Continued ........
God
Dammit ! I mumbled the prayers my grandma taught me when I was a kid.I become
alert due to the fear. I could even hear minute sounds like that of the
clock ticking in the living room.I was becoming mad.
Minutes
passed .Finally I mustered up guts, rolled over and tried to switch on
the bedroom light.
Ughhhhhhh
.. NO POWER !
What
the hell ! How worse can it get ? I could sense shadows lurking in the other
room.I did not want to look there.
I
wanted to talk to someone.But there was no one to talk to. The only friend I
had will not talk to me anymore ! Can't blame him. I dragged him into
this.He never wanted to come.
Kevin
was the kind of guy who lived life on his terms and did things he wanted
to without caring about people around him.He was tall and well built.He
looked intimidating and had tattoos which he flaunted. But he has a great guy
once you got to know him.He was my colleague at the call center.We had worked
together for 4 yrs.We joined as agents and got promoted as team leads
around the same time.
My
wife never liked him.She thought Kevin was a prick .The truth was that she
hated his guts.Stupid Bitch ! He made fun of her couple of years back
during one of our team lunches. It was something regarding her dressing
sense (which according to me was retarded).But whatever! Who am I to say
! She never forgot that and hated him eversince.
Kevin
lived in with his gf in his apartment at the other side of the city. They never
visited my house due to obvious reasons.
I
cursed myself for going for the ride that night.It was a typical friday
night at office.It was almost midnight and there were very little people in
office . There were no chicks in the bay .So no entertainment there too.
Kevin
was sitting at my desk and we were discussing the new call targets and
the pressure on us from the management to deliver.There were 2 agents sitting
opposite to us .They did not have any calls for sometime now. We decided to
take break and asked them to take an aux (break ) and come with us outside for
a smoke .Both these kids were new joinees and were getting used to the way
stuff worked here.There lived away from the city and their village persona came
out in the naive way they spoke.
We
walked out and went to the tea(cigarette) shop outside.There
were few like us there .Stray dogs were sleeping cozily on the roadside.We took
tea and cigarettes and moved to the corner.One of the newbies started talking
about his village which was somewhere near Anchetti forest .The Forest
was located arout 150 kms from Bangalore.It seemed like an interesting
place.It got little spooky when they spoke of the superstitions about the
place.They talked about this forest banglow located right in the middle of the
jungle.In the past, people had gone missing when they travelled near the place
inside the jungle at night. We laughed it off saying that it was obvious that
in a jungle with wild dogs,leapords,elephants,boars and hell even fresh water
crocodiles,this seemed 'business as usual'. But they argued that it was not
animals that had to be feared and that there were other things in the
dark waiting for you.
Kevin
started giggling. So did I.The newbee got serious and put up his hand and
pointed to his wrist,There were couple of threads tied to his wrist .A red one
and a black one.It resembled the ones you get in temples.He said that, he
had once trailed off into the forrest as a kid .He remembered something
chasing him .Hours later someone from his village spotted him lying unconsious
in the bushes nearby.He also said that he wore those mantric threads on his
wrists everysince and it kept him out of danger.
I
looked at Kevin and told him we have to give it a shot.He said it was not worth
it.The boys warned us saying that it was not wise to do something like that .I
ignored it and said they have to treat us if we made it till the jungle rest
house and got back.One of the boys smirked and said we won't be coming back for
the treat.That ticked me off.I said then and there that we are going to that
place tonight.I proceeded to ask them all other details and land marks around
the place.They warned me again but reluctantly gave me the details.When they
tried to advice me again,I shooed them back telling them that their
break is over and they have to get back to calls.
I
looked over at Kevin.He was thinking about something.I told him that we should
go and check out the place and that it would be a thrilling experience.He was
interested but said he wasn't sure if he wants to do it.I stood there for the
next five minutes and convinced him to join me.We decided to leave my bike at
the office and take his bullet.It would save lotsa petrol that ways.His was '95
make 350 cc heavily modified bike.Kevin spend half his salary maintaining the
bike.We did not call our homes and tell about this trip as our logout
time was 8:30 am.So we told one of our colleagues to handle the team and
said we will be back in couple of hours or so.
Uncharacteristically,Kevin's
bike did no start .We had to try for a good 5 mins until it finally did.Good
sign to start a trip!
We
took the hosur main road and traveled to hosur where we refueled(full tank as
bullet is not a high mileage bike.Also,we did not know where the petrol
pumps were) and stopped for dinner .There was a small roadside shop which
served liquor in the back side.We had roti and chicken and couple of beers to
top it up .
The
Tamilnadu roads were pretty good.It was slowly getting windy which was
uncharacteristic for July .We travelled for another hour or so.I
rode and rode.There were villages on the way but not a soul outside.
The
road started getting narrow and there were no vehicles around . We passed
another village on the way.There were no street lights or even electricity in
the huts.
The
slopes slowly started to appear.It was nice riding in this place.It was windy too.I kept asking
Kevin not to sleep sitting at the back.I did not feel drunk.But the pitch
darkness was making me little uneasy.
Now
we were approaching hair pin bends and we could see the forest area slowly
starting.It baffled me that there no vehicles coming either way.Not even trucks
! Kevin asked me to stop the bike.I asked him why ? He said he had to pee.Great
!
I
somehow did not like the idea of stopping the bike .I asked him to get down .I
kept the light on and started gunning the bike.Stopping and listening to the
sights and sounds of the jungle(Which was growing thicker on the road side )
was not great.There was something in my head which was telling me to stop and
turn back. Alcohol ! Wat else?
Kevin
came back.We drove away .I looked at my watch.It was almost and hour and a half
since we started.It was pitch black all around us but we were getting a lot of
moon light .We were nearing our destination. I looked out for the sign
board which the boys had told us.That was the place where we had to take a
diversion from the main road. The forest guest house was another kilometer or
so from there.
There
it was .A small sign on the left .It was made out of white cloth.Somebody had
drawn a stop symbol on it.I slowly took a left turn into the narrow bumpy
road.Kevin was fully awake now.He was asking if we had reached.I nodded.This
small and narrow road had vegetation on both sides which made it very difficult
to ride the bike.Finally, we decided to get down and push the bike.The Place
was beautiful.We were somewhere in the hills and we could see lots of land from
where we were.It could have been nicer if there was daylight though.I had
turned off the bike and started using the pocket torch I carried in my
bag.There was lots of fresh grass on the road now.It felt as if this trail had not been used lately.I could hear birds and crickets now. Birds…must be some
nocturnal ones.It was getting a lil chilly too.
I
stopped for a second and pointed something to Kevin.There was a lil bit of fog
in the air.It was weird that there was fog in a summer month.The sounds of
nature around grew a notch louder and our vision blurrier.I could sense the
uneasiness with Kevin too.We were near.
to be continued......
