Chapter 1
Urvashi.
Last february she celebrated her 30th birthday with Arjun in a hot-air baloon in Jaisalmer. And Urvashi still remembers the Comme des Garcons' which is Arjun's favourite and they have talked about it quite a few times. When they gained the full elevation in the ballon, suddenly Urvashi's scarf flew away in the air and as it was vanishing in the desert haze, she could have a glance of the brightly lit golden fort at the horizon which used to belong to Bhatti Princes, descended from the moon God ! That day after the sun set, the desert started becoming very cold and in the mid-air the temperature was close to 2 degrees centigrade. Arjun unwrapped his muffler and put it around Urvashi's neck and gently kissed her left earlobe and the jhumka twisted and created a melody under the clear sky which blended perfectly with Comme des Garcons'. Urvashi, over Krug Clos Du Mesnil, was recalling a lecture she attended while in Shantiniketan by renowned cinematographer Soumendu Roy who had shot 'Sonar Kella' in Jaisalmer with Satyajit Ray. He had described the story of shooting with the entire crew in the desert town. Desert never changes even after decades. Urvashi was wearing a choli with a lehenga which were richly embroidered with zari and drapped around with a hand embroidered odhni with stunning colours.
But when Arjun had met Urvashi for the first time, she was in a body hugging lycra outfit. Yes almost four years back. It was rather an encounter. At a sharp hairpin bend on the Makaibari - Shiliguru main road. This is a road which connects Shiliguri and Darjeeling through Makaibari tea estates but this is not the main access to Darjeeling from the foothill. There is another one highway which is much more gradual and goes along with the toy train track upto Ghum station, the highest railway station in India. Essentially Makaibari road is not used by the regular traffic due to its steepness and huge number of sharp hairpin bends. It is mostly used by the tea estates and Army on a daily basis. Urvashi was climbing down on her bicycle and Arjun was climbing up in his jeep. Before anything could be done, Urvashi had crashed against the upcoming Arjun's jeep. Few accidents happened without anybody's fault and this was one of that kind. Unexpected. Not so pleasant. But surprising. And perhaps most importantly, destined ! That day, when Urvashi opened her eyes after two hours of the accident, she found herself in a wooden bunglow amidst a tea estate, surrounded by a woman of her mother's age along the cot and in the room, little away from the cot, there was a sofa on which two elderly gentlemen were eagerly starring at her. Immediately one of them came to her and told her very politely that nothing to worry and she is safe and secure in the estate bunglow of Mr. Bose where she was brought in after an accident few hours back. By then a smart handsome guy had entered the room and later on she got to know that he was Arjun who had brought her there after the crash. Slowly Urvashi got the strength to get up on the bed and sit against the head-board of the cot with the support of two pillows. Arjun pulled a chair close to the cot and sat on it facing Urvashi. He told very gently that he was driving a jeep on the uphill at a hairpin bend and he had honked before taking the turn but immediately after that Urvashi came from the opposite direction and probably due to loosing the control over her bicycle, she had collided with the jeep and fell unconscious. Arjun put her in the jeep and kept the bicyle also at the rear and drove down to the estate bunglow where Mr. Bose had called their family physician immediately to give her the required treatment. Arjun was driving down to Mr. Bose's estate from Calcutta who is his father's childhood friend, to collect a special tea packet which is produced in his tea estate and specifically at this time of the year. Normally this packet of tea is delivered to Arjun's father by Mr. Bose every year at this particular time and since this time around Arjun was in Calcutta & wanted to take a break from work, thought of driving down to Makaibari and collect the tea himself. Once Urvashi could gather the thread of actions what made her to land up in this context, she asked whether she could make a phone call to her Dad in Calcutta ! Arjun dialed the number from his handheld phone and took the courage to talk to Urvashis' father to appraise him about the situation before he passed on the phone to her. Urvashi, after speaking to her father, assured him not to worry and she would let him know how she would go back to Calcutta. Mr. Bose was around all these while along with Mrs. Bose and said very calmly that since it is quite late today, she can go back tomorrow only and they will make all the arrangements and she can relax in the bunglow for the night and be their guest.
Over the evening tea and snacks, Urvashi and Arjun were conversing to each other at the outside garden to get to know each other. Urvashi had just finished her graduation from Shantiniketan and she is a cycle enthusiast and came to Darjeeling for a short holiday along with friends and the plan was to ride in the beautiful hill station. But suddenly the weather turned out to be very cloudy and started raining heavily which caused a massive landslide on the main Darjeeling - Shiliguri highway and blocked the traffic movement indefinitely. The only option to come down from the hill was to take the Makaibari road which is really dangerous especially when it is raining. Her other friends decided to take a jeep and go down to Shiliguri along their cycles but Urvashi decided to ride the downhill and join them at Shiliguri later from there they would head back to Calcutta together. Even though Urvashi had not done any major downhill climb before, somehow she made her mind to do it this time and attempted with lot of courage. Arjun was patiently listening to her story and once she finished uptill here, he suggested to call up her friends who must be waiting for her at Shiliguri anxioysly and intimate them about the situation. After Urvashi informed her friends, they got back to their conversation. Arjun is a sculptor who has done his graduation from Benaras Hindu University two years back and then on he has been travelling different parts of the country to explore his interests. He just came back from Odissa after a camp for six months and decided to take a break for two weeks before he heads out to Delhi for a project work. He took his father's jeep and drove down to come to Makaibari and stay here for couple of days and then go back to Calcutta. Over the dinner with everybody, finally it was decided that Urvashi will not be allowed to go alone the next day and Arjun will go along with her as they need to carry her crashed cycle also.
They have done many tours together then on. Jaisalmer was the last one before they came to Bangalore. Arjun was not into cycling but he was a fitness freak reasonably. But Urvashi had dragged him into the world of cycling and when they were staying in Delhi for almost a year, both together started randonneuring and did several brevets. By now it has become a habit for them to carry their cycles wherever they go for a longer period of time.
Chapter 2
Arjun have come to Bangalore to study and collaborate with the team of Archeological Survey of India which is at present doing a research work at Talakadu river bank. This is a very interesting place where close to 30 temples were lay burried under the sand bed of river Cauvery almost mid-way through to Mysore from Bangalore. Lot of parts of those temples are being recovered and restored by ASI. Arjun has a fascination of knowing old motifs and understanding them with the relevant context and then improvise the pattern in his own work. He will be in Bangalore for nearly two months. Urvashi has specialised in digital graphic art and she gets very interesting projects all over the country. Currently she is working on a brand imaging concept of an upcoming folk band from Assam and she decided to do the project being away from the client and ofcourse she has done her homeworks before heading out to Bangalore with Arjun. They are staying with their friend Suman who incidentally happens to be a little enthusiastic about the cycling scenario in the city and hence there is a lot to enjoy together while riding.
Urvashi keeps a tab on the All India Brevet calendar very attentively and she realised that there is an upcoming brevet of 200 kilometers on 7th June. On the dinner table, when Suman's wife Tanija was serving the shahi kofta, Urvashi asked about Anchetty route where the brevet is going to be. Suman was busy admiring the well marinated minced mutton kofta with keema paratha and did not pay much attention to Anchetty. But Urvashi is a girl who will not let go things so easily. So, Anchetty. The topic of discussion over a peg of Chivas post dinner along with some amazing sketches of Arjun from Talakadu restoration site, the terrace was just cosy enough to indulge in a late night chat. Suman has not done the route of Anchetty before but he knows that this route is kind of legendary and the handful number of people who had finished the brevet last time, are heroes among the community. So better he does not dare to attempt it. Arjun also was not so keen to do it when he heard about the killer climbs on the course. But Urvashi is always up for grabbing the challenge. Nothing worked. That night Suman, Urvashi and Arjun registered for the Anchetty brevet on 7th June 2014. Tanija as usual offered to make all the necessary arrangements for the ride including pick up & drop and food supplies for the entire day.
Till the first control point it was an easy rolling ride. Suman, Arjun & Urvashi were riding together and they lost little time to cross the railway crossing before hitting the Tumkur road as it was bottle-necked with a thick traffic even at 6.15 in the morning. It was a good warm up to cross the Vanashankari climbs before reaching Kanakapura road. But they were maintaining a good average of 22 kmph and after crossing Nice road junction, it was a good relief of rolling mostly downward all the way upto Harohalli. At Harohalli control point they caught up with many other riders. After exchanging few words with Sohan, Gana and others, Suman suggested to have breakfast after getting into the Thalli road soon after the Harohalli bus stand. Jayaprakash and few more riders were rushing in to the lane along the bus stand to have breakfast in a favourite food joint 'vasu hotel' where almost every cyclist visit while riding on this route. Three of them started riding and once they took left diversion from Harohalli bus stand the road became very quite and traffic free. After riding for 10 minutes they saw a bunch of riders going in a peloton little ahead of them and Suman could make out that they are the leading pack of around 10 riders including Ashok T, Sandeep, Michael, Rajanikanth, Silvester, and few more. Suman wanted to catch up with them but restrained to be with Urvashi and Arjun and stopped for breakfast under a very old banyan tree at the corner of the road. Tanija had packed lots of peanut-butter sandwiches for them for the whole day. Three of them had good amount of sandwiches and then resumed the ride with a good downhill road and beautiful chirping of unknown birds. They continued a nice chatty ride and decided to go little faster to cover up the lost average speed untill the sun comes out harshly.
Arjun was pushing it little harder to be little ahead and Suman was at his ease with 20-23 kmph and Urvashi was really enjoying the ride with her own pace. Terrain was beautiful and the road also quite interesting. In brevets, if you see some rider little ahead of you and speeding up and slowly vanishing from the sight, it feels like they have gone too far away and may be gone forward by couple of kilometers ! When Arjun was vanishing slowly and Suman could not see him any more, he thought that he is going too slow. On a reasonably gradual climb, Suman stopped in front of a compound wall of a house at the middle of the climb and thought to take a quick break and sat on a stone slab laid next to the main gate. Sipped water and glucose water and that time Urvashi was passing by. She asked whether everything is fine with Suman or not and when she learnt that all are well then she pushed off instead of stopping and Suman started after few more minutes. The cue sheet of the route is very interestingly put up. You have to keep looking for landmarks like an orange house with a blue gate, light pole with a number written on it etc. etc. While Suman stopped to fill up bottle at a road side shop, Parag and one more rider crossed him after waving their hands. This is very interesting gesture among the randonneurs - they always acknowledge other rider on the way. There was a fork junction from where Parag went straight ahead and Suman stopped there and read the cue sheet and somehow intuitively figured out that the route goes towards left and he followed that. Soon after that the first adrenaline rush started with a straight steep downhill where at the base of that there was a state border checkpost. The road started winding quite a bit by now with sudden uphills. After sometime while Suman stopped to see the cue sheet, Parag came from behind and overtook him. The road became patchy at this area with lots of pot holes and broken edges along with gravel, mud and filled up rain water. Road bike is not so good on the surface but not too bad also. At this stretch, Suman got a feeling of cramp in the right calf while climbing on a steep upslope. He immediately stopped in front of a small village school and took out his stock of salt and licked a bit. He forgot to bring chikki for the ride in hurry. Sat there for few minutes and then started to ride. At this point Chiddu caught up with Suman and they rode together till Thalli control point. Both of them were chatting and cruising nicely.
"Where is your specs Chiddu"
"At this speed I can manage to see and figure out things well in advance so I'm not wearing my specs but while I drive then I need it"
"Look, along the road there is a cable fencing on either side"
"Yes that is to protect the villagers from elephants and these cables are electrified. But elephants are intelligent enough to break the barrier. They come in a group and bang the fence with logs and come out of that."
"You are not getting the jerk on your road bike on this rough surface!" Chiddu asked.
"Little bit yes but kind of manageable". Suman replied.
In sometime they reached Thalli control point. There is a shop from where each rider has to buy something and get a bill as a proof of time of reaching the control. There were lots of riders gathered almost at the same time. Urvashi reached a bit earlier and was chilling over a bottle of coke. Sohan, Archana, Gana and Suman had some honey cake from a bakery and then Chiddu and Suman started riding together without spending much time at Thalli. Urvashi said that she will come behind and catch up with them soon. Brevets always keep some surprises in store at every stage and unfolds at due time. This brevet also was not an exception and that point nobody could see whats coming on the way.
After Thalli the road became even more empty and scenic. It was almost the middle of the day. Sun was becoming harsher but the panorama was making up for that. Chiddu stopped on a slope and realised that his front tyre is not holding air and making it difficult to ride on the uphills. Suman stayed with him while the front tube was being replaced and then Sohan, Archana, Gana and few more riders crossed them. After fixing the tyre Chiddu and Suman started riding and caught up with others. Then there was a massive climb and somehow all of them climbed it and then it followed with a steep straight downhill which was a bonus. Since Sohan had done this route before he was keeping on updating the upcoming climb or downhills. As all of them were running out of fluid they stopped in front of a shop to refill and realised that there are close to 25 kms to cover in one hour to reach the next control. They geared up. Sohan told Suman when he saw that his bike was parked under the sun -
"do not park bike without shade otherwise there is a high chance of loosing air from tyres even without a flat".
That is the beauty of riding with much experienced peers. One get to learn instantly. Then came the legendary Anchetty downhills with numerous switchbacks. The cue sheet cautioned many times about this but unless one be there physically, it is tough to understand what it means exactly. Suman was going little ahead and he was zapped totally and he was afraid to leave the brake levers and enjoy the down slopes which was earned after many hard climbs because of the sudden switchbacks. Inbetween he stopped with great difficulty to take a deep breath and to see if anybody was there at the back ! Finally the down slopes came to an end at the plane of Anchetty and still 6 kilometers to go in 15 minutes or so. Suman, Sohan, Archana and Gana pedaled hard and reached the control on time.
There at the petrol bunk ATM, after Anchetty bus stand, they found Chiddu sitting on the floor along with Arjun and few more riders who reached couple of minutes before, taking rest. After a refilling break of 15 minutes, Arjun, Suman, Archana, Sohan, Nitin and Gana started the ride towards Denkanikotta while Chiddu said that he will take it little easy to beat the heat and will start after a while.
"Is there any more climb in front or we have left them behind !" - Suman asked to Sohan.
"There are few more kilometers of climb ahead just before Denkanikotta " - Sohan replied with a tired voice.
"Please give some good news, why are you scaring !"
"Atleast we are giving you the real feedback so that you can be mentally prepared " - Sohan said little irritatingly.
They formed a single line on the left most lane of the road and kept on riding. The sun was right on top and really hot. They did not get a good place to have lunch as after Anchetty bus stand there is nothing available on this stretch. Suman could sense that this place is quite beautiful and scenic with all the surrounding forest and winding uphill road but that could not be enjoyed on a saddle with so much of heat and exhaustion. Then came the killer hairpin bends where it was nearly unbearable riding condition and all of them were taking breaks after every bend and in few occasions, Suman had to push up for a while.
Chiddu came from behind and overtook them. Sohan stopped at a point to buy some tomatoes from a villager who was carrying them in a basket and offered to Suman but he was not very interested. They kept on moving.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
While Suman was climbing an uphill, he suddenly saw a man from a distance, sitting at one edge of the road in a white colour banyan and his head is bent forward and the chin is touching the chest under a big banyan tree shadow. So Suman could not make out who it was. As he reached closer to him, he realised that, the man is none other than Chiddu who had left his bike on the dust, removed his jersey and sitting on the tar just to catch up a breathe. Suman also did not waste a second, left his bike against the huge tree trunk and lied down on the road facing up the tree branches and Chiddu also did the same thing exactly in a mirrored position. Sohan and Gana were standing next to them and keeping eyes on any speeding vehicle otherwise this could have been dangerous.
After a while, all of them got up and started riding. Little ahead Gana got a flat to fix and then Sohan again offered the tomatoes to Suman and this time he took it and had it with a pinch of salt and it felt awesome. With small chit-chats they slowly reached Denkanikotta where they had stopped for refilling bottles.
While sipping a cold drink, Suman asked Arjun about Urvashi. Arjun said that don't worry about her and she is quite experienced and would manage on her own and in a ride like this, normally they don't call each other and both of them ride independently.
Then Chiddu and Arjun went ahead and the others were riding little behind. Suman thought that after Denkanikotta, the road will be flattish and they will go faster but it was quite rolling a terrain and not so easy to ride with a tired body at all.
Suman and Archana stopped to refill bottles along a road side shop while Sohan and Gana came and joined them.
"Is there any hope" - Suman asked Sohan.
"Not really" - Sohan said with a very depressed voice and added, "this is going to be my first DNF in a short distance brevet"
"Mine will be third or fourth" - Gana said.
Suman chuckled and said - "I have many like that"
Archana was riding superbly and was always ahead of this pack. The situation was to cover almost 35 kilometers in one and half hours. Which was not a big deal to cover but after Anchetty and Denkanikotta climbs, that looked like a big task.
Sun was setting down at the horizon slowly.
Suman got a sudden kick in his mind at this point of time. He felt that the entire day's hard work and good climbing would go waste if he does not make it to the end control where Tanija will be waiting anxiously.
Suman asked Gana - "How far is the TVS factory from here"
Gana looked at the cue sheet and said "Around 4 kilometers"
Suman knew that from TVS factory to Attibele junction would be around 4 kilometers. He closed his eyes for a while.
There was a fire in his mind.
He looked at the Garmin.
6:55.
He thought for a moment and decided to give a last thrust.
He breaks away from the group - just like how a bullet goes out of the barrel after firing a gun.
Gained a speed of average 30 kmph. Becoming dark. He was approaching TVS with a heavy traffic flow.
But that could not reduce his speed.
He was sneaking out through the slow traffic like how sand comes out through the gap of the fingers if you try to hold them tight.
Crossed TVS gate with lots of dodging through those security barriers. He kept on sprinting on the narrow road with heavy traffic flow.
Head lamp went on. Tail lamp went on.
30 kmph.
He hit a series of road humps at that speed and one of his bottle flew away in the air from the bottle cage and the other one was nearly empty. He did not bother to stop and pick it up.
Every second was valuable like gold.
Come on a randonneur. This is the time of glory. This pain is all about why a randonneur gives his all energy for.
Suman knew that reaching Attebele junction would be great relief as after that he can ride without traffic.
Move.
Move.
Move.
Fast.
Faster.
Even faster.
As much as you can.
Go. Go. Go.
Suman reaches Attebele junction and takes the left turn towards Bangalore at 7.15 pm.
End control closes at Silk Board circle at 7.30 pm.
15 minutes to cover nearly 20 kilometers.
Suman felt extremely thirsty. But he did not have a single drop of water to drink and he did not feel to stop also. He kept on pedaling as fast as he can. Highway also was not leaving him without climbs. Actually they are mere rolling surface but after whole day's hard ride that also appeared not so mere rather challenging with a fatigued body. Somehow he kept on dragging but when he reached SKF factory at the turn towards Jigani just before elevated expressway toll gate, he felt that there is not a single drop of fluid left in his body to survive. He stopped in front of a bakery.
Looked at the Garmin.
7.31 pm.
He broke down on the footpath in front of the bakery and picked up the phone to call at end control very very reluctantly. He called Tanija.
"Where are you" - Suman asked.
"I'm at the end control, where are you" - she asked with a lot of anxiety in her voice mixed with a tons of curiosity.
Suman would have been happiest person to say that he is taking the last turn to hit the end control. But the reality was little different.
"I reached till Electronic city and it would take another 15-20 minutes for me to reach there. Who is there at the control ?"
"Anil, Promise and Kalpesh"
"Ask them whether they will qualify me if I reach in another 20 minutes or not. If yes then I'll come otherwise I'm not forwarding from here" - Suman told knowingly the answer for sure.
Tanija asked and confirmed that 'the time is up.'
Suman missed the end control by merely 20 minutes.
He felt disappointed but not regretful. He rode well today. He never thought of quitting the ride even at the most toughest climbing moment also. He felt rather good. Because he never thought that he will come this far. He went in to a temporary trans phase. You get a sense of achievement when your mind gets in to a void space after an intense involvement. Suman thought that the day is almost over with a sense of happy feeling.
But that day's story was not about to end there.
Chapter 3
Arjun reached the end control well within time. After receiving call from Suman that he is stopping at Electronic city, Tanija and Arjun left the end control to rush back at Electronic city. They were thinking that Urvashi also must have been with Suman. But when they reached KFC at Electronic city, they found Suman alone there having some snacks, looking as usual quite tired. Arjun asked about Urvashi and Suman said that he saw her last at Thalli control and after that neither he saw her nor got in touch over phone.
"Urvashi said that she will come behind and catch up soon at Thalli control point" - Suman said. "And I thought that you are in touch with her and co-ordinating".
"We do not call each other when riding a brevet and today I just went ahead and thought since it is just a day's ride, she will not have any problem", Arjun said.
"Okay lets call her up now and find out where she has reached" - Tanija said anxiously.
Arjun tried calling her couple of times and could not get the number through.
Then one by one Suman and Tanija also tried but with the same result.
Anxiety started shadowing on their minds.
One more round of trial to reach her over phone went unanswered.
Arjun was about to freak out when Tanija made a call to the end control to enquire whether they have received any information or call from Urvashi or not. But the end control confirmed that they are totally unaware of her.
Suman was thinking to jump on to his bed after a hot water shower as soon as he reaches home but now the situation looked like quite different. They decided to trace back the route and check out if they can find her on the way. After a tough ride, Suman and Arjun were forced to get into the car and Tanija took over the driving.
A journey to uncertainty began.
Chapter 4
They kept on trying to call her mobile but without any result. They almost lost hope to reach her over phone because it might have been out of charge or out of coverage area. Till Anekal junction the road was quite busy and they had to keep looking on the other side across the wide highway lanes. But there were no trace of Urvashi. After getting on to the Anekal - Denkanikottai road it was easier to look for as the road is not so wide and no divider in the middle. But all the effort was going in vain. They reached till Denkanikottai town and before that they stopped at many places to ask the shop keepers if they had seen her by chance. After reaching the foot-hill of Anchetty from Denkanikottai side, they became quite hopeless as it was pitch dark at around 11.30 in the night. Suman was trying hard to gather some words to console Arjun but his tired body and mind was not supporting at all. Arjun became almost silent. Only Tanija was trying to keep up the hope among all. Then they decided to comeback to Denkanikottai town and inform police so that they can help.
Denkanikottai police station was not that active at that hour of the night. Hardly few staff in a relatively relaxed mood. After listening to the problem, one officer in charge tried to contact their forest range patroling team but could not get through. By this time, Suman and Arjun both went into a deep sleep while seating on a bench on the verandah outside. An Anchetty ride were showing up on their faces. Tanija did not disturb them and managed to get a chair where she was anxiously waiting for any information. She kept on following up with the officer there but everytime they got no news from the otherside of the communication channel. Without knowing, Tanija's eyes also got closed after sometime and she woke up with a jerk on her body. When she opened her eyes, Urvashi was standing in front of her. Smiling. Outside there was a ray of sunlight coming through the leaves and a pleasant breeze flowing through with lot of birds chirping around. End of a black night with a freshness of a good morning. Firstly both of them screamed and hugged each other and that woke Suman & Arjun up.
Arjun took couple of moments to recollect the entire sequence and then he jumped off the bench and hugged Urvashi tightly for long.
It was a deep sense of relief for all four of them to re-unite. Urvashi told very quickly - "I just came back from a different world, lets go home and we will catch up with the story".
Chapter 5
Over the breakfast spread, everybody were curiously looking at Urvashi to know the whole story from her.
Urvashi said "after starting from Thalli control point, I was enjoying the beauty of nature and going quite slow. Lot of other riders just crossed me and I was stopping every now and then to take photographs and at time some videos as well. The route after Thalli became so scenic. All those climbs were revealing beautiful vistas one after the other. I studied the map of this region before the ride and realized that it is an extension of Nilgiris all the way from Ooty and it covers the Bannerghatta National Park at one side and further goes over all the way till Krishnagiri. And the forest in this part is denser and house lot of wild life. When I was riding alone, was a bit scary and imagining if there is a leopard suddenly come in front of me then how do I handle the situation."
Suman interrupted - "yes there are instances that leopard come on the main roads of that region and at times they get into the near by villages also".
Urvashi continued - "at one valley, there was a hair-pin bend and I could not see anything on the other side of the hill. Once I took the turn, I saw a herd of elephants little below the road level near a stream. They were looking so harmonious with the nature. I just could not resist myself. Parked the bike little off the road, downward along the slope. Since there were no tree adjacent to the road, I just put the bike on the slope. I went down quite a bit closer to the stream to a point from where I can see them all but with a distance of around 100 meters or so. The stream was flowing downwards to my left and the herd was around the water. I started taking video of them and started moving towards them. I don't know what happened all of a sudden, few of the bigger elephant started coming towards me. Still I did not realize anything. And within no time they came really close to me and at that moment I realized that they are going to charge me".
"There must have been a baby elephant in the herd and the bigger ones thought that you are a threat to them" - Arjun said.
"A cold sweat ran down my spinal cord in a second. I was puzzled about what to do. Somehow gathered my senses and just got into the stream which was having transparent thin sheet of water with lots of pebbles underneath. I ran over the water and the elephants were chasing me like mad. I started moving downward across the trees as much as in a zig-zag pattern to confuse them. But they were crushing all the smaller trees to make their way. This continued for quite sometime and I was going down the valley fast through thick and thin wood. Finally came to a point where the stream became wider and formed a cascade through a height difference of about couple of meters. There was this cascade of stream in front of me and a herd of wild elephant at the back - I did not think twice. Just jumped off the first boulder which was jutting out of the water and landed on top of the next boulder which is little bit lower. Repeated the similar jumps for couple of times and I reached to the bottom level of the stream. Looked back at the other end, and they stopped at the point from where I jumped off. Felt a great relief. Now they can not come closer to me because they won't be able to jump from there. But now I can not go back in the same path also and by now I would have come down the hill quite a bit and my cycle was lying next to the road. I had only my mobile phone in my jersey pocket. I immediately picked it out. And it was still on the video capture mode. Tried to call Arjun but there was no network signal. I waited there for sometime and the elephants were still there watching me from a distance.
I looked around for any way out but could not see anything else than wood. I looked at the mobile to see the time and realised that I have a very little time before sunset. Looked up at the sky and saw the light was becoming very mild. So I gave up the idea of going back the same way. Now to find a new path, about to escape. I stared at the elephants. For the last time. Then I moved forward into the thick forest. Went away from the stream and continued to walk through the forest downward. The only thing was running in my mind to find some application and some people ask for the way out. Because at this time when the sun starts going down it becomes darker very very fast and that too in an unknown forest all alone without any GPS coordinates. I almost was running for my life. God knows how much I ran and how much distance I covered, finally the forest started thinning out. It was a sense of hope. I looked at the mobile but by then it ran out of charge. All the more difficult. It was quite puzzling but I kept my calm and suddenly remembered, once my father told, do not cry in the forest, instead rely on your presence of mind. I just kept my fingers crossed and rushing out of the forest as quickly as possible. Finally after a patch of downhill with lot of thorny bushes, I could see some open land in front of me. What a relief. Looked up at the sky and it was gorgeous with warm hues of setting sun telling me goodbye for the day. I would probably have another fifteen minutes of natural light. Just relied on my sense of orientation and started moving towards my right hoping the road will come somewhere there. I started feeling thirsty. A very uneasy feeling started settling in. I cannot define whether it was fear or frustration or mystery. But anyway it was adventurous. At that moment, I could see a silhouette of structure at a distance, hazily. I didn't know what it was but I fixed my gaze and started running towards it. The landscape was quite different. The thick forest behind me, a barren undulating land in front of me and a silent dusky light hovering over heavily. I was fast approaching towards my target. Lot of thoughts were crisscrossing my mind and it was very tough to stay optimistic. Somehow I pulled myself and reached my destination. Still there was little light. It was a small settlement. Two small huts and a little bigger house and no road whatsoever leading to them. I went around the small huts to reach in front of the bigger house. It had a boundary wall with wooden gate. I pushed it and entered. The house was located after a large garden area. It looked Colonial style with a small portico at the middle with a long colonnade verandah. I kept approaching towards that shouting for help, but could not find anyone. I could barely see the verandah but realised that there were a couple of photo frames hanging on the wall. My senses were telling me that somebody must be living here. But there was an unusual silence all around. It was a state of anxiety, fear, uncertainty, helplessness, desperateness, unwanted thrill of life. After sometime, one of the doors opened slowly with a sustained creek, which diverted my full attention towards one end of the verandah. A ray of light of a lantern was slowly approaching towards me. When it came quite close to me, I saw a man behind it. Wearing white dhoti and banyaan. He came and stopped in front of me. His eyes through thick spectacles tried to ask few things without words. A silence prevailed. Then he asked something in a language which I did not understand. I told him that I am looking for help as I am lost in the forest.
- "come, sit."
- "I was chased by elephants."
- "what were you doing in forest?"
I explained him the whole story so far and how I landed up here. I told him that I wanted to go out of this place to the main road.
-"that sounds impossible."
-"why?"
- "this is in middle of Melagiri forest and it is filled with variety of wild denizens."
-"then what do I do now?"
-"for the night you can stay back here and early morning you can cut across the forest to reach the main road. "
-"is there electricity here?"
-"no."
-"can I make a phone call?"
-"that facility is not available."
-"who stays here?"
-"noboby apart from me."
-"whose house is this?"
-"Kenneth Anderson's."
He told me to follow him and took me to a room inside and showed me a sofa to sit on before vanishing inside. In the dim light of the lantern I could barely see the furnitures of Mahogany and large photographs with Teakwood frames all around the room. The old man returned with a glass of water and another lantern. As I sipped the water, he said,
-"you must be hungry."
-"yes, very much"
-"we have to cook. Nobody comes with prior intimation. "
-"I can help you."
-"let me arrange, we can do a bonfire outside."
I could not have asked anything more than this. Again he vanished for sometime and came back to escort me to the front garden. There were few stones to sit on. He brought some fire wood and started arranging them to put the fire on. When the fire was on, he put few vegetables for barbeque. I asked him,
-"so, Mr. Anderson doesn't stay here."
-" he is no more."
-" then?"
-"after he passed away, his son Donald, used to come once in a while."
-"from where?"
-" they lived in Bangalore. Kenneth Anderson was a great hunter. He used to come in this forest very often. He was so fond of this place that he bought this bungalow. At times, this used to be their family getaway. He used to bring everybody in his Studebaker. He used to park his car next to the road and walk down to this place. He has hunted in and around Cauvery and Chinnar rivers many times."
-"are those photographs of his huntings?"
-"yes."
-"can I see them?"
He took one lantern and showed me all the photographs around the house. Truly adventurous. I was stunned to see one photograph where Anderson was posing with his cycle. The old man explained that Kenneth Anderson used to cycle around the city often.
Rest of the evening was awestrucking to hear all the stories of man-eater of Jwaligiri, panthers of Shulekunta, black panthers of Shivanapalli and many many more stories of hunting in and around Anchetty.
I don't remember when and how I slept off in the garden next to the fire. I woke up to see that two policemen were talking to the old man. The police told me that they have been searching for me the whole night and they could trace my cycle at the first ray of sun in the morning. They came here guessing that I might have passed through this area as it is the closest possible habitable place from where I left my cycle. I was still in a fairytale world. Expressed my gratitude towards the old man and left with the policemen. They brought me till The police station where you guys were waiting for my news and the rest you know."
There was a silence among everybody. All were mesmerised.
Suman broke the silence.
-"so when I'll go for Anchetty ride next time, will try to locate this place."
-"you can but without the elephants" Urvashi chukled.
They all laughed. A well deserved breakfast for all with a truely amazing adventurous story.
Later in the afternoon all of them got engrossed in reading Kenneth Anderson Omnibus volume 1 & 2.
