Ghostly encounters in Himalayan wilderness

Bhanu P Lohumi

Ghosts of Silent Hills (a collection of stories based on true haunting) is the new book written by famous writer and educator Anita Krishan. In the book, she has given vent to her pent-up feelings of childhood when she heard a number of ghost stories related to Shimla hills.

The book is a collection of ghostly encounters in Himalayan wilderness in the 1950s to bloodcurdling stories from recent times and a compilation of unbelievable, chilling and mysterious episodes based on real life paranormal incidents that take you to the realm of the unexplained world.

“A dead man’s uncanny attachment”, “Young College Girls Trapped In A Spooky Dormitory”, “An Isolated Haunted Lodge” and other tales send shivers down your spine. The book is available on Amazon and the response has been good from readers of all hues and age groups, especially from Himachal. The book is available in book stores.

“I have been hearing such stories from people and had an inert feeling to pen down these for the posterity. These stories come from supernatural experiences shared by real people and I have only taken the writer’s liberty to add flourishes for impact. One question I repeatedly ask myself while writing these stories was that do I believe in the existence of ghosts? I finally came to the conclusion that I believe despite not wanting to. I have fulfilled the promise made to myself,” says Anita (65), born and educated in Shimla. She got her master’s degree in English literature from Himachal Pradesh University.

“When I decided to write the book my friends and relatives, especially two nieces, also shared their true experiences which have also been incorporated in it,” says the author. The stories do have fictional additions, the contribution of my imagination, she adds.

In her long tenure as an educator, Anita has enriched the lives of countless students with the mystery of the narrative, before she moved on to a full-time career of writing. She has also worked as a senior columnist with The Indian Economist.

This is her fourth book. She published her first book Tears of Jhelum, a narrative on terrorism in Kashmir, in 2014, followed by Despite Stolen Dreams, a sequel to Tears of Jhelum, published in July 2017. In between she also published Fluffy and Me, a heart-warming story of love between a young girl and her clever dog Lhasa Apso, in December 2015.

She is at present working on a new book, which will bring a comparison of contrast of three generations from World War II to Independence and present times. The world is changed today with women becoming empowered and professional and the lead of the story will be a woman professional in today’s times, she says.

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