Shimla Ghost Stories

In 1947 the British left the country but left their ghosts behind.
Ruskin Bond

One misty evening I was driving home from the mall to my house in Tawi with my sister–in–law riding pillion. I had an old scooter and loved to get off the main roads - driving along Shimla’s winding roads on a two wheeler without other traffic is a joy, but when you are stuck behind a line of buses and trucks it is quite another experience. Therefore, on this day, as I often did, I took the small road that winds from Boileauganj to Chakkar and so as not to spoil the peace I turned off my engine and free wheeled down the hill. As we moved silently through the ever darkening and misty forest road I remembered a ghost story collected by Minakshi Chaudhry about an encounter that a vegetable seller had on this road with an English ghost. Knowing that my sis reacted to such things I decided it would be fun to pull in on the deserted roadside and relate to her the story of the madly laughing English woman, the vegetable seller and the broken nose. The tale had more than the desired effect and filled with fear of ghosts she struggled to sleep that night, which left me feeling guilty.

All in all it was probably not my finest hour, but remembering this now I do wonder at the way that British Ghosts who are real in Shimla interlink with the ghostly presence of the former British residents. It would be wonderful if people could tell me how they reconcile the two. Or perhaps people could share their own ghostly encounters in and around the Shimla hills. It would be great to hear of any ghosts associated with the churches, but beyond this I would be genuinely pleased to hear of any stories that people have.