Saturday, April 3, 2010

RETURN JOURNEY FROM LACHUNG

JAN-23-2010

~9:00:00


we all got set and started for the return journey, we cracked a couple of jokes and laughed treating it as a good omen , after 3 hours we reached a check post , we were to stop there for the next 1 hour as it is an UNCONSTRUCTED HALF LANE GHAT ROAD and the vehicles from the bpttom has already started to come up, so its our turn to stop. 1 (pranai) of us shouted at others " guyz lets get down this 2 km ghat on foot " every one exchanged looks , five (me, pranai ,ram ,rahul ,vamshi) agreed and the rest 3 (rakesh ,chaitanya, pruthvi) decided to stay back ( thay kept a kukure packet hidden in their bag and planned to eat it after we are gone...kakurthi poragallu )

12:00:00

For the first 30 meters we encountered 2 turnings , we could clearly see and talk with people at the gate , we were laughing, jumping, running , pushing each other , we walked another 30 m , now we can hear their voices very faintly , for the next 30 m we couldnt hear them but we could see them and soon we were out of their site.. As soon as we hear a vehicle horn all the 5 should stand at the edge of the road in a line to allow vehicle, any slight mistake we will slip down... Rahul suddenly cried out what happens if a tiger comes here,another added what if monkeys ,another added what if wolfs, dogs, snakes and any damn dangerous animal..( we are not bothered about monkeys bcoz monkeys dont fight with monkeys right??) we dint give much thought to the rest, we just kept moving and laughing

12:20:00

All through this discussion we crossed some huts with no humans around , we crossed few shortcuts with no guide, we came half a kilometer with no fear. Fifth shortcut ( steps) is 10 meters a head of us, suddenly we saw a person climbing steps and i thought to give a smile at him , but he suddenly freezed seeing us, his expressions were very weird, he saw us as if we are buglers and there to rob his belongings, as if we are a part of simon commission and he is a true 1927 rebellious indian. His looks were fierce , he had a black strip surrounding him from the left side of his neck to right side of his abdomen. I could see a 2 inch 3 cm dia dimensional structure almost bisecting the angle between his neck and the shoulder, 3 of us said its a gun another 2 said it was just a stick , anyway he sent a wave of tension in our minds. we asked him the shortest way to reach the bottom he should us one,, we dint believe him for his way of answering and his way of response ,we went in the main way. we were a bit afraid and we left the place immediately . he started fallowing us in that way it made the situation more worse, there is no other human in a radius of ~half a kilometer ,, and what if he takes his gun and starts firing at us :(....

12:25:00

we increased our pace and he still kept fallowing us, suddenly 2 black dogs came from noware and started barking at us, they are in front and that person is coming behind us, we decided that 2 black dogs are better than a stranger with a gun ( what happens if both are of the same team ), we kept moving in a pack of five, very close to each other. we approached the dogs they started barking louder louder and louder , few steps we will be beside them , one of us tried to run to the opposite site but we held him tightly, we went on , now we are beside them , they dint move but barking loud enough that our friends at the top can hear them , we increased our pace and moved faster at last we crossed them , we felt a bit relaxed but suddenly one more dog started shouting , it came out of a hut a small distance away from us , i thought (" bull s**t , inkoka kukka gandam" ) two plus a stranger at the back and 1 dog in the front (venaka nuyyi mudu goyyi) so moving front is better, we kept moving we took a few steps, a cow with sharp horns came out of the hut and started shouting at us , my tension grew again , the good thing is it was tied and cant come far ( what happens if its broken ) we took few more steps a goat , few more steps a duck , (what the f**k) , whats wrong with us , why are these animals shouting at us , this is the first time in my life i saw a ferocious duck shouting at humans( may be it is a soldier for the kindom of the huts) , each animal is giving signal to others and they started shouting/barking at us, i couldnt interpret what are they talking ( may be dongnakodukulani pampakodadhu ikkade pathipetedam) .

12:35:00

we stopped there ,we cant move either side , i wanted to kill pranai for giving this crazy idea to walk , i wanted to shout at the animals in return " you filthy animals we cracked iit-jee2008 and u illiterates are shouting at us????" i could have done it if i knew their language. 5 mins passed nothing changed every thing is same ( maku still bayam vesthundi ) suddenly the dog went inside and a small kid came out of the house ,a ray of hope emerged in me, i waved at her and tried to talk but she ran back into her house, every 1 saw me as if i tried to kill her , and as if i destroyed their only chance to cross that place. A dog ,a cow , a goat, a duck , a kid whats next???? she came out again but with a knife in her hand now , i went numb for a moment " is this a dream or is this really happening , what the hell is going on ??" ... suddenly we heard a horn , so we understood a vehicle is coming from down so we stood up fast , we thought to cross the place while the vehicle is exactly in front of the house, the kid went inside as soon as she saw the vehicle, cow was tied already , there is no sigh of the dog it is the perfect time , we can move from the left extreme point of the road, we asked the vehicle to stop there and we ran immediately.. we were out of the spot at last , we thanked him and asked him to go on , he saw us as if we are a group of 5 mad people( i wanted to shout again " saale iit cracked ikkada"). Anyway we felt relived.. for the next 15 min we dint find any goats,ducks,cows,dogs,humans , finally we found our vehicle and we ran into it as soon as we saw it.

I still cant understand why these animals behaved at us like that , and specially the goat and the duck, we are lucky that the stranger dint cross the first 2 dogs, we dint find him after, may be he was going to his home and they were his dogs, only god knows about it, and whats the matter with that kid she was holding a knife almost half off her size. This 1 hour became the most memorable time in that tour and i remembered this part keenly than any other event like rafting , snow montains, tea gardens, darjeeling sunrise etc etc.. we took a video of the whole thing with a cell phone, if any one wants to see it contact me.

6 comments:

  1. slight dissappoint for not being in ur GROUP at dat time.......................................
    anyway.............its gud.....................
    one correction "its not KURKURE its LAYS..n only one packet................................

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. xcellent description mama..... it was just like walking through out the way again with our group....

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  4. deja vu...at its best...gimme da video dude..

    keep bloggin more..

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  5. thammi, writer ga settle avvalani emanna plans chestunnava? ;) way to go dude. mast rastunnav

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