Indu Raina
In the wee hours of a chilly morning I too boarded the passenger bus after bidding farewell to my family members . As the journey progressed , the passengers adapted to the environment according to their temperaments and per suits. one of the groups was involved in conversation, A young man bearing scholarly appearance was engrossed in a book, a young lady sitting on the front seat, gazed towards far off mountain peaks, digging into distant past or dreaming her future and so was a pair of kids, perhaps brothers, quarrelling over a pack of chocolate. The vehicle plied on the serpent like highway, brushing past the grove of tall pines and maple trees.
The weather seemed to be sulky and mischievous. The sun and the clouds played hide and seek but as the time moved on the weather took a violent turn. The sky wore a canopy of dark blanket and the day looked like mid-night. The deafening noise of cloud burst made the atmosphere quite scary. A pal of gloom and extreme fear was in every body’s mind. We were between devil and the deep sea, it was unsafe to stop the bus at that height and so to move forward. The air was icy and the trees looked ghostly. Thick snow flakes came down from the heaven as if nature in its frenzy wanted to bury every thing that came in its way. Nothing was visible except the glaze of snow all over. We were trapped in the bus, rather stuck in the midst of blizzard. An ultimate hope, an earnest craving to hold on to a thin bond of life made us to pray to Almighty. A secular prayer echoed in the ill fated bus. Frightening sound of the din worsened the situation.
In the meantime passengers screamed… ” we are gone, we will die, Oh my God—an avalanche ” and in no time whoosh of sound and a huge mound of snow rolled down from the peak, through the trees dashing against our vehicle. Thus snipped of our last link with the living world. The bus kept on rolling down the slope hitting trees and boulders in its way. It changed the ravine into a wreckage of icy chunks and locked the bus in an icy cocoon and the passengers, dead or still alive, were caged in.
It might have been after a pause of a pretty long time that I entered the conscious zone of my mind, as if waking from a deep slumber. I recalled what befell upon us and where was I now. Primarily I didn’t believe that I was alive. Hearing the heart rending moans and shrieks of the injured passengers, I forgot my own pain and tried to get up for help but my body failed to cooperate I felt like my whole body was chained. lifting my head a little with a great effort I saw a pathetic scene around . Alas. the bloodied bodies with, wailing and sobbing, semi conscious, corpses huddled together and their belongings scattered everywhere in the trapped bus. After a couple of days I staggered a little and viewed a few men alive but in a critical state of health. I felt pity on my self that I was not able to lessen their pain in any manner. By and by the moans and breathing stopped but for a very feeble whisper was audible surprisingly, the young man reading a book in the bus, was still alive. He asked for water. I looked for it and luckily found a water bottle in a bag, immediately poured a little in his mouth. He handed me his wallet containing the address, a photograph of his mother and the money, “please do me a favour.This is my first s-a-l-ar-y for m-y mom–“.With these broken words he too breathed his last.
Now there remained no living entity except me at this marooned place. knowing too well that I had little hope of survival but I should not give up. So I thought. I was in the company of my mute comrades and tried to adjust myself in a little comfortable position. Compelled by the instinct of survival i hesitantly began to search the belongings of my companions for food and water. Life in the caged dwelling was awful beyond imagination. I found a paltry storage of food and water in certain bags which could keep me going for a few days. And ultimately I too would be joining the lot. My mind flew across and reached the imaginary family members of my departed friends and that too of mine,who by now might have given all hopes of seeing us again. I had no idea of time or date except I would guess that it was day when the sun says would peep in the crevices for a very short time and soon it would be dark and more dark with intense chill.
On one of my search errands I found a big iron rod possibly a broken part of the vehicle which later turned in no way less than a magic wand for me. As I would every time be preoccupied in finding ways and means to come out of the death trap I banged the rod against the glass pane which was already half broken but covered with a huge thick ice slab, hiding the visibility. Hammering with the rod to make an opening, and establishing link with the outside world, was the only mission before me. The situation reminded me of the struggle made by Robinson Cruso’s spider who never gave up. With persistent and continuous striking the rod at one point and also may be due to natural process of melting of snow , one fine morning I was amazed to watch light passing through a small hole. A new lease of life for me, I thought. Through the hole I saw an impassable cliff above and a gorge covered with blanket of snow where my dwelling was caught up.
The next day at dawn I heard the noise of a helicopter staggering over. I wanted to cry my throat out. Like a mad person I did cry and wept bitterly. I could not believe my ears. After going through such a horrific time I was very cautious not to miss any chance of pulling the threads of the living world. The helicopter hovered over for a pretty long time, probably, some rescue team was on search errand. What will be if they miss the spot. I shivered with the very thought. Just then, an idea flashed upon me. The gentle man who gave me his salary for his mother, was wearing a red scarf. Pulling the same very gently from him, wrapped it to the rod and pushed it through the hole.
A tussle between positive and negative thoughts caused lot of anxiety and made me tense. There was again silence. The rescuers might have missed the spot. The noise of the helicopter was not heared at all. I was totally disappointed. Soon a group of men reached the spot on foot after clearing the way out of the impassable snow clad meadow. They had noticed the red flag from a distance. They cut through the iron sheet of the bus and were amazed to find me alive. My body was too feeble to carry me. Anyway I was helped by the men and while coming out I paid my salutation to my comrades with whom I spent more than ten days of agony. While coming out of the wreckage into the living world, life appeared more precious, more valuable, humming with activity. I promised myself to make the best use of this precious gift of God”.
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