A shape-shifting demon of Hindu mythology has allegedly taken up residence on the third floor of one of South India’s most storied hotels. The paperwork is in.

CHENNAI, INDIA — Staff at the Connemara Hotel confirmed Tuesday morning that a Rakshasa — that is, a powerful, flesh-eating, shape-shifting supernatural entity from Hindu mythological tradition — was reported on the third floor sometime before 4 a.m. local time, and that Form GE-7, Non-Standard Guest Complaint, has been submitted to the regional manager. The regional manager has not yet been located. I want to be clear about the sequence here: the demon was reported first, the form was filed second, the manager is missing third. I am writing all of this in my notebook in that order because the order matters.

I arrived at the Connemara approximately six hours after the disturbance was reported, which I acknowledge is slower than I prefer, but The Evidence Vehicle needed fuel in Bengaluru and I want it on record that I was moving. The hotel is a heritage property — colonial-era bones, high ceilings, the kind of marble flooring that makes your footsteps sound like accusations. The front desk staff were calm. Professionally, specifically, impressively calm. The duty manager, a man named Mr. Suresh Balakrishnan, explained the GE-7 filing process to me with the patience of someone who has explained a great many things to a great many people who did not fully deserve the explanation. I appreciated it. I told him so at what my camera operator, Priya, later described as an unnecessary volume.

Community Notice

The form exists for exactly this kind of situation. ‘Non-standard’ covers quite a broad range. We submitted it before the end of shift. What happens next is above my level.

— Mr. Suresh Balakrishnan, Duty Manager, The Connemara Hotel

What Happened On The Third Floor

Ten witnesses have been identified, seven of whom are hotel staff and three of whom are guests — a couple from Pune celebrating an anniversary and a solo business traveler from Hyderabad who told me, with the flat delivery of a man who has given up being surprised by things, that he heard what sounded like something very large moving through the corridor and then smelled burning copper and then his door buckled inward approximately four centimeters without opening. He checked out at 6 a.m. He left a three-star review. He cited the disturbance but also noted the breakfast buffet was excellent, which I think is a genuinely fair and balanced response and I have written it in the notebook under ‘Outstanding: How do you rate a hotel where a Rakshasa walked the hall.’ The Rakshasas of textual tradition are described as possessing enormous strength, the capacity to alter their form, and an adversarial relationship with human habitation and sacred space. The Connemara opened in 1854. It has survived a great deal. The current situation appears to be ongoing.

I have been in hospitality for twenty-two years. I have handled a great many complaints. The form is there. The form is submitted. I am not going to speculate further because I have not been trained to speculate further.

— Ms. Devika Annamalai, Senior Front Desk Supervisor, The Connemara Hotel

I have three outstanding questions I need answered before I can call this story complete, and I am going to read them aloud now for the camera: One, where is the regional manager and is his absence related to the third-floor situation or is it administrative coincidence, because those are two very different stories. Two, Form GE-7 goes to the regional manager — if the regional manager is missing, where does the form go, and has anyone thought about that yet. Three, Rakshasas in the textual record are associated with protection of treasure, disruption of ritual, and the testing of human moral resolve, and I would like to know which one of those is happening at the Connemara because it changes my threat assessment significantly. WTC has filed a formal information request with the Tamil Nadu government. We have also left a voicemail for the regional manager. Priya pointed out that if the regional manager has been consumed by a supernatural entity, the voicemail will not be returned. I told her that’s why we leave voicemails. You leave the voicemail. You document that you left the voicemail. You keep the record. That’s the whole thing. That’s all there is.

The Connemara is still accepting reservations. The third floor is listed as temporarily unavailable for booking, attributed on the website to ‘scheduled maintenance.’ I called Claudia while I was standing in the lobby and she asked if I’d eaten and I said I’d had two Dragon Ices and she made a sound I’ve learned means she is choosing not to continue that conversation. She also confirmed Dispatch had eaten — chicken and rice, because he’s been anxious — and I stood there in this hundred-and-seventy-year-old hotel with marble floors and a filed supernatural complaint form and felt, briefly, like things were mostly okay. I go where the story is. The story is here. The form has been submitted. I am waiting for the regional manager. I will keep waiting.