1996-A Summer Afternoon

It was a summer afternoon. I was going through my college photographs,wishing those days were back and time would just stop there.

How Nostalgic...The mere thought of it would bring an instant smile on my face.
I was lost in thought when i recollected one of those adventurous trips that we had on one such summer afternoon.

We friends would love to explore different places during our graduation.Those were fun filled days..no stress ,no tension (except exams and project completion-not to deny). Those were the days when we just wanted to be in the open...with nature...Do what we feel is right and just not bothered about the rest of the world.

As said by someone time doesn't wait for anyone and does not come back.

We set off to a nearby place at first.This is in the southern state of India with its mystic beauty and full of valleys and greenery.A sight that would take any one's breath away...On the way back..we found a fishery.They would breed fish there.We thought of exploring the place.

When we got near,we found it was locked. We thought for a while and finally found a way to pas those iron gates.
There was a small space that was supported by a wall,small enough for us to climb and get past the monster gates.With the help of each other finally we managed to get in. We were excited to be inside.

Once in,we realized,that the place that we found to be so ordinary and abandoned from outside,was beautiful with streams,a pond with some fishes still alive..fighting amongst themselves, a house(yes..locked).Completely peaceful and we were all by ourselves.We felt the sense of freedom and achievement for the first time in our lives.

Achievement of doing the most daring thing done till date.Just imagine a bunch of girls getting into an abandoned or thought to be an abandoned place not realizing the possible danger ahead.

The stream was beautiful.Going further,there was a pathway..didn't know where it would lead..Moreover no one around on a hot summer afternoon...Our minds wanted to move forward,but out heart panicked.Finally,we walked the path before us.Curious to know where it would lead us...We abruptly stopped.

There was this huge rock in front of us,that had to be crossed, huge and tall enough and a bit steep as well.Didn't know what to do..Dint want to go back..Wanted to know what lay behind the big strong rock that obstructed US. We were not accustomed to trekking.

This was one such trek experience.We stood there staring at it .Finally one of my friend tallest among all manage to climb the rock and one after the other we crossed the rock.What we saw then was unexpected..A forest area with a thin line of water flowing in between the cut rocks.It was in its full speed.Looked as if it was so happy to be flowing and full of laughter.

The sound of this stream was so pure and loud and the silence.

The water was chill and crystal clear.We had a wonderful time.We were so lost in the surrounding that we lost the sense of time.
I
t was nearing dusk,when we started our way back home. We again faced the rock that was challenging us.
To our dismay,one of our friend had hurt her ankle when we were in the water.She accidentally banged her leg to a rock and was hurt.Poor girl, had trouble walking.

The major challenge now was to get her cross the rock so that we could get out. It was getting dark and we had no much time left.Had to act fast.For a while we thought we were all stuck here for ever.She couldn't climb and we were finding difficulty in helping her out as we didn't want to hurt her.Meanwhile,one of my friend managed to cross the rock and was waiting for us.

The rock was in such a position that if one slipped,they would land up into the fishery tank.The tank was deep enough for anyone to drown. We were panicky.We didn't have anyone whom we could cry out for help.

My friend who had already crossed the rock was good at swimming. She was waiting there and decided in case this friend slips and lands up in the pool,she would be there to get her out.The only way was to motivate and build in lots of courage in this friend and help her out.

Meanwhile,2 of us climbed the rock and managed to balance.others were standing with this friend who was injured.

We tried our level best but it was becoming more and more difficult.Finally,we managed to help her out of the situation. We all got back to the vehicle waiting outside.There were some curious onlookers as well,wanting to know what was going on and were rather shocked to see us getting out of that place.

We quietly got into the vehicle and drove away to our final destination leaving behind us the fishery and the trouble causing rock. All that we carried with us was the memory of our Heroic deed.
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ust then the door bell rang and i was shaken out of my nostalgia and the memory of this incident. I was flung back to the present only to see a salesman waiting to give a demo.All that i could do was smile.

I enjoyed writing this experience.I hope all you readers would enjoy reading it too.