By Arpita Pandey In the part of the locality where I grew up, people usually had lanterns prepared by the evening. With the nightfall, there was a thin chance of a regular supply of electricity. It might sound unbelievable now, but without proper light how does one read those textbooks, let alone finish their homework … Continue reading The Idiot Box
The Cult of the Great Tree-Witch
By Payal Priya “Paya I ate ....now play round and round.” My 3-year old niece Myra came running with my phone in her hands. YouTube can make her do anything; she can eat while listening to CoComelon, she learns rhymes and alphabets from Shafa/ Vlad and Nikki , she dances to the tunes of Chak … Continue reading The Cult of the Great Tree-Witch
Lakshmir Panchali
Growing up in an Asian culture, my childhood abounds in memories of supernatural and paranormal stories. Some are imaginative creations, and some are real, as might also be termed as paranormal experiences. As our culture emphasizes the existence of afterlife, we cannot totally disbelieve or doubt the credulity of some such stories claimed as real … Continue reading Lakshmir Panchali
All the Things They Said
By Ankana Bag One particularly rainy day, the students of Class 8, Section F begged their teacher Batakrishna Majumder to tell them a ghost-story. Batakrishna was an arts and handicrafts teacher without much inclination to talk, so he mildly suggested that the students themselves tell the stories while the others listen and quietly work on … Continue reading All the Things They Said
That Night
By Plabi Pradhan Even in the 21st century we often witness or sense so many unearthly things which cannot be explained by any logic or science. We can't articulate them by any framework of cause and effect; we just feel or experience them. A very weird kind of feeling. Twenty eight years old now, I'm … Continue reading That Night
Aha Bhoot, Baha Bhoot
আহাভূত , বাহাভূত Sujoy Kumar Das একেবারে শিশুবেলায় অখাদ্য খাবার খেতে না চাওয়া বা অন্য কোনো বেয়াদবি'র অব্যর্থ টোটকা ছিল ভূত পেত্নীর ভয় দেখানো। বাড়ির সামনের উঠোন ছাড়িয়ে, অদূরের ওই জমাট অন্ধকার বাঁশঝাড় মাথা দুলিয়ে সন্ধ্যা থেকেই ভয় দেখানো শুরু করতো। উপরি পাওনা হিসাবে ছিল, সন্ধ্যে থেকেই শিয়ালের তার সপ্তকে উচ্চস্বরে বিলাপ ক্রন্দন, – হুক্কা … Continue reading Aha Bhoot, Baha Bhoot
Yet Another Convent Haunting
By Asmita Bhattacharya Many of us today may not be staunch believers in God. But how many of us can truly, confidently deny the fear of ghosts? As a child, pre-teen, and well into my teen years, I was a scared atheist. I didn’t know any chants or all the lines of any prayer to … Continue reading Yet Another Convent Haunting
To Believe or Not to Believe: Bengali Childhoods and Indigenous Horror Fiction
By Dr. Stella Chitralekha Biswas Born in a quintessentially Bengali household, I grew up listening to a fascinating plethora of bhooter galpa that catered to my ever-increasing appetite for the same. In fact, having doting grandmothers and other female kin within the household meant endless evenings and nights of storytelling that sent shivers down our … Continue reading To Believe or Not to Believe: Bengali Childhoods and Indigenous Horror Fiction
The End
by Maryam Sikander Studying in a convent school means you grow up with stories of dead nuns haunting cemeteries and unrequited love stories of star-crossed lovers who die for love and old statues of Angels and Apostles who walk around in the dead of the night in empty school premises and so on. I wrote … Continue reading The End
A Tale of Murkatta, the Headless Monster
By Saundarya It is often the fear of the unknown that lies at the core of a horror story. The element of horror is mostly used in order to keep the dust under the rug. This maintenance of the status quo may look like a piece of cake but believe me, it does not taste … Continue reading A Tale of Murkatta, the Headless Monster