Case file · Folklore / legend
'Nale ba': the witch of Bangalore
In the early 1990s households in Bangalore wrote 'nale ba' ('come tomorrow') on their doors to ward off a witch who called people by name in a loved one's voice; those who answered died.
1990 CE · 12.97, 77.59 · status: legend
The account
The legend, set roughly in 1990 here, says the witch reads the message, leaves and returns the next day to find the same words. It was revived in the 2018 Bollywood film 'Stree'.
The sceptical view
A classic urban legend with no recorded deaths, related to the widespread South Asian ghost who calls from outside at night.