The Queen of Chitre...

This particular one is a real incident…

Wondering why the title above was chosen? Read on…

I have never SEEN ghosts (and yes I am really sad about it ), however, I have had my share of weird experiences (like things moving around on their own, weird noises and dreams about the future)…but I do know someone who has actually seen a ghost…I’m talking about my younger brother Nikhil and this story is about him & the Queen of Chitre…He narrated it to me and here it is…

After their board exams in Class 10, he went on a trek organized by his school (he keeps going for these treks) to the mountainous regions of North-East India (a place that is supposedly a hotspot for ghosts). For one night they rested on a hilltop called Chitre (pronounced Chit-ray)…the entire hill was supposedly once a prosperous village which had been completely destroyed in a great avalanche and almost all the inhabitants had died as a result…the ones left converted the hilltop into a campsite…a wooden lodge in the centre and lots of tiny tents around…

That night, as everyone entered the place, the younger kids (6^th to 8^th standard) insisted that they wanted to sleep in the tents and not the lodge for a change…so the older kids, including my brother, went reluctantly to sleep in the lodge…before they went inside, they were given strict warnings by the caretaker: ALL WINDOWS WERE TO BE SHUT AND NO ONE SHOULD EVEN LOOK OUT THE WINDOWS AT NIGHT no matter what happened… and every tent and lodge was personally locked by him from the outside…the reasons were, of course, not given…

As soon as my bro and his friends had settled down they began doing what everyone does at camps…telling each other scary ghost stories!! Nikhil said that though the windows were all shut and no on was near the candle, the candle went out on it’s own every half hour…by 3 ‘o clock everyone except my bro and his friend was faaast asleep…it was then that the two of them heard screams coming from outside…paying no heed to the caretaker’s warning, my ass of a brother rushed to look out the window and here is what he saw…

No there is no pic!!

What he saw was a dense cloudy figure (no distinct face) floating about 1 and a half feet above the ground…right beside one of the tents…three dogs were barking ferociously at the figure and the tent was shaking (possibly becoz of the kids inside)…suddenly the thing seemed to stare directly at Nikhil…he could just feel it, though he saw no eyes or even a face)…the moment this feeling crept over him, he began to shiver uncontrollably and ran back to his bed…as he lay down he asked his friend through chattering teeth, “i-i-is i-i-it r-r-really s-so co-o-old?” the reply was: “No…are you ok?” Then Nikhil told his friend that he had the weirdest feeling that someone was standing on his tummy…his friend just told him to turn over and try to fall asleep…not to pay attention to any weird sensation whatsoever…

The next morning Nikhil woke up with a fever of 103 degrees F…the caretaker was called and (really I am not making this up and neither is my brother) he did some mumbo jumbo and within 3 minutes Nikhil was back to normal…perfectly fine…

Of course he got a shouting for having looked out the window!!

The caretaker then said that every night after 9 pm, the spirit of their Queen (who died in the avalanche as well) roams about the hill, kind of checking up on everything…she is not an evil spirit, just that she is very powerful…he said, “You are very lucky you only saw a cloudy figure…whoever sees her in her full form does not live to tell the tale…” (Dammit!! Such a great opportunity lost!! okie okie...am only kidding! hehe...)

The trek continued for a week after his and soon he was back home safely…the story takes an eerier turn now…

Neha Di and I did NOT know about this incident as Nikhil had told only Mom about it…but the first night he was home after the trek…..

Di and I were up till late, studying for tests we had the next day. (Our room is adjoined to the verandah and the door is left open during summers)…instead of studying we were busy giggling when all of a sudden my sis goes, “Nidhi, I think there’s someone in the verandah outside.”

Nidhi: “Shut up! That’s a bad try…I’m not scared”

Neha: “No I’m not joking!! I seriously think there is someone outside!! Trust me…”

Okie so I got scared too and said, “Fine…go and shut the door…” (as if that would make any difference!!) and her straight reply was, “Have you lost it? There’s no way I’m doing that!! You go do it!!”

After a lot of negotiations, we finally decided that we would go together…it was really funny…two of us walking together, quickly shutting the door and running back to the bed as if our very lives depended on it!!

We had just reached the safe haven of our bed and the bedsheet when my mother enters the room, half asleep, checks if the verandah door is locked and walks back to her room…not a word said to us!

Next morning we asked her the reason for her weird behaviour and she said that at night she had just woken up from a bad dream about an old woman dressed all in white, with long white flowing hair, grabbing Nikhil by the collar and pulling him down the verandah!!! It was then that Nikhil narrated the whole tale to us…we freaked out!!!