House of spirit.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

Who’s there?

Bhoot!

One existential question for this city of djinns is—do ghosts exist? We’ll never arrive at a definitive conclusion until perhaps after our own death. Until then, you may like to snoop around certain landmarks in the Delhi region considered (at least by some!) to be ghost-friendly. Here is one of them.

Khooni Darwaza means ‘bloodied gateway’ and legend has it that blood drips from its ceilings during the rainy seasons of July and August. Erected by Sher Shah Suri about 500 years ago, it is in the middle of the four-lane Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, conveniently close to the ghostly Dilli Gate graveyard. Also known as Lal Darwaza, the red sandstone gateway was originally called Kabuli Darwaza, presumably because it marked the way to Kabul. The stone edifice is said to have acquired its presently dreadful name after the Mughals got into the habit of displaying the heads of executed criminals from its battlements. Aurangzeb did so of his brother Dara Shikoh’s head following the khooni war of succession to the throne. After the British crushed the 1857 uprising, they shot dead in cold blood the three sons of the last Mughal emperor at this gateway. It is believed by those who believe in such things that the restless spirits of the doomed princes continue to linger about the gateway, including its many prison-like iron bars and its arched jharokhas. This sunny afternoon, no one is to be seen here. No one, but for a silent stationary figure in black—see photo.