VINTAGE NOTEBOOK : Kolkata’s Haunted Putul Bari (The Doll House)

Putul Bari aka the House of Dolls, is a famous sprawling house located at 22 Hara Chandra Mullick Lane, adjacent to the Circular Railway track and close to the Shobhabazar jetty. In the 20th century, when Hooghly river became conducive to facilitate trade activities, ships from foreign nations and other parts of India carrying different goods such as spices, silk, jute etc. would halt at the Ahiritola and Shobhabazar ghats. Once the goods were unloaded, they would be stored at the huge warehouse erected along the Strand Road. One of those warehouses was Putul Bari, known for its classical statues that are visible from the top of the building. The topmost floor of the building was used by the owner as his residence, and the rest of it served as a warehouse. But why and how a beautiful, aristocratic building that was featured in Roland Joffe’s City of Joy turned into a warehouse, is a question that would bug any curious mind. It is believed that once upon a time, the affluent owners or the babus, who lived in this house took undue advantage of their power during those times. They would rape young women at this place and then murder them to keep their crime under wraps. As a result, the place became haunted by the tormented souls of women, who died a pitiable death at the hands of the lusty babus. By the looks of it, the house beautified with unique doll-like objects at the terrace would surely scare the hell out of a place on a dark, moonless night.
Adventurous visitors have tried trespassing the boundaries of the house with the permission of the current tenants to find out whether or not the house is really haunted. In order to put a ban on such unwelcomed visitors, a board has been erected to warn intending trespassers that the house is not haunted and that no one should disturb the residents just to confirm those rumours. There have been cases when some locals have claimed that they never experienced any unnatural occurrences in the house. Presently, almost all the rooms of Putul Bari are inhabited by tenants, some of whom are unwilling to maintain it and others are not in a sound financial condition to do so.