If you take keen interest in visiting places known for super natural or haunting experiences then you must visit Dow hill, Kurseong, which is considered as one of the most haunted hill stations in India by many people.

 It is nearly 30 kilometers from Darjeeling, and this place is one of the places you must have in your travel list if you are looking for a spooky experience. There is no scarcity of ghost stories here. Dow hill is a small and peaceful hill station with its beautiful orchid gardens, old vistas, and isolated dense lush green forest and tea plantations. Between the Dow Hill Road and the Forest Office is known as the death road which for obvious reasons no one generally dares to stroll down after 5:00 p.m.

Some of the local woodcutters claims of seeing a headless boy walking and disappearing into the isolated dense forest. Many have claimed being stalked or watched over by a spooky entity. The stories of seeing a red-eye peering at them can also be heard from few locals. Another group of local people claims that there is a female ghost dressed in grey walking through the forest. It is also said that the ghosts themselves don’t cause any harm to the visitors, but the people who visit the place are transcended into a trance-like state. It is said to be a real-world feel of the creepy creatures which is still a mystery to many.

The hundred-year-old school named Victoria Boys High School is situated in the woods of Dow hill. Some people also claim that in the evening, loud whispering and the sound of footsteps can be heard when the school is closed during the winter vacations. It is also claimed that apart from the sound of footsteps and whisperings, an air of eeriness envelops the air as soon as the sun goes down. It is a delight for those who are looking for a paranormal encounter. You may have a lot of exciting stories to tell to your friends when you come back. Some reported seeing a ghost inside the classroom staring at them. People say they still hear boys laughing and running in the corridors of the empty school building. A headless boy is said to be wandering on the premises too like in the dense forest. Yet neither a teacher nor a student has ever seen a ghost here or anyone could establish such facts beyond doubt.

Definitely Kurseong remains to be a beautiful hill station for spending your days peacefully. But this small hill station certainly seems to have a spooky connection to it which thrills all adventurous visitors.

By Mr Utpal Chatterjee 

Ex-Sheriff of Calcutta and a Veteran Journalist.

Sans doubt, my father was one of a kind. If one were to sum up the views of all those who knew and admired him well enough, he was “electric, dynamic and brilliant”.He was known as the quintessential pundit.A linguist with an amazing command over several languages that included Sanskrit, Latin, French, German and even Greek.His mother tongue Bengali came first and Hindi thereafter. But his English,his main language,was like music to the ears. Indeed,he was gifted with a natural wit.When he was elevated to the highest rank of National Professor a la Professors Drs Satyen Bose and Suniti Chatterjee,I remember the respective letters of then Union Education Minister S. S. Ray and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of how proud and honoured they felt writing to him. I was positively delighted.But for my father, the late Professor. Debidas Chatterjee,it was like any other moment, any other day. He was one who largely kept to himself. Precisely when he went to sleep or when he woke up, I cannot tell. Once I woke up at 3.30 AM and found him engrossed in his books.When I woke up at dawn, I found him pruning his roses and in deep thought.No,he never taught me except for imparting the occasional tip. There are so many who have asked the extent to which I had learnt from him. By watching him closely was an experience in itself. But his constant quest for knowledge and his leaving everyone mesmerised with his speeches without a scrap of paper influenced me greatly.Yes,I have been honoured and recognized both in India and abroad.But my achievements are not a patch on what he was in totality.On the New Year’s Eve, countless calls would come with Birthday wishes.When he suddenly left us all, he was working on the “The ways and means of creative imagination”,the second after the great Samuel Taylor Coleridge.That was,roughly,three decades ago.