Existence

It was during the Saraswati Puja of 1996, when I was a girl of 9 years old, I became very excited when my Mausi told me to come with her and stay in her hostel for a night, so that I can also enjoy with her and her friends. As she loves me very much and her friends too, so it was not difficult to convince her hostel warden to get her approval for my staying there. There was no objection from my parents’ side. There was something in that hostel for which I was very excited and even though my father was aware about it, still he permitted me to go there, because he didn’t want to stop me in exploring that for which I was always anxious, who knows….if I can get that even within that single day!

On the day, we arrived at her hostel around 8 am and started our Puja celebration. We enjoyed the Puja and went to sleep around 11pm…we all were very tired…

The hostel was built in second floor, of a big palace, of the King of Dhenkanal, donated by him to the Govt of Odisha for this education purpose. As the Diploma engg college was near to this and in order to provide a calm study atmosphere for the students, this place was very lonely and hardly anyone outsider comes towards this place after the sunset. A big part of the palace, but very few Engineering girl students, so the hostel seems to be very scary even in the day time.

It was around 2:30 am, when I felt to have toilet, without telling anyone, I got up and started moving towards the toilet. It was almost the distance of 10 minutes from my mausi’s room. So, as it was in a palace, the rooms were very big, built in row wise on both sides of a long corridor. I crossed this corridor and went to toilet. Even though, the toilet hall was also very big, I had to take the last room, as water was coming only in that room, which was near the window.

The window was originally open, only 2 feet of height from the floor was covered by stone. Even though later, the open part was covered by glass, but it was broken. So the complete window was open. When I entered inside the toilet hall, opening its door, I felt like someone ran away from the door… As I had already heard about this hostel before, in order to get the courage, I shouted at a loud voice…”Is there anyone… I am Chinu…”hoping that she may respond me, as everyone was knowing me because of my mausi. But I didn’t get any response. Gathering courage, I started moving towards the last toilet room, as I was scared, I didn’t want to look towards the open window, but suddenly I heard the crying voice of a girl. Who was crying…is anyone among my mausi’s friends…?

Without knowing, suddenly my eyes moved towards the open window… I could not believe what I saw…A shadow of an extremely beautiful girl, covered with white saree, was standing beside the window from outside, with side back towards me, her black hair had covered her body till her waist, sitting on the stone which had come out as outer part of the window. This was the reason of my curiousness for which I was so much interested to come to this hostel….Being very much scared, I stepped back and unknowingly, I stepped on the mug that was kept in the toilet room, which made a sound. By hearing this sound, she looked towards me…and I didn’t know what happened after that….! When I got sense, I found myself on my mausi’s bed, surrounded by her friends. It was almost 10 am and came to know that doctor had already gone, after treating me. So, I was all safe…no sign of any danger.

As I was very much interested in ghosts’ stories since my childhood, I had heard about this haunted palace and was curious to know about it. As a small part of it was made girls’ hostel, they were also warned about these incidents. So not to move alone during evening and night time. Club of girls used to go together when anyone wants to go toilet. It was my goodness that my mausi had come followed me with her friends that day and took me out immediately after I went fainted, that day.

Why was this palace haunted….?

The name of the place was Jatan Nagar, which was built on the top of a hill. People used to get scared on listening the place name. There are number of villages around the place. Folks of those villages fear to come out of their house on night. They say of hearing some sound on mid-night. Also they say that they have seen someone walking in night wearing cloth. Though nobody believes in these thing they say its true.

Jatan Nagar??????

A ruined palace in Dhenkanal District in Orissa on top of the hill (around 200 feet from ground) .At that time there was a King in Dhenkanal who was a very kind heartened fellow. Every body was happy with his reign. But his younger brother was a cruel human being. He loves to see people dying painfully. But he could not do any harm to people in presence of his elder brother. One day king had to go foreign for some work, so he had to transfer the power to his younger brother. After taking over power, in the absence of elder brother he thought to build a palace called Jatan Nagar.

A lots of people from all around the village of Dhenkanal district are called forcefully to work as slave. Even all the elephants have worked by the cruel king. Elephants are used to take the stones from the ground to top of the hill. If an elephant could not take one stone because of tiredness, then another additional stone was placed in his back by the order of the king. People have seen elephant crying while working for the palace. There were 99 rooms. Even some special rooms were made to torture people as this seen is very amusing to watch by the king. He used to take many beautiful unmarried girls from the villages forcefully, kill and throw their dead bodies out after raping them.

When the inaugural day comes the chief architect was called for beheading. Can you imagine how cruel is the king?

By that time his elder brother came back from foreign so nobody can stay there in Jatan Nagar.

The most mysterious thing is after someday one member of the king's family want to spend a night in Jatan Nagar. He went there, but nobody knows where he went from Jatan Nagar. No one found him on the next day.

People used to say that this palace was haunted by the spirits of those girls.

I might have seen one of those spirit that day…!