"TRUE STORY"
Greenery and yellow mustard fields on both sides of the road. Bright
sunny day, super cool relaxing wind and we five friends in an auto on
the way to the historical Chunar fort. Chunar one can corelate if
remember the famous novel Chandrakanta..
Kisi din banungi mai raja ki rani…the recorder in the auto played and
many other beautiful tracks of 90s. I busy in sight scenes took my
phone out of my bag and messaged, “good morning love, and miss u so
much”. It was 11:12 A.M. by my watch. If someone is out on such a long
drive to a picnic spot kind of place then as taught by our romantic
hindi movies; we are forced to miss our beloved. We were three girls
Reeva, Meghna and I and two boys Rishi and Aditya and definitely the
auto wala bhaiya in that typical breed of auto and gypsy. We sang, we
laughed and cracked jokes on one another. There is always a funny
conversation when people are in the combination of law and journalism.
Off course the pillars of Indian democracy.
“I miss you too”. Beeped my phone.
I passed a light smile and typed ‘we are going to a distant place
from the city, it would be fun plus we’ll do a story there,” and deleted
whole text and simply wrote,” I love you”. And again got busy in
cracking poor jokes. All those who know me closer, know it too that I’m
very bad at jokes but still I try. You know its like try until you
succeed. Hahhaa
It was my phone that beeped again. I saw the text that read,”love you too sweets”.
Deep into my romantic thoughts I was lost in the scenic beauty of the
roadside. A complete portrayal of Indian roads, villages by the side.
Reeva and I being journalism student find something weird in every thing
and three of them being law students introspect everything. Deadly
combination. Laughing weirdly, waving hands to every passersby and
discussing several sensible and non sensible things we came to realize
that the road has ended. We got down of that three tired typical mixed
breed auto. A narrow lane with bushes on both the sides. Walking down
that lane we were talking of all those typical bollywood movies that
talk of treasure hunt and other such things. Indian culture is widely
derived from bollywood I must say. I have a worm of photography; so took
out my shutter gun (Nikon). As much as I remember we have typically
moved 50 steps and then whatever I saw stunned me.
A huge beautiful castle on the top of a hill and by the side of
glorious river Ganga which looked like sea. Far away there were lovely
forests, up and down steeply hills and the oxbow turn of river added to
the beauty of the place. A place far away from all kinds of pollution.
Silent, quite and full of nature. A low bridge made on drums joined the
two banks. My camera has fallen in love with the place by the time and
my eyes were trying to look as much as they can. I didn’t want to miss
even a single second. It was a place so beautiful to be a tourist
destination, a perfect place to shoot. We were really amazed to see
those dolphins jumping out to inhale and those pigeons flying low down
the river. I can see the reflection on the water surface. Amazing!
“You guys are living here for three years and still u never been to this place ever?” I asked Aditya.
He laughed. All of us were mesmerized by the beauty. The bridge shook
every time some heavy vehicle passes through. Holding each other’s hand
we were crossing that “peepa pul” (drum bridge). I was certainly lost
in two things one is off course what and how to click and other is
definitely my love and his romantic thoughts. Sand that to too warm, we
reached the other side. Filled with joy and enthusiasm to explore new
places we kept moving. Unknown to the fact that what the next moment has
in store for us. I was clicking and clicking. Blue, green, white,
yellow, brown; so many colors with so many shades. Nature has poured its
color bottles here.
We climbed few steps. Temples and small shops of general things,
p.c.o. , stony sloppy narrow lane leading to the fort at a height. We
found a shortcut to reach there. It was through rocks. We got down to go
up. High stones but not higher than our passion to go there. I, a crazy
photographer was shooting bushes, branches, cob web, donkeys, stones
and every single thing. Aditya and Rishi got up first to check for the
suitable way, then climbed Reeva and off course me “ the crazy
photographer”. Meghna was still in dilemma to climb up or not.
“C’mon!!! Dar kay aagay jeet hai, climb it up . Don’t be a spoil sport.” Shouted I.
I gave my sun glasses to Aditya and my camera to click a pic of
mine..even I need to show my presence. Somehow meghna managed to climb
up. Now we were at three levels. Highest were Aditya, Reeva and Rishi ..
I was down to them and Meghna at the lowest… I held her hand at pulled
her at my place..
We were giving titanic poses all alone. Nobody was a Kate Winslate or Leonardo De caprio..
We were the real us. Completely drowned in our joy and laughter.
“ there is no any way to go above, we shall move down.” Shouted
Aditya from a height.. mind being engaged in capturing moments, I threw
my bag and sandles and cautiously came down… it was a lovely panorama.
Rocks on both sides. Prickly pear blooming with yellow flowers and blue
river flowing calmly.
Clicks, clicks and lots of clicks
Suddenly heard a noise, some shouts when I turned back. Few localites
were running fiercely up towards Aditya and Rishi. By the time we
tried to understand things, they punched our friends to bleed. Meghna
rush down in fear, got hurt. Reeva when tried to stop them was pushed
forcefully. Somehow she managed to balance herself on that rock. I ran
to help. I shouted screamed but nobody came to help. I ran to local
priest and some boatmen. By the time those boys have beaten our friends
so much. Aditya got his spectacles broken. Rishi was pushed badly. They
held them with collar and threw on the land. Abused us like hell and
threaten us to cut into pieces. I tried to stop them, they were beating
Rishi with legs. He was bleeding badly. They defended themselves but all
in vain. Till then some boatmen came to our rescue but those demons
were not ready to listen anything. Meghna started crying in fear. I was
not able to understand what’s happening. I was asking every next person
to tell what’s happening. some people then help us separate from them.
now Aditya and Rishi were ready to fight. Some how we stopped them
cause our priority was to leave the place safely. I requested the
boatmen to help us move out of that place. Four men escorted us back to
the bridge. They were bleeding heavily. My hanky was all colored red.
They washed their faces in river and then we moved back quietly.. we
just moved and moved. I turned back and saw the fort which was so
beautiful a half an hour ago. I was in a complete shock. Aditya and
Rishi were still trying to make the situation lighter but no one can do
in such a moment.
Everyone was terrified to the core. Unlike all girls I find it too
difficult to cry.. a half kilometers away from there we sat down to have
some medicine and tea. No medical shop was there.. they took tea. I and
Reeva were damn quite. Eventually she broke into tears.
I was still quite when my phone again beeped. The text read, “ what’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Yes I’ am but missing you so much”.
And with my eyes full of tears, those unable to roll down, I smiled..
We again hired a mixed breed auto cum gypsy and went back…
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