Urban legends from India – Na le ba

 What will be your reaction when someone calls from behind in dark of night?

 Will you keep moving or turn back to see? Especially if it is Amavasya or Friday 13^th, no one will dare look behind. Supposedly, if one turned back to see, he is doomed to die. Sounds absurd? Isn’t it!! In fact, such instances have happened in Karnataka, India. Long back in 90’s, a witch haunted the streets of rural side of Bangalore. She mostly targeted men. Any man, if mistakably roaming the streets of night was sure to die if he sighted her. Such was her terror that people used to write ‘Na le ba’ (Come tomorrow in Kannada language) on walls to drive her away. After reading this sign on walls, the witch used to go away and return back to haunt the streets. This cycle continued for several days.  This ghostly terror was short lived. Afterwards, such ghostly instances stopped happening in Bangalore. No one knows how much truth was in this supernatural phenomenon.

The 2018 Bollywood horror-comedy movie – Stree was based on urban legend of ‘Na le ba’. Only the location of the ghost story was shifted to Chanderi, a small town based in Northern India. The witch haunting the streets in movie had her back story. She was a prostitute who longed for true love. When she had found her true love, the prostitute and her lover were killed by the villagers.  To avenge her death, she stalks the streets of Chanderi village, targeting men. There was no backstory of witch stalking the streets of Bangalore. No know could trace the origin of her existence and the purpose behind targeting men.

 There are many urban legends and haunted places in India which have their own back story. Author Rudyard Kipling had once written about an urban legend of Shimla in his short story ‘The Phantom Rickshaw’ which revolves around a ghostly figure of a woman who is seen haunting the streets of Shimla, searching for her love. 

To know more about Na le ba, do watch the 2018 movie – Stree and for further reference, do read the 2019 ghost story collection - India’s most haunted: Tales of Terrifying places written by K. Hari Kumar. I am keen to pen down more stories on haunted places of India in my upcoming stories.