Year 2000 : The Haunted House @ Indore

 

11 pm on Saturday, 2nd December 2000 and our last day in Indore. Me, Painter and Hitler were to board a train to Bhopal at 8: 30 am, the next morning, confident of getting admission in a better college. Cool Dude was moving to a relative’s place while Crorepati had already moved out a few days back. We were joined by our friend Panditji who decided to stay with us that night for our farewell of sorts. All 5 of us decided to climb on the terrace of our 'Row House' for the last time using the wooden ladder from our 1st floor Balcony. Since almost all the houses in the row were empty, and the terraces were attached to one another, we decided to move to the terrace of a house which was 6-7 houses away from ours. We sat there and started discussing the prospects of getting admission into different colleges, after being together for 3 months and that we would be leading separate lives henceforth. Also, we were feeling happy of getting away from this 'Haunted House' in an empty colony. As we sat there discussing on multiple topics, I found myself sitting at a corner of the small terrace and the incidents of last 3 months ran like a movie in front of my eyes.

It was August 2000 when I opted for Computer Science in a relatively new Engineering College in the city of Indore as per my score in Madhya Pradesh Pre-Engineering Test.

Thankfully, 2 of my school friends Hitler and Painter also got the same college and same branch. We had moved to Indore with great aspirations as Indore was the only commercially vibrant city in the state of MP at that time. Initially, all 3 of us got into a private hostel near the college and made new friends from across the state and some from other parts of the country as well. As time progressed and more students came there, the hostel owner started exploiting the situation. He admitted a lot of students without giving a thought to the available space. Our room which was supposed to be occupied by 3, now had 5 ppl. I will call the other 2 guys as Cool Dude and Crorepati.

Gradually students started leaving the hostel and arranged their own accommodation. We found out that having an independent house would be cheaper and convenient. That part of Indore was not well developed then. There were certain new housing colonies coming up, but they were sparsely populated. We got a good house just adjacent to the Rajendra Nagar railway station. It was a 2 storied house with 1 Hall,1 Bedroom and Kitchen in the ground floor and 2 Rooms on the 1st floor. We also had a nice Balcony with a wooden ladder to climb to the terrace if needed. It was a 'Row House' in a gated community of about 100 such houses out of which hardly 20-25 had inmates that time. Ours was the Row House at the extreme corner and was isolated from the adjacent 20 houses which were vacant and plunged in darkness all the time.

After paying advance deposit and rent, all 5 of us shifted there. We also found some other friends and some seniors living in the same society. We felt settled down and comfortable in our new surroundings and concentrated on our studies.

Everything was fine until that day when a strange thing happened,It was a holiday and all of us, except Hitler had woken up in the morning. Painter and Crorepati went to college library. Me and the Cool Dude went to nearby market 2 buy some stuff. Hitler was sleeping alone in the ground floor hall. When we came after about 40 mins and opened the door, we saw him sitting on his mattress on the ground and staring at us. I asked "What happened? ". He inquired "Where were u all?"I told him that Painter n Crorepati went to the college library and we had gone to the market nearby. He was bewildered at my answer and asked "If all 4 of you were out then who was on the 1st Floor who disturbed my sleep? Who was jumping there?"Meanwhile Painter n Crorepati had also come back and we all laughed at Hitler taunting him for his sleeping habits and wild imagination.

Next incident occurred the same day in the evening.We all were starting dinner (packed tiffin) inside the ground floor Bedroom and suddenly Cool Dude went out.We heard sound of running water from the 1st floor bathroom.We thought that Cool Dude was washing his hands, but then suddenly it occurred to us as to, why would he go to the 1st floor to wash his hands, when we had a bathroom just outside the room.Hitler and I went to first floor and saw the tap was running even though the lights inside the bathroom were off. We were surprised and closed the tap and went back to finish our dinner. We saw cool dude had come back. He had just gone outside the house to get some pickle from a shop about 100 mts. away.We had our dinner and went to the Balcony and sat chit chatting till about midnight as it was a Saturday night.Suddenly we heard a banging noise from the ground floor. Maybe it was the bathroom door or the door of the Bedroom down there. We all were stunned as there was no wind and ran down to find nothing. A few days passed just like this with some or the other such sporadic event which surprised us but never made us afraid.

One evening there was power cut around 10 pm. It was a common affair in Madhya Pradesh those days. All 5 of us climbed to the terrace using the wooden ladder. As all the houses were joined to each other, we found that we could easily cross over to the terraces of adjoining houses separated by 3 ft high walls It was a real fun as almost all the houses were unoccupied, and we had a huge 'Playground' for us. That night we were discussing about supernatural things like ‘Bermuda Triangle’ and suddenly Painter cracked a joke and we all started laughing. As it was a winter night and a sparsely populated place, our laughter must have been audible for some distance around.But the strange thing we realized while laughing is that we felt some more people were laughing with us.When we stopped laughing, we realized the presence of someone (or more) at our house downstairs and that he or they were laughing with us.

We were stunned, but Cool Dude said ‘Lets find out who the moron is’ and he jumped from the terrace on to the Balcony. I followed him and both of us got inside the house with a small torch. We looked on both the floors with adrenaline coursing through our veins but found no one. The other 3 also came down by that time. For the 1st time we realised that we were not alone in that house. For the 1st time we feared of something unnatural. Suddenly I remembered that I had left my watch on the terrace. I requested Hitler to come along with me.He stood in the Balcony while I climbed the ladder to get my watch. While coming back down, I got a shock of my life when I clearly felt a force which tried to move the ladder while I was descending. Being an athletic 18-year-old, I somehow jumped to safety on the Balcony.Me and Hitler just stared at each other for a while. None of us could sleep that night until the power was restored at around 2 am.

Next morning, I woke up at around 9 am and was already late for college.We all used to sleep in one of the rooms on the 1st floor using thin blankets to cover ourselves in the winter.I saw that no one was there except me and another roommate beside me. As he was covered completely with the blanket, I presumed it was Hitler.Hitler had (and still has) the habit of marathon sleeping sessions. I didn’t disturb him and brushed my teeth n took my bath quickly and started for college just saying 'Hitler, I am going, be careful about the keys’. I knew I would be missing 2 lectures, but at least I could attend the rest.On entering the classroom after waiting outside for 10 minutes for the 2nd lecture to complete, I got a rude shock of my life.What I saw was unbelievable. All my 4 roommates were in the class before me. I somehow controlled my heartbeats and didn’t tell anything to anyone.They all had come to the college at 8 am and didn’t wake me up as they thought I was tired and in deep sleep.

Till that date, all these incidents were confined to only 5 of us and we never told anything to anyone. One day 2 of our Seniors (NK and SD) came to visit us in evening. They both stayed in the same colony, but their room was about 40 houses apart and in a different row.While laughing aloud on a joke, we again felt that some more people at first floor were laughing in the 1st floor along with us.While we stared at each other, I saw a strange fear in the eyes of my senior NK. He asked us 'Did U all, also hear it?'. We said 'YES'.When he asked whether this was the 1st time, we had to tell him everything that had happened till that day.He got worried and scolded us for not telling them about this. He then told us bluntly that THIS COLONY WAS BELEIVED TO BE HAUNTED.

Many people there had paranormal experiences like this, since the colony had become habitable. We now understood the reason for such a beautiful colony to be so sparsely populated.As the matter was getting serious and the news spread among friends and seniors, one of our good friends (Panditji) offered his help with some ‘Mantras’ and a small ritual which somehow made things a bit better.

Meanwhile, one day we found lights glowing at one of the houses (about 10 houses from ours).We went there and found a middle-aged man and introduced ourselves. He told us that he owned that house. He lived somewhere else in the city with his family and it was seldom that he made a visit to this place. We asked him about the colony being ‘Haunted’. He told that he had never experienced anything there, but he couldn’t completely rule out either. He informed us that the whole area was a Hindu Cremation Ground before it was sold by to the housing colonies by Govt. He advised us not to be alone and not to be too afraid either.He also knew our landlord and informed him on phone (which we had never done till that date).

Sometimes we find ourselves in a strange and helpless situation without knowing what to do and where to go next. We are left at the mercy of God. And sometimes God executes some strange plans to take us out of that mess and we find a surprise and a pleasant exit.A similar pleasant surprise hit us on the very next day as we read a news on Dainik Bhaskar that the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) had decided to increase the seats in all the Engineering Colleges in MP in same session and had instructed the State Govt to cancel all the Admissions and do a re-counselling. It was done on the initiative of our then IT Minister Sri Pramod Mahajan.

The Education Minister of MP, Sri Ghanshyam Patidar also confirmed that all the admissions were to be cancelled and the fees to be returned so that all the students got the opportunity of getting into a college/branch of their choice after the seats were increased.Our college declared the same within a week after getting written confirmation form the State Govt. In mid of all this, the political geography of country too got changed with formation of 3 states: Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand in November 2000 with my city Raipur designated as the capital of Chhattisgarh(CG) . The separation of MP and CG also ensured that good number of seats in Engineering were also getting increased in the colleges of Raipur-Bhilai and Hitler, Painter and myself were confident of getting such a seat in a renowned college.

The movie running within my eyes had an abrupt interruption and I was mentally back at Midnight on 2^nd December 2000 on our terrace.

While we were on terrace of some other house, we suddenly heard someone laughing downstairs. As the house was empty and completely dark, we didn’t dare to remain there. We immediately started moving towards our own terrace. But the strange thing was that while we were crossing one terrace after other, we heard noises from every house. They all were of different nature but were enough to make us feel that we are were in trouble. Someone (or more than one) was travelling from one house to other without hindrance downstairs while we were trying to reach our house. Me and Cool Dude made a jump at our Balcony and ensure that we held the ladder tightly while the others (not so athletic) came down without being sabotaged. We ran to the ground floor Bedroom and locked ourselves. We felt that there were some people jumping and laughing on the 1^st floor until 5 am. Once we saw the sunlight, we got out and got ready to move. Cool Dude and Panditji gave us tight hugs before moving to their accommodation arrangements as their counselling dates were after some more days. Our landlord came at 7 am and we handed over the keys to him before boarding a train from Rajendra Nagar railway station.

I never got a chance to visit the city of Indore again in my life till today.While Hitler and Painter are still an integral part of my life, I am also in touch with Cool Dude,Crorepati,Panditji and many wonderful friends (including seniors) that I had made in those 4 months in Indore in the year 2000.