Stories of the Missing...

True Stories
The Hauntings in Madhya Pradesh

There are many definitions of insanity. They are often unspoken and ill-understood. What occurs in one’s mind as they lose their grasp on reality? How can a person explain the unexplained? Anokhi Lai knew all too well that what was happening could not be explained.

He had closed his door. Embarrassed and scared, he secluded himself and let nobody in. The world would not witness the workings of a crazed man until long after he disappeared.

His home, they found, covered in writing. The walls plastered with words and phrases that surely paints an irrational mind. His home was bare, with no food or belongings, the furniture piled in one corner of the room.

There was no sign of Anokhi. The only clue, a scrawled message on the window, written in the dust… ‘It is time’.

Did the once kind and stable man really just go mad? Or did someone, something, take him away. Not in person, but in his mind.

Anokhi’s family believe the curse of Madhya Pradesh has struck once more, and Anokhi Lai is the latest victim.

What do you believe?

The bench sits empty. It seems sad and mournful, as though it misses its friend. Catherine would spend hours there, reading until the sun went down. That was until she vanished.

Catherine had been a good student, bright and hardworking, she was doing well with her courses.

That day in July, she had planned to visit the bench after uni. She loved the feeling of peace and serenity that her evening reading brought. But Catherine never arrived at the bench. And she never arrived home.

Nobody knows where Catherine went. Saying goodbye at the gates of the school, that was the last time she was seen. According to some at least.

Others say they still see Catherine. In the evenings, they say, she still sits on the bench. Though barely a shadow, in the white dress she was wearing, her long brown hair blows in the wind. She doesn’t look up from her book and she doesn’t stay long.

Nobody now will sit on that bench. It sits lonely and weathered. Forever cursed with the name 'Catherine's bench'.

Would you take a seat where Catherine still reads? Or might you become another victim of the Madhya Pradesh Hauntings…

Losing a loved one causes unimaginable pain. Not knowing their fate, makes the pain so much worse. But what happens if you believe they never really left? How would you feel?

That’s the feeling Dolak’s family were left with when he disappeared after a simple trip into town. He had always been a sensible man, working hard in his family’s shop and keen to make his family proud.

So when he didn’t come home, their lives were broken. Though people searched for weeks and months, no trace of him was ever found.

That’s when the strange happenings began.

His family claim they would come home to find Dolak’s belongings had moved. They would find an uneaten meal on the table or his favourite music playing quietly from his room. Was Dolak still alive? Or sending them a message that somehow, he was trapped?

They couldn’t grieve for poor Dolak. They couldn’t rest and could never move on with their lives. Believing him to still be there, stuck, in an unreachable world.

That, surely, must be, the worst pain of all.

After losing his son in the most frightful of ways, Bhawani Singh had never been the same man. A dark shadow hung over him, as he became quiet and withdrawn from those he loved. Some people say the shadow was grief or depression. Others say it was the same shadow that had taken his son, Dolak, 2 years before. Some even say the shadow is what took him too.

Bhawani’s prayers had changed. Though he used to ask for his son’s safe returned, he now prayed for ways to bring his son back. A desperate man, asking questions of the supernatural.

His worried family could only watch as he spiralled deeper into a world he did not understand. Seeking forbidden substances and performing rituals, a desperate Bhawani’s mind had got lost.

Then Bhawani vanished.

Most think he simply left, the loss of his son too much to bear.

But his family believe, by choice or mistake, Bhawani had found a way to reach the darkness. And they say he’s still there, searching for his son and hoping he can find a way back home.

A curse can be described as a series of words, causing supernatural powers to inflict harm’. Without being told, how would you know if your family had a curse upon them? When would you suspect? After one strange occurrence? After two? What about three?

It seems the Singh family faced that very question.

Ratan Singh had been away for the weekend, visiting friends in a nearby town. His wife had expected him home on Monday but Ratan did not come home. Ever.

The tragic echoing of the story brought the Singh family to their knees. In the years prior, they had already lost Ratan’s brother and nephew, who had mysteriously vanished in Madhya Pradesh. It seemed Ratan had reached the same fate and the talk of the Singh family curse had begun.

The family lives in fear. They wonder where, and when, and who, the curse will strike next. People in town avoid them and they dare not go anywhere alone.

A curse is a purposeful action, one intended to cause harm. Did somebody lay this on the poor Singh family? Or are the hauntings in Madhya Pradesh so profound, it chooses its victims in the wisest of ways…

His soul taken by another, long before he disappeared.

The screams of his family still echoing through the village as the memories of what happened that day still haunt their dreams.

His eyes were cold and his strength was greater than any man, as his wife and children watched the destruction. Their home in flames. Not by a match, but by the words of a Native tongue that only the Devil knows. They say Ramesh stood still, watching and laughing, as the treasures he once loved turned to ashes. He was changed. He was empty. He was lost.

Ramesh ran that day, fast and far into the distance. Without a goodbye or a single tear. He was never seen again.

How far could he go? Is he still running? Or is he another victim of the Madhya Pradesh hauntings that have taken so many?

People say they hear his cries for help echoing through the mountains where he ran. His family say the smell of burning wood continues to follow them and Ramesh, they say, is still lost, trying to find his way back home.

Rumours of the Singh curse still whisper through the towns in Madhya Pradesh. But through telling the story a hundred times over, rumour becomes legend, and legend becomes just a tale, told to scare children to keep them home at night.

But for the family, the curse still weighs heavy on their minds. Now living secluded, in a wooded area far from town, they barely leave their homes. They see no one and never go anywhere after dark.

So when Hukum Singh disappeared that night it was perhaps, the most frightening of all.

Hukum had told his wife he felt unwell. As they ate, he seemed distant and distracted and he took himself to bed soon after. That was the last time Hukum was seen. How is it possible, a grown man, simply disappears from his bed? How had he not been seen? And did he know, feel inside, that… something was coming?

The Singh family curse is no longer a story just told to scare children. It is told to scare everyone. Nowhere, not even your bed is safe in Madhya Pradesh.

There are stories around the world of ghosts and malevolent spirits being attaching to items and objects. Some believe they remain trapped in their dark world and can never escape or cause any harm. Some believe; however, they can use their evil to steal the souls of the innocent.

Is this what happened to poor Saroj?

Saroj had always lived in Madhya Pradesh, in the same small house she was born in. She loved the streets and the laughter and the people.

She had grown old and tired now and would spend most of her days alone. Towards the end, people noticed she would always carry a small wooden box, though no one knows what it held inside.

They say now, the box holds her soul.

Nobody knows the fate that became of poor Saroj. One day reading in her chair, the next day gone. Her home was untouched with her belongings in their place. The only thing unsettled was that small wooden box.

They say it moves around her home though no one is present. Some days on the table, some days in her chair and some days waiting by the front door for anyone who dares enter, to claim as its next victim.

There were stories of a small box that had possessed a man in one of the villages years earlier. Brave Leeia Bai had always believed in strange and wonderful things and when she heard the stories, she wanted that box. She was fearless and curious and some say, unwise.

Leela had defied her parents that day. She had snuck away from her high-class home and made her way into the town. The haunted item was for sale in one of the markets and for Leela, money was no object.

It was a fateful trip from which she never returned.

The box was found later, opened and abandoned on a corner of the street. No trace of Leela was ever found.

Had she seen something in that box? Had she released something unworldly that had captured her soul for itself? Questions nobody dare ask, fearing they will meet the same end.

The box sits silently in the same place to this day.

Leela Bai, another victim of the dark Madhya Pradesh mysteries that waits to be solved.

When Shabana gave birth to her first child, she felt the connection immediately. She adored her little girl and would do anything for her.

So when her father got home and found his tiny daughter alone, he knew something terrible had happened. The baby was safe, healthy and clean. The table was set and the dinner warming on the stove. But Shabana was nowhere to be found. She had gone in an instant and though he searched frantically, Shabana was never found.

In the years ahead, people praised him. They admired him for raising the baby alone. Though he always claimed, he did not.

He would talk of how his daughter could still see her mother. How often he’d find her basket swinging, and how Shabana would comfort the child in the night. He would hear singing and laughing and watch as his daughter played with an unseen force.

Perhaps he was deluded. Torn apart by the loss of his wife, his mind would play tricks.

Or perhaps, in Madhya Pradesh, the bond between a mother and her baby really is unbreakable.