The Great Downpour

Chapter XIX

Chapter XIX

Rain resumed at about 5:00 p.m. in the evening. At that moment, Chand and Seeta were just getting up from their nap; Yash, Bhairavi, Sandesh and Muhammad were trying to negotiate past a small but deep cleft in the ground; Rati and Nanda were washing themselves in the river and Farhad and Nazima were just climbing atop a small hillock to look out across a breathtaking view of the National Park.

At this moment, Gangadin, the other peon who was also carried away by the river to the deep forest, was purposefully knocking on the door of a small shack that he had accidentally stumbled on to while walking around the forest.

“Is anyone there?”

The shack was a run-down affair made from a mix of cement-mortar-bricks and wooden logs. Its exterior paint had peeled off almost completely. There was a small well just next to the shack, which, Gangadin observed, was dry and smelly. He opened the door and went in. There was no one inside. A few large rats scurried away as he entered the room. The walls were moldy, the floor, covered with dust and grime, and the corners, full of spiders. Lizards, large and small, roamed the ceiling. A single naked bulb hanged from a bare wire in the centre of the room. Gangadin located the switch-board behind the door and tried to turn it on. Alas, it would not light despite his repeated attempts. He moved around the room, examining the various pieces of furniture such as the sideboard, the almirahs, the four-poster bed and the chairs turn by turn. He found nothing remarkable in any of the drawers and spaces. Disgusted, he was about to walk out of the hut when he suddenly saw a black, dust-covered rotary telephone instrument sitting idly on a small side table in the corner.

“A telephone! What a surprise …!” he thought to himself. He carefully dusted it and brought it out into the centre of the room. Lifting the receiver, he put it to his ear. There was no sound at all in the receiver. Assuming it to be dead, Gangadin placed the receiver back in its cradle and continued to look around the room. There was a smaller door at the far end of the room and it led into a small, but surprisingly well-equipped kitchen! There was a stove, a gas cylinder, a rickety looking old refrigerator and some bottles filled with spices and pulses. All the rest of the larder was empty. At the back of the kitchen was a toilet and bathing area. Gangadin checked the rusty-looking tap to see if water was available – it was available, but it came in a measly trickle and it smelled dirty.

Totally disappointed in the shack, he decided to go away from here. Just as he was reaching the main door, his knee hit the edge of a table that stood on the right of the door.

“Ouch!” he said, as he bent to massage his knee. It was then that he noticed something sparkling in the dust. I wonder what that is, he thought as he sat on his haunches to examine the sparkling object more closely. It seemed to be like a …it couldn’t be!! …like a diamond! Immediately, he began to rummage under the table, raking the dust with his nails. At once, he came upon three more diamond-shaped objects. Excited, he began to expand his search till he had turned every speck of dust aside: his effort yielded him about 15 more diamonds scattered all around the shack. He couldn’t believe his fortune! First I am cast out into the forest and now I stumble on to this! Oh God! I hope these diamonds are real! They’ll transform my life! He cut a small piece of fabric from his pants pocket and carefully put all the nineteen stones into the centre of the fabric. Next, he tied up the ends of the fabric till the entire lot had been neatly reduced into a bundle that fitted into his shirt pocket. He was walking with a tired stoop when he had entered the shack, hungry and thirsty. Now, he was walking jauntily, smiling at the stroke of luck as he kept feeling the bundle with his hands, as if to confirm that he wasn’t dreaming.

He had soon reached the near bank of the Pench River. He started walking in an upstream direction. At around six p.m., as the sky was gradually darkening, he came upon the duo of Rati and Nanda.

“Gangadin!” They shouted together with happiness and joy.

“Hello, bachchon! How are the two of you? Where are the rest of the students?” asked Gangadin.

“We don’t know that, but we intend to find them before the day is done,” said Nanda.

“Let me stay with the two of you,” offered Gangadin.

Rati immediately nodded her head though she was a bit worried from within. When she spoke to Nanda about her misgivings in spending the time with a male who was not of their social station and a stranger besides, Nanda reminded her that regardless of those disadvantages, Gangadin was a male, and it was an asset to have him with them in case of an animal attack or other unforeseen dangers. Rati realized the truth of what Nanda was saying and they proceeded further.

***

Towards the evening, the rains intensified further. Giant drops of water fell from the ends of the branches and leaves. The teak trees, some eighty to hundred feet tall, gave a modicum of shade and protection to Chand and Seeta, but increasingly, the large drops kept disturbing them.

Around the time the sun finally set, Chand nudged Seeta.

“Wake up, Seeta, we’ve got to move!” he exhorted.

“All right, Chand,” said Seeta as she raised her head from Chand’s chest. Feeling shy, she said, “Sorry.” “Never mind, Seeta,” said Chand, equally bashful, but at the same time, not a little excited about the whole thing. It wasn’t that Seeta was a perfect girl, but she was petite, wheat-complexioned and not at all bad looking. Chand had never had such feelings for her earlier, but over the last six or eight hours, everything had changed for him. He did not know if Seeta too felt the same way. Given the circumstances, it did not seem like the right time to explore each other’s sexuality. Hence, he kept his thoughts much to himself while at the same time continuing to admire his new love.

Seeta knew that Chand was watching her every move. She did not find anything wrong in him as a friend; however, she had no romantic feelings for Chand, a large bear of a man. She mulled it over in her mind and reached the conclusion that while she would not discuss the issue threadbare during their time together, she would also not give any indication that his love was being reciprocated in any way.

Chand was not feeling too good. He felt as if he had a fever coming on. This wasn’t surprising since the wounds in his flanks had started to pain tremendously. He asked Seeta to help him open the make-shift bandaging that they had done in the morning. Together, they removed the dupatta and the trousers that Seeta had secured over his mid-riff. The gashes had stopped bleeding and the skin around them was inflamed and swollen. Chand feared that the wounds might get infected as he had received no medical attention so far, and the leopard’s claws would have been anything but sterile!

Seeta knew that Chand needed medical attention and he needed it soon. She had already felt his hot skin and correctly presumed this to be a harbinger of infection in the wound. She washed the trousers and the dupatta in the river and came back to apply them afresh to the wounds. Chand tried to disallow her but she insisted on doing what she felt was right. Soon, Chand was as ready as he could. They began their journey upstream of where they were.

***

Night falls quickly in a forest. The birds return to their roosts, their chirping sounds ascending to a crescendo that threatened to drown out all other sounds of the forest. Hooting sounds proclaimed to all who cared to listen that the night belonged to the nocturnal creatures, most of them predators – hunters with keen night visions like owls, sharp sonar like bats, and voracious appetites like the big cats. The night also belonged to some herbivores like the Spotted deer or the Chittal, the rodents and the porcupines, the snakes and the mongooses, the night jar and the “queen of the night” or the “Raat rani”, a small, tenacious plant whose flowers spread a heady perfume only at night, the scorpions and the spiders and the rain that continued to pour down from the heavens, washing off dirt from all the living things that stood or came in its way.

It was getting to be very dark when Farhad and Nazima began climbing down from the hillock. Tired and hungry, they were wondering where to spend the night safely. They must have been about twenty feet above ground level, when Nazima saw a small flickering light deep in the forest. It seemed to be a burning fire! If what she was seeing was real, then this was the first happy sighting she had had since they had all got separated. She called Farhad to look at the light. He agreed with her deduction and added that this meant that their rescue was not very far.

How wrong he was!