City’s brush with paranormal activity discussed

Lucknow: Former Indian Revenue Services official, Parveen Talha presented `Haunted stories’, inspired by narratives rooted in real historical spaces and blended imagination with local traditions of haunting.

She was speaking at the 'Lucknow After the Lamps Go Out: Tales of Ghost and Jinns' during an ‘addebaazi’ session at a Sanatkada event on Saturday.

The stories draw from places in Lucknow believed to be haunted, including Residency, Sikandar Bagh, Begum Kothi, Chowk, Dilkusha Kothi and Aminabad.

All these sites are associated with the aftermath of the 1857 uprising, a period of large-scale violence that left a lasting imprint on the city’s collective memory.

References also include La Martiniere college and Firangi Mahal, which appear in oral accounts linked with unexplained experiences and inherited memories.

“Paranormal elements include apparitions, unexplained footsteps, sudden drops in temperature, shadow figures and references to jinns and ghosts. These are not presented as verified events but as cultural expressions shaped by fear, memory and oral storytelling traditions.” said Talha.

She said it is believed certain spaces or specific rooms were reserved as “jinnaat kamre” (rooms haunted by spirits) in Muslim households in Lucknow, where jinns were thought to reside peacefully and entry was restricted. Some also believe that souls with unfinished work may remain as ghosts in the living world, she said.