An armchair tour of some of India's most haunted places

Spook sells. Think of Harry Potter or the Twilight series, or the success of recent films like Annabelle and The Conjuring, and it's evident that more and more people like a really good scare. No wonder then that "haunted places" are the new tourist hot spots. You only have to go down to Bhangarh, in Rajasthan, to see the hordes who drive down five hours from Delhi to check out its ghostly reputation. Since last year, Guide Trip, an Internet-based facilitator of theme-based tours in India and a few places abroad, has been offering a "haunted" walk. Guide Trip has taken tourists around Bhangarh and Kuldhara in Rajasthan, Mehrauli and a few cemeteries in Delhi, Mukesh Mills in Mumbai and Kurseong near Darjeeling; next month it plans to take a group to Lambi Dehar Mines in Mussoorrie — places that rank among the most haunted in India.

Bhangarh Fort
Bhangarh Fort, of course, tops every list of spook spots in India. Many call it India's only "officially sanctioned" haunted site because of an ASI board at the entrance, which forbids visitors from entering it before sunrise and after sunset.
Located on the outskirts of Sariska Tiger Reserve near Alwar in Rajasthan, the 16th century fort is picturesquely spooky. 'Straight out of a horror movie,' is generally the first reaction of most visitors. But that's probably because makers of Bollywood horror films, as susceptible to its atmosphere of ruin and dilapidation, have chosen to shoot on location inside Bhangarh. For instance, the 1995 reincarnation-revenge drama Karan Arjun was shot inside Bhangarh. This year alone, two films have even been made on the place — Trip to Bhangarh in which five young men decide to brave the fort's reputation and Bhangarh, which will release later this year.
Most people who visit Bhangarh report feeling "uneasy" or a "negative energy"; many report hearing noises or an intoxicating smell there. There have been some eerie occurrences as well, such as when Ulka Gupta, the actress of TV show Jhansi ki Rani went missing during a shoot at Bhangarh and was later found in a tantrik's den.
But there are also many who came away without having experienced its famed spookiness. "It's a very beautiful old fort. We went in the morning and returned at dusk. We felt nothing uncanny," says Rohini Singh, who visited Bhangarh a couple of years ago. "Even the guards say there are no spirits or ghosts there. We went to Bhangarh in February and it was crowded. Clearly, they had come to check out its "haunted" reputation and were going into every shaded spot and shouting and screaming. The only odd thing, if you can even call it that, was that we found no shops or eateries outside. At any other popular fort, there would have been several," she says.

Kuldhara
Bhangarh may have the atmospherics, but it is Kuldhara, that many say, has the ghosts. Indian Paranormal Society's Gaurav Tiwari calls it the most haunted place in India. About 15km from Jaisalmer, Kuldhara sits on the edge of the desert. The village has beautiful temples, streets and large houses, all of which stand abandoned today. Why the inhabitants of Kuldhara, a community of prosperous, businessmen-farmers called Paliwal Brahmins, left a place they'd stayed in for 500 years, overnight, is a mystery. Adding to the enigma is the fact that they left behind all their belongings. They cursed the place before they left, so goes the local lore, and anyone who tries to stay in Kuldhara meets a brutal death.
In 2011, Arjun Sachdeva, the man behind Guide Trips, took a team of thrill-seeking tourists led by paranormal phenomenon investigators to Kuldhara. They found a lot of evidence of paranormal activity — moving shadows, whispers and ghostly voices, even hand imprints of children on cars, says Sachdeva, CEO and "chief explorer" of Guide Trip. "It was eerie. We'd parked our cars outside and returned to find that they were covered in what looked like the hand and finger prints of a very small child," says Sachdeva. "Every time we've gone to shoot there, something odd has happened," says Tiwari. "The last time I went there with a Zee News crew, the generator caught fire,"

Mussoorie
There's something about the mist rising around green-covered hills that sends a chill up the spine. No wonder most of the old dak bungalows, residential schools, railway retiring rooms and cottages up in the hills, from Mussoorie to Darjeeling have resident ghosts. Ruskin Bond, who's written several stories on the ghosts he's either heard of, or encountered, in the various hill stations he's lived in, says, only half-jokingly that, "The British brought them along from the Isles and left them behind when they left."
Bond, who lives in a bungalow in Mussoorie that's more than a hundred years old, speaks fondly of the "gentle spirit" that tucks in the blanket around his feet every night. "It must be an old aunt, keeping an eye on me," says the writer. He also speaks of another phantom, whom he calls 'Bhoot aunty'. This ghost is known to flag down drivers on the winding road from Dehradun to Mussoorrie. Those who give her a ride end up have an accident. "This explains the number of accidents on the stretch," says Bond.
Talking of Mussoorrie, The Savoy hotel (now taken over by the ITC Goup) in the hill town is famous for being haunted by the ghost of one Lady Garnet-Orme, a middle-aged "spiritualist", who died there apparently of strychnine poisoning. The mystery deepened when the doctor who treated Garnet-Orme died, also of strychnine poisoning, a few years later. Guests at The Savoy have reported hearing mysterious noises and seeing Garnet-Orme's ghost aimlessly walking the halls.
Lambi Dehar mines near Mussoorie is another place that has a reputation of being haunted. Several ghosts have been reported in the abandoned lime mines. An army officer, who was killed by his wife and her lover, a screaming witch who apparently took shelter in the mines and sundry other spirits of workers who died inside.

Dow Hill, Kurseong
Another legend, also in the mountains, is that of Victoria Boys High School on Dow Hill in Kurseong, a small hill town near Darjeeling, which has a fearsomely spooky reputation. Locals say they have heard footsteps inside the school when it was closed for winter. Along a nearby stretch called Death Road, many have reported seeing a headless boy disappearing into the thick of the forest. Yet others have seen a disembodied eye or a woman in a grey saree. The reputation has been bolstered by several suicides that have been reported from here.
Payal Kohli, who studied at the neighbouring Dow Hill School in the 1980s, speaks of the headless apparition dressed in white who, it was rumoured, could be seen playing the piano in the music cells next to the dormitory. The same lady could also be sometimes seen in front of the long mirror in front of one of the dormitories, along the passage to the toilets. "I never saw her, but we made sure that we finished all out ablutions before going to bed and didn't need to get up at night."

Delhi
The national capital has several spook spots, but the best known of these is Mehrauli, which has a cluster of tombs, spanning eight centuries from the 11th to 18th. Of these, the most notable are those of the Sufi poets Jamali Kamali and Sultan Ghiasud-din Balban and his sons, along with the ruins of several Mughal era palaces and the guest house of British agent Thomas Metcalfe. It is a quiet place, a favourite picnic spot for Delhi-ites in winter. It is also the most haunted spot in the City of Djinns, with stories abounding of an old woman, who will follow you for seven days; a dancing girl still searching for her royal lover and a site where ashes of djinns were preserved.
The other is Nicholson Cemetery near Kashmiri Gate, the oldest cemetery in Delhi built for the British men, women and children who perished in the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. "Locals swear that they can still see Brigadier Nicholson's white headless form riding a horse and giving orders to drive the mutineers back. Sachdeva of Guide Trip says that on the tour to the site, they managed to communicate with the spirits and when he asked them whether they should leave, the answer came in the affirmative. "The spirit even thanked us and seemed to have an aristocratic way of speaking," he says.
Similarly spooky, according to Tiwari, is Prithviraj Cemetery, in Lutyens' Delhi where his Ghost Research & Investigators of Paranormal (GRIP) team has encountered the ghost of a woman dressed in white. "We've succeeded in communicating with several ghosts, including those of children. Using an EMP recorder we learnt the name of one spirit — Mary. I saw something white flash right in front of my eyes and in one of the photographs that we took, you can clearly see a female torso hanging from a tree. None of the others has this," says Tiwari.

Mumbai
Mukesh Mills in Colaba is a favourite with Mumbai's directors. Its dilapidated and deserted facade has appeared in innumerable films, serials and commercials. But it also has the reputation of being one of the spookiest spots in the metropolis. So shoots are packed up dot at 6pm, because it is believed that terrible things will happen to those who remain there after dark. Several people have spoken about it.
Bipasha Basu, for instance, spoke about how she would keep forgetting her dialogues during the shooting of the film Gunaah at Mukesh Mills. Similarly, in 2009 actress Kamya Punjabi was really scared when during the shoot of the serial Banoo Mein Teri Dulhan, a junior actress on the sets suddenly started to speak in a manly voice. "Her lips and face had turned blue, and she was screaming, 'This is my place. All of you leave immediately'," says Punjabi. "When I came back, I found that all important documents inside my purse were missing. The place has a very negative vibe, you feel someone is following you, that there's someone inside the closed bathroom door, some eerie noises. Those who work there say that experiences like mine are regular affairs. I have never gone back after that. Even speaking about it gives me the creeps."
Mumbai's other well known ghost is at the D'Souza Chawl in Mahim. She was, so they say, someone who fell into the open well on the premises and now regularly "appears" at night, dressed in white and drawing water. That story does not, however, explain other apparitions seen in the chawl, such as the durwan whose disembodied figure many have reported seeing near the fig tree next to the well, and the ghost who marks her presence with the sound of anklets in the dead of the night.
Borivli National Park is the other rumouredly haunted site in the city. Several people, including guards at the park, have reported seeing a phantom hitch-hiker asking for lifts late at night and throwing stones at the homes of the park staff. Also many driving along the Marve-Madh road have reported seeing a woman in full bridal wear.

Ghost hunters' have a kit of specialised, "scientific" equipment to detect "paranormal activity", that is, whether a place is infested by ghosts or spirits. Here's what they carry:
EMF Metre or K2 Metre: Used to detect fluctuations in electromagnetic field, which are supposed to be an indicator of the presence of ghosts.
EVP (electric voice phenomenon): Recorders are used to record so-called "ghostly" voices. They are used in seances to record the responses of spirits to questions put to them.
Ghost Box: A device to "connect" with the dead. These are modified radios that can scan the airwaves for frequencies that the spirits then "manipulate" to make words.
Infrared or Thermal Cameras: To "see" in the dark and take photographs of objects invisible to the naked eye.
Laser Grids: Emit a grid of dots, coloured green or red, which can be used to detect shadows or other visual obstructions