I am a scaredy-cat. I have not watched a horror movie in my entire life. So, when my friends insisted that we visit the ghost village of Kuldhara as part of our Rajasthan tourism itinerary, I was anything but keen. Not that I believe in ghosts per se. But, if I had a choice, I would gladly not spend an evening in a haunted place. Since my friends were excited about visiting the ghost village, I didn’t have much say in the matter.
While driving towards Kuldhara from Jaisalmer, I googled about the place. That’s when I stumbled upon paranormal activities recorded there by the Indian Paranormal Society in 2014. I went through several of their news reports and YouTube videos. The team of experts had supposedly collected and recorded several anomalies—unexplained electromagnetic fields, static charges, variations in temperature to name a few. According to them, these pieces of evidence suggest that there really is something paranormal about Kuldhara, which cannot be explained by science. Maybe Kuldhara is indeed haunted, I found myself thinking. The very thought made me break out in a cold sweat.
It was late in the afternoon by the time we reached Kuldhara. My friends and I got off the car to explore the ruins on foot. Not many tourists were around, and the village looked eerie and deserted—just like a ghost town. We cut across a stretch of derelict houses with crumbling brick walls. We climbed a fleet of rickety stairs that led to an open terrace atop an old temple. The view from the top left me wondering how life must have thrived here once upon a time. I imagined children playing around in the spacious courtyards; I pictured men and women going about their daily chores, happy and contented. Just then, an old man with a wrinkled face appeared out of nowhere. To me, he seemed like a timeless apparition and I almost screamed. Thankfully, he was very much human—he introduced himself as Amar Singh, a tour guide, and sat us down on the terrace. He then went on to narrate the tragic tale of Kuldhara.
Before the darkness could engulf us, he guided us down the stairs and escorted us to where our car was waiting.
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