Down The Memory Lane

Everyone on this earth tastes the fruit of experience at least once in one’s life.

It could be sweet or bitter depends on the situation one is going through with.

It changes one’s attitude towards life. I also experienced the same which I can’t forget through out my life. 

 

It was last year when my summer vacations were announced in the school. My heart started jumping as my grand mother announced that we will be visiting the National Park in Africa. I am a nature lover and love to see the flora and fauna in their natural habitat. I was flying on the ninth cloud. I started planning to arrange my kit I required for doing photography. And the due date arrived and along with my mother, aunt, my little brother, my lovely grandmother, I boarded the plane to reach our destination.  After clearing from the customs at the airport, we took the taxi to reach the motel near the wild life sanctuary. It was a tiring journey as our motel was in the midst of the jungle . The path was rough but the greenary of the rain forest was worth seeing. The rivulets and the foot prints of peccaries made their own trails in the wet jungle. The colour of the small streams was like coffee due to the bark of the trees which fell down in the water. On reaching the motel we rested in our room and then had our dinner. The whole starry night I kept on thinking about the next day’s trip to watch the fauna in the deep jungle. My grandmother had already hired a guide for escorting us to the jungle.

 

Next morning , the cool breeze brought the grassy scant of the jungle and the sweet chirping of the birds woke all of us early. After the breakfast all of us were led to the jungle safari by our guide Martin. He was the local person who had the thorough knowledge of the routes inside and about the whereabouts of the animals there. He was a stout, tall and strong black man with curly short hair. He spoke very politely and took great care of us. From time to time he kept on telling us about the dangers that prevailed there. He had thorough knowledge of the herbs also. First he showed us the flora of the Amazon forest and made us click some pictures of those rare plants. Then he took us to the nearby waterfall which had its serene beauty of green vegetation all around it. It seemed magical.  As the sun was overhead we started feeling hot and humid. Martin took us near the woods of tall trees and vegetation where the sunlight could never touch the ground. As a result it was a shady and cool area. There he told us about the birds of heaven which is a rare watch. We got tired of walking so we came back to our base camp. At the time of dinner, Martin told us about the scary things of the deep jungle and the myths of the tribal community across the jungle. The tribal community was dangerous for outsiders as they never mixed up with the outside world. I got excited and kept on asking my questions to fulfil my quest of knowledge. All of us went to sleep after the discussion and supper was over. But I could not sleep for a moment. The things Martin had told me about the spirits having their existence in the deep jungle had a deep imprint on my mind. I wanted to experience the same.

 

It was twelve thirty at night. I got up and took a knife, torch and a stick which is kept in such base camps for precautions and ventured out. My fear had gone . It seemed as if the jungle was calling me and I quietly left the base camp and I was away from the guard’s watch. I took a deep sigh and entered the jungle. The strange loud calls of the wild animals could be heard. I took lots of precaution and moved further. Suddenly , something flew sharply over my head that I could feel the wings like thing. But actually nothing was there. I thought of the spirits. I could feel the droplets of sweat on my forehead. I moved further and again the same thing happened and this time my torch fell in hurry. I fell down.

 

The next day I saw that I was tied to the cot and tribals were making strange sounds. Then I saw my grandmother and Martin trying to converse with them. At last I was released and came back to our camp. Till now I couldn’t come out of that memory.