In today’s hustle and bustle of Guwahati, it’s difficult to fathom that our beloved city was also once quiet and thiny populated, surrounded by large trees and without electricity.
The city, as such, has its fair share of ghost stories - ghosts that the elderly of today fondly claim to be true and very much a part of the old city.
Let’s recall a few…
Behind Kumar Bhaskar Natya Mandir, Uzan Bazar was a large 'Palash' tree (Flame-of-the-Forest). Locals say that a ghost could be seen at times sitting on top of the tree with its legs dangling.
Have you ever heard of 'Bak bhoot', the Assamese concept of a ghost that eats fish? Well, there are numerous incidents when Guwahatians have come across a 'bak' fishing at the ponds of Guwahati in the middle of the night.
One of the famous haunting stories of Guwahati is of the ghost at Christ Church, Nehru Park. The ghost of an old British gentleman used to read the Bible at night. Our fathers claim that the church bell often rang at the stroke of midnight every night. People were scared to cross by the church at night.
Night-crawlers attest to having seen 'Burha-dangoriya' in the Shiva Temple of Kumarpara; a man in white dhoti-kurta, sitting on a white horse, enlarging by the minute until it almost seems like he is touching the sky for the scared viewer.
Older generation narrates incidents of passerby hearing the arranging of desk and benches inside the Judge’s Court (the old Assam-type house opposite the Nabin Chandra Bardoloi Hall) while walking on the tree-covered road after sunset even though office hours were over and the hall was locked without any human presence. The VIP Road by the Dighalipukhuri still gives a tranquil yet eerie feeling if passed alone at night.
Can today's Guwahati be imagined as such? Do you have any haunting experience shared by your parents or grandparents in Guwahati to tell us?