Way back in the year 1978 I was given a personal assignment by my Punjabi boss while i was working in Delhi as a Liason cum PR assistant, to settle a long pending case in the PF secretariat, at Allahabad.
I had taken up this challenging task, went to Allahabad and could ,to my own astonishment, finish the job in just two days…
Benares or Varanasi (Kasi) was hardly three hours train journey from Allahabad, and i decided to visit the holy place before going back to Delhi.
While going around in the Tulsi Manas Mandir, on the Bhelupura BHU Road,
i watched a small Bhajan group of sadhus sitting on the floor of the temple all in a circle, singing beautiful devotional songs. Standing watching them
I wished and prayed from the depth of my heart that I should get an opportunity to come again and live in Varanasi, atleast just for a year.
My mind whispered ” you fool, what opportunity you are going to get in this crowded congested town where you could see only shops and no corporate or govt offices, industries.?”
Yet the other half of my mind was murmuring,
” i don’t care man!.. I simply want to come back here again and live here for atleast one year.Thats all!”
I put a fresh ten rupee note onto the dhaali ( large brass plate) kept in the middle of the sadhus sitting in a circle. One of those sadhus looked at me and smiled as if he read my thoughts ; I left the place the next day for Delhi.
As soon as I reached Delhi, sudden changes started rolling into my life, scuttling all my personal planings in Delhi.
I got a transfer order to Lucknow with the instruction to immediately report to the office of the Chairman & MD. I had to finally leave Delhi for Lucknow since a my efforts to stay back failed & left Delhi in despair for Lucknow.
In just three months of my stay in Lucknow, believe it or not, miraculously i was assigned the task of opening up an office of the state government in Varanasi!..
Having taken up this assignment at Varanasi,
I myself was given the responsibility to find out an office cum residence there.
Through my contacts the office was set up very close to Tulsi Manas Mandir (only walking distance) at Gurdhaam colony a small posh area on Bhelupura- BHU road.
This place i chose for the office cum residence happened to be a haunted house & where i myself decided to live for almost a year.
Initially since my job involved travelling to various places in the eastern UP, rarely stayed here…and one day back from tour, i received a reply paid post card from my Chaukidar from Faizabad (Ayodhya) stating that he had to leave the place due to daily disturbance from a woman apparition/ghost!! & if i ask him to come back he’s ready etc. for which i didn’t reply.
Another tall n stout young guy was posted as Chaukidar (security) who also, in another two months or so expressed similar concern and asked him to go.
My friend Mr Ramdas of Kerala Caffe recommended one Mr Avasthi, a graduate and son of an advocate in Varanasi. Though I was bit hesistant to take him as a Choukidar as he was a graduate and also that he lived in own house in Varanasi town.
Since he himself promised he will stay round the clock etc, he was given this job. In just another one months time, came to know this man too was scared of staying there during night & used to leave the place by 10 pm or so.
Having come to know this, i asked him the reasons and he openly submitted that even during day time, he felt someone was around him everywhere, walking behind him etc
Surprisingly all the three security guards narrated almost the same experinces and the heroine was a nude young woman with long hairs and fierce protruding eyes. Just a moment before they are about to fall asleep this ghost suddenly used to appear, look into their eyes, and they used to collapse unconscious!
Having become very curious about this lady ghost, i was interested to meet her & expressed my interest to meet this visitor in the night and told Mr Avasthi that I will be there by 10 pm on that particular day and intent to sleep there.
I reached there on that day on time, the huge iron grilled gate was locked. I climbed up l snd went inside and sat on a cane chair in the veranda waiting for Mr Avasthi.
Around 1045 pm or so Mr Avasthi was coming alongwith another tall gooda looking youth. I asked why he brought another guy, he politely submitted that hes very much scared and thought that if I didn’t come he wanted atleast someone to be around. When I disclosed about the reason for his fear, tge other guy too was scared. I was all the more interested to stay back there that night. Mr Avasthi was asked to sleep on a folding cot in the middle of the hall & we both slept on either side in separately in two cots. Mr Avasthi was chewing Banarasi paan & started reading some Hindi book. I had slept off & suddenly around 1 pm woke up hearing a loud scream, and anxious to meet the nude woman ghost.
It was Mr Avasthi sitting on his bed sweating profusely and shivering. I asked him what happened and he said he saw a woman with flowing long hairs going around his bed and then to my office room and disappeared.
So, I was convinced of the truth behind the stories narrated by all the three security guards, from different places and none of them knew each other either.
I discontinued the services of security guards & in the next two days time, shifted myself to this office cum residence/house. Initially I didn’t want to stay in an office cum residence but my boss encouraged me to move in with the condition that i should maintain the dignity of the office; also to engage only day time staff.
Almost for 11 months I stayed in this haunted house. Para psychology students n friends from BHU used to come and sleep there hoping to have a glance of that visitor from from nether world.
Honestly speaking during my stay i too had few weird experiences of some sort, like sound of bangles in the night; smell of burning dead body smoke,
and one one or two occasions in broad day light in my afternoon nap, invisible hands touching my body etc..Some nights electricity will go off; on some other days heavy wind and raining .. myself moving all alone in a big house & never afraid of any ghosts or spirits from the netherworld…
My stay on Varanasi was memorable, blessed days, with several contacts with many sadhus and sanyasins, quiet evenings sitting on the Ghats, Manikarnika; Dasasamedh ghat and other places…
In Benares, one could feel the merging of all the fourteen worlds, the confluence of life n culture of the entire Bharath Bhoomi, a house for all…
Winding up the story, after completing eleven months, ie almost a year, got a GO stating that the Varanasi office is being closed & a new office was being opened up in Civil Lines Allahabad.
Before vacating the place, i remember my boss from Lucknow remarked: ” Ravi, you were like a Nawab here in Varanasi!”
I replied in the affirmative with folded hands boarded the car for Lucknow.
During Kumbh Mela i visited Varanasi in 2023 & went to the house where I stayed in the Gurdham colony. Gun trotting Black Cats were moving around in the lane and on enquiry learnt that the Varanasi MP’s office was just behind my old office cum residence.
The MP was none other than our own beloved Modiji!!
I felt so elated.
(Ravindranath)
