Himachal Pradesh is a mountainous state in northern India. It does not have railways and the connection between distant towns is only by highways or mountain paths. My father tells me that when he would visit his village, which was on the border with Himachal Pradesh, he would often venture for a walk in the wild mountains.
He told me that one day he and a friend of his decided to take a long walk through the mountains. After walking a mile or so, my father and his friend saw a black cat sitting in their path. As they got closer, the cat continued to purr and refused to budge. So my father’s friend who was carrying a lathe (wooden bar) had hit the cat. But before the rod could descend on the cat, it disappeared. My father and his friend laughed and thought it was an illusion. More continued and this episode was repeated. A faint alarm now occupies his mind.
As they were going, they saw a little boy standing on the road and he was crying. My father thought that his mother must be close. So he picked up the boy and called out to his mother. But my father says that the boy began to laugh and little by little his weight began to increase. My father, alarmed, released the boy and ran back to the village reciting the Guru Nanak prayer aloud in Japanese.
He told me in no uncertain terms that what he had boarded was a chaleda. This was a term I heard for the first time. Although the story was narrated by my father, I initially took it with a grain of salt. But some studies in this field and a visit to Himachal confirmed to me that a chaleda is largely a spirit that exists and has the power to appear to a human being in different forms. It could take the form of a beautiful woman or an animal. He is an evil spirit and plays with the victim by taking different forms and then he can maim or even kill him.
According to popular belief, the chaleda is a spirit of a man who has died a premature or violent death. Such spirits are doomed to wander the earth until the day of their salvation, when they can enter through the gates of the spirit world.
There is a lot of debate as to whether there is such a thing as spirits or an afterlife. But the phenomenon that I have narrated is difficult to explain. Yes, the chaleda is not heard anywhere else in the world or in any other part of India. This spirit seems to be peculiar to Himachal Pradesh. Therefore, there is a possibility that the people there have built a legend from a few different episodes. But this is a simplistic argument. For my part, I do not have a rational explanation of what or who is a chaleda.
Times are changing and scientific thinking has permeated the entire world. But there are still many mysteries to explain. Strange happenings and events like the appearance of a Chaleda need further study.