Folk tales and everyday horror

If you have any association with hill towns, you're likely to have grown up with stories that send shivers down the spine.

- SHALINI UMACHANDRAN

In my hometown of Coonoor, there's a large bungalow on the edge of the sharply curving Orange Grove Road that's been falling to pieces over the last three decades. Despite the rush for real estate, no one has the courage to buy it because it's inhabited by the spirit of a local woman abandoned by a British officer. She's generally benevolent and is said to appear to young men—passersby who've had a few too many at the nearby Coonoor Club have reported seeing her try to hitch a lift to Wellington Cantonment, where the rascally officer lived—unless anyone enters her home.