"Keep moving! Keep moving!" shouted the voice from behind "We better get out of here quick, coz if it gets dark, we'll be in real trouble." That's when panic set in. Dont know about the others, but I was scared shitless. It must have been palpable from my face, coz I heard someone reassure me tht everything will be fine. Was it Deepak? Was it Vaibhav? Dunno for sure. As it is, it was hard to make out wht was being said, leave alone identifying the speaker. All other noises kept drowning in the roaring thunder and lashing rain. But thank God, it was 'raining water' now - i couldn't endure any more of those TT-ball-sized hail pellets. As I tried turning around, I realised that my legs had been numbed by those chilling, cold winds. Fearing that this lack of sensation might worsen, I started stamping my feet on the ground, with the idea of warming them up. Everyone else had resumed their search for the boat and its owner. But we had come far ahead of the spot where we had landed and still, the boat was nowhere to be seen. All of us knew what had happened to it, but no one was ready to acknowledge the truth.
Who would have thought that a quiet evening at the 'ghat' would turn out this way. The program had been off-the-cuff. We had 2nd half to ourselves but it came at the cost of 1 precious, and hitherto, easily earned, attendance. The decision to spend the evening at 'Assi ghat' was unanimous. After all, its not everyday that u have a cool breeze and an overcast sky bringing the temperatures down on an otherwise hot, sunny afternoon. So the seven of us (Raghu, Vaibhav, Deepak, Kunal, Abhinav, Supreet and I) embarked on what promised to be an action packed, fun-filled trip. Action packed - it was...fun-filled? thats debatable. As soon as we reached there, we hired a boat to get across, where we cud put to use the football, that we had brought along, on miles and miles of sand, with the nearest sign of civilisation some 4-5 kms away. At the point where we landed, ground was rugged and uneven and thus unsuitable for play. So we began our search for even surface, which led us to our 'camping' spot after 5-10 mins of walk. The party began: Soccer and Sandwiches. I began capturing the panoramic scenary in my camera. Light colored sand contrasted against the dark grey cloud-cover to give a breath taking view!
Then came the change...the breeze turned into wind. The grey mass, pregnant with rain, started touching down at the horizon. The far off bridge, which was a stark white against the background a few minutes back, was now engulfed in the advancing storm and barely visible. It was time to retreat. We strted heading back at a leisurely pace, myself stopping every now and then, trying to catch a shot of 'lightning' with my cam. I kept following others while continuing with my futile attempts but where was the boat? We reached the point where we had landed but there was no sign of the boat or the boat wallah. There was general consent among the group that we had misjudged the rendezvous point (it is quite easy to hav made such a mistake, since the entire stretch of the bank looks more or less the same). So, we kept walking and walking towards nothing. Our evening stroll was abruptly halted by a sudden burst of rain which quickly turned into a horrendous hailstorm. My first reaction was to cover the bag containing my camera. Keeping Supreet's condition in mind (he had his lungs operated upon recently), I tried to cover him as much as possible, bearing the brunt of balls of ice myself. As soon as the hails gave way to water drops, I heard that call from behind "Keep moving! Keep moving!" I was white with fear and cold and the fact that I had lost my bearings didnt help matters. By this time, wind had taken the shape of a strong gale. Visibility had reduced drastically. Abhinav called out to the rest of us, pointing in a particular direction, and calling out "This way!" No, he hadnt found the boat; boat-wallah, it seems, had fled fearing the storm and left us stranded: in the middle of nowhere.
By now, u know that this story has a happy ending, or I wudnt be here writing this stuff. But to end what I've begun...here's the remaining tale.
Through all this Abhinav had managed to keep track of where we were heading. He lead the pack from there on. We had a hard time keeping pace with him with ground all squahy and slippery. After 5 mins or so, all we cud see of him was his yellow T-shirt. We kept following that yellow dot, but even that was not easy. Wind was blowing in our faces and water drops were stinging like needles. It was impossible to keep one's head up and avoid the rain drops piercing thru the eyes, yet we somehow managed to trail the yellow speck. After some 15-20 mins of walk (it felt like an eternity) we saw fisrt sign of human inhabitation; a brick wall. It was a relief beyond measure...this meant at least we were not drifting into wilderness. The wall led us to a beaten path; any lost person's greatest hope! From there on it was simpler, not easy though. With the rain Gods still not relenting, and each and everyone of us drenched to the bones on that windy evening, it was far from a 'done' thing. We still had the cold to face and threat that we might catch a fever loomed large over our heads. We continued following the beaten path (that yellow dot was lost in the surrounding grey) in packs...Vaibhav and I in the front, Deepak and Supreet behind us and Kunal and Raghu making up the tail. Another 30 mins or so passed before we reached the road. The journey from there on is a story in itself, but compared to the earlier trek, it was like riding in a Limo.
As they say, there is an upside of everything...and there was a moment in all this drama which made it all worthwhile...I clicked my FIRST (and uptil now, the only) Lightning!!!!!!!
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