It was a summer afternoon four years ago when my three cousins and I decided to visit a haveli about which we had heard a lot since our childhood. We live in Lahore but had gone to one of our uncles' place in Bahawalpur to spend our summer vacation. My uncle and his children had always spoken about how that haveli in their neighbourhood was famous for some unusual occurrences that they had observed after midnight. Once they heard an unusual and indistinct song being played from the haveli in the middle of the night. When my uncle saw out of the window to find out if there was some wedding ceremony going on, he saw a bride standing on the haveli's terrace.
He was shocked at the sight because the haveli had been empty ever since its owner had left the country a year ago after his failed attempts to rent it out. People would come and see it to rent it, but they would leave soon after as they would also experience such unusual happenings. The rumours about it being a den of jinns always turned the tenants away and when the owner could not manage to rent it out, he left the country leaving the haveli empty.
So one sunny afternoon in Bahawalpur, my cousins and I made a plan to go to the haveli to witness the spooky stuff we had heard about. We were always told by the elders that we should avoid going near the haveli's gate and to not even look at it from the window at night. Little did they know that we had made up our mind to have an adventure of our lifetime.
Both my father and uncle were taking their afternoon nap and we knew they would not get up before two hours. The women of the house, my mother and two aunts, were also out and were not going to return anytime soon. So we thought it was a perfect opportunity to get into the haveli. We went to its gate which was of course locked. After looking around the haveli we found out a comparatively lower end of the wall which we could easily climb. The four of us boys got into the haveli.
Upon entering, we saw a huge lawn that had several big trees and well-kept plants. At the time I probably didn't think about it, but now I often wonder as to how those plants could be so fresh despite the fact that there was no one to look after them for over a year. We were roaming around the lawn to see if we could find out something we can call 'spooky' or unusual, but we experienced nothing. Disappointed, we thought we would not get to have the adventure we planned. However, we kept moving ahead as the lawn was quite big. At the end of the lawn was a corridor which led to the inner part of the haveli.
The inner part was locked and we certainly did not intend to go there, but the corridor was a small area which was dark despite the daylight. It seemed scary at the first sight so we decided not to go inside it. But my youngest cousin Abdullah who was 15-year-old at the time ran inside the corridor all of a sudden, despite having agreed not to go inside. We were dumbfounded. "Has he lost it," I thought, as I saw him run inside the dark corridor. As soon as he entered in, we started calling for him and asked him to come back at once as going inside was not part of the plan. But he did not respond. "Abdullah? Come back at once. We are going back now!", we cried many times, but there was no word from Abdullah.
We then decided to go inside the corridor together so we can fetch Abdullah and run away. We were certainly looking to have an adventure, but this is not the kind we wanted. When we went inside, we heard the door behind us shut as if somebody had slammed it. The area was so dark we could not even see each other. We had however held each other's hands so we tried to open the door, which we failed to do. We started beating the door asking for help, but it was certain that our voice won't reach outside the haveli.
Abdullah, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found. We called his name many times, but he did not respond. After a while, we saw a woman standing right in front of us towards the other door of the corridor that led to the inner side of the haveli. The woman was wearing a while shalwar kameez and was looking at the floor. We cried at the top of our lungs. One of my cousins who was eldest managed to keep himself stable and said, "We apologise for coming in. We won't do it again. Please bring back Abdullah and let us go." Hearing him say this was even scary and I felt my heart coming to my mouth. After 2-3 minutes, the woman disappeared into the wall. We could not believe what we had just seen.
As we started knocking the outer door again to cry for help, a child appeared from a corner and started laughing. She appeared a girl about 8 or 9 year old. She looked at the door which we were trying to open and first laughed a little and then her laughter became harder and loud. By this time we were no longer in our senses as we had cried and shouted so much that we were in an unstable condition.
In about another two minutes, the outer door that we were trying to break suddenly opened and we saw Abdullah behind it. "Where did you all disappear? I was looking for you", he said. We came out of the corridor at once and heaved a sigh of relief. Abdullah was also weeping out of fear, but our condition was worse as we had seen two jinns for the first time. We quickly made out way out of the haveli. Later, Abdullah said that he did not know how he went inside. He said that it felt like someone forced him inside the corridor and he could not resist them.
This certainly was an adventure of a lifetime and we had not thought that we would come out of it alive. The haveli in question still exists and remains empty till date.
He was shocked at the sight because the haveli had been empty ever since its owner had left the country a year ago after his failed attempts to rent it out. People would come and see it to rent it, but they would leave soon after as they would also experience such unusual happenings. The rumours about it being a den of jinns always turned the tenants away and when the owner could not manage to rent it out, he left the country leaving the haveli empty.
So one sunny afternoon in Bahawalpur, my cousins and I made a plan to go to the haveli to witness the spooky stuff we had heard about. We were always told by the elders that we should avoid going near the haveli's gate and to not even look at it from the window at night. Little did they know that we had made up our mind to have an adventure of our lifetime.
Both my father and uncle were taking their afternoon nap and we knew they would not get up before two hours. The women of the house, my mother and two aunts, were also out and were not going to return anytime soon. So we thought it was a perfect opportunity to get into the haveli. We went to its gate which was of course locked. After looking around the haveli we found out a comparatively lower end of the wall which we could easily climb. The four of us boys got into the haveli.
Upon entering, we saw a huge lawn that had several big trees and well-kept plants. At the time I probably didn't think about it, but now I often wonder as to how those plants could be so fresh despite the fact that there was no one to look after them for over a year. We were roaming around the lawn to see if we could find out something we can call 'spooky' or unusual, but we experienced nothing. Disappointed, we thought we would not get to have the adventure we planned. However, we kept moving ahead as the lawn was quite big. At the end of the lawn was a corridor which led to the inner part of the haveli.
The inner part was locked and we certainly did not intend to go there, but the corridor was a small area which was dark despite the daylight. It seemed scary at the first sight so we decided not to go inside it. But my youngest cousin Abdullah who was 15-year-old at the time ran inside the corridor all of a sudden, despite having agreed not to go inside. We were dumbfounded. "Has he lost it," I thought, as I saw him run inside the dark corridor. As soon as he entered in, we started calling for him and asked him to come back at once as going inside was not part of the plan. But he did not respond. "Abdullah? Come back at once. We are going back now!", we cried many times, but there was no word from Abdullah.
We then decided to go inside the corridor together so we can fetch Abdullah and run away. We were certainly looking to have an adventure, but this is not the kind we wanted. When we went inside, we heard the door behind us shut as if somebody had slammed it. The area was so dark we could not even see each other. We had however held each other's hands so we tried to open the door, which we failed to do. We started beating the door asking for help, but it was certain that our voice won't reach outside the haveli.
Abdullah, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found. We called his name many times, but he did not respond. After a while, we saw a woman standing right in front of us towards the other door of the corridor that led to the inner side of the haveli. The woman was wearing a while shalwar kameez and was looking at the floor. We cried at the top of our lungs. One of my cousins who was eldest managed to keep himself stable and said, "We apologise for coming in. We won't do it again. Please bring back Abdullah and let us go." Hearing him say this was even scary and I felt my heart coming to my mouth. After 2-3 minutes, the woman disappeared into the wall. We could not believe what we had just seen.
As we started knocking the outer door again to cry for help, a child appeared from a corner and started laughing. She appeared a girl about 8 or 9 year old. She looked at the door which we were trying to open and first laughed a little and then her laughter became harder and loud. By this time we were no longer in our senses as we had cried and shouted so much that we were in an unstable condition.
In about another two minutes, the outer door that we were trying to break suddenly opened and we saw Abdullah behind it. "Where did you all disappear? I was looking for you", he said. We came out of the corridor at once and heaved a sigh of relief. Abdullah was also weeping out of fear, but our condition was worse as we had seen two jinns for the first time. We quickly made out way out of the haveli. Later, Abdullah said that he did not know how he went inside. He said that it felt like someone forced him inside the corridor and he could not resist them.
This certainly was an adventure of a lifetime and we had not thought that we would come out of it alive. The haveli in question still exists and remains empty till date.