Ghost Short Story – The Missing hotel On National Highway 34
Photo credit: imelenchon from morguefile.com
It was the winter of 2007, Jim and Anna was in India for their vacations. They had been travelling around India for the whole month and decide to visit the Famous “Iskon” temple as the final destination for their journey after which they would return home to Australia.
Their flight landed at Dum Dum airport at about 7 in the evening, they rented a car from “Calcutta” and was heading towards Mayapur, the city which sheltered the gigantic Iskon temple. After about a 2 hour drive over the national highway 34 they decided they would like to rest for the night. They highway had no hotels or inns whatsoever, and after scouting for over half an hour they finally saw a 3 storied building in the distance which looked like a hotel.
They were both tired and hungry and were finally relieved to find a hotel. They building was fairly large and was a bit old fashioned. The entrance door was tall and there were no artificial lighting in the building. The whole building was lit with candles and kerosene lamps, which was not so uncommon in the rural parts of India.
As they entered the hotel they noticed the artworks over the walls and all the beautiful tapestry works, but there weren’t any portraits of any god or goddesses which was very common in India. Anna was busy shooting pictures of the hotel. There weren’t many people around but a few locals who were busy running their own errands and a few well-dressed men and women sitting in front of a majestic fire place busy conversing among themselves and they hardly seemed to notice Jim and Ann. They head towards the check in counter where they were greeted by a humble lady dressed in traditional Indian Saree. Her name was ‘rajeshwari’ as she told.
They enquired about the prices and the overnight charges and found that it was extremely cheap. A hotel attendant carried their luggage and showed them to their room. Dinner was served in their room right when they were about to ask for it and it was very delicious, perhaps the best they have had so far, they didn’t lack the need of anything. The only thing they found strange was none of the hotel employees spoke with them and even refused to accept any tips. They just smiled did their job and went on their way.
Later that night when they went to bed they heard mumbled sounds of laughter and giggling in the hallway below, they did not worry about that and just went to bed. Next morning they found breakfast delivered to their room and soon they found an attendant waiting for them to carry their luggage to their car. They looked for ‘Rajeshwari’ in the front table but she was nowhere to be found. The hotel seemed awfully quiet and there was no one around except the attendant who was busy loading the luggage in the car.
As soon as he was done entered the hotel and before Jim could offer the guy a tip he closed the doors on them. They were a bit surprised at this behavior but assuming the shy nature of Indians they just continued their journey to the Iskon temple. They talked about their strange experience about the hotel to other people at Iskon, but none seemed to have noticed a hotel at the place they were talking about. Anna brought her camera to show people the pictures they had taken but to their surprise the pictures were missing. Perhaps it was a technical fault they thought.
After a week while returning to Calcutta they decided they would stop by at the same hotel for some tea. When reached the spot they couldn’t seem to find the hotel. There was just an open field. It was really strange and horrifying because both Jim and Anna were perfectly sure that they were in the right place, and it wasn’t possible to completely to make a hotel that big disappear in a few days.
They enquired at a nearby grocery shop about the hotel but the shopkeeper seemed to be amused at their story. He claimed there hasn’t been any building there for decades, and he also didn’t seem to know any woman named ‘Rajeshwari’. Investigating a little further they were shocked to what they found.
Almost a century ago there was a big inn at that place during the time when the British ruled India and the inn was a common resting place for British lord’s and Indian ‘Zamindars’. The inn was supposedly closed and demolished after fifteen people including guests and employees died mysteriously, only one person survived a young woman but even she committed suicide after three days. The woman’s name is not known to anyone. The Incident supposedly took place on December 22nd the same date Jim & Anna claim to have stayed there. Till this day Jim & Anna never talk about their Travel to India and they forbid people to never stop anywhere near that spot on national highway 34.
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