“Hey! Watch your step!” She shouted from behind me. But, it was too late. I stepped on to a tiny round stone which was not interested in bearing my weight and quickly slipped away when I placed my right foot on it. Thud! Poor earth had to bear a product of 80 kilos and acceleration, with which I fell onto the ground, which I surmise must have been definitely greater than acceleration due to gravity. I heard a roar of laughter behind me and I couldn’t help but smile. I had always enjoyed adventurous sports such as Rappelling, Trekking, Rock climbing. So here I was, trying to cope up with the arduous climb of Sinhagadh in Pune despite my weight and failing (read falling) on many occasions – the woes of becoming healthier!
We were three of us: Bhakti, Sulu and I. Both of them first gasped and inquired about my safety when I had fallen down for the first time, but afterwards it became their food for laughter. I am sure they had expended more energy in laughing at my free falls than what I had in actually falling. I had thought that even I will get a chance to laugh at their “descents”, however, either they were extremely perfect in climbing or they were just lucky enough not to fall and made sure that my “evil” wish remained just that, a wish!
I was the fattest/heaviest/tallest among the lot. Bhakti was tiny and light as a feather, although she had her own problems to cope up with. For instance, her phone wouldn’t stop ringing and she had to answer all the calls. She had to take pictures; after all she had borrowed a friend’s phone especially for this. She had to sit down and repair her bag, which for some reason didn’t cooperate with her during the climb and always snapped at every other step. I don’t blame the bag; it was less of a hand bag and more of a luggage bag. She had stuffed in it a jacket, a sweater and a bottle among other items already present in the bag which had bloated the bag from every angle.
Sulu wasn’t very heavy either. I cannot call her light though. Oh yes, she had her unique set of issues at hand. She had to carry a back-sack which contained “important documents”. The bag was heavy and was making her climb a little less easy. But she had to finish off the entire trekking by 4:30 PM or earlier as she had an appointment with someone. Even after discussions at length, I still haven’t been able to figure out what exactly she wanted to do that day. So, she was sprinting like a deer and was the fastest among us.
Although the plan was to start at 7 early in the morning, we ended up starting at 8:15 from home. That was still alright because there have been times when I have started 3 or 4 hours later than the scheduled time. So, I was happy but Sulu was not, for obvious reasons. On our way to the foothill we stopped by to have some breakfast. I was really hungry, which is not unusual at all because most of the times I am hungry. But this time I was very hungry. So we stopped by a street vendor near the Khadakwaasla Lake. The view was breathtakingly beautiful. It was pretty cold with the temperature around 7-8 degrees and the water was pretty clean. Not many people were around. We ordered for Wada Pav and some onion pakodas (we didn’t have a choice actually; the street vendor had only these two items with him). The pakodas were very oily and we couldn’t finish them off. We then were having tea when the vendor started narrating a weird story to us.
We did not know the verity of that story; however, he told it in such a convincing way that we were forced to believe him. Besides, he couldn’t have gained anything by telling us false anecdotes. He told us about incidents which were taking place on that particular road on which we were standing and having tea. “There are two middle aged guys who have become very unpopular these days. They are known to hypnotize people and steal their valuables. They have a white powdery substance with them which they blow on to the victim’s face after which the victim does whatever he is asked to do. Like a recent incident in which a woman was found at the highway, with all her jewels and money stolen, unscathed and having no idea what she was doing there on the highway”
“This must have happened sometime in the night hours” I said. It was less of a statement and more of a question.
“No Sir. This happened in the broad daylight. Around noon” he replied.
This frightened us a little bit. However, we were determined to go trekking that day and no such story could have deterred us from doing so. So, we finished our morning snacks and paid the person.
“Be careful Sir. Do not get friendly or close to any one” he warned us from behind just when I was about to start my bike.
“Don’t worry! We will take care. Thank you” It was more a consolation to myself than a reply to him.
So, we started off from there and reached the foothill by 9 and started our arduous climb. We had just started when I paid my first respects to mother earth. Thud! It was pretty cold in the morning when we had started from home but the mercury, probably to show off that she was the only liquid metal, wouldn’t stop expanding at all. As a result of mercury’s ostentatious display of her properties, the temperature soared and we were soon stripped off our jackets, now firmly tied around our waists (except for Bhakti’s, it went into her handbag, of course). I hadn’t gone trekking earlier, so I was extremely enthusiastic about the climb that day, despite the falls.
We climbed for about half an hour and looked down. “Not bad! We have done quite well. We are pretty high already. At this rate, we should be up pretty soon.” I remarked.
“Don’t be so sure of yourself Dada. Initially, everyone says that but as we go higher the climb becomes steeper and takes longer” warned Bhakti. I had to trust her. She was the most experienced person amongst us, although she was the youngest amongst as well. She had been to the hill almost seven times. Back at home, everyone mocked at her saying she should become the brand ambassador of Sinhagadh. If she goes there one more time, she will be titled the Sinhagadh Queen. Poor Bhakti! She was so sick of Sinhagadh that she made a vow to herself that she would never return here again. Little did she know then what she said would become reality and she actually would never dare to return after what was about to happen to the three of us.
We decided to hurry up. We hurried up. We tried to climb as fast as possible. But they were just a few meters away. Sulu looked up the hill and then cast her eyes down the hill. No one was in sight other than the two men. It was getting warmer. Sulu was almost running. I was not very far from her but, Bhakti was so bored, tired, irritated that she was climbing at snail’s pace. I was sure that if conducted a race there with her and a snail as the only participants, the snail would have won and by a great margin that. I imagined handing over the winning shield to the snail and it holding the shield the waving to cheering crowd, which of course consisted of Sulu and me. I gave out a hearty laugh. Sulu turned around “What happened?” she enquired.
“Nothing at all. I will let you know later” I replied somehow expecting that Sulu will not like the joke.
We waited for Bhakti to catch up. We couldn’t do anything but wait for her every five minutes of climb. The men we together now. They were one party after all and the party was just a few yards away from us. We could see them clearly now. The taller person was wearing glasses and smoking a cigarette. I decided to wait until they went ahead of us. They were only two and we were three. They cannot possibly do any harm, I had thought. And, that’s when the three of us sat down finding the most comfortable rocks to rest our bums on.
While we were sitting, I chalked out a plan. I told both Sulu and Bhakti “Look, there’s nothing to get scared of. We are three in number they are just two. We will wait here and wait till they go ahead of us. If they come closer to us, we will still wait. But if the taller person directs his hand towards his bag, we hit them with whatever comes to our hand and run down as fast as we can. First Bhakti you will start running, followed by you Sulu and finally me. Is everything clear?”
Both of them nodded nervously. Probably they were not very convinced with my plan but since they could not come up with anything else, they agreed!
The two men came closer. As they were approaching, the taller of the men smoked the butt of his cigarette for a last time and crushed it under his feet, all the while looking at us. My eyes never left his. He then slowly started moving towards us. I thought of clutching a small rock or something and ran my hand around aimlessly, but I couldn’t find anything small enough to carry and big enough to hit the person. He came directly towards me. He put his hand inside the bag he was carrying searching for something. That was it. I could not wait any longer. I hinted at Sulu and both of us were ready. Bhakti immediately started her downward descent. As I expected, we took the men by surprise. Although the stones were small they were pretty effective. The one that I picked up hit the person on his right temple and he immediately clutched his forehead swearing something in Marathi. Sulu, in the mean while had already hit the smaller man with a stick, now where on earth did she find one? He also immediately collapsed on the ground with a hand on the center of his head. I pushed the taller person I had hit so that he fell on the ground. We began running down as fast as we could. After running for about 5 minutes, I turned back to look at our prospective attackers, they were both still sitting there washing their wounds, I guessed. I smiled in triumph. My plan was successful.
Huff puff! We all finally were back near the parking area where we had parked our vehicles. The two men were not to be seen anywhere. We were sure they had not followed us down. I hoped that at least this incident would teach them a lesson and think twice before using that “white-dust” again on any person. We were all very happy and we were smiling and laughing. We decided to hurry up and leave soon as we did not want to risk running into that pair of men again. But I was thirsty, all of us were thirsty. I went to a near by stall and asked for a mineral water bottle. That’s when I noticed something on the wall behind the man. My eyes widened. I stared at the wall in disbelief. This was not possible! This was just not possible! I was not prepared for this.
I had paid the person and he was counting his change back. But I just could not wait anymore. I ran towards Sulu and Bhakti and asked them to hurry up. The man was asking me to take back the money. I could not hear anything. The only things that were flashing in my mind were the photos that were hung on the wall in the stall. They were the photos of the two men we had seen: The White-Dust Men. The only difference was that the photos had garlands over them. We started our bikes and left.
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BACK AT THE FOOTHILL OF SINHAGADH:
After sometime a woman comes out of the house adjoining the stall. She sees the two photographs with garlands on them hung on the wall. She gives out a sigh, “Who put these garlands here? I am sure it must be Papa. I had asked him to put these garlands on the photos of Lord Krishna and Lord Ganesh. Papa is losing his vision day after day. Hari, are you listening? We must take Papa to a doctor as soon as possible. Today he has ‘killed’ our living children, tomorrow he will put the garlands on your and my photos.” She sighs again, removes the garlands and adorns them on the ‘correct’ photos and goes back inside.
