My Haunted House in Dev Nagar, New Delhi

A Personal Encounter by R. S. Raghavan (New Delhi)

My experience is a true experience of the unexplained. Though my parents didn't share these experiences with anyone, this is the first time this story is being shared.

I am now 44 years old. When i was 16 yrs old in 1984, my parents shifted house from janakpuri where we had our own flat to a government quarters Type 5 in Dev Nagar area of New Delhi.

Since i was an only son i was used to being in a flat and i and my mother were initially not inclined to shift base. However my dad was fully in favour of this move as he was of the opinion that this was quite a big house, of the European style of the early part of the 19th century and had a servant quarters, a garden etc.

My first impression of the house was amazing, it was quite huge, had two big bathrooms, 3 huge rooms, a big garden etc. There were four such houses in the block. Opposite house neighbours were an old bengali couple , who lived alone after having lost their children in some accident. Next house neighbours had gone for holidays and the third house was unoccupied.Although i felt a bit uncanny when i saw the huge garden with lots of vegetables which had not been plucked and the fruit trees had fruits which had perished as if someone had left the house in a hurry.

My experiences with the paranormal started, with our visiting some old neighbours(From 1968 to 1973 we had lived in the same area although at a different location,in a rented house and were close to a family who lived right opposite the house. THis family mentioned to us that their grown up son had died recently in a tragic car accident. WE felt bad and since we had moved just that day, for a change we decided to visit our bengali neighbour couple. The moment we entered they mentioned that in that house a girl, who was just the same age as me had died the month before and since they had left in a hurry as they couldn't bear to be in the house where their grown up daughter had died due to some illness. It was then something came to my attention, there was a trace in the hall as if a garland had been placed over a photo, and the trace of the garland could be clearly seen, this i remembered while i was sitting and hearing to the bengali couple's comments. Further they mentioned that the girl's body was brought and kept in the same house directly from the hospital before cremation. Hearing all this we felt bad that we had shifted in such a house as normally people like to shift in houses with pleasant memories. 

The first night went off without incidents but the second night the light turned on by itself. This has been one of the mysteries which wasnt solved till the last. For two consecutive days the light in the bedroom turned on. The first day since myself and parents slept in the same room i yelled as to who had turned on the light to which my mom replied that it must be you, but i was sure as i am a very light sleeper and wake at the slightest noise. Then she turned to my dad who was snoring and on waking him he said he had not turned on. SO we assumed it was a loose connection. When this happened the second night i and my mom both were scared and didn't sleep the whole night. Since we had shifted in, the whole place used to be dark and the servant quarters was also unoccupied...so the place used to be in total darkness causing an eerie feeling as it is.

The second incident was around a week after we shifted someone would continuously on the bedroom door and if we opened no one would be there. Since it was a heavy knock it couldn't have been the wind also. This would go on every night continuously till a month or so for which we didn't find any explanation other than it being some stray dogs knocking/banging against the door, but would they do it continuously in the same place at the same time on the same door...Beats me!

The third incident was, about 15 days later we were conducting some repair work and my mothers nose ring disappeared, she had been wearing and found it to be missing in the melee. We searched everywhere and asked the laborers even although it itself would create an idea of stealing even if they found it. We even went to the local police station as it was located at a yard's distance. We asked the contractor to personally check and search as it was a diamond nose ring which my mom after taking bath had carelessly worn loose. Well in the night while closing the door we found it lying behind the door(the same one as the dogs knocked) but the surprising thing was as a nosering is attached to the nose by a bolt like knob, if the nose ring falls off the knob naturally would be lying separate, but the surprising thing was that it was screwed on to the nose ring which till the last we were not able to figure. If at all a person had taken it why would he bother to screw it and put it there instead of simply taking it away as there was no chance of his being traced.

The last incident was things getting lost without any reason, like money disappearing, books disappearing, things we were sure we had kept in a particular place which would disappear without a trace. 

Since we are south indians we conducted a big puja after which these incidents stopped except for the one off sporadic incidents later on. 

The next door neighbour returned and mentioned to my mother that the house is as itself cursed, either the head of the family or someone related dies and also the family gets divided. This happened in case of us as after that year i was forced to join college elsewhere and since i was not in the best of health afterwards getting epilepsy attacks and in one such attack getting my arm dislocated,my mother was forced to stay with me and my father stayed in the same house as he was a government servant and his base was permanent in delhi.

This continued from 1984 to 1997 in which i and my mother were forced by circumstances to stay away from that house as i took up a job in chennai and again due to health issues my mother was forced to stay with me.During this time i had raised a cat as my sister and she was in the best of health. We took her to the ill-fated house in 1997 end, as my father was about to retire and we had to vacate the house in 1998 may. Imagine one day in Jan 1998 my cat went out for her morning walk and was found dead outside the walk just adjacent to the gate. 

Till now her death could not be explained. We felt like one of our family's own member had died. We left the place in May 1998 with a heavy heart as we could never explain what caused my cat bushy's death, she was really healthy and not even a single scratch could be found on her body.

After leaving that house we learnt that the whole area was being modernised and the houses were being torn down. I visited the house last after i got married in 2002 and found it to be in ruins, almost like a forest and learnt we were the last people to have lived there.

However to this day we live together back in our own house.

Even though i was in the prime of youth at that stage i can never forget those frightening experiences in that house.

From IHT: Thanks a lot for sharing your highly descriptive encounter. We really hope people start sharing more of their paranormal experiences. Maybe together, we all can atleast keep a record of things that are going on, if not be able to find a solution.