Kumbhpur Rising

by Mayur Didolkar

  “And remember this is a wet jungle in the midst of monsoon, so fire is really not our worry, smoke is. We need just enough smoke to change the composition of the air, not enough to choke us, so remember when anyone feels any chest pain, pulling in left arm or dullness in the jaw, stop everyone and let the smoke catch up with us. Mostly we will be parallel to the path of fire so we should be fine,”

  Ready for the grand finale.

  Chapter 3

  If the idea of charging the jungle was Neeraj’s, the actual plan was laid out in detail by Vinit. He was accepted as a strategist on the basis of one anti-terrorism course he had attended last December.

  “Remember we are going there essentially to rescue a hostage, a very valuable hostage, so make sure that we first find Rani, neutralize any guards around her, and get her on her feet. We do not want to announce our arrival with gunfire and shouting. In any case, the enemy will be warned of our intentions by the blast, so let’s not tip our hands more than necessary. My idea is they would have kept her in a hut or a shanty; they would not keep their valuable hostage out in the open. So when we reach the clearing, Mr. Joshi and I will enter the area first and try and discover where she is kept. Everyone else hangs back till you get a word from one of us and then start giving us covering fire so that we can retreat. Remember, if those freaks attack you with their swords, bend in waist and try to charge them even if you gun is empty. A sword is extremely difficult to use below the waist, so they will be going for a big swing to the head, if you cover that you will be fine. Once we are together, we begin moving towards the sea, since our entry route would be covered by fire and smoke by then, I may sound very ruthless while saying this, but if on our way out somebody drops off, we do not stop, we do not stop for anyone, essentially it will be each one to his own once we have Rani with us.”

  Now as he walked behind the entire group, he worried about a hundred things he should have told them, like how to use trees and rocks for effective cover, how to watch their backs which will be exposed to an attack all the time once they were in the clearing. Finally he realized that an operation like this had one in a million shot to succeed. He would not try to improve those odds to two in a million by wasting his breath on the other instructions. What he had said about being on their own was only half true, he had said they were on their own once they had Rani, but he himself knew that if any of them dropped down due to a heart attack, or animal attack, or those freak attack he, Vinit Kamble of the Maharashtra State police, would not stop to save them. The moment they entered the smoking jungle they were on their own.

  However he could not help but admire the cunning with which Neeraj had sent the whole jungle up in flames. The man was a genius and a perfectionist who planned every little thing down to the last detail, including the face masks they all were wearing now. And most of all he was the one who was unnaturally calm about the whole affair. He had watched Neeraj’s face when the tanker actually erupted in a great ball of fire and even then the man flinched only slightly, while everyone else nearly wetted themselves. Now, as he led what essentially was a charge of the light brigade, he seemed as relaxed as he would have been sitting in front of his work station in Mumbai. Vinit admired the man; he would have admired him even more if he was not a cold blooded killer.

  As they progressed in a single file deeper into the woods, the smoke came at them. The smell was acrid with wet leaves and wood burning and now Neeraj’s vision was bleary as his eyes watered. But he would not risk taking the mask off his face since they were due to enter the heart attack county shortly. Now the fire was just about half a mile behind them and to their left. Neeraj hastened his steps and as they were about to cross a shallow brook, Ragini pulled his shirt and told him to stop.

  “I feel some dullness in my left hand,” she said through her mask. Neeraj turned around and saw Rajat too clutching his left side, and sitting down in the wet mud hard.

  “Everyone back off, let the smoke catch up with us some more, come on back” Vinit shouted as he himself retreated. The group followed him with some reluctance. They did not dare to breathe now, Rajat could feel the giddy sweetness of the air on his tongue and the sensation was the most nauseating one as if he was inside a warehouse storing tons and tons of sugarcane. And the air was so still there, he raised his head and saw that despite the wild fire and the wind roaring all around them, the trees in the heart attack county were still like a statue. He tried to focus and saw that the color of the leaves was a shade too bright to be natural. “This is never land” he thought and laughed wildly.

  “Something funny son? Because I am choking,” Rakesh said behind him. Around him everyone sat down to catch their breath and waited for the smoke to arrive. Already Rakesh could see thin wafts of grey smoke filtering through the air,

  Time to start moving again.

  ***

  This time the smoke was as much a factor as the heart attack county. They ran in single file, not checking for any ambush as they had previously done. The smoke filled the whole surrounding, choking them as they tried to navigate their way through the treacherous heart attack county. And as the fire spread around them Heart Attack County became Animal County.

  Ragini and Rajat watched open mouthed as at least a dozen jackals emerged from their left yelping in pain and fear. The animal in front stopped and turned at them. Rajat was standing stone still, while Neeraj opened fire at the herd, he was careful not to shoot any animal but fired over their heads. It had the desired result, the pack disappeared.

  “Do you feel the change?” Happy asked Neeraj, falling in step with him.His words were garbled through the face mask he wore.

  “Yes, the stillness of air, as if we are passing through those old movie set of a jungle, where the hero runs and sings while all the background is still,” Neeraj replied.

  “Watch out,” Vinit said, and pulled Neeraj roughly to a halt. Neeraj looked back in question and Vinit pointed with his rifle muzzle.

  Blocking their path was the biggest python Neeraj had ever seen in his life, discovery channel included. Its sickly pale green coat was glistening in the dull moonlight of pre dawn, and it seemed to be fixing them with a stare.

  “Pythons move slowly, but they are immensely powerful creatures, so slowly step back,” Vinit instructed. They all backed in a single file, and Ragini screamed. The group turned and saw there was a slick snake around her neck.

  “Stay still Ragini,” Rajat said, but he saw it was of no use. The reptile had fallen on her shoulder and it seemed to be coiling itself for the classic strike position. Ragini was shaking like a leaf in high wind.

  “Hope I shoot well,” Vinit said and raised his rifle, for a moment everything seemed to happen in slow motion, as Rajat and Rakesh stepped out of his path and shouted at him to stop. Vinit’s mind was somehow wonderfully focused as he raised the rifle to his shoulder in one swift motion and fired a single shot, even at close range it was an impossible shot with Ragini shaking with fear and the cobra slowly rearing for a fatal strike to her neck. Rajat saw Vinit pull the trigger and the next moment the top half of the reptile simply exploded. The bullet sheared its slick body in two, as the top half was blown away and hit the tamarind tree trunk with a sickening splash. The bottom half had a post mortem twitch. Then it slipped off her shoulder like a garment with its knot undone. Ragini collapsed in a faint.

  “Great shot man,” Rakesh said. Rajat bent to help Ragini to the tree nearby, he avoided the one where the remains of the snake were splattered and then they heard the hissing sound behind them. Rajat realized too late that they somehow had been foolish enough to forget the python behind them.

  The python was lying sideways blocking their paths, now it turned, bringing its massive body to face their retreating backs. As it prepared to launch at Neeraj who was half turning to it and bringing his gun around, a jackal ran over the python. It literally came out of the left field, in its hasty flight for life from the deadly fire ranging about, and treaded squarely upon
the python. The reptile hissed and turned and suddenly it had coiled itself around the jackal’s small body in a swift motion. They all watched horrified as the python began squeezing the jackal. It screamed and tried to bite the python’s head, but the python squeezed it near its rear making it impossible to bite. Neeraj raised his gun and let out a loose burst of his automatic. The hunter and the prey were blown to bits in a moment.

  “Let’s move folks, before the next version of the Lion King begins playing itself out,” Happy said. Ragini was slowly coming around. She stood on wobbly feet and stared at Vinit, “you could have shot me,” she said accusingly.

  “Either that or you would have died of a snake bite. Off hand, I would prefer being shot. Stop whining. It’s not in your character,” Neeraj said with a harshness that surprised all of them. Till now despite the atrocities of the night around him, they had not seen this man lose his temper. Now he too seemed to totter on the edge.

  Ragini returned his stare for a moment and then leaned on Rajat but she began walking and their progress resumed.

  Now they could all feel the heat the fire generated. Breathing through the masks was becoming almost impossible so despite walking on a straight narrow path they were getting winded almost every twenty feet or so. Happy saw that it was around four thirty in the morning and somehow he knew that this was meant to be finished today before the sun broke. He took a lungful of breath through his mask and hastened his step.

  Another ten minutes of side stepping animals and reptiles and they came to the clearing.

  “Oh God I don’t believe this shit,” Rakesh said.

  Happy looked ahead and simply sat down hard on the ground. Besides him Rajat and Ragini were almost in tears.

  They had come out of the jungle and were facing Rajat’s farmhouse ahead of them.

  “Ranbhool” Vinit said.

  Chapter 4

  Like many paranormal phenomena that are uniquely Indian, Ranbhool has no basis of rationality. It is considered an old wives tale by some and a reality by others. Simply speaking, in this phenomenon the jungle turns on its axis so that a weary traveler entering from one side keeps walking only to emerge on the same side once again. In rural Konkan, every town has at least a dozen old villagers who swear they were victim of this at one time or the other. There are tales of thirsty travelers collapsing after walking for a whole night only a few feet away from where they started.

  Now the city group encountered this first hand. After setting the whole jungle on fire, after traveling through the treacherous terrain of the heart attack county, they had emerged a few hundred feet away from where they had entered.

  “That bastard is one step ahead of us, we were very pleased with ourselves, setting the jungle on fire and now he just used his powers to turn the jungle around and led us back to the town,” Rajat said.

  “Let’s not waste time on what happened, it’s done with, so the question is what do we do now?” Neeraj asked.

  “In Ranbhool the jungle turns so that the traveler emerges where he began, in our case we came out about 45 degrees north of where we began, so if we can recalibrate and trace our walk back.” Vinit trailed off. Twenty four hours back he would have laughed off Ranbhool as he was prone to laughing off the legend of a thousand swords, but as the song went, things had changed since then.

  “I think I know the way back in,” Rajat said and went down on his knees. The ground was still soft and muddy with the last night’s rain and he silently pointed to the footmarks in the ground. They all had tracks coming towards his house, but there were several tracks in the mud going back inside.

  “Fortunately for us, these freaks entered the jungle from here after they finished with the town. So if we follow these marks it will lead us to their base, Ranbhool or not,” he completed.

  “Aren’t you kind of forgetting the fire?” Ragini asked him. They all looked up and saw that the whole jungle had caught fire and the light was bright enough to be mistaken for early morning even though it was not yet five o’clock.

  “If my wife is in there I am going, fire or not,” Happy said simply and lifted his gun once more. Ragini looked at him. He was a thin gaunt man for who even lifting the automatic weapon was something of an exercise. But there was no mistaking the resolution on his face.

  “If he is going, we are going,” Rakesh said and for a moment Happy had this absurd urge to hug and kiss the big man. Rakesh had his faults, he was foul tempered and there was a streak of self destruction running deep in him that prevented him from rising beyond a certain level in corporate life. But here in this jungle, his awesome courage in the face of adversity and his loyalty were touching.

  Vinit felt a reluctance creeping in on him. Despite the success of the explosion, despite them treading the treacherous Heart Attack County, he still thought it was charge of the light, oh make that very light, brigade. And now they were talking of wading in the fire. He wondered dully if the flames were bright enough to attract attention yet.

  “If Happy is going I am going too,” Rajat said and looked at Ragini. She nodded. Neeraj and Vinit looked at each other and Neeraj shrugged.

  They set off towards the burning jungle again.

  Chapter 5

  “Life is tough, it’s tougher if you are stupid and toughest when you are stupid and brave,” the Courageous Leader preached to Aleem. The boss was really chatty that night.

  “Look at them, applying all they have learned in their schools and colleges and their jobs to overcome us… US!!!!” he thundered “They simply think this as a situation, shame on them!!! They think they can win by applying what they have learnt in their rational world to overcome us…. They don’t know out here in the woods, we don’t much care for rules or for rationality for that matter” he threw his head back and laughed. Aleem nodded even more vigorously.

  “They still think like city people, that stupid cop still thinks this is some kind of anti terrorism operation and he is the elite commando. They don’t understand that out here everything is backwards. Backwards and inverted! Do you think they will ever solve this riddle Aleem?”

  “No, my Leader they will not, if the fire does not finish them, I will” he said and raised his gun. The other people with water running through their arteries flinched whenever Aleem used that weapon. It was unpleasant for them, very unpleasant indeed.

  They all set off back in the jungle and Rajat brought up the rear this time around. Somehow he was unable to concentrate on the task at hand. It was really simple, keep looking at the foot marks and ensure you follow them. Avoid the wild fire raging around them. It was simple.

  That was the problem, it was simple and it was simple because he was walking around with a bunch of people raised in the city. They were raised in places where five year old children learned to board city buses, and cable TV was available as early as in the 1990. Rajat suddenly felt alone walking with his best friends.

  They simply did not understand. They all admired his command over spoken English and they all commented that he did not come across as a boy raised in a village like this. But he was, and that was the truth of it. He was raised in a small vicious village where boys learnt to defend themselves primary school onwards and where you walked to school through the hot sun and through the raging rain. It was a place that was romanticized in countless pieces of fiction, but still was the most primitive, ‘everyone to his own’ kind of jungle. It was a place where you did not send your teenage daughter to bring milk past sundown for fear that she might get raped and murdered. It was a place where schoolteachers were largely hopeless alcoholic sadists and where discipline at home and school was nothing but an excuse for the men to vent their frustrations about how sorry and petty their own lives turned out to be. Legends had stopped taking births in those places. Now all that was left was alcoholicism, sadism, and an angry hopelessness about a paradise lost.

  It was jungle in a sense more than his friends were capable of understanding, and that was why he felt so heavy w
alking back in the burning woods. He knew his friends were not afraid to die in their current situation, he was afraid that they would die without a cause in these woods, and history was asking him, the most docile, laid back member of the team, to lead them back to that path that led if not to glory, then at least to a measure of salvation.

  “Everyone stop,” Rajat said, and they all turned to him. He had lost his usual sheepish expression of a schoolboy. The face they saw was wise in the ways of a world that they themselves did not understand.

  “We are walking away from where they are,” he said, “I think I know where they have kept Rani,”

  It was curious to watch how everyone reacted to his piece of information. Happy and Ragini looked at him with weary hope, while Rakesh just stared at him as if he had grown horns or something. Only Vinit and Neeraj were fully alert, eager to absorb the new information coming their way.

  “They are hiding in my house” He said and pointed once more towards the footmarks in the muddy ground.

  Chapter 6

  “The marks are leading inside the jungle and we should have gotten it at once,” Rajat said to his stunned audience “We did not, because we were still thinking like city people, but this is not a city, this is not Pune. This is a jungle, trees or not. The whole town is a jungle, and in a jungle everything is backwards.”

  “Sorry to interrupt buddy what has that got to do with where Rani is?” Rakesh asked one of his famous stupid questions.

  “The footmarks made by the undead are always backwards, that is how the legend goes,” Vinit spoke in a hollow voice.

  “They did not enter the jungle from near my house, that is where they exited, if you watch closely all foot marks would lead away from my house,” Rajat said.