GET MORE OUT OF October 28 - November 10 2011 Vol. 5 ISSUE 16 Rs 50 Subscriber copy

GET MORE OUT OF DELHI October 28 - November 10 2011 Vol. 5 ISSUE 16 Rs 50 Subscriber copy Have a Monster’s Ball parties See Lights in the sky Outdoor film screenings Visit THe Blue bloods Royal Transylvania

HauntedThe bhoot is out Delhi there

Cover 5-16.indd 1 10/21/2011 6:51:50 PM Haunting season Early sunsets and misty nights are upon us. We introduce you to Delhi’s spookiest residents – and tell you how to dress up to join their ranks. Illustrations by Tara Sapru.

Spirit Uprising Once upon a time, the Old City was besieged by , finds Sonal Shah.

o native has yet been With its concentration of defunct In the years just before 1857 though, authentically reported to have nineteenth-century Christian cemeteries, there were stories of restless white “Nfrightened an Englishman,” Mughal tombs, crumbling walls and ghosts wandering the galis and gates of wrote Rudyard Kipling in a short story abandoned gates, the Old City is the the Old City. The most famous is that of from 1888, “but many English ghosts natural haunting ground for the ghosts British Resident William Fraser, who was have scared the life out of both white and of real people. And if ghosts in general murdered on the orders of Shamsuddin, black.” Kipling understood the distinction are the spirits of those who died violent, a young nawab of Ferozepur, on his way between the gothic Christian notion of untimely deaths, it’s not surprising home from a nautch in 1835. He’s said to once-living trapped between this that many of Delhi’s archetypical ghost lurk around Hindu Rao hospital, formerly plane and the next (your basic bhoot) and stories – still just about in circulation – are his residence in the northern Ridge. our more colorful native procession of rooted in the twilight of the That area, between the Ridge, Civil djinns, yakshis, churails, and other and the bloody months surrounding the Lines and Kashmere Gate, was the locus spirits and . Uprising and siege of 1857. of most of the action during the siege, and 20 www.timeoutdelhi.net October 28 – November 10 2011

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 20 10/21/2011 7:24:58 PM on Lothian Road, and another “sar kata can be heard rattling their chains. bhoot” in Tees Hazari. Prisoners and royals haunt the Red Civilians wander the battlefield as well. Fort too. In the 1960s, the Hindustan Like George Beresford, the manager of Times sent a photographer to spend the Delhi Bank on , who the night in the diwan-e-khas, after the had written a Delhi guidebook just the caretaker heard eerie sounds and saw year before. He passed up his chance to ghosts. And while the Uprising was long escape the city and was butchered, along over and far away in with his wife and five daughters on a roof in Rangoon when he died in 1862, people the complex on May 11, and possibly left who lived around the Lal Qila said they unburied until the end of 1858. would see him, his wife Zeenat Mahal There’s the deep Khuni Jheel in the and a retinue of his dead family members, Northern Ridge, which became a mass circumambulating the fort on Thursday grave for British civilians and Indian sold­ nights. How awkward if they were to iers. It’s almost gentrified and pleasant encounter the restless spirits of the now, but in the aftermath of 1857, dead British soldiers, who still prowl the tunnels soldiers, women and children would be below the Fort, seeking Mughal loot. seen there. The actual graveyards in the A day before Nicholson died, Bahadur area – the Lothian, Nicholson and Mutiny Shah Zafar’s sons and grandson were (Rajpura) cemeteries – were of course shot at the “Bloody Gate” and are said haunted too. Brigadier-General John to haunt it still. Khooni Darwaza is near Nicholson, who was mortally injured in the graveyards behind the Indian Express September 1857 while leading the crucial building and was used by other capital push to recapture of the city, is still said punishers, including , who to haunt the hallowed ground where his mounted ’s head here. The remains are interred. Though no one in Khooni Darwaza is one of the few sites the area – least of all the caretaker’s that retains its ghostly notoriety, partially family – wants to talk about it, we have it perhaps due to the rape of a medical on good authority that the warrior’s ghost student here in 2002. But in general, the appears atop a white horse, brandishing commonly held belief in ghosts around the a naked sword. ruins south of Shahjahanabad has petered When British reinforcements wrested out. Writer Sohail Hashi remembered that control of Delhi, it was the turn of Mughul even as recently as his father’s youth, royals and aristocracy to suffer execution it wasn’t considered safe to mill about and murder most foul. Both the prison of around the area. “But many of these ghost and the execution ground stories have died with the expansion of the at Khooni Darwaza had histories of previ- city,” he said. ous haunting, and the events following It’s difficult to now find old Dilliwalas who the Uprising helped entrench their repu- believe or even know the stories about the it has its share of apparitions too. In May tation. Salimgarh Fort, where Bahadur phantoms of 1857. Mostly, they’re found of 1857, after the rebel army attacked, Shah Zafar was incarcerated briefly after just wandering down the memory lanes of the enthusiastic editor of the Dehli trying to escape via Humayun’s Tomb, people like RV Smith, who know the Old Akhbar wrote that “Some has a haunted past thanks to City well but have studied its history too. people even swear that the Aurangzeb, who supposedly There are still a few haunted spots around day the horsemen came here, kept his ghazal-writing daughter – an abandoned house near Turkman there were she-camels ahead Zebunnisa (pen-named Makhfi) Gate, a who smokes cigarettes of them, on which rode green- They killed here. She died single, and at Kashmere Gate – but these are robed riders. Then they instantly Englishmen, her ghost is said to haunt the just a fading part of the fabric of daily vanished from sight; only the cutting prison. Perhaps she consorts life, nothing much to talk about. Maybe troopers remained, and they them up like with the ghosts of the minor the stories of these specters will return killed whichever Englishman princes of the late Mughal peri- some day. Smith certainly hopes so. they found, cutting them up carrots and od, allegedly raised captive in “Everybody loves ghost stories,” he said. like carrots or radishes.” Some radishes jail-cells here to make sure they “There was a time that it was fashionable of these julienned Englishmen were incapable of revolt. Flash to read them. Now they’re making a may not have vanished quite so forward from 1857 to the next comeback, especially on TV shows.” quickly: Delhi chronicler RV Smith recalled war of Independence, and Salimgarh was Or perhaps it’s only fair that those old that in the early 1900s, a headless used to incarcerate members of the Indian ghosts of be allowed to die, at horseman soldier would be seen riding National Army, some of whom died and last, a natural death. October 28 – November 10 2011 www.timeoutdelhi.net 21

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 21 10/21/2011 7:25:25 PM Favourite haunts Time Out staffers round up chilling tales for your next bonfire.

The woman in white The white-sari-clad spirit is an old cliché, given eternal life by Rajkumar Kohli in Bees Saal Baad, in which Dimple Kapadia stops traffic as a . Whether the woman in white is a -film construct haunting popular imagination or the other way around is hard to say. But stories of wronged women in their see-through nighties or wedding gowns come from cultures far and wide, and they seem to be the apparitions mostly frequently spotted in Delhi. Delhi’s women-in-white have a predilection for haunting lonely stretches of road. As one story goes, a woman in white roams the Ashok Vihar flyover between 1am and 4am. Anyone who passes by at that hour, and stops to ask her for directions, will not find their way home that night. Their vehicles break down or they go around in circles. The apparition also makes appearances near the , where she’s the one flagging down passing vehicles. If you’re impolite (or too freaked out) and don’t stop, she will run alongside the car to teach you some manners. She’s also been Garlic ghost brand of cigarettes in the bathroom. spotted under a peepal tree in Dwarka If you moved into a flat on Mall Road early Some even reported getting a whiff of his Sector 9 and in Andheria Mor, where call- in the last decade, your neighbours would aftershave. These incidents left 13 of centre employees and their cab drivers be less likely to welcome you with mithai the 19 students of the first-year batch so are strictly advised against pulling over to than with a bag of garlic and a plate of badly spooked, they left the institute to go have a chat. Sometimes, she appears in turmeric. Residents believed they were back home until things settled down. This, the middle of the road, only to disappear afflicted by the ghost of an old woman despite the institute allegedly offering under the wheels. who went door to door asking for some to ferry students to a temple nearby, to There’s a twist on the tale, popular with garlic. If she was refused, a gradual but placate the restless spirit. DU students, about a ghost in the northern deadly curse fell upon that home. There Eventually, the haunting was found to Ridge, a sardar with his hair hanging loose. were apparently only three charms against be a null hypothesis. The student was a Men see him from behind, take him to be a her haunting. One was stamping the door victim of a pre-existing medical condition, woman and approach him, at which point with the turmeric hand-prints of everyone said one professor from the institute. the angry sardar spins around and drives who lived there. The second was laying “The aftershave and the cigarettes were his kirpan into their gut. a broomstick across the threshhold. Or just pranks in very poor taste.” When we third, just giving her some garlic. visited, the guards and the security officer refused to acknowledge that the incident Statistically spooking had ever happened. “I have been here for The students of the Indian Statistical the last 25 years, and have never heard Institute know that 95 per cent of all ghost of any ghosts on campus,” claimed the stories are made up on the spot. But security officer, before laughing nervously. there’s one that they’re unlikely to dismiss They’re keeping their skeletons in the in a hurry. In 2004, the ISI campus nearly proverbial closet. shut down because students reported the apparition of a peer who’d died a The snake gourd scare bizarre death. The boy was a first-year Tori, never the most popular of vegetables, student of the M.Stat course. According took a real dip in in the early to one old-timer (who didn’t want his name ’90s. According to : A truck- published), the student walked into class driver was roaring down NH 10, carrying for a lecture and suddenly fell to the floor. a load of tori from Panipat, when he He was rushed to a hospital, but was dead squished a snake on the highway. The on arrival. snake was, of course, an ichchadari saap, Soon afterward, students began to hear crossing the road to where his nagin lover knocks on their doors; others felt they awaited him. The nagin, enraged and had been shoved around in the staircase. grieving, proclaimed that all tori would now

The dead student was believed to be a be lethally poisoned – giving residents, or balmiki t

i Headed nowhere Twilight at heavy smoker, and a few hostel residents at least local schoolkids, a renewed terror n the Nicholson Cemetery thought they could smell traces of his of the sponge gourd. ma 22 www.timeoutdelhi.net October 28 – November 10 2011

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 22 10/21/2011 7:25:42 PM If there’s one thing we do know, it’s our an office when he crashed to his death gave it to a friend, who committed suicide, film tropes. So our advice is that if you do a decade earlier. Between Sanjay’s and willed it right back. run into a white-sari spirit on a dark winter death and Tiwari’s occupation, the house In 1890, the cavalryman’s son donated night, don’t pray or run or, god forbid, ask actually remained empty for five years. the stone to Edward Heron-Allen, a for directions. Just throw water on her and “I thought it proper that I should tell Mr gentleman scholar, geologist and later she’ll turn into Mandakini from Ram Teri Gandhi about it,” Tiwari told the AP, “but fellow of the Royal Society. For all his Ganga Maili. our leader does not believe in ghosts, expertise, Heron-Allen fared no better demons or stuff like haunted houses.” with the Delhi Purple Sapphire. He tried a The haunting of 10 Janpath Perhaps not. But it could explain why number of ways to deflect the curse. He In 1990, as former Prime Minister Rajiv Rajiv Gandhi – supposedly as a courtesy had the stone bound with a Gandhi prepared to move from Race during the Congress’ brief support of “double-headed snake” Course Road to 10 Janpath, new security Shekhar – once offered the from an astrologer’s measures were added to protect him: a house to LK Advani, “so that,” the ring and two amethyst tall, spiked fence, metal detectors, and BJP leader recalled in 2008, “the scarabs belonging watch towers. However, an older tradition opposition leader can have a to Queen Hatasu of of warding off evil spirits from the house permanent address.” Thebes. After one disaster, fell by the wayside when the Gandhis he threw the amethyst into moved in. An Associated Press report from The Delhi Purple the Regents Canal, only to have the time interviewed previous resident Sapphire it returned by Wardour Street Kant Tiwari, Gandhi’s former Gripe as much as you dealer who bought it from a Minister of Information. “It is not one of the like about the Kohinoor, dredger. classical window-rattling, door-slamming- but here’s one rock Finally, in 1904, Heron-Allen had the type haunted houses,” he said, “but I am we should be glad is stone packed in seven boxes and sealed told there is something.” Tiwari’s wife had no longer in Delhi. The in his bank vault, instructing that it should carried on the tradition, established by cursed Delhi Purple Sapphire now not be opened until 33 years after his 10 Janpath’s former residents and staff, inhabits the Vault Gallery of the Natural death. His eldest daughter donated it to of lighting candles under a large banyan History Museum in London, but it left a the Natural History Museum, where her tree outside the house, and occasionally trail of misfortune on its way there. father had worked, along with Heron-Allen’s summoning a pujari to purify the area. According to a history provided by the letter of warning: “This stone is trebly The government bungalow’s reputation Museum, the gem (actually an amethyst) accursed and is stained with the blood, for being cursed was built on a few solid was looted by an officer of the Bengal and the dishonour of everyone who has facts: Lal Bahadur Shastri, who once lived Cavalry during the Uprising of 1857. He ever owned it… Whoever shall then open it, here, died mysteriously while in office; a brought it to England, but grew sick and shall first read this warning, and then do as senior advisor died after moving in; and became bankrupt. His son, who inherited he pleases with the jewel. My advice to him Sanjay Gandhi was using 10 Janpath as it, also inherited terrible luck. The son or her is to cast it into the sea.” How to… Exorcise a ghost Karanjeet Kaur learns the five-step process for shaking bad spirits.

The only thing more difficult than nailing batti, two meetha paan and an iron nail. Forevermore For the next 40 days, you call down a ghost for an interview, is nailing Repeat the donation. the centre to give your “haziri”. Basically, down an . But help is at hand: or Day four You bring these items back in a keep the centre updated on whether the at least in the innards of New Seemapuri. potli, and the Vaid ji blesses it. He whacks evil spirits are gone. Presumably, they tell The folks over at the Shree Goga Jahar you with a whip of pigeon feathers and also you to keep coming back, because a couple Pir Dharmik Seva Ashram Medical Trust gives you a batasha (which looked like of people we spoke to said they’d been (Registered) have a well-oiled system in it was smeared with some ash). You eat coming for months. place. Their repertoire includes exorcising the batasha and take back the potli and Shree Goga Jahar Pir Dharmik Seva as well as treating general discontent. The go around your house thrice with it. Then Ashram Medical Trust E-48/A, 282 New one-size-fits-all “course” lasts four days. you eat the edibles in the potli and leave Seemapuri, next to Bhole Baba Mandir, An assistant to the head honcho, the Vaid the rest in your house. Do not forget the opp New Seemapuri Depot (2235-5586, ji, cautioned us to not consume meat from donation. 92133-86903). Daily 7am-9pm. the day we started visiting the centre, until the course was over. Day one You donate `31 and they give you a lemon (no pun intended). You register your complaint with a desk manned by two people. The Vaid ji sticks pins in the lemon and gives it back to you. You take it back home and put it in a “holy” place. Day two You bring back the lemon and show it to the Vaid ji, who’ll interrogate the lemon and reveal to you, who or what is responsible for your troubles. You take the lemon back home with more pins and repeat. Plus donate `31. Day three You bring the lemon back and the flunkies hand you a printed pamphlet with a list of a few things you’re supposed to bring back. These include jaiphal (nutmeg), garlic, a green coconut, dhoop October 28 – November 10 2011 www.timeoutdelhi.net 23

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 23 10/21/2011 7:25:51 PM A wild mongoose chase A talking rodent from Delhi is still a legend among fans of the , says Uday Bhatia.

elhi’s oddest otherworldly creature mongoose alive,” Steiger said in an e-mail. the throwing and moving of objects, never actually un-lived here at According to Steiger, Price hired a in the rarest of cases, the Dall. The tale begins in 1931, on a former Scotland Yard inspector to visit expression of begins farmhouse called Cashen’s Gap on the Cashen’s Gap and bring back evidence to develop a voice and a rudimentary Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. That autumn, of the haunting. Gef pulled pranks on personality.” the Irving family began to hear something Captain McDonald’s investigation: he Given the generally low standard of mimicking the sounds of their farm once provided a hair sample, which the conversation from beyond the grave, animals. They thought they Gef was no less than the saw a weasel-like creature, Oscar Wilde of ghosts and they grew afraid. One – quotable, pithy and night, as young Voirrey Irving sardonic. His declarations was singing nursery rhymes range from metaphysical to lull herself to sleep, she head-scratchers (“I have heard the creature repeating three spirits, and their them back to her, in a voice names are Foe, Faith and two octaves higher than Truth”) to wildly varying self- any human’s. descriptions (“I am a ghost As it turned out, it was in the form of a weasel”; a temperamental but “I am not a spirit. I am a harmless spirit, who would little extra, extra clever sometimes help the family by mongoose.” “I’m a freak… killing rabbits for them, and If you saw me, you’d be at other times would curse petrified, mummified”) to and hurl things at them. As Ed Wood-like rants (“I’ll it began to feel at home, split the atom! I am the fifth Irving took to calling it Gef, dimension! I am the eighth and Gef in turn revealed his wonder of the world!”). story. He was born in Delhi, Local mongoose lovers on June 7, 1852, where he and occultists alike may lived with “a tall man who be disappointed that Gef, wore a green turban on his while Delhi-born, wasn’t head”. Gef explained that he very Indian in language or was no weasel, but a marsh behaviour. In his book, Price mongoose. If the spirit called it “curious” that Gef’s rodent is to be believed, he vocabulary had so little of was a ghost-specimen of any Indian language, and so Herpestes palustris, the only much of English and Manx. species of marsh mongoose He did, however, list “Allah”, in . (Since the species “ballah”, “yogi”, “punkah”, is indigenous to the swamps “rani”, “maharajah” and of Bengal, we assume Gef’s “nabob” as words Gef had ancestors were transported been heard saying. to Delhi). As Gef’s legend grew In January 1932, both the and grew, his hosts had to Manchester Daily Dispatch contend with an alternately and the London Daily Sketch sceptical and breathless ran articles about the talking crush of press-men and mongoose. Irving himself paranormal enthusiasts kept a diary about Gef who hiked out to Cashen’s between the years 1932 and Gap to talk to them. Voirrey, 1935. In 1936, paranormal interviewed in the ’70s, investigator Harry Price admitted that the case had published The Haunting of taken a toll on her – she Cashen’s Gap, drawing on cited Gef as the reason she Irving’s notes and interviews moved away from the Isle with the family, and bringing of Man and never married, the story to wide public though she maintained attention. Seventy-five years on, the cult lab at the London Zoo found to be a dog’s. that it was no hoax. Gef himself was of the talking mongoose has refused to die Later he conceded to leave paw-prints reportedly wary of attention. “You’ll put a natural after-death. Brad Steiger, author in plasticine blocks, which the British me in a bottle if you catch me,” he once of over 150 books dealing with matters Natural History Museum said could only said. How would the mythical mongoose of and superweird, included have belonged to an American raccoon. Manx have reacted to “Eighth Wonder”, a the case in his 2003 compendium Real Gef was also captured in the occasional 2009 song by Boston-based artist Lemon Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted blurry photograph, but his real mark was , with lyrics drawn solely from Gef’s Places. “In the late 1960s, I ‘inherited’ his gift of gab. That put him in a special utterings? To quote a few lines of his that some of the research papers of Harry Price group of , Steiger said. “While aren’t in the song, he might have said and this kept my interest in the talking the common poltergeist case involves “Nuts! Put a sock in it! Chew coke!” 24 www.timeoutdelhi.net October 28 – November 10 2011

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 24 10/21/2011 7:26:05 PM manitbalmiki I ain’t afraid of no ghost A real-life paranormal investigator answers Raghu Karnad’s top ten questions about surviving in a haunted city.

s a child mortally afraid of the dark, How do you become a Certified Leading supposed to be haunted, but we haven’t I knew who I was going to call: Paranormal Investigator? had a chance to investigate it. The Aghostbusters. But I never knew their The course is vast – it’s not only para­ Hindu Rao hospital has one portion left number. Today, a quick web search can psychology but metaphysics, belief completely vacant because so people put any big, blanket-hiding baby in touch systems, human psychology, and a lot of started seeing apparitions of a lady there. with the Indian Paranormal Society. The scientific factors that help us in any kind There’s also a report that the basement network of 34 investigators, researchers of paranormal investigation. You have to of Safdarjang Hospital has a noose in one and parapsychologists is spread across complete 80 investigations, so wherever room. Nobody goes there. the country, but headquartered in Delhi, in I used to fly, I used to go investigate some the home of IPS founder-director Gaurav place. Eventually I could complete 80 and Are their different kinds of ghosts? Tiwari. When he was 22, Tiwari moved to could appear for my exams. I also wanted Ghosts can be intelligent or residual. Florida to be trained as an airline pilot. He to venture out into UFOs, so I took a course A residual haunting is like a tape being returned with an additional certification, on certified UFO field investigation. It’s a played again and again, an imprint of a as a paranormal investigator. He now very common thing in the USA. past consciousness on the world. There’s investigates reported hauntings, for free. no communication. If you see a spirit I met Tiwari at that landmark of South What are some haunted spots in Delhi? walking by, they’ll just walk past. Intelligent Delhi spookiness, “the Vasant Kunj In Delhi, if you go to the old cemeteries, spirits interact with those alive. Haveli”, which turned out to be Sultan you’ll find a lot of cases. There’s a Garhi, the first Islamic royal tomb in Delhi, cemetery in Paharganj where we had What’s the procedure for finding spooks? built for the son of Sultan Iltutmish. “We’ve intelligent communication and we found We basically go to disprove that there’s recorded some EVPs [electronic voice a baby face on the tree, captured in a . If we find something phenomena] at this place,” Tiwari said, photograph. We tried to analyse it through unexplainable by science, that is which meant a positive indication of a different softwares, to see whether it’s a paranormal. When we visit a place, we first haunting. In 1200 AD, when Iltutmish was dust particle, or matrixing – the tendency of all learn about the belief system of the the ruler of Delhi, there was a saint in his of the mind to form a shape from complex clients. Second, we research the history kingdom, Tiwari explained. “One day he images. But we had a lot of EVPs. We of the location, from the neighbourhood, took samadhi under the trees, but he was heard a woman crying; we heard a man, the local police station. Third thing, we go burnt alive and his ashes were buried in who sounded like he was in a lot of pain. and visit the place during the day-time, this haveli. People have seen full-bodied There’s a famous BPO building in and note down the loopholes – in case apparitions of the saint. People pray here , Saffron Global, the whole it’s a natural thing. We take an electro- in the daytime, but only adventure-seekers building was supposed to be haunted, magnetic fluctuation base-reading, with go at night.” I took advantage of the sharp and most of the employees witnessed lights on, with lights off; geomagnetic daylight to sort out my other unanswered something or other. It’s been shut down. field, solar flare activity; we consider each questions. The library of Doordarshan Bhavan is and every point that could cause EMF. At 26 www.timeoutdelhi.net October 28 – November 10 2011

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 26 10/21/2011 7:26:57 PM night, we take another sweep, to take the difference between day and night. Then we start communicating with the spirit. We Boo tube introduce ourselves, we speak to them.

Is there cool equipment involved? elevision anchors Rocky Singh a city of ghosts, and churails. For We use tools, like geophones, audio Tand Mayur Sharma are well known sceptics it is a matter of amusement, for recorders, motion sensors and full- for their investigative skills at finding the believers a matter of unease and for spectrum cameras. One device is a K2 good places to eat. In their new show many thousands a matter of fact. Delhi meter. If there’s an intelligent spirit, they India’s , on NDTV Good is well and truly haunted. can manipulate EM fluctuation, and if Times, the duo apply those skills to they do, they can manipulate the lights on tracking down haunted spots around the The dargah of Moluddin Chishti was the K2 meter. We can ask them to tell us country. Sonam Joshi talked to director in our last issue – we wrote about the “Yes” or “No”, by giving us two lights, three and co-anchor Singh about what they saint’s fondness for a good smoke. lights, four lights. discovered. Between that and Jamali Kamali, which gave you the bigger creeps? Can ghosts talk? Do you really believe in ghosts? I’ve experienced a first-hand haunting in Sometimes when we play back a recorded The first episode ofIndia’s Most Haunted Jamali Kamali, so the place always holds EVM you hear some answer, you know, in was the true account of a paranormal some dread for me. It was tough to spend whispering mode. We’ve always seen that experience we had at Jamali Kamali in time alone there walking between the the pitch and the frequency is double than Delhi 20 years ago. Since I was there graves. The dargah of Moluddin Chishti a human being – so we bring them down and the events of that night unfolded is a spiritual place with a lot of power, and to a normal level using software. This way in my presence, I cannot disbelieve. I a peaceful , though “sightings” are we’ve found out names. have looked for proof for 20 years now much more frequent here. and until I find it I won’t disbelieve. So So is Bhangarh haunted, or really haunted? I guess I am in no man’s land – I am a You started the series to investigate People consider it haunted for a thousand sceptical believer. the paranormal. So what really is years. It’s a very freaky place, a very eerie out there? place to go at night. We went there and What were the places you visited in It’s hard to provide proof of the existence checked out whether there were spirits to Delhi? Are Delhi’s ghosts spookier than of the paranormal. You can’t see it make people afraid. We didn’t find any. We the ghosts elsewhere? or hear it but you can feel a tangible figured out all the things making the place We visited Jamali Kamali in the Qutab presence at places that have legends of feel haunted. Mostly, it’s that people who Minar complex and the Sufi shrine of spirits associated with them. I actually visit Bhangarh at night are drunk. Khwaja Moluddin Chishti at Dhal. Delhi believe I’ve felt them. Though we had a definitely has a strong paranormal few unexplained occurrences, we did Do ghosts only come out at night? quotient due to its strong red aura, not conclusively prove what is out there. Wherever there’s , which, in theory, makes sightings more Perhaps we can do so in the future. it’s 24x7. The only reason we investigate frequent. Also, a city with a history of India’s Most Haunted airs on NDTV Good at night is the silence, there’s much over 4,000 years is bound to have its fair Times on Mondays at 8pm, Fridays at less disturbance. Yes, full-moon nights share of paranormal presence. This is 4pm and Saturdays at 10.30am. generate a lot of paranormal energy, because spirits can feed on lunar energy. But this could also be wrong, because it’s been found that the full moon can manipulate humans’ imaginative power.

Ghosts are scary, but should they be? Spirits and ghosts aren’t negative. There’s not a single proof of someone being killed by one. They’re stuck on this plane because of lot of factors – their mental condition at death, their unfinished business, their fear of moving on to face judgement. We need to understand them as another human being that has lost its body, but has not moved on.

So what do I do if I see a ghost? Spirits want to communicate. They don’t want to harm you, they want you to know there’s someone there. The frustration of a spirit makes it behave like a child, seeking attention, seeking acknowledgement. A person with self- confidence and self-esteem can never be possessed or harmed. Be stronger, believe in yourself: that’s the only mantra for dealing with spirits. And if you do not have the inner strength, contact a professional. Indian Paranormal Society Visit www. Scooby duo Rocky Singh and (right) Mayur Sharma gripteam.org, or contact Gaurav Adhikari (93118-57156, [email protected]). October 28 – November 10 2011 www.timeoutdelhi.net 27

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 27 10/21/2011 7:27:16 PM Tara SaprU Tara Those who came before Long before Delhi became a city filled with ghosts, it was a city full of jinns. The spirit kind still populate Firoz Shah Kotla, where every Thursday, devotees leave them offerings, prayers and petitions in the smoke-filled chambers below the ruins. In an extract from his dissertation, Anand Vivek Taneja tells the story of a meeting that laid the ground for the veneration of jinns in modern Delhi.

he , much longer lived than human the companions of the Prophet. The whole room. Books lay open in front of beings, have memories stretching thing happened, in the explicit logic of the snakes. On seeing this, Hazrat Tback a very long way, several gen­ Chand’s story (and other retellings of the Mohtamam Sahib immediately erations of human history. They can story) precisely because Allah wanted scolded them and said – is this a time connect individuals hundreds of years to raise the stature of Shah Waliullah. to study or to fight? Upon hearing this, apart instantaneously, forsaking human Jinnealogy makes it possible for Shah those two snakes instantly came institutions of memory and generations of Waliullah to skip the thousand years of back to regulation human form and transmission, short-circuiting genealogy falling from the grace of the time of the started apologizing and swore that into electrifying, other-worldly jinnealogy. Prophet to become one of the Tabi’un, the God willing, we will not give you an A jinnealogical story which is quite popular best generation after the companions of occasion for complaint again. in Delhi, and a version of which I heard the prophet. from Chand, Laddoo Shah’s son, concerns Shah Waliullah, of course, is the founding It is the respectability of the jinn within Shah Walilullah. father, as it were, of the reformist tradition the reformist tradition that lays the ground In Chand’s version, the story is directly in modern Indian Islam. His being raised for Firoz Shah Kotla to go from being a linked to the mosque at Firoz Shah Kotla. to the status of Tabi’un through the jinn is marginal space to becoming one of the The story goes that Shah Waliullah was an about-turn of sorts from the criticisms most visited sacred spaces in Delhi. It is once praying here when he saw a snake of jinn veneration (and from considering significant that this respectability, as seen approaching him. He killed the snake with them mostly malign) that we see in the late in Jinnat Ke Purasrar Haalaat, manifests a stick. That night as he was sleeping, he nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. first in the 1950s, in the decade after was carried back to the court of the king The new respectability given to jinn by the Partition. It is also significant that this of the jinn in the ruins of Firoz Shah Kotla, reformist tradition is seen most clearly in respectability of the jinn, as in the story where the king of the jinn told him that that Mufti Shabir Hasan Chishti’s accounts, in of Shah Waliullah and the sahabi jinn, is he stood accused of murder. He had killed Jinnat Ke Purasrar Haalaat (The Condition linked to jinnealogy, to the transmission the son of the king of the jinn, who had of the Jinns with All Their Secrets), a book of knowledge not dependent on the taken the form of a snake. In his defence, first published in Delhi in the 1950s, which institutions and genealogies of human Shah Walilullah quoted a hadith [saying] has since become a bestseller for the memory. For the all-pervasive violence of the Prophet, saying that it was perfectly publisher Astana Book Depot, currently of Partition and its continuing aftermath legitimate to kill a dangerous creature going into several reprints a year. It tells has seen the widespread destruction approaching you if you are praying. Had of jinn studying at the great reformist of all such institutions of memory, he known that the snake was actually a seminary, the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband: particularly for north Indian Muslims. Tens jinn in dis­guise, he would have done no of thousands killed, millions displaced, such thing. Jinn also study at the Dar-ul-Uloom social relations sundered, properties and The king asked the gathered jinn if Deoband documents lost, and landscapes entirely what Waliullah said was true. An old jinn From the verbal accounts of some transformed. We are left to rely on the said, yes this saying is true. I have heard professors at the Dar-ul-Uloom I memory of jinns, and on jinn-like old men, it myself from the lips of the Prophet. The learned that jinns also study at the increasingly frail and insubstantial, their old jinn was a Sahabi, a companion of the Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband. One night, fading memories unsupported by any Prophet by virtue of being a Muslim who around midnight, when Hazrat documentary proof. And when they die, all had met the Prophet in his lifetime. So Maulana Habib ur Rahman Sahib, we will be left with will be the jinn. And they meeting this old jinn gave Shah Walilullah the mohtamam (caretaker) of Dar-ul- are mortal too. the stature of one of the Tabi’un, those Uloom was patrolling the campus, he Anand Vivek Taneja is a PhD student in Muslims who were born after the death saw two young snakes fighting and Anthropology, studying contemporary of the Prophet, but had met the Sahabah, playing with each other in a locked Delhi’s links to its medieval past. 28 www.timeoutdelhi.net October 28 – November 10 2011

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 28 10/21/2011 7:27:40 PM Time to pretend Costume central There’s a costume for every occasion at Abhiruchi. merican sitcoms wo men walk into a costume shop. us what new things we are doing,” Aare primarily They’re looking for a child-sized SR said, “The kind of things they have responsible for Tpotato outfit. Mrs Wadhwa doesn’t there are about 100 years old! I once introducing bat an eyelid. She has an entire vegetable asked who is taking these things... they Halloween to India, patch worth of costumes: onions, said some people come from the village and thus largely to tomatoes, aubergines and even ruched, to take them outside.” blame for the slutty emerald karelas. She pulls out two spuds By contrast, SR explains, nurse, the skimpy – one oblong, one squat, the Wadhwas bring back the bunny and the black- complete with squinched latest trends from America caped Dracula clichés eyes – to be tied on over when they go to visit their that follow. Remember small green pants and daughter in Las Vegas. the Friends episode, shirt. “Mahatma Gandhi ki the one in which During the half-hour topi is better in USA Ross (dressed up as we spent at Abhiruchi, than here,” Madhu Spudnick but looking perched on a stool in avows. She shows us more like a turd) and a sea of bandhni turbans, Rabindranath’s imported beard Chandler (a pink graduation gowns and too; “Tagore is going well bunny) arm wrestle sequined fabric scraps, these days,” she tells us, to see who’s tougher? Madhu Wadhwa and her on account of his 150th With that kind of husband SR Wadhwa birth anniversary last backing, it’s safe to received requests for year. Freedom fighters say Halloween has a potato, an ostrich, and professional arrived. a giraffe. We went vocations are almost Rajiv Mehra of in looking for a as evergreen as Alyied The Parrty Halloween outfitter, vegetables. We Shop in Khan Market but costumes are asked SR Wadhwa has seen the demand just business as about the Sheila for Halloween costume usual for the Dikshit outfit and party goods

Wadhwas, who’ve mentioned on shoot up over the anshika(2) varma run this Lajpat their website. last three years. shop for about He cocked his His store is nine years and head and said, “It well-equipped recently shifted looks pretty much with costumes into a bigger like what you’re and accessories, including showroom wearing.” the Dracula cape (` 650), pointy in Central While hats, princess crowns and earings, wand, Market. Abhiruchi mostly spears, swords, wrinkled hand gloves that “What’s caters to school glow, pumpkin hand lights, glow-in-the- Halloween,” events, the dark teeth, nails and face cream (`250),

asked SR manitabalmiki Wadhwas rubber masks (from `150- `800). It also has Wadhwa will take on decorations (think glowing spider webs, dismissively, any work that `350) and stationery (pirate rings or witch as his wife comes their way. They used to have a pens that light up, `75). bustled about, plonking cups of tea full-fledged workshop, but now outsource Across the market, Allied Stores is in front of us. “Halloween is an upper-class most of the stitching. They enjoy the also chock-a-block with disguises. Owner affair. It lasts two-three days. We have occasional order that requires a bit more Sanjiv Mehra said that costume trends to survive year-round.” The couple know inventiveness, and are proud of their change over time. “First there was a devil a bit about hanging on. Madhu, a former contribution to the Commonwealth Games or witch,” he said, “now everybody thinks teacher at the Apeejay School, and her (they dressed the dancers at the opening this is common and they ask for new husband started the shop as an NGO after ceremony, but try making a serious things.” The store has about 20 different SR retired from his career in marketing. statement this Halloween with costumes at the moment. They’re mostly The non-profit was supposed to promote their CWG balloon costume). pre-packaged costumes like the ones theatre for children. “It was very difficult “Anything out of the world you’ve seen on TV, and like all to survive unless there was continual is actually our cup of tea,” good American products, income, so we converted to a shop,” SR SR said. He showed us the they’re manufactured in said. In the early days, he’d go around to popular Chess King and China. “Today, I think maybe schools peddling costumes, but now the Queen of Hearts costumes. the human beings are not schools come to them. The Wadhwas It’s as we suspected. Lajpat Chinese,” Mehra noted, could probably earn more if they raised the Nagar really is Wonderland. “but everything else is.” security deposits on their get-ups (only Sonal Shah Sawhney about half are ever returned). Instead they Abhiruchi Fancy Dresses Allied Stores 10B Khan Market scrape along, managing to stay ahead of D-22 -II, Lower (2461-8871). m Khan Market. Daily the competition. Ground Floor, Central Market 10.30am-8.30pm. Costumes from `999. Most of Delhi’s original costume shops (6660-1414). m Lajpat Nagar. Alyied The Parrty Shop 4A Khan Mark­ are in Kinari Bazaar in old Delhi, and www.abhiruchi.in. Costumes from about et (2461-6570). m Khan Market. Mon-Sat though Abhiruchi works with them, it’s `250 per use, plus a deposit. Chess king 11.30am-7.30pm. Costumes from `400. positioned itself as a cut above. “They ask costume about `1,500 per rental. October 28 – November 10 2011 www.timeoutdelhi.net 29

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 29 10/21/2011 7:28:10 PM The freaks Chitrashala corner come out at night Go shopping in Delhi’s most gruesome gali. Have a bloody good time at these Halloween parties. ant to see something really Wfrightening? Watch the stock market. But if you’re spooked about what to wear for Halloween, you really have nothing to fear. The capital is scaring up a selection of parties for which you’ll want to don your witch’s hat or devil horns, so start breaking out the fake blood (to find more creative costumes, see p29). With Halloween actually falling on a Monday this year, the capital’s party planners have gone into overdrive, spreading celebrations across the weekend prior. So if you’re planning to make it out alive, you’d better pace the spook juice. Follow Time Out Delhi on Twitter (@TimeOutDelhi) for the latest costume party updates. ) (2

g Fri Oct 28 n

a Delitronica Halloween party @ Zook il a Skeleton crew At Puran Chand Gyan Prakash; Looking for a Halloween party that’ll leave you feeling dead the day after? Try moshing to

ditit (below) a Shimla shopkeeper stops by to stock up a BLOT and DJ Uri, who’re kicking of the weekend in suitably messy style. There’s no couple of shops in Kinari Bazaar dress code, but if you make an effort you might be the lucky recipient of freebies. Head straight keep the costume party going to this disco for a night of boos and booze. A all year round. Though most of 3 Community Centre, PVR Anupam Complex, them stay in business supplying tinsel Saket (99994-00001). m Malviya Nagar. crowns and play swords for Ramlilas 9pm-1am. Free. and other religious festivals, we found Halloween weekend deals @ Café Morrison At Café Morrison, scary goblins and monsters a few that stock Halloween-appropriate will do what they do best – mash. This bar is accoutrements. offering drink deals all Halloween weekend, Puran Chand Gyan Prakash might look rock ’n’ roll from DJs Siddharth and Maddy and like one more crowded costume store, and free drinks for anyone who dresses up. but it’s the most comprehensive in the E-12 South Extension Part-II, First Floor (5510-6169). 9pm-midnight. Free. gali. Every square inch of wall is covered with hats, masks, skeletons, handcuffs, Sat Oct 29 gladiator helmets, plastic six-pack abs Hacienda Hallucienda () and tombstones. One floor is dedicated @ TLR The dead and debauched will come together to decor and accessories and another to at TLR’s raging annual spooktacular with AV full-fledged costumes. They’re stacked duo WWYYZZZRRDDZ. It all hinges on the up in a dingy room that branches off into outrageousness of your costume. Everyone who smaller sections. Hiding here are get-ups dresses up as a ghost or a dead celebrity of every conceivable kind, from Naga tribal stands to win free drinks and prizes, but there’s one massive grand prize skirts to sheep, bananas, sailors and (no, they’re not telling) for the best Casper . Puran Chand’s Something of the night. been around for 60 years and supplies unusual… 31 Village (4608-0533). m to parties, events and haunted houses. rents out. It’s small, but Sri Incontrovertible proof! Green Park. 8pm-1am. Free. Shopkeepers from to Shimla Amar has a good lot of props Catch a documentary Night of the walking dread @ 1 about paranormal Boulevard Café swear by its wholesale stock. like fake amputated arms and If ghosts and zombies don’t float Vishal Chitrashala has flourished in legs for spook-seekers. We phenomena. See p83 your boat, try Rastafarianism on for Kinari for over 40 years. The spacious found the shopkeeper a bit grumpy, size this Halloween. DJs Uri and MoCity shop attracts customers not only for but chalked it up to him getting into will keep the fright-fest going. G 11-40, Select Citywalk Mall, Multiplex Halloween, but also for school events, character. Nirvana Sawhney and Building, near PVR Gold and in front of 1 Café plays and dances with its costumes, Priyanka Mogul Bar, Saket (4100-6956, 93113-00001). jewelry, wigs and cosmetics. Owner Vishal Puran Chand Gyan Prakash 2197, Kinari m Malviya Nagar. 9pm-1am. Free. Gupta has stocked up an abundance Bazaar (2328-8473). m Chandni Chowk. of ghosts and skeletons for Halloween, Mon-Sat 11am-8pm. Costumes from `200. Sun Oct 30 The Future @ Out of the Box but also has the standby Spidermen, Shri Amar Chitrashala 2699 Chatta Pratap By this point in the weekend, everyone will be Supermen and menagerie of animals, Singh, Kinari Bazaar (2328-4185/98114- the walking dead. But pull yourself together, not to mention Anna Hazare caps. The 47610). m Chandni Chowk. Daily because this fancy dress future rave will mash costumes aren’t all that well stitched, but 10am-7pm. Rentals from `150 per day. together Dualist Inquiry, Jatin Puri and Order Gupta is helpful and happy to make new Vishal Chitrashala 2208 Kinari Bazar Of The Essence (B.R.E.E.D & Nucleya) for a final party before you head off into the afterlife. ones on demand. (2326-9221). m Chandni Chowk. Mon-Sat 9-A Hauz Khas Village (98101-74707). Nearby, Shri Amar Chitrashala also has 11am-7pm.Rentals from about `100 m Green Park. 8.30pm-1am. Free. readymade and tailored outfits, which it per day. 30 www.timeoutdelhi.net October 28 – November 10 2011

Cover Story-Ghost002.indd 30 10/21/2011 7:29:53 PM