Authors: Mainak Dhar
'Uncle, can you swing from one tree to another like Tarzan?'
Ganesh looked at Abhi, puzzled since he had never heard of Tarzan, and so Abhi tried a different tack.
'No, no, maybe like George of the Jungle!'
Now, his stomach full with an apple in it, Abhi was back to full form as he began singing.
'George, George, George of the jungle, friend to you and me...'
Swati was trying to hush him in vain as everyone smiled. Ganesh's eyes suddenly turned serious.
'We heard about the Ashram and the fact that the boy was there.'
Mayukh was now really curious about how everyone seemed to know about Abhi so he asked Ganesh.
'Everyone knows. At a time like this, any flicker of hope spreads like a wildfire. One of our women supplied apples to the Ashram in return for food supplies, and she heard about the boy who cannot be hurt by the demons.'
Two women brought forward a meal of rice and boiled potatoes and placed it in front of Mayukh and the others, ladling the food onto leaves. It was a simple meal but as Mayukh put the hot rice in his mouth, he thought it was the most delicious meal he had ever had. Swati spoke to one of the women serving them.
'Thank you. I know you must have limited food, so thank you for sharing it with us.'
The woman looked at Swati and gently tousled Abhi's hair.
'Daughter, I am an uneducated apple picker, and I don't know or understand many things, but in the midst of all this darkness, this boy is the only sign of hope we have.'
Ganesh touched Mayukh's arm gently, almost pleading with him.
'Keep him safe and see if he can help us remove this darkness that has fallen upon us.'
It was now close to ten in the morning, and Mayukh heard from Ganesh that Ladakh was a good five hour drive away. He wanted to get going as soon as they could, but they were all dead tired and badly needed some rest and sleep. Ganesh and his friends laid out some blankets in the orchard and they slept, asking to be woken up in a couple of hours. For the first time in many days, Mayukh slept peacefully and when he was awakened by a gentle nudge from Swati, he woke with a smile on his face.
'Why are you smiling?'
Mayukh sat up and held her hand, trying to remember and savour every detail of his dream.
'I saw us- me, you, Abhi. Together. Walking into a mall, eating fast food, watching a movie, doing the small things we took for granted.'
Mayukh could see Swati's eyes start to fill with tears, when Abhi cut in.
'If we're having fast food, I want French Fries.'
They laughed and got up to prepare for what they all hoped would be the last leg of their journey.
***
It was now just past one in the afternoon and they had driven for almost an hour through a landscape that saw the lush orchards of the Manali area slowly but surely give way to long stretches of barren rock, a forerunner of the desolate mountain passes they were headed towards. Swati was still driving, with Mayukh sitting in the back, playing the role of part babysitter and part gunner, with Abhi on his lap and his shotgun by his side. David was watching all the road signs and was trying to ensure that they did not get lost in the hilly passes. Despite it being in the middle of the afternoon, the cold was already getting so severe that they stopped once to put on an extra layer of clothes, and eat some more apples to give them more energy.
David saw Swati's breath quicken as she seemed to be gasping for air, so he asked her to pull over.
'Swati, we're now at much higher altitude than you may be used to, and the air will keep getting thinner. So the oxygen may not go to your brain as efficiently as it normally does. Don't panic, just take slow, deep breaths and you should be okay.'
As they restarted, Swati tried to heed his advice, but she found it tough going. Mayukh seemed to be coping much better with the altitude and they swapped places. There was no sign of anyone around, so they did not really think twice about not having the extra firepower of the shotgun readily available.
Abhi was in high spirits, no doubt boosted by the apples he had eaten. While all the others were worried about what lay ahead and also thinking of Hina's loss, he was exhibiting that wonderful and most envious of traits of children- the ability to live fully in the present. So he delighted in pointing out birds he saw, and screamed in delight when they saw what appeared to be a deer dashing into the trees. Despite the hilly terrain, Mayukh was trying to go as fast as he could, conscious of the fact that they needed to reach Ladkah before Sunset.
David suddenly shouted in triumph.
'Just saw a sign. Ten kilometers more to Rohtang Pass. We're well on our way!'
Mayukh knew that was both good news and bad news. Good because they were making steady progress; bad because from what the guide had said, after Rohtang Pass, they would well and truly be in mountain terrain. The roads would not allow them to go as fast, and he was also increasingly worried about how Swati would cope with the altitude as they went higher.
After half an hour more of driving, they decided to stop for a break. Mayukh's arms and legs were cramped and aching from the sharp turns and he was exhausted from always having to watch that they did not fall off the edge of the road. David was of course not in any position to drive, and Swati bravely volunteered, but one glance between Mayukh and David told both of them that they thought she was in no shape to drive. David handed each of them an apple.
'Eat and rest for ten, then we start again. We'll get through Rohtang in a few minutes, and then it should be no more than a couple of hours.'
Mayukh sat down on the ground, his back to the van, preparing for the home stretch. Swati came over and sat beside him, resting her head against his shoulder as he pulled her close.
'I'm so sorry. I'm not helping at all.'
Mayukh held her hands and looked at her.
'Swati, you've been just amazing so far. We just need to hang in there a little bit longer and we're safe.'
Abhi was busy playing with some rocks by the roadside, and when David tried to tell him it was time to go, he looked at him with his wide eyes.
'But I want to play!'
No amount of cajoling could get him to budge, so finally David decided he'd try another strategy.
'Come on and I'll tell you a story.'
That got Abhi's attention.
'What story is that?'
'Remember Mayukh told you about the boy who needed to be brave. This one's about how that boy met a brave and beautiful Princess. Want to hear it?'
Abhi whooped in excitement and got into the van as David winked at Swati.
'Will the brave Princess also get in?'
It was now four in the evening and Mayukh was beginning to wonder if their decision to take a nap in the morning would come back to haunt them. They passed a sign proclaiming they were beyond Rohtang Pass, and soon enough, a breathtaking vista of snow-capped mountains unfolded before them. There was not a soul in sight as they continued down the highway, which was in much better shape than any of them had imagined. When David saw several abandoned Army trucks by the roadside, he realized that the roads must have been kept in good condition to allow easy transport of soldiers and equipment to Ladkah, which he knew was a strategic choke point near both the Chinese and Pakistani borders.
They drove for another hour of what seemed to be bliss. It was as if they had come out for a picnic together, instead of having endured the horrors they had been subjected to over the last week or so. Abhi kept pointing to birds in the clear sky and at the snow in the mountains around them. It was the first time he had seen snow, and he cried out loud.
'Is that a giant ice cream cone?'
Swati forgot about the troubles she was having breathing and Mayukh joined her in singing some old songs. They discovered that they both liked Ronan Keating and soon they were crooning away with a pretty off key rendition of `When You Say Nothing at All'. David, not one for pop, couldn't help but wince at their singing skills, but equally, he could not help but be caught up in everyone's excitement and enthusiasm. Once they had finished singing, he treated them to his own rendition of Enter Sandman, which Mayukh assured him sounded nothing at like the original.
And so they continued through the hilly roads, seeing nobody or nothing other than the occasional car or Army truck by the roadside and making. As he saw a sign by the roadside, David struck a note of caution.
'Folks, we should probably be a bit more careful in the stretch ahead.'
'Why, what's up ahead?'
David turned to look at Swati to answer her question.
'We just passed some place called Keylang, and up ahead is Baralacha. The guide had said that the roads there suck.'
Mayukh laughed.
'Could our navigator be a bit more specific about how it sucks?'
David slapped him playfully on the shoulder.
'It can be dangerous since at this time frost has started appearing and the roads are narrow to begin with. Now can our fearless driver concentrate a bit more on driving instead of singing?'
Five minutes later, Mayukh was no longer smiling. If anything, the guide's warning had been an understatement. Looking down to his right he could see the valley hundreds of feet below while up ahead, he could see no more than a few feet before the road turned again. He thanked his stars that at least he didn't have to worry about traffic coming from the other direction, but with the bumpy, narrow and winding road, he was having more than his share of trouble in managing to keep them in one piece.
David's joking had also stopped abruptly, and he was looking nervously at the road ahead as well, and Swati was trying her best to not shout out warnings to Mayukh. She knew that the last thing he needed at this time was backseat driving from her. If there was one saving grace, it was the fact that Abhi, bored by what he saw as the sudden lack of interest from the adults, had curled up in Swati's lap and fallen asleep, oblivious to the bumps.
As Mayukh turned a corner, the van lurched hard and he struggled to keep it from veering off the cliff to his right. David leaned over and with his right hand helped Mayukh pull the steering wheel so the van did not swerve out of control as Mayukh applied the brakes and the van came to a halt, one wheel almost at the edge of the cliff.
David got out of the van, hoping that it was not what he feared it would be. He exclaimed loudly and let loose a stream of expletives.
'What's wrong?'
Mayukh was now next to David and he shouted in exasperation when he saw what David saw.
Two of their tires were flat, and in the hurry to get away from the Ashram nobody had even checked if they had spare tires, a fact that Swati soon confirmed.
So some eight thousand feet above sea level, in biting cold, with one hour or less to go to Sunset, the four of them gathered together to face what the night might bring.
***
TWELVE
'They are coming.'
Abhi had said the three words in no more than a mere whisper, but Mayukh, David and Swati stopped in their tracks. Mayukh put him down and knelt before him, looking into his eyes.
'Abhi, who is coming?'
Abhi pointed to the cluster of huts a few kilometers to their left.
'The not nice people are coming.'
David took a good look in the direction Abhi was pointing and then turned towards Abhi.
'Abhi, I don't see anybody out there. They're not coming so don't worry.'
Abhi didn't look very convinced and muttered, barely audible to the others.
'But I can feel them coming.'
Swati had been trekking through the hilly terrain with the others, gamely trying to keep up and not slow the others down for the last hour since they had abandoned the van and proceeded on foot. The Sun had just begun to set, and David had just told them that based on what he remembered from the guide they were still at least a couple of hours walk away from the Thirse Monastery. They had taken turns carrying Abhi through much of the journey, with Mayukh taking on the lion's share of the carrying, but even Swati had volunteered to carry her brother when she had seen Mayukh tiring. But now she seemed to lose much of her composure at Abhi's words. She grabbed hold of Mayukh's arms.
'What if they're really out there?'
Mayukh tried to sound confident, but was too tired to do a convincing job of acting.
'Look, we haven't seen a soul for hours. The best we can do is to just keep walking. Come on, Swati. Hang in there, we're so close.'
David was watching their exchange, and suddenly he picked up the small bag filled with apples and water he had been carrying and started walking. Mayukh called after him.
'David, where are you going?'
He turned towards them, his face all business.
'After all we've been through to get so far, I am not about to quit. If we do, all that pain, all that loss, Hina- all of it would have been for nothing. Now, are you coming or not?'