In the Spooky streets of Shimla #SpookyStories

This story is of 2014 when I was pursuing engineering. My college was located in Waknaghat, Solan District (approx. 18 kms from Shimla). During my engineering days, I had heard about so many scary stories about haunted locations nearby Shimla such as IGMC, Barog Tunnel, The Charleville Mansion etc. and when I questioned people as to why in the mountains, we hear so many stories about haunting souls they said that due to high rates of accidents and people dyeing by falling off the cliffs, their body doesn’t get proper cremation because of which they never get salvation and their souls keep on wandering around. Even in my college campus many stories were getting circulated about the haunted rooms, etc.

After me and my friends got placed, we decided to celebrate in Shimla. One of our friend’s house was located close to Vidhan Sabha. This local friend of ours challenged us by saying that right now (around 12:30 AM) you all won’t be able to go to Indian Institute of Advance Studies which was about 2 kms away from Vidhan Sabha (we were a group of 5 people). According to him and the stories we had heard before, we were told that the streets gets really spooky during the nights. But we were not the ones who would back out of a challenge so, we left our friend at his place and we started walking towards the institute.

Though we were walking casually our minds were filled with curiosity thinking that perhaps these 2 kms were going to be only adventurous and not spooky at all. Well, our phones were discharged and, in those years, there were less street lights. So after sometime as we were walking outside the city, it turned completely dark. We eventually decided to turn our phones one by one to use the mobile LED (as all the phones were discharged and it was the only light source we had). After sometime we reached the place without feeling any spookiness on the way and to prove the completion of the challenge, we took some pictures.

But then our pumped-up adrenaline spoke and we decided to continue our walk to Chadwick falls which was 2 kms away from our current location. While walking towards our new destination, we saw a building which looked abandoned and very old. It was like we all see in the movies, broken glasses spread all over, torn cloths hung on the cloth wire and there was no light. To us it looked like another adventure and we decided to explore the area. The last phone which had some battery left, we switched it off so the only source of light left was the moon light. When we were moving close to the house, we felt spine chills and goose bumps all over our body due to the pin drop silence. The only noise we could hear was of dried leaves and the broken glass getting crushed beneath our feet’s. It was the atmosphere which was making it scarier. We thought of switching on the phone to get a little light so we can actually see something. What we saw was a deep whole right in front of us. It was like if we hadn’t switched on the light, one of us could have fallen into that hole.

At that time, we felt like somebody was watching us but when we looked around there was no one. We knew that because we are feeling scared our mind was making up things but who thinks practically and rationally at that time. Our heart beats were increasing as our mind was registering this enthralling yet haunting experience so we decided to leave the place for good. But as we were turning around, we heard some soft noises and saw some flash of lights coming from inside the abandoned place. With pale expressions on our faces we looked at each other trying to make sense of the happenings but the noise started to get more louder and we just ran from there. Two of my friends hurt their legs and started to bleed as we were running haphazardly on the step farming fields. But nobody stopped running, we all were getting a feeling of being followed. Trust me! I have never felt so scared that my whole body was getting jitters and all I wanted to do was keep on running as far away as possible from that abandoned house. With only moon light guiding our way back to Vidhan sabha, we held each other’s hands all the way back. We all were so conscious and alert that our ears were registering even the sound of a single leaf rustling with the touch of wind.

When we reached Vidhan Sabha, we uttered a sigh of relief. I don’t know whether it was the spooky stories we had heard before or the noises we heard coming from inside the abandoned house or the flash of lights or the feeling of constantly being followed which made this experience a haunted one but indeed I was left with my own spooky story of the streets of Shimla.