The Shimla music box | An Indian horror story that ended in madness

A romantic getaway turns into a nightmare

The mist in Shimla is famous. It rolls down from the Himalayas, soft and white, hiding the ancient pine trees and colonial rooftops. But sometimes, it hides other things. This is not a love story. This is a horror story that happened to my friends, Mohan and Priya.

It started with a music box.

They found it in a dusty corner of a Shimla antique shop. It was beautiful, old, with a carved figure of a dancing girl on top. Priya, with her love for old things, had to have it. Mohan, ever the practical one from Delhi, just laughed and paid the shopkeeper, an old man with milky eyes who simply nodded, saying nothing.

The black thread | A terrifying Indian horror story

A young boy finds a simple black thread on his wrist. He tries to remove it, but it won't come off. A chillingly simple Indian horror story with a shocking ending you won't see coming.

A normal day for 10-year-old

Ten-year-old Rohan lived in a small, friendly town. His life was simple and happy. He went to school, did his homework, and played cricket with his friends until the sun went down.

One Tuesday, after a particularly dusty game, Rohan came home and washed up. As he was drying his hands, he saw it.

The Mangpoo horror | A story from Darjeeling’s dark woods

A four-year old goes for a school picnic to the Mangpoo hills in Darjeeling. All goes well until he finds he is alone in the forest, which is known to be a haunting den. So, does he get saved?

 

The perfect picnic

The sun looked like a bright gold coin in the sky. For four-year-old Arun, the school trip to the Mangpoo forest in Darjeeling was the best day of his life. The air was fresh, filled with the smell of pine and earth. 

He laughed and chased his friends between the tall, ancient trees, their happy shouts echoing through the green light. 

The twin's curse | A terrifying ghost story from Goa (unusual ending!)

Identical twins. A murdered wife. A ghost that won't rest. When Jack D'Souza returns to Goa, he doesn't know he's walking into his brother's nightmare. The truth about Highway 66 will haunt you forever. This bone-chilling horror story based on true events will leave you sleeping with the lights on!

THE TWIN'S CURSE

The brothers from hell

Goa, 1995. Identical twins Jack and John D'Souza were inseparable. Until greed changed everything.

John, the smarter twin, started a business with Marco Fernandes. But when Marco discovered John was stealing, John did the unthinkable. 

The cursed flat in Mumbai | A terrifying Indian horror story (The twist will shock you!)

When Priya moves into a cheap Mumbai flat, she uncovers its horrifying secret. And sadly, there is nothing she can do about it... The cursed Mumbai flat...

The too-good-to-be-true deal

Mumbai’s real estate was a nightmare, and Priya was desperate. After months of searching, she finally found an affordable flat in an old chawl — spacious, surprisingly clean, and unbelievably cheap.

The broker, Mr Joshi, wiped sweat from his brow as he handed her the keys.

“The last tenant left... suddenly,” he muttered, avoiding her eyes.

The haunting walk of Bryan: A tale of unease and terror

Is there a deeper terror lurking in the streets we walk every day? Late-night strolls, familiar routes, and even the most mundane of tasks can become the setting for something far more sinister than we could ever imagine. In The Haunting Walk of Bryan, one man’s quiet evening walk becomes a race for survival against something beyond the natural world. The eerie silence of an empty office...

Bryan’s workday stretched far into the evening, and when the clock struck 7:30 PM, the office was eerily quiet. 

The usual buzz of conversation and ringing phones had long since faded, leaving behind a hollow silence. The tension was palpable, as if the room itself were holding its breath, waiting for something.

A haunted palace in rural Bengal

Two visitors from Calcutta go to the haunted house of an evil zamindar (landlord) in rural Bengal. They come out terrified. But do they manage to survive? 
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Midnapore was billed as the ‘dark district’ of West Bengal in the 1970s where no resident at its headquarters, Midnapore town, or villages, had ever known anything other than darkness.

Electric lamps lighting up cities and towns was something they had only heard of from friends.

Spooked at a railway station in Bengal

Two visitors from Rajasthan meet an aggressive evil spirit at a desolate station in Bengal. So, how were they saved?

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Begunkodor railway station in Purulia district of West Bengal, which grabbed headlines for its own eerie incidents, has been billed as one of India’s most haunted stations and remained abandoned for years.  

After staying in isolation for decades, the station’s train operations resumed only a few years ago, though with a much lower frequency.

Boy goes back to thank his teacher for IIT gift

What is so spooky in wannabe engineer Luv Kumar’s life?

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Luv Kumar’s family had migrated from Bihar to Bengal in the 1980s and his father Hari was working at a jute mill in Howrah, on the outskirts of Calcutta.

Although the jute mill gave Luv’s family a place to stay, it was by no means a home. It was almost like a slum. And, even Hari was paid poorly by the mill and often found it difficult to make ends meet.

Abandoned bungalow in Lonavala

Jaibeer Panwar and family moved to a house near Pune where no one wanted to stay as people felt it was haunted. So, does the rationalist Jaibeer encounter anything paranormal?
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In Lonavala near Pune, the Patros family home had grabbed eyeballs for the wrong reasons. It had been abandoned for some years (since 2009) as the current owner of the Patros bungalow was living in the United States and keen to rent it out.

But there were many tales associated with this house, forcing people to shy away from the property.

Mystery story: Boy goes back to his village home for lunch

After an unknown disease strikes, Manas returns home from the city to see his ailing mother. Does he experience anything paranormal in his village, where many were believed to have died?

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Rural Bengal, in the 1960s, witnessed many famines and mystery diseases, which killed people by the thousands and this gave the grandmothers an opportunity to rustle up some spicy stories on the paranormal and relate them to their grandchildren. 

Aaturia, in 24 Parganas district, was one such village that hogged the limelight after some contagious mystery disease, which doctors were baffled about, hounded its residents.

Haunting in the Sunderbans

Three friends — Rohan, Ratul and Pabindra — broke all the rules of the jungle while travelling deep inside the Sunderbans, one of the most dangerous forests in the world, which also has its fair share of horror stories. So, did they live to tell their tale?

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Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, is not only known for its majestic Bengal tiger but also has its fair share of paranormal activity tucked deep inside the jungles, especially the core area.

The forests are almost 60 per cent inside Bangladesh and the remaining 40 per cent is in West Bengal (India).

Lost in a ‘spooky’ by-lane

Jyotsna Ghosh, a government employee in the 1970s, took a shortcut to her uncle’s house in a south Calcutta neighbourhood one evening. So, was she the victim of paranormal activity on a stretch, which people believed was haunted?

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In the 1970s, electricity (especially alternating current or AC) was almost a scarce resource in the city of Calcutta, and so, when evening dawned, it turned into a City of Lanterns.

Rather than electric lamps, it was this kerosene lantern that illuminated the city — be it a bustling marketplace, the busy office stretch or even downtown Calcutta.

Dow Hill’s horror story

Labon and wife Chhaya went to pick up their son Soren on going home day or GHD from a boarding school in haunted Dow Hill. So, did they have any paranormal experience in the apparently serene woods?
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Haunted Dow Hill in Kurseong, near Darjeeling, is not the place where you witness subtle horror, like a ghost or an apparition walking or seemingly passing by. Dow Hill’s haunting is a story of violence, and that’s why, hardly anyone dares to venture into the woods alone — forget at night —  even during the day!

Dow Hill gives the impression of a picture postcard or a fairy land where an innocuous traveller will have no option but to daze at its scenic beauty. But here’s a warning! Don’t be mesmerized by it because behind all this beauty lies a mountain of evil. 

Scary story in the backwaters of Kerala

Rishi and family have had a paranormal experience while in the backwaters of Alleppey. And, it came as a bolt from the blue.

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Forty-year-old Rishi, wife Alka, who is 10 years younger, and their 10-year-old daughter Mini were going on a vacation to a village in the backwaters of Alleppey in Kerala. It was almost after a year that Rishi got a 10-day leave from his office and was longing for the big day to come.

Well, there was also another reason for Rishi’s excitement — the travel agent, Murli, who is also Rishi’s friend — had told him a very strange story that really excited Rishi.

Uber ghost story

Ravi was an investment banker, who had a paranormal experience at a suburb in Mumbai. Did it change his rationalist way of thinking?
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Ravi was an investment banker who graduated from a top business school in India after having completed his engineering from the prestigious IIT.

Right from the time he began working as an investment banker in Delhi with a fancy salary, he was used to the luxuries enjoyed in the corporate world – like a swanky sedan, a three-bedroom apartment at an upmarket location, various attractive perks reserved for pass-outs of sought-after business schools, and of course, a plush corner room in his office.  

Scary story: India’s own Bloody Mary (Part II)

About three months later… Mita’s spirit was back for bloody revenge, and with vengeance, it petrified the entire village. The spirit had to be tamed as it was getting powerful by the day…
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Yes! Mita’s spirit was back seeking bloody revenge and, within a short period of return, it petrified households in the entire village. Whoever looked into the mirror would receive deep scars on their faces. Its rage became more intense as the days passed by.

A tantrik (occultist) in the village had predicted that unless weakened, the spirit would become powerful every day. And, it had to be tamed. Otherwise, it would go out of control and the whole village could face devastation.

Scary story: India’s own Bloody Mary (Part I)

So what does Mita, a girl, do if she is born in a male bastion at a North Indian village and cursed right from birth till death? She would obviously look for bloody revenge … even if it comes after her death.
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Deep inside a remote Rajasthan village lived a farmer by the name Jhingru, who was 45 years old. He had two daughters Asha and Lata, who were 10 and 7. Jhingru wanted a third child and longed to have a boy this time.

Villages in rural parts of Northern India like Rajasthan are usually male bastions. And in this region, the birth of a girl is not really a reason to celebrate.

Horror story: The killer hotel room

There was a hotel by the name Hotel Safe Haven on the outskirts of Kolkata. Though the hotel was a decent stay, it was far from being a safe haven. Hotel Safe Haven had an ignominious reputation: Whoever stayed in a particular room on the second floor would be found hanging the next day. A traveller from Kanpur, Bimlesh Trivedi, had arrived at the hotel to stay there for a night. Upon hearing the rumour associated with the room, the fearless Bimlesh tried to unravel the mystery. So, did he live to tell his tale?
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Bimlesh Trivedi, a leather merchant from Kanpur, had come to the City of Joy Kolkata for the first time on a business trip. He was to stay for a day in the city and leave for his hometown the next day.

Bimlesh, who was in his early forties, had gone to the outskirts of the city (near his place of business) in search of a hotel and called a friend, who suggested to him a decent and economical place nearby by the name Hotel Safe Haven.

Horror story: Call of the Nishi

This story is about a Nishi bhoot or ghost. So, what is a Nishi bhoot? This is a type of a ghost found mainly in India’s Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar. This ghost will call you at 3 am, sounding like your father, mother, a relative or a friend. If you answer the call or Nishir Daak, you will be hypnotised by the evil spirit and never return to tell your tale. A Nishi can call you only thrice and if you do not answer, the spirit cannot harm you. But if you do so, the Nishi will lure you to a desolate place and you will never ever be found.
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Anuj and his sister Mita were city lads going to spend their summer holidays at a small town Memari in West Bengal’s Burdwan district, where their maternal uncle Biraj lived. The fact that Anuj was going to a small town didn’t really excite him. But what did were the rumours associated with it. 

Anuj had heard from his mother Shyama and other relatives about an evil force or a Nishi bhoot (or ghost) that roams around the town at night. It gives a call and if the person responds, he is in for big trouble.