The Great Downpour

Chapter XVII

Chapter XVII

The search and rescue team started from Seoni at a little after eight a.m. There were at least thirty policemen in the team. They were equipped to tackle all possible adverse circumstances such as heavy rain, attacks from predators, landslides etc. A truck full of rescue equipment and two fully equipped ambulances with cardiac monitors and defibrillators was also a part of the rescue convoy, as were wireless vans. The truck had, among other things, heating blankets, ropes, nets, harpoons, slings, large heavy-duty sheets and what not. All this was designed to help in lifting human survivors from precarious situations.

Sundeep was also a part of the team, as were a few physically fit staff members of the St. Aloysius College, a few parents of the eleven lost boys and girls and members from the Home Guards, the Fire Corps and doctors from the Jabalpur Medical College and Government Hospital.

Hope of finding all the twelve lost people alive and well was very high in the minds of everyone. However, reality check revealed that the combined effects of a heavy rain, a long distance tumble in the rapid river and the possibility of attacks by wild animals would take its toll on some or all of the people concerned. In addition, we must all remember that the marooned people have no way of contacting us, no extra protection, no rations and no other facilities, thought Sundeep with anguish.

***

Only three dacoits had died during the initial melee that occurred in the courtyard yesterday, the Chief I.G. of Police informed the audience of media persons that he had called to his headquarters in Bhopal. All of them had died of multiple injuries caused by person or persons unknown. Seven of the 17 remaining dacoits were admitted to the Municipal Hospital at Seoni and were under police arrest till they recovered or were fit to be sent to the Government Hospital at Jabalpur, he added. He further informed the media that the remaining dacoits were in police custody in Seoni and would be shifted in a day or two to Jabalpur where they would be produced before the court.

“I do not approve of public lynching, but under the circumstances, the students did what anyone else would have done; they meted out instant justice for the murder of their Principal by the dacoit chief.”

“Is it true, Sir, that apart from robbery, the dacoits had no other ulterior motive?”

“Yes, that is true. During their confessions, some of them admitted that all they wanted was to decamp with electronic stuff like movie cameras, mobiles etc. Taking into consideration that over 600 people were the target, they were looking at a booty of lakhs of rupees!”

“How did they learn about the arrival of the College picnic in advance? We are told that they lay in ambush within striking distance of the Reserve Office … what were the Reserve Police doing, Sir?”

“We are still investigating the whole thing, and we have not ruled out a conspiracy angle,” said the I.G. of Police.

“What efforts are being made to search for the lost boys and girls, Sir?”

“Our Search and rescue team – the SAR Team for short - has already left Seoni and will join the policemen who will arrive from Jabalpur. They will jointly proceed to the Pench National Park.”

The questions continued for another hour. At the end of it, the Inspector General thanked the members of the fourth estate for their time and patience. He then got off his chair and excused himself. The media filed out of the office in a hurry to transmit the information to their head offices.

One of the journalists who were present in the conference was Jagdish Sinha. He represented the Jabalpur edition of the New Daily Post. There was one bit of information that he had stored away in his mind. Sundeep was the name of the boy who had been on the rope bridge with the others who had got washed away by the river. He decided to meet Sundeep and request him for an interview. It will humanize the story and give the readers an inside view of the boys and girls who went missing, he thought.

He approached the on-duty hawaldar and asked him if he knew the address or contact number of any of the missing people. The hawaldar passed him the list of all the missing persons. From Sandesh’s residence, he learnt Sundeep’s telephone number. He called up Sundeep on the latter’s mobile, introduced himself and asked for time for an interview. Alas, Sundeep informed him that he would not be available as he was going to Pench with the SAR team. Sighing, he proceeded to call up his head office in Jabalpur.

***

When Yash came to, the first thing that he saw were the marble-like steady eyes of a full-sized crocodile that was staring at him from about three metres away. He sat up with a jerk that caused him to yell with pain in his right shin. He looked away from the croc for a few seconds to glance at the leg; it seemed to be bent at an unnatural angle. Mercifully, there was no open wound and no visible bone below his Bermudas. Quickly, he looked around. The river was flowing by to his left and the silt around him seemed to be quite soft and smooth. Obviously, I must have lain here for hours!

He also took in the lush carpet of grass beyond the silt, the large teak trees just ahead and the absence of the bag he had been carrying. Oh my God … that stuff cost me more than a lakh of rupees … the satellite dish, the Sat phone and my Video Camera. He looked up at the watchful reptile once again. It was getting to be increasingly uncomfortable to be eyed as one’s potential breakfast, Yash thought wryly. He felt his leg gingerly with his hands and detected an unmistakable break in the continuity of the shin bone. A fracture! What am I going to do now? I am dead meat for this croc!

The crocodile moved its body towards Yash; it was clear to its reptilian mind that this was a ready meal just waiting to be had! It also sensed that this prey was not 100 % fit – that it would not run away so easily. It began to make its move once again. Before it could open its mouth to take in a bite, however, something hit it strongly on its head.

The crocodile was stunned for a moment as it tried to recover from the hard blow that it never saw coming. Even Yash, who had closed his eyes momentarily in prayer, was surprised by the whacking sound. He opened his eyes to see the crocodile’s head being tossed aside by a huge branch of a tree. Holding the branch and grinning from year to year was Sandesh.

“How ... how did you manage to come here?”

“Just the same as you, my friend!” Sandesh replied as he took stock of the situation. He hit the crocodile once more on the head and then asked Yash to give him his hand so that he could take him to a safer location.

“I don’t think that will be possible, Sandy,” moaned Yash.

When Sandesh saw Yash’s broken shin, he became worried as Yash being such a big person, it would be difficult for him to carry Yash without additional help. He quickly ran up to the teak tree and broke off a foot long thin branch off its lowest part. He brought it to Yash and said, “Use this to ward off the croc while I go and get some vines.”

”Okay,” said Yash.

Sandesh took a look at the croc which seemed disoriented even now. He ran here and there till he saw a vine that grew from the ground next to a Persian Lilac tree. With a small, sharp stone, he managed to cut a 2 metre length from it. He brought it back to Yash and helped tie the broken branch to Yash’s right leg.

“You must make an effort to get up now,” said Sandesh.

“All right, I’ll surely try my best, Sandy,” said Yash as he held Sandesh’s hand in his right hand and pulled himself to an upright posture as Sandesh strained to hold him while he got up. The pain in his leg intensified as he took his weight on the broken shin. He immediately lifted up his right leg off the ground and clung to Sandesh.

Together, they hobbled as fast as they could till they were at least 30 metres away. Hiding from the crocodile behind some rocks, Sandesh gently put Yash down and sat down next to him to take a closer look at the injury.

“It’s a clean fracture – only the large bone of the shin is broken, while the thinner, outer bone seems to be intact. We’ll have to straighten out the bone and then splint it as best as we can.”

“Straighten out? How?” asked Yash, quite confused.

Sandesh calmed him by offering him some water to drink.

“I’ll give you something to hold in your mouth. You’ll have to bear a little pain …” he said.

Yash knew that the “little” pain that Sandesh was alluding to was going to be anything but little. He nodded his head and dutifully opened his mouth for Sandesh to insert a gag that he had prepared by tying some leaves together with a small piece of vine.

“I am not sure if I can do it, but we have to try,” he said, as nervous as his “patient”.

Yash nodded once again. Sandesh positioned himself next to Yash. He untied the branch that he had applied earlier and felt the shin with his hands till he was able to feel the break-line in the bone. He held the shin in his hands, and pulled the two fragments of the long shin bone apart with as much speed and strength as he could.

Yash gnashed his teeth, pressing the gag till the bitter taste of the crushed leaves caused him to spit it out.

“Aaaa….r…ggghhhhh!” he screamed as the bone ends grated against one another, causing large beads of sweat to appear on his forehead. He breathed heavily as Sandesh completed the task of separating the two fragments away from each other. After that, Sandesh re-tied the branch of the teakwood tree back to the shin with the vines, this time more tightly so that the shin bone did not bend again at the break-line.

When he looked at Yash to tell him that the job was done, he saw that Yash had passed out. He went to the river to swallow some water and came back with some of it in his palms. He sprinkled it on Yash, who got up, shaking his head as if he had just woke up from a bad dream. The pain in his leg was number now, and he thanked Sandesh for being brave enough to do what doctors generally did in operation theatres under anaesthesia.

“Where did you learn to do that?” he asked.

Sandesh replied, “I did a professional course on First Aid and Elementary Nursing last year during the holidays!”

Despite the pain, Yash laughed as the two friends clung to each other for a while.