Jaipur: At Ghat Gate, a house meant to have been a seat of power has become a source of trepidation for many, especially its intended inhabitants.Behind locked gates, with weeds growing wild and garbage scattered about, Jaipur’s official mayoral residence stands abandoned inside the erstwhile Kishanpole zonal office complex of Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC). The sprawling two-storey govt property was built to host the city’s first citizen. Over JMC’s 32-year history, however, only two mayors have lived there.The rest stayed away!That’s because over time, the residence acquired a reputation official buildings seldom come to be associated with: as inauspicious, and as a potential harbinger of ill luck.Word of the house whispered through municipal corridors, telling stories of tragedy, unease and unfortunate coincidences.Former mayor Sheel Dhabhai, the only surviving mayor to have stayed there, remembers her first encounter with the property in 2001.“When I became mayor, the commissioner took me to see the house. It was locked. As soon as the gate was opened, a black cat jumped out and landed at my feet. The executive engineer said we should leave the house, but (then) commissioner Prem Singh Mehra told me not to worry,” Dhabhai said.She moved in despite a warning from the family of her predecessor, Nirmala Verma, who had died within months of shifting there.Dhabhai said the years that followed were marked by personal loss and misfortune. “My husband was perfectly healthy when we shifted there. Within six months, he fell ill and died. He was only 45,” she recalled.She said her family also faced other tragedies during her stay, including a car accident and her sister’s miscarriage. In 2004, Dhabhai finally left the residence without taking any of her belongings with her.“After what happened to Nirmala Verma and my husband, no mayor after me dared to live there,” she said.Not every past mayor, however, accepts the spooky narratives that have come to be built up around the residence.Former mayor Ashok Parnami said his decision not to move in was practical, not superstitious. “I did not stay there because I had my own place in Jaipur. There is nothing haunted about it,” he said.Ashok Lahoty, another former city mayor, pointed to location and convenience as reasons for staying away. “It is located in one corner of the city. Jaipur has expanded, and the area around the residence has become congested. Most mayors just prefer to stay at their own houses,” he said.Former mayor Somya Gurjar was quick to dismiss the ominous small talk surrounding the residence. “There is nothing haunted about it. These are just things people say. I would have stayed there,” she said.Those helming the civic body today are equally dismissive of the old wives’ tales surrounding the house.JMC commissioner Om Kasera said staying at the official residence is the mayor’s prerogative. “If anybody does not want to live there and prefers to stay at their own place, there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.TOI tried to contact Jaipur’s newly elected mayor Sunil Kothari for comment on the matter, but he could not be reached.Asked whether the corporation had any intentions of putting the property to some other use, Kasera said no such plan was currently under consideration.Years ago, a proposal was mooted to convert the mayor’s residence into a govt dispensary, but it never materialised.As a result, the house remains where it has long stood: locked, neglected and mildly foreboding.Officially, it is the city mayor’s designated residence. In practice, it is an address Jaipur’s mayors, over the years, have repeatedly chosen to stay away from.
