Though they have held their spirits high in an atmosphere of continuing bloodshed the election staff of Burdwan district find themselves snowed under by the fear of ‘spirits’.
Cut to MBC Institute of Engineering in East Burdwan. The late evenings are quite uncanny for staff designated for counting duty. The employees fear to trade beyond the main gates of the dominating structure. The reason, “It is eerie beyond that iron gates. You feel the presence of some weird things upstairs,” one of the staff say.
Biswajit Bagdi a local says, “I was going towards the washroom when I felt someone was following me. It simply seemed so to me. I turned around to find none. It was just 8 in the evening.”
Another person refusing to be identified said, “Often in the nights we hear mild jingles of ghungroo as though someone is dancing to the tunes of tabla and harmonium. We hear the sound of musical instruments very distinctly accompanied by faint wails of women though none of us have gathered the courage to go inside there.”
Haripada Manna a local said “this was a place associated with the zamindars of the yore. The kings had built their elephant house somewhere here and there was a dance house too. It is said that the zamindars brought women from other places and enjoyed them here. Though I have not heard it myself I have seen people scurrying past this place in the evenings. Normally we do not venture this side.”
However Chandranath Chakrabarty a history teacher call it a gossip spread by the local goons “who find this place suitable for their anti-social activities during the evening.” There could be a bit of psychological aspect too in the whole story of fear as “some people get so overwhelmed by the stories that they would listen to some sounds of music or find some people trailing them.”
Anurag Srivastav the District Magistrate says he did not listen to such stories let alone the sounds himself. The phantoms are often apprehensive of the IAS cadre, some of his staff say lightly while the DM gives a bureaucratic assures saying, “I have everything under CCTV surveillance. My work is to ensure security to the poll staff and everyone else and I am doing so.”