10 Questions You Wanted to Ask an Indian Ghostbuster

During the day, Waqar Raj, 38, runs a wireless equipment store in New Delhi, where he sells cellular jammers, signal boosters, and infrared goggles, among other stuff. But when the sun goes down, Raj turns into Raj NPC, one of India’s premier ghosthunters.

Raj has learnt the tricks of the ingenious trade from India’s most famous ghostbuster— Gaurav Tiwary (who died under mysterious circumstances), and has gone in search of paranormals for a slew of Indian TV channels. He’s currently the Head of Operations at the Indian Paranormal Society, whose main goal is to “research and bring forward the real facts to eliminate superstitions and fear from the common people so that they no longer have to get entrapped by fake exorcism”.

VICE caught up with Raj over the phone—currently on a mission at a desolate church in Goa—and spoke to him about his hopes and nightmares, and whether ghostbusting can be a legit career option.

VICE: What did you want to be a when growing up?
Raj NPC: I wanted to be a police inspector growing up. Vinod Khanna ki movies se bahut inspired tha. He had just come back from America, and played a police inspector in movies like Mahaadev and Jurm, jisme logon ko maarta tha (in which he killed people) .

How did you get into ghostbusting then?
I used to scare my seniors a lot in college. There’s a red liquid, aalta, used by ladies in Eastern India on their feet. It looks like blood. I used to put it on my foot, walk from one room to another. In the morning, they used to freak out, and scream out loud.

Then, I was watching Discovery one night. There was a show called A Haunting. They showed some equipment in it. I noted it down, and Googled it. I’d never heard of a ‘ghost shop’, so it really caught my interest. I was already importing stuff, so I decided to import some equipment and put it up on my website. Then I got an email on infrared (IR) cameras on the website from Gaurav Tiwary in 2012. He then asked me for an electronic compass, and other things like an EVP recorder, five CCTVs, and five walkie-talkies. He then came over with some friends and told me about a building in Patna he was going to investigate. He asked me the rent for my equipment, which I said was around Rs 15,000 for seven days.

When he left for Patna, I looked him up, and found his interviews and debates very interesting. He wanted to prove things scientifically, and alongside, bust superstitions and myths. When he came back to return the equipment, I told him to keep it. That night, we drank some beers, and he asked me to join him because of my technical knowledge. After two or three investigations in 2012, he gave me the title of PPI: Professional Paranormal Investigator.

Can ghostbusting be a fulltime career in India?
You can’t figure a career in this business. People still end up going to pandits, maulanas, psychologists, etc.

In ghosthunting, you have to spend money on a car, petrol, equipment, batteries. And because I don’t ever guarantee that I will end the haunting of a place, like many others do, I don’t make as much money. If I’m lucky, I’ll make Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 in a month. In India, paranormal has no future. I’ll die of hunger if I do this full-time.

Have you ever gotten scared?
There are stories of witches in the Lambi Dehar mines outside Mussoorie, where 50,000 miners had died in pathetic conditions. We went there to investigate in 2014. For some reason, I was away from the crew, and the mobile network there was bad. I set up a trail camera in a tree nearby. It’s a camera with IR and motion sensors, which turns on after detecting even the slightest of motions. It has photo+video mode. I finished setting up, and left for the hotel.

The next day, after packing up, I was checking the footage. In one video, there was white smoke which came into the camera’s view, and then went up straight really fast, while you can hear strong breathing. I still haven’t figured it out. It’s the scariest EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena are sounds found on electronic recordings that are interpreted as spirit voices) I’ve ever got.

How do people around you react when you tell them about your ghostbusting?
I was married into an upper caste, reputed family from Maharashtra in 2013. My wife didn’t like that I drank, and used to tell me that appearing on the television with Gaurav was haraam. I got angry one day, and told her that haraam is done by those people who support Pakistan. She got angry, and called her dad. She’s a Syed; they are very kattar. Like, if I drank and touched her shoe, she wouldn’t wear that shoe again.

When she had gone home for Diwali in 2014, I had put up lights, and uploaded a photo on Facebook. She got mad. I’ve been very secular all my life. Before the note-ban, I had 11 employees and they were all Hindus. I now have just 2-3, who are also Hindu. So, with more and more disagreements, our marriage ended in 2015.

Now she’s married to a guy in Assam, who has two hospitals. Kaafi traditional banda hai, humaari tarah nahi hai (He’s quite traditional, unlike me).

Do ghosts exist?
Absolutely. They are an energy. Humans have energy when they’re alive. When they die, where does it go? Satisfied people have a higher level of cosmic energy. So when they die, they go to a higher plane. But with young people whose desires are left unsatisfied—be they of love or career or when they’re killed in an accident—their energy remains earthbound. That’s what we call a ‘ghost’.

Have you ever encountered one?
I was confused even after doing 10 investigations. This one time in Kuldhara (an abandoned village in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan), Gaurav ji was with the anchor (of a TV show) Rahul Sinha, a couple of cameramen and soundmen, but I was alone. During the break, I went to a room, closed it, and in full darkness, lit a cigarette. In jest, I said, “Arre agar koi hai toh aao naa sahi (if there is anyone out there, appear now).” A minute later, my K-II meter went off, and moved a few centimetres. I panicked and sent a message on the wireless, and the entire crew came running. Being alone in that room and feeling that energy changed me. I got serious about ghostbusting then.

How do you categorise ghosts?
Bilkul insaan ki tarah (just like humans). The theory states that however people are when they are alive, if they do reach a metaphysical ghost or spirit form, they are temperamentally the same. Take (Ajmal) Kasab for example. He was given capital punishment. It’s not like in spirit form, he would be regretful of his actions and would want to become a priest. He’d still think he wants to shoot people. The instinct, whether in human or ghost form, remains the same.

Should we be scared of them?
I don’t think so.

What if it’s Kasab’s ghost?
But it’s in metaphysical form now. He can’t lift a gun and actually shoot people. If you get scared of ghosts, you’re hurting yourself. What humans can do, ghosts can’t. And what they can do, we can’t.

According to the law of conservation of energy, you can’t destroy energy; it just transforms into other forms. When people get scared, their energy levels reduce, and these ghosts acquire energy from their surroundings. When your energy is reduced, you become easy prey. They will feed on your fear. In my experience, if you don’t act scared, you won’t get targeted.

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