A Haunting in Morgan House!

What happens when haunting stories you read on the internet come true and you have the first spooky experience in your life?

We come back and post spooky pictures on Facebook and blabber away to anyone who would care (or doesn’t care) to listen; make Sector V tea stalls richer, adding more colour to the story than the amount of sugar they put in a cup.

But, I am a firm believer in the saying “Truth is stranger than fiction”, I will only put in the sketch of events and leave the colouring to the readers!

Statutory Warning!

To all readers who might be expecting an Raaz kind of drama to unfold, please get a grip on yourselves! After all, I don’t want brick bats (or angry smileys) as comments!

(This blog post is a continuation of the road trip travelogue, read it here -)

Contrary to what it looks like, Morgan House did not give us any creepy feelings, at least during the evening. We even went out in the lawn to test out Nikon’s prowess in low light.

Pro Tip# If you do manage to get a booking here, call them up in advance and order for their fabled chicken roast. Request them to lay out a candel lit dinner in the terrace. (Thanks to Pawan for the info – after we returned 😀 )

Soon after we had our dinner, the fatigue of the long drive had started to set in. This is what happened just before I retired for the night –

I poured a glass of water, kept in on the beside table by the window and went to the toilet.
Upon returning, I found the glass to be empty by a third. Evidently my wife must have had a couple of sips from it.
Without thinking much, I threw myself on to the bed immediately blanked out.

I woke up with the sound of birds next morning (never believed I could actually experience such a thing and write about it :D). I could see the light outside, but it was only just about dawn. I was planning for a second innings, when suddenly I saw something..

NO.. nothing spooky. I jumped up and looked outside…

Clouds were just about the raise the curtain! Hah! A view during the monsoon! Let’s get some pictures from the terrace –

I finished up the glass of water I had kept on the bedside table, and
Went to the toilet to freshen up.
When I came back, and was about to change the lens on my camera, I noticed that the glass was about a third full, almost exactly the amount that apparently disappeared the previous night (and wifey was still sleeping peacefully…)

Whatever traces of sleep were remaining, vanished in an instant. I could feel the hair on my neck standing up. For a moment, I was dazed. But it was morning, after all; and with light streaming in from the windows. I soon brushed the incident aside as my mistake. I was too tired the earlier night to notice properly, and who can claim to measure how much water one has had after waking up?!

I went up to the terrace and found a few people already there; and one of them was taking a class, explaining the geography of the Himalayas.

A cup of hot tea later I was already thinking about visiting the golf course nearby. But, somehow I was still a bit uncomfortable at the back of my mind. I decided not to mention it to my wife until we had left.

No, nothing else happened that morning! The staff were kind enough to lay the tables out for us in the garden and the puris, though dripping of oil, never tasted better!

The kitchen was just beside our room, and I managed to chat up the old cook. This is how the conversion went (abridged) –

Thanks for the dinner and break fast, it is a nice house!
Thank you Sir, please visit us again!
Definitely!… It’s such an old house, there must be lot of stories around it? Have you ever felt anything?
Sometimes, yes. During night duties, we can hear foot steps on the stair case. It goes to the kitchen and back up the stairs..
REALLY??!! Wow!
And sometimes a few flickering bulbs when we discuss about her.
Her??
Mrs Morgan.. you see, she liked the house a lot
Oh, I have read about her!
Which room are you staying in?
This one, no. 6, right here.
No. 6, beside the kitchen? I thought that room is never given for booking. How did you get that?
I booked from the internet….?
Oh.. ok. Never mind our stories. No one has any problems here. You know MTV came and did a show here, they said about some things. It is only the media who spreads such stories.

What was that about? It was broad day light now, but somehow I was not looking forward to the prospect of going back to the room and finish packing.

We checked out and were soon joined by our fellow Monkeys who had hired a taxi up to Morgan house. A few random clicks here and there (it turned our that the house is a favourite photo shoot place for local couples), we made our way to the golf course. Entry is restricted scrictly to the men in uniforms though, and we found a high ranking official, with full entourage, enjoying golf in the fine weather.

It was getting late, and finally it was time to say adieu to the beautiful colonial mansion. I finally decided to share my experience with everyone. While we all were in agreement that it was an illusion, and the cook was actually advertising; none seemed too sure about it. 🙂

As we started on our way to Darjeeling, I looked back at the the place that had me doubting my senses, for the first time.

Coming up.. “A Trek to Tumling!” Keep watyching this space on our adventure drive to Tumling.

Please note:

We do not encourage or support any supernatural beliefs, neither do we wish to hurt any personal sentiments or beliefs. The account described here is a personal experience and we make no official claim to verify it.
This post is not intended to encourage high speed driving, dangerous driving, highway driving, offroading or night driving on the highway for inexperienced drivers. These should not be attempted without enough experience and skill and can prove to be dangerous and even fatal.
The route and road details mentioned here are not complete and should not be used for actual trips, please get complete information before planning any trip. You can write to use at honuman.shongothon@gmail.com and we can give whatever info we have after (after 4 years of road trips
All pictures are copyrighted and should not be reused without conscent
We are not promoting/discrediting any hotel/establishment here
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalimpong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling