A Visit to That Park Street Cemetery

This tale dates back to somewhere around 2006 when I was a student of St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. There lies a very famed cemetery near the college and even though I am a Hindu and have never visited any cemetery, curiosity prodded me and a friend (who is also a Hindu) to make a visit. It was broad daylight as we walked inside after signing our names and address as demanded by a security guard.

The moment we walked inside, we felt we had stumbled onto a very beautiful and heavenly place. I say this because the tranquillity and greenery inside was a far cry from the hustle & bustle that we are used to in a big urbane city.

We didn't feel any fear and were raking in the breezy atmosphere that posed itself before us. There were lofty tombs all around and many famous British soldiers and officials had found their final resting place here. Sayan (my friend) got engrossed in reading the poetic tributes and titbits that were engraved as epitaphs. I was more absorbed in admiring the natural grandeur of the beautiful place. The quiet and freshness was a silent reminder of the callousness of man and how he has annihilated nature's beauty outside. But in here, I felt being transported to the 19th century.

There is an interesting anecdote that still puzzles me. We soon came across a roofed tomb that had a domed structure. We wanted to step inside but weren't sure if that would be the right thing to do. Stepping over the tomb could be disrespectful to the dead and we weren't sure if we were supposed to step over. However, emboldened by curiosity, we went ahead and stepped over it to read the poems that were scribbled inside.

After sometime we left promising each other that we would visit the place again some other time in the future. Later that day, I fell ill and developed high fever. After a couple of days, when I returned to college, Sayan told me that he, too, had come under the grip of fever that day. We both shared a nervous laugh and pondered if it had got anything to do with the cemetery. It was a bit bizarre as we were physically very sound that day and the fever was quite unexpected. We shrugged it aside as a silly co-incidence but a lingering question haunts my mind till today- 'Was any mystical psychic power involved'...and I know that this would remain an unanswered mystery forever...