention. But he then came outside our door and stood there. We still paid any attention. My sister looked at him and suddenly screamed out loud. He then set off again. But pretty oddly, my sister went off scampering after him. All of us tried to stop her, but to no avail. It was as if she couldn't hear any thing. She just kept saying "I have to go." She seemed to possess so much power, that is was impossible for her to be controlled or stopped even by four fully grown people-her parents and mine. However, they managed to stop her and made her sit down. She continued saying "I have to go" she refused to eat or drink anything. She didn't even recognize us. She spoke nothing except that sentence. That evening, the elders took her to a sadhu (priest). He told us that she was possessed or cursed. He told us to tie a necklace around her neck, place a sacred thread around her and make her drink holy water for a number of days. After drinking the water she recovered. She still dreads kali chaudas and never meets eye with a tantrik... If any one knows about black magic, please tell me what this was...

Lady Ghost Calling Name

This is a real life incident that had happened to my friend's father. My friend's name is Rangarajan. His father's name is Narayanan. This incident he had told us several times when we were in our school days not to venture into anything adventurous especially near the burial grounds, which are quite common in countryside's. He was studying in a school in Uthriramerur (in Tamilnadu). He was in a village and he used to walk down to school in Uthiramerur daily. One day he was delayed and the distance between the village and Uthiramerur was about 6 kilometers, which was not a big distance considering the fact that in 1950s and 1960s people used to walk such distances to go to school. It was also well past dusk and around 7.30 p.m. He started to walk down. He was a brave person and he chose a short-cut, which would reduce the distance by over 2 kilometers. There was a burial ground on the way and since he had walked near that burial ground so many times, of course, along with his friends during day time, he was not so perturbed. In fact, while he was crossing the burial ground, he was not scared or otherwise. But, the moment he started to walk away from the burial ground towards the village, he was not able to smoothly walk down as he was walking quite a few moments ago. It was as if something was trying to stop his speed. But, nevertheless with difficulty, he started walking even though a bit slower. Suddenly, he smelt a fragrance the smell of jasmine coming from behind

him. He did not have the courage to look behind. There was also a continuous sound of ladies anklet as if some lady was coming behind him. There was also continuously a sweet girl's voice calling him as "Narayana, please stop, look behind and see my beauty". This girl's voice was continuously calling him and the sound of anklet never stopped as also the fragrance of jasmine. Moment after moment his walk was slowing down. But he dared not look back. He then started reciting "Vishnu Sahasranamam" and started walking towards the village. Even though the fragrance, sound and the calling of a girl did not stop, he did find that he was able to walk normally even though it was slower. Generally, it takes about 15-20 minutes to reach the village from the burial ground but Narayanan took more than 1 hour to reach the village. There is a temple of a demi-god, called protective god (kaval Deivam in Tamil) at the end of the village boundary and only after nearing that temple, the fragrance, the sound of anklet and the calling of the girl stopped. His speed had also returned to his normal speed. He started running to his house and after tapping the door, he fell down and fainted. For nearly two weeks he suffered from high temperature and it took him months to come out of this trauma. While narrating this incident, even now, after several years and even after we have grown up, we feel the real fear not only among us but also in the face of my friend's father, Mr. Narayanan.

Lady In The Dark

This is a story narrated to me by my father. As I mentioned in my previous story, my father was in the Indian Defence Forces and was naturally quite a martinet. He had absolute control over his emotions and fear was something he was trained not to feel. The incident I'm about to narrate to you happened around 30 years ago, much before my birth. My father was visiting his parents after taking a break from his official duties. It was a small family gathering as his cousins had come over. The backdrop was a semi-rural town in eastern India. As the sun set, my father saw off the last of the relatives at the railway station, about 3 miles from his home. By the time he reached around the last bend before his home would appear, it was dark. To give just a little glimpse into the setting that was around, it was early 1980's in semi-rural India. The streets would be lit by gas-lamp street lights about 200 metres apart. The village lay in the middle of dense vegetation and the home had a pond right in front of it, beyond the perimeter wall. The home stood by the road that came out of the bend that my father approached. Anyone could clearly see the home, about 200 metres, down the road on the right. So if he were to walk

towards his home, the home would be to his northeast, the pond to his right and the dense jungles on the left. The next gas lamp lighting the street was right outside the gates of this home. As he walked towards his home, he saw a lady in a white sari (a traditional Indian dress for women) walking ahead of him. Quite dismissive of it all, my father walked as usual at a brisk pace as his home neared. What he noticed now was that the lady was infact not walking, but rather gliding forward. I remember my father telling me that it was dark as the next light was still a bit far away and he swore he tried explaining to himself that the sari covered her feet and it might have given off the impression that she was gliding. A bit startled, he walked faster until he started overtaking her. By this time, the lights from the lamp outside his home was falling on his face and hence on the lady's face too. As a gentleman may be, he did not try to stare at her but tried to have a glimpse of her appearance. What he told me was surprising. As he looked from the corner of his eye while overtaking, he observed that there was no face at all. It was like a piece of cloth outlined by nothingness into the body of a woman. He felt usually unnerved at that time. My father rushed through the remainder of the road and reached his home, bolted the gate and turned back to see. As he looked out of the window for the last time, he could not see much of the road but there wasn't anyone else out there. My father does not know what it was, but it tested his bravery that day. Late Night Scare

This incident happened to me a few months back... Maybe in June or July. I am a working girl and I usually come home late from work, like around 10.30p.m. After that I have my dinner and then I sit on the internet checking my mails and stuffs... Which goes on until late. Well where I stay, there's a big open ground behind... And during that time I used to hear a lot of dogs crying & howling exactly after 1.30a.m...Everyday!...And they would do that exactly for 20-30 minutes!...That used to scare the hell outta me... I could hardly sleep during that period of 30 minutes and only after they stopped crying could I sleep. I told this to my sister and she told me that she'd heard from her friends that there was a burial ground somewhere near or around that ground and that it was haunted! That just gave me the creeps! After a few days she told me that she was hanging with few of her friends one night on the terrace of our building when suddenly far across the ground they saw a man who would appear and disappear, then again re-appear and disappear and they all freaked out and got out of the terrace as quickly as possible. I told her that it was just her mind playing tricks but she said that it was FOR REAL and that all of her friends saw the same thing! Well the howling continued for a few days. But just as suddenly it had started, it stopped all of a sudden too! Thankfully now I sleep peacefully.

So can anyone tell me whether it had something to do with the supernatural or it was just some one-off incident which happened at the wrong time... Totally clueless! Also lemme tell you there's been no recurrence of that or any other incident yet!

Madras Girl Possessed

When I was very young, maybe 7 or 8 years old, a peculiar thing has happened in our neighbourhood. We were living in the heart of the city of Madras. If you can think of what Madras looked like about 35-36 years ago, from the present improved city, we would be surprised. One of the families living nearby my household was a joint family. My friend, Manoharan, also lived in that family. It was a big family of over 13 persons with cousins, aunts, uncles etc living under one single roof. We used to have a lot of fun and the boys and girls of my age group used to play with each other. Elderly boys and girls would be among themselves. It was real fun to be with their family since our family was quite smaller in size. My friend Manoharan's cousin, Rajeswari, was 12 years elder to him and she also lived in the same family in our neighbourhood. They used to dine together, play together, celebrate together etc. Once, Rajeswari, went to a village to attend a marriage of her relative with some of the family members. When she came back, there was a change in her attitude. She started behaving like a man quite often. Initially, we never got used to that. But, one day when I was in my friend's house and they were sitting together to have their lunch. Suddenly Rajeswari in a loud and manly voice said, "Hi, I am hungry and I am going to eat." I could not believe my eyes, she ate all the things that were kept in that hall and everyone was dumbfounded. We, children, were scared to the bones. When I asked my friend, Manoharan, he said that this was happening for the first time. After she took the food, she asked for a cigar. Manoharan's father gave her a cigar and after she smoked, she fell down. When she awoke, she was quite normal and said that she was feeling hungry. By that time, it was well over half an hour from what had happened and Manoharan's mother and his aunts, started cooking fresh food for the rest. To my dismay, when the food was cooked, she ate like everybody and was her usual normal self. I was told by Manoharan's father that this continued for 3-4 times after this first incident. Later realizing that something must have happened to the girl, they called a priest to find out what had happened. The priest made elaborate arrangements and put kolam and asked Rajeswari to sit down in that kolam. We were seeing the ritual with all seriousness and fear. After some time, the priest started asking questions to Rajeswari. She did not answer well for the first 15 minutes or so and suddenly, we could feel that somebody or something in her body started talking to the priest. It said, "I am Muneeswaran. When she came to kattupakkam village, she was wearing a white half-saree, she was with her hair untied and I was in the tree and I wanted to enter her body because I was attracted towards her and I entered her body." Every one was shocked. But the priest continued and asked whether it would go away. To this it said, "Yes. I would. But you should give me a feast with non-vegetarian food, liquor and cigar. Then I would leave."

The priest immediately ordered Manoharan's father and Rajeswari's father to arrange for the feast. It was a grand feast with all non-vegetarian stuff, chicken, mutton with spiced items besides a bottle of local liquor and a pack of cigars. We were witnessing with awe and to our dismay, it finished off the entire feast single-handedly and started drinking the local liquor without any hesitation. It smoked 2 cigars and later told the priest that it was satisfied and bade good bye. Rajeswari fell down and was unconscious for over 3 years. When she woke up, there was nothing unusual about her and she was her usual self. From that day on, her behavior was normal and without any aberrations. But, for those 15-20 days when she was under the control of Muneeswaran, we were literally scared to go near her. Even after all these rituals happened, it took more than 2 months for us to go near her and started interacting with her. Recently, Manoharan, my friend and me, we went to Rajeswari's house. She is now quite old with grand children and we recollected the scary incidents in retrospect.

Manali To Rothang - Five Hours Of Horror

To this day I still have no idea what happened exactly. What is written here is what I felt and saw. If anyone can give me any answers, I am all ears. This happened on 14.12.2008. I was on vacation with two of my friends to Manali. We travelled out on the 11th and planned to return by 16th. We were using a borrowed Mahindra Scorpio. It was a bit battered but the engine and chassis was still fine, so it was alright. Once we got to Manali, the trip to Rothang from Manali was a spur of the moment thing. We started out late, sometime around 12.15pm. We hardly realized that in winter the snow would be so high up (as new snow hadn't yet taken its full toll), and we had to in fact drive a mere five kms short of the actual pass to reach the snowfield. It took us nearly three hours to get there because the roads were really, really bad and even then, we had to walk about a km on foot to reach it. Since the air is really thin so high up, it was nearly 4.45pm before we returned commenced our journey back thoroughly exhausted. Just short of halfway down, our front passenger tyre went flat. I think about 8 kms short of Gulabo, a small hamlet en route to Rothang. To compound the matters we discovered to our chagrin that the spare had no air in it, even though I had myself checked it before we began our journey. Perhaps it had a minor leak or whatever. The thing is we were stranded, and we could not leave the car behind. It was borrowed. At first we waited, hoping that one of the few Scorpios we had seen would be coming down and maybe they would lend us their spare tyre. However, the traffic already thin owing to out - of season scenario became a trickle as the light faded quickly past 5.30pm. So, both of my friends hitched a ride with the next taxi that passed us with the flat tyre, while I remained behind. My second friend was feeling nauseated and had a severe headache, all symptoms of high altitude

sickness. Hence, I insisted that he accompanied my first friend down. Ironically, I wryly observed that I would be perfectly safe inside the vehicle as no one would have enough breath to rob me this high up in the wilderness. After they had gone I set up reflectors at both ends of the vehicles to warn approaching vehicles, if there were going to be any, since the road is not that wide. Thereafter, I came and slid down on the back seat of the scorpio. I had locked the vehicle for precaution, and wrapped my arms around myself and just lay back. It was nearly 6pm. Since I had been on high altitude treks before, I was well clothed for Rothang. So even though it was dreadfully cold at minus 7 and going down, I felt it would be fine. I don't know when I slid into a slumber, but when I came to it was nearly 8pm. I knew it was going to be difficult to get a taxi to ply at late hours, but this was getting ridiculous. Then I heard a rasping sound, which I cannot explain. I peered outside as best I could all round, but couldn't make any thing out since windows were all fogged up, the wind was really shrieking, as is often the case at high altitudes in winter especially after the sun goes down. Putting down the sound to the wind I fell back again, peering blankly towards the front windscreen, hoping my friends would return soon, since I was really cold and hungry. While I was peering blankly at the windscreen, a large portion of it frosted up, but then just as quickly defrosted. I heard the rasping sound again. This happened in quick succession a number of times. At this moment I was just curious. Sometimes long hours in extreme conditions at high altitudes can dull the mind. So I propped myself up, and become more attentive. However, this time the same thing happened by the driver's window. So I cleaned the rear window behind the driver seat as best I could and peered outside but I could make out nothing. I was about to step out thinking may be some kind of leak from the engine was responsible for this "phenomenon", when the same thing happened again to the window from which I was peering outside a moment ago. This really freaked me out. Then it happened again but for longer duration at the rear window, and this time I detected a faint, suppressed growl along with the rasping noise. It stopped briefly, and then it started again and it was focused for sometime on the front windscreen. Each time it (frosting, defrosting with rasping and growling) repeated itself the duration of frosting increased, while that of defrosting lessened. I was really afraid now. Initially, I thought may be it was an animal. Even for allowing for poor visibility, what kind of animal can cause this over and above the bonnet of the car without making some kind of noise on the body of the vehicle? Maybe it was some kind of phenomenon owing to comparably warmer temperature inside, and extreme cold outside. I am sure I heard those sounds I described earlier. I was still debating when the frost almost covered the entire windscreen for an interminably long time, and seemed to be seeping inside. I don't know why but I suddenly screamed with all my might and pounded with my fists and palms on the windscreen. It defrosted instantly. For some time there was nothing except intense cold and shrieking wind. I sat, with my arms wrapped around me, in middle of the backseat, away from the windows. I heard a louder growl this time with rasping noise from the rear. I repeated my actions (screaming and pounding) even though there was no frost on the rear window. Nothing happened for what seemed like an eternity but was probably a few minutes. Then the front windscreen started frosting up really quickly and heavily, with the frost seeping inside. I screamed and pounded, but this time even

though it defrosted again, there was a distinctly loud growl and the whole vehicle shook. This went on for what seemed like an eternity. Different windows would frost up really fast, I would scream and pound, there would be a loud growl and heightened rasping and the whole vehicle would shake. By the end, I was sweating like crazy, my arms were raw red with all the pounding, and my voice was almost gone. Cracks had appeared on nearly all the windows. It was nearly midnight when my friend arrived in another taxi, with a mechanic, who changed our flat tyre with help from taxi driver. When my friend pounded on the window to get me to open up, I nearly broke the window with my pounding as I could no longer scream. There are no words to describe my relief, when I saw the face of my friend. So much so that I gave no thought to his well being, but apparently whatever it was seemed to be only interested in me. It was the mechanic who drove us down. My friend was aghast at my state and the state of the vehicle's windows. I couldn't speak, except in a croaking voice for nearly a week, which was good thing because I didn't want to speak. When I did tell my friends they were perplexed and astounded. We were the ones who spent a night at 'Bhangarh', supposedly the most haunted place in India, to show that it was not. We regularly trek and camp at desolate, even scary places. What happened was unbelievable; even now I would sooner believe that it never happened than otherwise. If anyone can explain to me about this, please do: What the hell was going on? What was it? If it was a ghost or something, aren't they supposed to simply pass through everything and anything, so why couldn't it just come inside and attack me (as I distinctly felt that it wanted to)? Has anything like this ever happened to anyone else? If yes, where?

My Cousin's Guardian Ghost

This happened to my uncle's family a year ago. My uncle was a businessman (now he had left his job) and he had all sorts of relations with people. Some were his true friends while some others were the untrustworthy ones. He had a son and a daughter who was blind and deaf by birth. She had never seen her own parents or ever heard their voices, yet she was adored by everyone in the family. There was a guy, named Shivraj - one of my uncle's true friends. My uncle thought that he was so faithful that he could never cheat on him. But it was one of the biggest mistakes that my uncle thought of him like that (He was worldly-minded and the aim of his life was just money, money and money. My uncle realized this when he lost his son because of his greed for money). The story was something like this... One day my cousin, i.e. My uncle's son, was playing outside. Just then Shivraj saw him (I'm not sure what really had happened. It's just a guess). My cousin was kidnapped for ransom. Mr. Shivraj was the culprit. He was behind the property that my uncle was owning.

We all were shattered when after 2 or 3 days, we came across the news that my cousin was no more. He was murdered and the murderer was Shivraj (God knows why he did that). My uncleaunt were broken. But they were unaware about the deceitful plans of brutal Shivraj. A month passed. The matter was settled. Uncle-aunt somehow managed to cope up with the loss. Everything was fine. But then, strange things began to happen. We noticed that their daughter began to smile at herself. She clapped as if she was seeing something. She showed very strange behavior. One day, my aunt even caught her holding a pencil in her hands and writing something. She was amazed. We also heard her saying "Mummy-Daddy" very often which she had never heard before. Uncle thought that she was recovering her weaknesses but she was seeing the spirit of her brother - that's what my grand mom said. The most freaky incident took place when my uncle was going to sign a deal with Shivraj. It happened when his daughter came to knew that her dad was signing a deal with Shivraj. She just cried aloud and started shouting. All were confused. Just then she took a marker out of the cupboard and wrote on the wall, "Don't go father... He will murder you just what he did to me". Out of horror and bewilderment, he didn't go. He was saved by his daughter rather his son (that's what I feel). Today also, we all believe that his soul lives in their house and protects everyone from difficulties and sometimes makes his sister possessed just to have some fun. Thank you all for reading this lengthy story and I have some more to share.

My Dad Became Ill

Ihave shared my experience My Parents House with you all previously, and now I want to share my dad's experience in that place (as you all know that house was built by my great grandfather at Mumbai in 1936.) Please note that my dad is a staunch non believer in ghosts, spirits or anything called supernatural. On 15th May 2002, we all were sleeping in our respective rooms i.e my parents in their bedroom and me and my brother shared the same room until that time. Our beloved dog 'Sholie' would sleep anywhere he wanted. On that particular day, he was sleeping in the living room. Suddenly our whole household woke up hearing our dog barking for no reason. We all rushed out thinking it to be some kind of robbery, but it was not so. He was barking looking at one corner of the house and even had convulsions. We all rushed to his help and knew he needed a doctor whereas my dad thought it was just because of a calendar put up in that particular corner and the movements it was making because of the fan above. Eventually he removed it. On the next morning my dad couldn't get up from his bed and was running high temperature. Finally he was admitted to the hospital, and from there onwards he could stand on his feet only after one year. He became so ill that my mom was even told that he might live for a few hours. Doctors could not diagnose what exactly had happened. But whatever that was, wasn't funny at all. Maybe negative energy or something, what do you think?

My Encounter on an Indian Military Ship

This is a true story...though I still can't believe it happened to me. That's the time when I used to serve on ships in capacity of cadet that was my first and last F.G. Ship (F.G. Stands for Foreign Going). Ship's name was M.V. Spar Ruby. Whole crew was Indian. I still remember, march-2006, we were passing through North Atlantic, heading for Trieste, Italy. We were carrying wheat, in that passage maintenance of hatch covers was due. Hatch covers are opening of holds in which we carry cargo (wheat), same like cover of some box. Weather was very fine so hatches were partially open for no. 1 hold which is located in the foremost part of the ship and painting work was going on, as we could not finished whole on that day, it was kept open so that paint can get dry underneath the cover. At around 10:30 at night, chief officer rang in my cabin and asked me to close the hatch. I changed in my shoes, took a torch, and informed the bridge (from where control of the ship is done) that I'm going on deck. After reaching there, I started the Hyd. Pump and start closing operation, I closed one cover and went forward to close other, suddenly my torch went out of order, rather than going back, I informed bridge on walkie-talkie to switch on forward lights, 3rd officer was on watch and he informed me that it'll take 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile I lit one cig, I was enjoying the puffs, when suddenly I heard some scratching noise behind me, I thought there was some malfunction with hatch cover and I turned back with usual alert, but I got completely got frozen to see the view, there was a lady standing in some light clothes, she got short hair and her face was not so clearly visible, I could not understand how I was able to see her in such a dark. I could not make a single move, I wanted to shout but such a thin voice was coming out of my mouth. Suddenly she started moving towards me, I wanted to move back but my foot became like they are nailed on deck. She was continuously moving towards me but with a slow speed, she took around 30 sec. to cover the distance of around 15 yards between us. Now she was close to me like hell. Her face was just 5 inches ahead of mine and I saw her very thoroughly, she was such a pretty lady of about 35, maybe from some South American country. In spite of her beautifulness she was pale yellow. Most strange were her eyes, which were carrying sadness of whole world. Until I got comfortable with the situation, all three lights of fore part were on, I moved my head towards the light in anticipation and in hardly a sec. I looked back to the lady, GOSH no sign of her, I lost consciousness... "Pratap, are you all right?" I came back with my mind; chief officer was bending over me and asked me softly as I opened my eyes. Chief Officer was a nice guy; he didn't ask a single thing and told everybody to leave the room so that I can rest. He instructed the duty seaman to take care of me in 2-3 hours interval. Next day, I told everything to chief officer innocently, he told me not to take such things to heart, as it happens due to heavy workload on ships. Even I didn't take that incident seriously and forgot like a horrible dream.

Mid of April, next month, we had just loaded steel coils from Alexandria, Egypt. We were heading for U.S. It was my duty to go inside the hold everyday to take temperatures. It was 4th day from departure, in the evening I was doing the job, almost finished, I entered in no.5 hold, reached to the bottom, put thermometer on floor and start noting the readings. All of sudden I don't know why I turned back; same lady was sitting in the space between two coils. Same outfit but today she was weeping, I clearly could see the wet face. I gathered all my courage and asked her who she was. No answer... I again asked but nothing, I don't know how I could be so brave, I shouted on her and that should have been avoided. Suddenly ship started rolling, we were in Mediterranean Sea and that was so unexpected. That can be dangerous due to shifting of steel coils, so duty seaman who was outside the hatch took down some steps on ladder and shouted to come up, again that attracted my sense and as I looked back no sign of her. After that incident that lady became part of my life. She started to appear in the accommodation also. First I saw her near crew's toilet after dinner. After some days in the radio room. Frequency of her appearance increased. I thought this is high time to do something because that was affecting my work also. Thousand of times I asked her "what you want" "in what way I can help you" "I have done something wrong with you" But no answers. She uses to continuously stare at me. I told everything to 2nd officer now, who was comparatively close to me. He took everything seriously and makes report to chief officer, who was apparently angry with me due to my frequent mistakes in work. He told that I'm pretending to get away from work. 2nd officer was not happy with this because he knew that I'm sincere with my work. Though he was not believing stories completely but agree that something wrong is happening with me. That day he called me in his cabin and we had some vodka, in that drunken state I started crying and told him that maybe this is all psychological but all is true. And why it is happening to me, I didn't even see the face of that lady before in my life, I haven't done anything wrong with any female in whole of my life, and all that. In that state I left his cabin and came to mine. I just fall on my bed and went to sleep. After midnight I felt that somebody is pulling my bed sheet forcefully, I woke up and that was worse, she was standing in front of me, lights were on and there was mere distance between us. She was in bluish gown today with some Arabian style of small cap on head. In few moments my body was wet and I felt that my body was heavy, that I can not make a sheer move. My hands started shivering. She took some steps forward, came close to me, sit on my bed and put her hand on forehead. After that she said something in some strange language with a pleasant smile on her face. I could not understand a single word but had a feel like she is saying, "don't be scared of me, I'll do nothing" "sleep, you need that" she started massaging my forehead softly with lot of love and affection in her eyes. I forgot all my stress. She was continuously saying something like some lady singing a song for her baby. Her voice was soft and touching. I closed my eyes and suddenly the scene came across my mind when I was leaving the home and my mother was weeping and I saw her face for the last time. I started crying; she quickly got up from bed and went in the corner of the cabin. I asked her to come near but she was so scared like she has done something wrong to me. Suddenly she

crossed the bulkhead (partition or separation between two cabins) like a smoke and disappeared. First time I saw a supernatural thing. I started crying heavily, not because of fear, but this time because she was gone; also some drinking effect was there. Though nobody was able to hear that at that time of the night, but Captain was just passing by, he heard the sound and came inside my cabin. Seeing Captain in my cabin, I stopped crying due to his image but tears were continuously coming out of my eyes. He asked me what happened but I was not able to tell. He took me to his cabin, offered me some coke. He talked to me on various topics and after soothing me a lot, he finally asked me the reason why I was crying as he was expecting this due to some homesickness. I told him the whole story, he was quite angry with chief officer not reporting him such a serious incident. Captain was catholic from Mumbai. He told me not to worry and gave me some religious literature with instructions to use. After that we saw a movie in captain's day-room. In morning, 4 clock, I left the cabin and after getting fresh went on bridge for my watch (my watch timings were morning and evening 4 to 8). I was quite fresh with new energy, c/o (chief officer) asked me about the change, I told him nothing. From that day onwards I was no more scared, though I strongly believed that some aroma or some energy or something unnatural around me every time. I felt that I'm faster, more powerful, smarter, more enthusiastic that anytime. Every thing was going just great. Everybody was happy with me due to the change. One evening captain asked me if everything is going fine and after that he advised most shocking thing; "PRATAP, do not whistle on ships anytime" And that picture flashed before my eyes when I first saw that lady, while smoking, I was whistling loudly as that is in my habit that if nobody is around me, I start whistling. I was shocked. But after that, everything was not that bad at least. That great soul was not at all dangerous though she brought me a great change. I never think of her or call her as some devil or 'bhoot' or something like that, though she's been a great memory to me. It's now almost six months, I left Spar Ruby. Due to my mother's constrains, I'm not allowed to join back and that was my last F.G. Ship. I still remember that gorgeous face with big blue eyes with endless affection.