The Haunting at Kausani .....

Kausani in Uttaranchal is any holiday goers dream destination ..Romantic and beautiful and surreal too. The drive is lovely ,the treks are breath taking . Every time you go there , one feels like grasping the beauty in your fist, pocketing it, and taking back the memories home . However, as we were about to discover, that one night in Kausani would be the longest and the scariest of my life .......and the memory that I took back home was the one that would never leave me .

We had just arrived after a lovely drive from Nainital and the sun had long set .the sky was crimson and I had this eerie feeling as if I was being warned by an unknown force, not to enter the guest house .As we parked our car, we met the caretaker who was smoking Bidi at the verandah of the rooms in the Daak Bangla . I was expecting some urgency in his behavior after seeing us , but he lazily extinguished his bidi and strolled towards the entrance to welcome us . He wore a very disinterested and bored look, like he was saying , " Phir aa gaye ..ab inke liye bhi khana banana padega " .

As he took us to our room, I realised that the rest house had a very pristine location . In order to get to the rest house , you had to first climb a steep road which was narrow but good enough for a TATA Sumo . As you reached the 4000sq feet rest house ,it started going downhill and you could see the entire jungle from the window of your room . There was a beautiful trek downhill with lot of mulberry trees and as soon as I entered the room ,I started thinking about devouring the Shahtoot, once we had settled down there .

"Please shut your door and the windows too" said the caretaker . Mosquitoes, I thought. To my horror, however, the answer was eerier than my guess . “Leopards”, he said “They enter the room through the horizontal bars of the windows which are a bit spacious for them . A tourist was mauled recently" , he said .” Not because he kept his door open ,rather he had this brilliant idea of going to the jungle to relieve himself .”
One hell of a shitty holiday he had, I thought to myself . The shahtoot trees did not look enticing anymore . Well ,mulberries ….ermmmm ….some other day. In fact my eyes started searching for any leopards stalking the branches of one of the mulberry trees . Had this eerie feeling that we were being watched.

As we settled down , we placed two chairs in the backyard of the rest house , that overlooks the slope of the jungle .To our left were the snow clad peaks of the Himalayas ,that looked beautiful, enmeshed in crimson , but again , something in the air made me uncomfortable .There was something sinister about the place, I thought .Sinister . Strong word , I pondered , but could not get that feeling out of my head . Neverhteless, I was happy to see the smile on Shumana’s face .She really felt happy in the hills, having spent most of her early life in Mussorie, Srinagar and Simla.. I did not want to spoil it for her, telling her that I was not comfortable here. Dinner was served at 0800 and I was not disappointed . I really wanted to have Kausani’s famous DAAL and I had it with rice and dollops of Ghee .

The Daak Bangla was nearly 100 years old . The caretaker told me that the British officers and their families would come here during their summer stay in Kausani. The rooms had this colonial air about it . Huge rooms with high ended roofs and those fans with huge blades that would start with a whirring sound . Food is always the most important thing for me during holidays and of course otherwise also . The only thing that tops my passion for food are the children and Shumana’s smile . So after we had a hearty meal, we settled down . An avid book reader , Shumana got busy with her “ Nora Roberts” as I started scanning the room with my eyes, still wondering that there was something strange about the place . My mind wandered to the time we entered the place, when I had felt that something in the house was trying to warn me .

I did not realize when I felt asleep ….the dreams that I saw were the most weird I can ever imagine . I dreamt that I was in a car and a hand scratching the window of my car. Just the nails . I dreamt that I entered a lift and that I could not see myself in the reflection of the mirror of the lift. And then in my dream I felt something .

I felt that someone was whispering in my ear and chanting some strange mantras …It was very unnerving .I wanted to open my eyes , but could not .The chanting wont stop , till it changed to whispers……

Aaaaaaarrrrrrrr…arrrrrr ….very faint ..and growing distant .But then …SUDDENLY !!!!!!!!! A hand started moving around my thigh and it moved up towards my waist……The feeling was so repelling that I woke up….Thinking that I was dreaming , I hoped that the thing , whatever it was …would stop …But ….


To my horror…my eyes were fully awake ,wide open ……and …someone… was still whispering in my ear…still chanting …..arrrrrrrrrr…arrrrrrr….And the sensation on my waist was moving up .It took me a second to realize that I was out of my dream ..but the nightmare was still on ….The hand was moving up from my waist to the side of my chest …and the whispering in my ear was getting scarier …I saw that Shumana was sleeping in front of me , with her back to me . I called for her …but I could not speak …my throat was choked ….I tried again …but what came out of my mouth was just a coarse faint sound that would not travel to Shumana . And then ….






The hand reached for my neck …I felt the grip tightening around my neck ….I felt this surge of horror in my heart .I thought that I would die of a heart attack…and then the miracle happened . I wriggled out of the grip of whatever it was and scampered towards Shumana ….I clasped her back . I started shaking her , but then I turned around too…..with immense fear in my eyes …What saw was something I had never seen before …..

A shiny apparition which was lifting in the air and which gradually touched the roof of the Daak Bangla . The shining was getting fainter …till it disappeared ….

Shumana woke up too and I narrated her the tale . First she dismissed it as a figment of my imagination, but then later what she saw, shocked her .What she was seeing at that moment was getting reflected in her eyes ..It was absolute horror ….She saw that my neck was red as if there was some struggle involved…it was a clear sign of something that was trying to suffocate me …We did not sleep after that ….

The next morning we called the caretaker and sheepishly asked him about the history of the place …What he told us was scary as hell ….He told us that the guard before him was once found dead at the archway of the Dak Bangla . Someone had strangled him . ..He also told us that a pregnant woman who used to stay in a village downhill was brutally raped and then murdered …..

What he said next was something that can be felt just by the person to whom it was narrated ..….. “People can still see her ..roaming in the jungle …and standing in front of the DAAK Bangla ……” We were stunned ….There was terror in our eyes and we couldnot dare to look at each other.


I asked Shumana, should we leave this place and move to some other place…..but before she could answer I got the answer myself ..If this thing ..whatever it was ….was after me ….it would follow me anywhere …..We had to spend another night in Kausani from where we had to drive to Corbett National Park .


We decided to stay on….I was waiting for the night to arrive ..and I was armed and ready to face it ....

TO BE CONCLUDED ...........