The fascination with haunted places is real, despite their warranted eerie-ness we find ourselves wanting to visit them for a chance sighting of the paranormal.
Perhaps the obsession with the paranormal comes from our need to understand things beyond our limited scope of understanding of the world, our fear of death and spirits or just the mere possibility of getting a glimpse of afterlife.
Added to that are the charms of abandoned buildings, old monuments and dark forested places that almost always ends up getting labelled as haunted (we can thank a few authors for that).
For a place like Delhi, one that’s abundant in history and culture, it is only natural that there are locations that may be deemed haunted. So we take you through Delhi’s various haunted lanes and by lanes.
I. Agrasen ki Baoli
First up is the architectural marvel of Agrasen ki Baoli. It is a stepwell with 103 steps located right in the centre of Delhi near Connaught Place. Legend goes that the water in the 60 metre deep, ancient stepwell with 108 steps turns black with ghostly demons hidden in the walls inviting one to jump in and drown.
If all is to be believed, Times Of India says, “the lure strengthens as you go further down the stairs, with nothing but the echo of your own footsteps following you.”
II. Delhi Cantonment
One of the most reputable haunted places of Delhi, the Delhi Cantt’s story seems straight out of a Bollywood horror film. With multiple people claiming to have seen a woman clad in white roaming about the desolate streets hailing motorcyclists for a lift.
If one refuses to offer a lift, it is believed that she follows the vehicle at double the speed and if you fall for giving her a lift, you disappear and are never seen again. If the story is to be believed, the ghost is either of a woman in an accident who died waiting for help or that of a woman hitchhiker who died waiting.
III. Feroze Shah Kotla Fort
There is something about ruins that earns them the reputation of being haunted, as for Feroze Shah Kotla Fort, the story goes that every Thursday post sunset djinns roam free in the fort complex.
Marking their territories and fleeing away anyone who tries to enter the place. The grip of the myth or the believed haunted-ness is so strong that many believe that the houses nearby are built facing the other side just in order to keep the djinns away.
IV. Lothian Cemetery
Cemeteries are eerie by themselves but if the myth is to be believed the possibility of running into a headless British soldier’s ghost who walks around carrying his head in his hand are pretty high.
Perhaps the fact that the cemetery is houses many graves of members of the Christian community of Delhi who were buried here between 1808 and 1867 and those soldiers who were killed fighting in 1857 adds to the credibility of the myth.
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