Rumors: Dark Lore From India
This podcast takes you into the darkest and most remote corners of India, where Chandrima Das (bestselling author of Young Blood and Twisted) uncovers how real events and people from history have transformed into magical myths, strange superstitions, and haunting lores. A ghost soldier guarding the Indo-China border; a ‘black magic’ village in Assam; an imprisoned tree in Kerala; a witch-hunt that still goes on. We will make you rethink your realities, question your beliefs, and face your deepest, darkest fears. Can you handle the truth? Tune in every Friday to find out!
Episodes
18 episodes
SPOOKS 5: FAN FEVER
Most of us think Himesh Reshammiya’s popularity was fuelled by his baseball cap, signature nasal twang and proficiency with mixing qawwali and modern beats. But some say the actual cause… is ghosts. Why did multiple villages in Gujarat ban his ...
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Episode 5
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15:31
SPOOKS 4: TAKEN AT MIDNIGHT
Back in 1983, Pavagada taluk in Karnataka was shaken by a horrifying series of child abductions. Children sleeping right next to their parents were taken from their beds in the middle of the night. Their remains would later be found at the edge...
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Episode 4
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17:36
SPOOKS 3: UNHOLY HOURS
Day or night, The Three Kings chapel in Goa remains shrouded in silence. But the peace of daytime transitions to eeriness after sundown. Visitors often experience an uneasy feeling or see creepy shadowy figures. If a legend attached to this chu...
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Episode 3
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17:06
SPOOKS 2: FOWL PLAY
The village of Jatinga in Assam is haunted by a deadly secret. Every year, at the end of the monsoons, Jatinga turns into a site of mass bird suicides, earning this quaint mountain hamlet an ominous title: “The Valley of Death.” Why do hundreds...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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18:14
SPOOKS 1: COME TOMORROW
A knock on the door in the middle of the night. A voice, sounding suspiciously like someone you know, calls out your name. And if you open the door, that’s the end of you. This is how the ‘Nale Baa’ lore from Karnataka plays out. Who is this fe...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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16:38
12. CURSED GROUND
Bhangarh Fort, once renowned for its grandeur, is now infamous for a lover’s curse that continues to haunt it to this day. But Bhangarh in not the only place in Rajasthan associated with curses and resulting ghost sightings. Kuldhara and Kiradu...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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30:47
11. POSSESSED BY DANCE
The word "bhoot" is typically associated with ghosts and hauntings. However, among Tulu-speaking communities on the southwestern coast of India, bhootas are revered as deities who bless the land and its people. Bhoota Kola is a ritualistic d...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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26:58
10. FOREST OF DISENCHANTMENT
Nestled in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas, Kurseong town in North Bengal is famous for its lush tea gardens. But the people of Kurseong have also been growing a crop of terrifying ghost stories! Today, it’s become known as the most h...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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26:39
9. SHAPESHIFTING SNAKES
From taking the form of beautiful human beings to avenging the death of their loved ones, Indian folklore grants snakes a lot of natural and supernatural powers. We love the icchadhari naagin so much that our popular culture just can’t stop ...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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24:19
8. SPIRIT IN CHAINS
Stories from the Raj usually focus on how the British empire exploited the people of the sub-continent. But some stories look into the oppression of trees! Why were banyan trees in places as far off from each other as Pakistan and Kerala kept i...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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24:22
7. SHADOWS OF SUNDARBANS
The rivers Ganga, Brahmaputra and Padma mingle and create the ever-changing delta known as the Sundarbans. This wild country of mangrove forests is like no other on earth. And its folklore is just as unique. Ghostly lights, a shapeshifting were...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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25:39
6. MAGIC: BLACK OR WHITE?
For hundreds of years, Mayong village in Assam was known as India’s ‘black magic capital’. The village was once thronged by mystics, sadhus, and seekers of truth, but also by tantriks, aghori babas and seekers of power. They came here drawn by ...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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25:03
5. PHANTOM TRAINS
As children, the most common way many of us experienced the world outside our hometowns was through train journeys. During these trips, snacks were shared to pass the time and so were ghost stories. From a tunnel in the hills of Himachal ...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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30:29
4. TILL DEATH DO US PART
Dona Paula in Goa is not just a tourist attraction. It is also the backdrop of a folk story about star-crossed lovers that has been haunting these rocky cliffs for hundreds of years. How did a folk legend turn Dona Paula into a symbol of love a...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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26:05
3. GORA GODS
Two hundred years after British rule ended in the Indian sub-continent, some colonial-era English men and women are still celebrated, but not as historical figures. They are worshipped as deities. What was so special about them that the locals ...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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21:05
2. WITCH HUNT
Popular culture is overrun by stories of the witch. But South Asia has its own homegrown stories of feminine supernatural creatures with evil powers: from Pakistan, to Bengal, to Maharashtra. Do these witches really exist? And are they being hu...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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30:12