The Great Downpour

Chapter XXI

Chapter XXI

Day Two

During the later half of the night and the early hours of the morning of the second day of the students’ misadventure in Pench National Park, the rain came in fits and starts, but it did not pour like it had in the day time. There was now a major group consisting of six of the marooned people, namely, Sandesh, Yash, Bhairavi, Nazima, Farhad and Muhammad, plus two smaller groups – one with Nanda, Rati and Gangadin and the other with Chand and Seeta now scattered within a radius of twenty-five kilometres, about 20 kilometres from the Seoni main gate of the park.

At this time, the SAR team was moving towards them at a speed of 15-20 kilometres per hour and was about 125 kilometres away, having travelled about 200 kilometres into the park from the Chhindwara gate since yesterday. The going had been tough on the first day since the formalities took some two hours, the eating and sleeping breaks consumed nearly eight hours and travelling across one of the bridges over a major tributary of the Pench took another two hours. From here on, travelling would be virtually smooth, but for the fact that the roads themselves were untarred at most places and the ride would be bumpy and troublesome, especially for the civilians who were accompanying.

Sundeep had already contacted the forest inspector Dubey who had conveyed that he and his men would try and do whatever was needed so that the lost people were contacted and brought back safely at the earliest. Dubey did, however, sound the warning that all this depended on one thing which was not in his control, namely the behaviour and the appetite of the man-eating tiger “Rising Water”.

“Do you mean to say that the tiger can change the entire equation?”

“Yes indeed!” replied Dubey.

“So what steps is your department taking to get him in control?”

“To tell you the truth, I would have tagged him two days ago. I was so close to him … but for the fact that I heard gunshots from the Reserve Office area, I would have chased him and his mate and got them both there and then itself.”

Sundeep knew that Dubey was speaking the truth because when they were being assaulted by the dacoits, the students had heard the growls of tigers from close by. He thanked Inspector Dubey and put down the telephone.

Recalling the conversation to his co-travellers was helping him pass the time and also reduce the anxiety and the fear that was gnawing at his heart from within.

The SAR convoy suddenly came to a halt. Sundeep opened the door of the bus to see why the bus had stopped. It was not immediately apparent as to why all the vehicles in front had stopped. He got off the bus to ask one of the policemen who had also stepped off his jeep.

“Sahib, we have orders not to allow you or any other civilian to step off the bus during the sojourn within the park,” said the policeman, obviously not wanting any disobedience within the ranks of the civilians.

“All right, I am going back inside,” said Sundeep, impressed at the strictness of the control exercised by Commander Pradeep Mehra, “but tell me why the convoy is held up.”

The hawaldar gestured to him to wait at the door while he went in front to make enquiries. In the meantime, Sundeep and the others could hear strange trumpeting sounds. He imagined that there were elephants nearby. He went behind the bus where there were steps to climb above the roof of the bus. He climbed to the roof and strained to look ahead to the front of the convoy. He could just make out the shapes of many pachyderms right in front of the leading jeep of the convoy.

In the meantime, the hawaldar returned with the news that the temporary hold-up was due to the blockading of the road by a herd of over 20 elephants.

“This is a huge herd, Sahib, even by Pench standards! We are having it moved soon. There is possibly a sick baby elephant within the herd and its mother is urging it to move, but the calf is not responding. It appears to be very weak. We dare not fire guns for fear of maddening the other members of the herd. Hence we are going to be slow and gentle about it.”

The situation meant a delay of at least a half to one hour; this was something Sundeep could do nothing about. He went back into the bus to tell the others about it.

In the meantime, the blockade cleared and the convoy began to move once again.

***

Seeta looked up and saw a pair of vultures circling the sky. She turned to Chand who was still asleep. When she touched his skin, she found it burning with fever. She knew what to do. She got up and tore a small piece off the hem of her kameez. Dipping it into water, she came back to Chand and sat down beside him. She gently untied the dupatta over the pants that were draped around Chand’s midriff. As she removed the pant, she saw that the swelling and redness over the gashes had increased. A few areas exuded frank pus. There was some amount of dirty bloody discharge too. This is a definite wound infection. I hope it does not spread inwards. He can die if something is not done soon. She started swabbing and sponging Chand with the wet cloth.

Chand stirred in his sleep and moaned as the pain hit him again, but he went back to a state of altered sleep. Seeta continued to sponge him for nearly an hour. She had read somewhere that sponging could reduce the high body temperature slowly but as effectively as a fever medication; however, there was a rider here: the fever would not come under control if the underlying condition continued to worsen. This realization caused her to once again resume sponging. Chand woke up then, and moaned again. Seeta looked at him and felt a sadness that she could not explain only on account of him being a college friend. She had really come to know him well in the past 24-odd hours. His sensitive and tender side had been exposed and Seeta’s mothering instincts had come to the fore. Owing to the injury, their relationship had started as care-taker and patient, but it was fast becoming a far more intimate one, with Chand openly communicating his feelings for her with his expressions and Seeta already not minding the adulation and the attention that she was getting.

Chand opened his eyes fully now and smiled wanly at Seeta.

“I am troubling you too much, Seeta,” he said between sighs.

“Don’t even say it, Chand!” Seeta put her finger to his lips when he tried to say something and added, “That’s enough of you already. Keep quiet and let me do my job.”

Chand smiled again and kept mum as Seeta continued to sponge him for yet another hour. By the time the sun climbed above the tree-tops, Chand’s fever had considerably abated and he was feeling better too.

“We must move or we’ll never find anyone else,” he said.

“How can we? Don’t you realize? You’re becoming worse, Chand. The wounds of the leopard are getting infected, you haven’t eaten a bite since yesterday evening and you aren’t getting any medicines inside you. I am really afraid for you, my friend,” said Seeta.

“Seeta, I know that deep inside of me, germs are multiplying fast. They may soon take a hold on my mind or my very being in this world. I know also that I might even die if medical attention doesn’t reach me soon,” said Chand. He began to weep. Seeta wiped his tears away with her hand.

“Don’t lose courage. We’ll soon be on our way home, just you wait!” We only have to find our other friends. I am sure Sandesh or Sundeep will find a way for us to reach a hospital as soon as possible. I promise to be by your side till you recover …”

“…or till I die, isn’t that what you meant to add?” interjected Chand. He spat into the ground as a measure of his dejection and anger.

“Why do you talk like this?” Seeta was exasperated at his depressive attitude.

“I am sorry, but I cannot rubbish the facts,” said Chand.

“The fact is that we are somewhere in Pench. Pench is a National Park supervised and controlled by the Ministry of Forests of the Government of India. A rescue effort must already have been launched by them. You have a wound infection, period. It is not as if there is a life-threatening infection yet, so get it right. YOU ARE NOT ABOUT TO DIE AS YET, okay?”

Chand turned pensive as he mulled over Seeta’s statement. He felt a little stupid as he did so. Of course, Seeta was right. They would be rescued soon, possibly even today. Why was he being so damned depressed?

He laughed loudly and opened his arms. Seeta arched her eyebrows to ask What? Chand beckoned her with his eyes. Feeling shy and bashful, Seeta walked into Chand’s arms and they hugged each other. The flame of love was lit. The day would pass less painfully for both of them.

***

Gangadin once again felt in his shirt pocket for the small bundle of precious stones that he had deposited there the previous evening. He carefully crossed over a crevasse in the ground, using a long broken branch for support. Reaching the opposite side, he now urged his companions to attempt the same. Nanda seemed reticent to do so, while Rati was keen to try out something “different”. Rati made the crossing first. The crevasse was just over four feet across at its narrowest point. Going around the long crevasse would have meant a climb of over 100 feet and a detour of God only knows how much distance, since they could not see where the crevasse ended. Rati took a deep breath, muttered Jesus Christ’s name, made the sign of the cross and levering herself with yet another long branch, she was up in the air and easily across to the other side. Nanda was smiling nervously as Rati picked up the branch and threw it back across to Nanda. Rati made a “thumbs up” sign and beckoned Nanda to come over. Nanda kissed the “Om” that she wore around her neck, picked up the branch and swung across. Up in the air, she looked down at the deep cleft in the ground. She immediately panicked and lost control of the jump. The branch skidded across the rocks, and she fell down, straight into the crevasse.

“Aaaa …” she screamed as her left knee hit the lip of the crevasse and she stumbled into the cleft. Mercifully, there was a small ledge of rock within the crevasse at a depth of just over five and a half feet, and she landed on top of it. Her right leg went in under her butt, and as she landed, she had the sensation of something bending unnaturally under her. She screamed with agony again. Both Rati and Gangadin were at the lip of the cleft in a flash, though Rati felt she had missed her call when Nanda’s branch began to skid. If she had had the presence of mind then, she would have jumped to catch and stabilize the branch; perhaps Nanda’s fall could have been prevented.

As it is, she did not know how to extract Nanda from this situation. Gangadin suggested that he would stay behind while she went ahead to locate the others. Rati rejected this suggestion outright. She asked Gangadin if he had any sharp-edged objects for her to cut some vines from the trees and thus have sufficient quantities of it to fashion a rope therefrom. Gangadin turned out his pockets and showed her the stuff that he carried. Among the objects there was a nut-meg crusher that the peon carried regularly with him. He had hung it on his key-ring.

Rati told Nanda to stay put where she was while she and Gangadin organized some way of extricating her from the predicament she had put herself in. Nanda only said, “Come back soon, please!”

The walls of the crevasse had porous sand, Nanda saw. There was wetness and damp everywhere. From where she sat, Nanda could hardly see 10-15 feet below her. It seemed the crevasse was very, very deep indeed. She thanked her stars that she had fallen on this ledge and not deeper. She hoped that the ledge was strong and would bear her weight without crumbling under her.

She closed her eyes and began thinking over the last two days. How terribly they had passed! And to think they had thought of enjoying a one-day picnic! First, the dacoits, then the wash-out of the bridge and the game of survival, and now this! What did God plan for her? Did he intend to take her away from this world? I cannot imagine what I will do if any more catastrophes strike me before the week is done!

When she opened her eyes, she saw a scorpion just a few inches away from her right knee. She screamed again. She was scared to the death of these creepy-crawlies. The scorpion must have sensed her fear, for it started to raise its tail menacingly. Nanda picked up her knee and her right hand from where they were near the scorpion. She slid away from the creature, all the while silently exhorting God to remove this “danger” and also telling the scorpion to “shoo!” and to “scoot!”

The scorpion moved toward her again. She thought of brushing it away with her hand encased in her dupatta, but what if it stings me through the thin fabric? Hence, she abandoned the idea of heroic effort and kept cringing away from the deadly tail of the scorpion. Now she was almost at the edge of the ledge. There was no further place to manouvre. She did not know what to do. She was not even wearing any footwear. Gingerly, she stood up and looked above her. She was now able to stand on her toes and look out at the ground level. She saw Rati and Gangadin almost 50-60 feet away. She screamed out Rati’s name as loudly as she could. The latter heard her this time and came running to her.

“What is it? Why are you screaming?”

“Look!” Nanda pointed to the scorpion. Rati was alarmed. She asked Nanda if she was safe till now.

“Yes, but please help me, fast!”

Rati thought for just a second. She asked Nanda to take the long branch that they all had thrown on the other side of the crevasse. With this branch, Nanda was able to push the scorpion away successfully. She let out a breath of relief. Next, Gangadin and Rati threw her the ends of some vines. Not really experienced in rescue operations, they did as best as they could. Between them, they finally managed to pull Nanda out.

The girls both hugged each other while Gangadin looked on with a smile on his face.

The three of them began walking again. Rati stopped Nanda and said suddenly, “I am famished. We’ve hardly eaten anything the last two days!”

Nanda agreed with her friend.

“But what can we really eat?” she asked.

Gangadin came over. He understood what the girls were talking about. He said with the utmost humility, “Madam, I know how to catch live fish.”

“What?” said Rati and Nanda together.

“Yes, Madam, I really can. Let us go to the river, and I’ll show you,” said Gangadin.

“I have a question, Gangadin. How do you plan to cook the fish?”

“I don’t know at present, but we’ll find a way, madam,” said Gangadin.

Both Rati and Nanda laughed at the simplicity of the peon, but they decided to humour him. The three of them walked up to the river. Gangadin showed them the trout that were swimming in the river.

“Note how they seem to be jumping from rock to rock in an upstream direction!” remarked Nanda with incredulity.

Gangadin smiled and explained. “This is the way these fish reproduce, Madam,” he said, adding, “They will go to the place where they laid eggs last year and lay them there again this year,” he completed.

“That’s marvellous, Gangadin!” said an obviously impressed Nanda.

“Madam, these are the fish I am planning to catch for us,” said Gangadin. He began to hunt for a sturdy stick or branch. Finding one that he liked, he started paring one of its ends so that it became a sharply pointed stick. For paring, he used the same instrument that he had used to cut the vines earlier, namely the nut-meg crusher. This time, he held it edge sideways and used it to scrape the wood filings away so that he finally had a sharp-pointed stick.

“I am done, Madam, shall we begin?”

“Okay.” This time, it was Rati who stood next to Gangadin as he stood astride two cobblestones that were inside the river but were very superficial. He held the long stick in one hand like a spear. Nanda watched with amazement when he struck the stick down with a sudden action. The spear-like end went like a knife into cheese into the back of a trout. It got impaled in a trice. Gangadin brought it out and removed it from the end of the stick. He went and kept the dead fish on a piece of abandoned cloth and went back to the river to catch more fish.