Over the years, I have read a lot of articles online and in the newspapers about haunted locations in Mumbai but they are always copied and reproduced time and again on all platforms without any traces of recent fact-checks or even personal experiences. Most images available online are also wrong! Obviously, this makes all such data seem like alleged legends or plain rumours.

So, I thought, why not write a mini factual guide about my honest experiences at these locations and tell everyone what exactly to expect on a ghost hunting trip in Mumbai!

(I’ve not added unnecessarily scary photos/GIFs/jump-scares in this article. So, read at peace!)

I never thought that I would actively go looking for paranormal experiences, but then, having a partner-in-crime who harbours similar interests made this adventure even more fun and relatively less scary!

Disclaimer: Being a self-proclaimed pragmatic and realistic individual, I always try to first find scientific explanations to the allegedly unexplainable phenomena, but if I am unable to rationalize it, I just sit back and enjoy the adrenaline rush that this genre brings!

Here is the list of places I visited in 2015 and my experiences at each of those locations. I chose Mahim as there are multiple alleged haunted locations clustered in that area. So, it was convenient to explore all sites on foot.

Nasserwanj Wadi, Mahim

Information online: Nasser, the Parsi landlord of this colony was burnt alive in a cabin on these premises. He still haunts this colony and possesses trespassers at night. Seven people mysteriously died here due to unnatural causes shortly after Nasser’s death.

nasserwanj
Tip: Since there is no proper name-board for this colony and Google Maps is inadequate, ask for the location of these ‘Creative path’ classes instead. They are inside the colony. Also, here you can see the boundary wall and the thick trees inside.

This is a residential colony located very close to Canossa Primary School, Mahim. Being an old-Mumbai style colony, it has a short boundary wall that runs around it and lots of woody trees in the premises. The colony has no signages/boards/banners indicating that it is actually called Nasserwanj Wadi, but with a little help from Google Maps and also if you inquire with the locals or passersby, they’ll point you to this residential colony.

When we visited this place, it was around 4pm and we could see some children playing in the colony. We approached some people who were standing at the entrance and asked if there is an old burnt cabin inside. They immediately became defensive, cold and hostile towards us. They directly claimed that there’s nothing in the colony. At this point, we hadn’t even initiated a conversation about the actual story, so their behaviour seemed very fishy to us. Slowly, a small group of residents of this colony standing nearby gathered around us and counter-questioned us on how we knew all of ‘this’, although we still hadn’t mentioned/asked about the story. When we tried pressing on, they clearly told us to leave and not tell anyone to visit the colony for anything in the future. It was very obvious at this point that they prefered to be tight-lipped about everything and we saw no point in talking to them any further. It was quite possible that several curious people like us had approached these residents in the past to know about the authenticity of the tale. We moved away from the crowd and tried to see if there was another entrance to this colony. We found an open gate (that had no visible anti-trespassing boards) and walked into the premises, slightly away from the crowd that we had earlier spoken to. We took a quick and short stroll in the premises to see if there was a cabin, but unfortunately couldn’t spot any structure like that, so we eventually left the colony.

Possibly, if there is indeed a cabin like that, it has most definitely been concealed now in some way. Clearly, the residents do not appreciate curious legend-hunters in their premises.

Ram Saket building, Mahim

Information online: The spirit of Sulochna, an old lady, who fell into the well and drowned appears on New Moon nights. She haunts only that particular well which is apparently sealed now. Exorcism rituals are performed every morning on the well to appease her spirit.

ramsaket
The building is clearly old and not well maintained. The infamous well is on the back-left corner of the building.

We visited this place when it was getting dark. We approached a lady who was busy drying her clothes in this compound. She was a resident of this building. We asked her about the story associated with the well and if she had experienced anything paranormal in particular. She was very friendly and open about this topic and also acknowledged the fact that this story is known by most residents. However, she told us that she hadn’t experienced anything out of the ordinary in the premises and not even around the well. Moreover, she doubted if any residents had experienced anything paranormal either. Overall, everything seemed very normal from her description of the whole story and the residents’ thoughts on it. Although we didn’t go deeper inside the compound, we did manage to get a peek of the well from outside the gate. We contemplated if we should climb over the gate and go check out the well, but I got a little scared, considering it was already dark and we would be trespassing to get close to the well. So, after attempting to click a pointless grainy photo of the well in absolute darkness, we left this area.

D’Souza Chawl, Mahim

Information online: The well in this chawl is haunted by the spirit of a woman who fell into the well and died. People have claimed to see her apparition moving around the well on certain nights.

DSouza-Chawl-1
This is the image available on the internet. There is no way to verify if it is authentic.

This place has either been renamed or redeveloped. If you search for D’Souza Chawl on Google Maps, a place in Kalina (7.5 km from Mahim) pops up. So, we thought it would be a good idea to inquire around Mahim station first. Using the limited information we managed to receive from passersby about the location of several chawls, we started walking towards our potential destination. On the way, we passed multiple chawls and compounds of old buildings but none of them either resembled the photo available on the internet or were named as D’Souza Chawl. We asked a few more locals and even a pan shop near one of the chawls, but nobody seemed to know of this particular D’Souza Chawl or any chawl that had a well or had an accident at a well. After walking around a little more, we decided to give up on this location and left the area.

Suggestion: If you visit any location that is allegedly haunted, please be respectful towards the locals, the property on site, the anti-trespassing regulations and also the sentiments of the legend/story. Kindly approach with an open mind and not merely with an intention to debunk or mock anything.

Happy ghost hunting! 🙂

P.S. If you’re in the USA, here’s some new crazy stuff that you can do this Halloween.