The Riveting Voyage
The Riveting Voyage


“We’re going to die!”
“I should have said sorry to my mom!”
Three of my friends and I were screaming at the tops of our lungs as we plunged, growing closer and closer to darkness.
Surprised? The first time I headed out to another part of the country alone didn’t start like this. It is quite a long story.
My 12th standard board exams had just gotten over, and I was celebrating with my friends Akansha, Shruti and Naveen.
“Woo-hoo! Three months of relaxing!” Naveen shouted as we blew the candles on our ‘freedom from exams’ cake. His dark hair got dangerously close to catching fire, and I stopped him.
“My parents said I can finally go on a trip with you guys!” Akansha squealed. “I had to assure them that you all would be coming with me because there’s safety in numbers.”
“Mine agree too,” Shruti said, carefully picking out a piece with fudge. “After all, I was 18 two months ago. I’m grown up enough.”
I bit my lip. My mother was still a little hesitant in letting me go to Mussoorie.
“It’s 2000 miles away! You should understand if I’m a little hesitant to let my little girl go so far alone!”
She didn’t seem to understand that alone meant by yourself, not with your three trusted childhood friends.
“I’ll convince her,” I said. “My dad is cool. He gave me some cash too.”
Just then, my mother entered. Her lips were pursed and it was clear that she had heard us.
“I know I may seem ‘uncool’, but it’s my job to be concerned,” she said briskly.
“Aunty, we are all going to be with her.” Akansha implored.
“We’ve planned everything, the train tickets, the lodging, and my parents are paying for the flight.” Naveen made his best puppy-eyed face.
“Please aunty,” Shruti said simply, making up for the lack of words by clasping her hand.
I jutted out my bottom lip.
My mother hesitated. “I’ve known you all since you were five, so of course I trust you. I’ll…….talk with your father and let you know.”
Of course, that was a yes, as my father had already agreed. I whooped with joy and my friends and I shared a group hug. “Mussoorie, here we come!”
My mother had fussed and given me five woollens. We all talked and it was agreed that Shruti’s father would drive us to the airport.
I admit I was feeling a bit jittery. I was 18, but it still felt weird, taking off on my own without my parents.
My dad made me promise to send him loads of pictures. He got a little emotional, talking about how fast I’d grown up, but not as much as Mom.
We sat in the car with Shruti’s dad. All my friends' parents were there to bid us farewell. They all looked a little teary, and the four of us rolled our eyes in unison, smiling all the same. We waved as the car whirred out of the drive, the Sun setting and painting the sky magenta and orange behind us.
Naveen sighed as he turned away from the window. “Oh, gosh! This is amazing!”
Shruti rubbed her fingers feverishly. “A vacation with my pals! What’s better?”
Our car zoomed down the lane and was greeted with traffic. We were too full of adrenaline to look at the city lights, so we chattered about our exams and future college plans.
Finally, the white silhouette of the Pune airport, looking like a ghost mansion with industrial lighting, showed up round the bend. Shruti’s dad said, “Well lads, you really have grown up. Make sure to collect your tickets. And call me when you land.”
We assured him we would and hopped onto the platform, taking out our suitcases. I had gone on plane trips a million times with my parents and knew all the procedures, but still felt a little dazzled.
We passed through customs and waited for the plane to Dehradun.
Akansha said, “This is it.”
“Yep.”
We spent the rest of our waiting time navigating the shops and buying some munchables. Mom called me and I assured her I had not forgotten my Aadhar card.
We found our seats. I turned and saw that Akansha had turned pale, her fists clenched.
“What’s wrong?” I asked kindly.
“Nothing, just, my mom always holds my hand during takeoff.”
I felt touched by this and held her hand myself as we sailed into the sky.
We were supposed to reach Dehradun in the middle of the night, and catch a train to Mussoorie that left at seven in the morning. I planned for us to crash at the airport itself for three hours.
We chatted, listened to downloaded playlists and had cup noodles that warmed us down to the toes of our feet. Naveen shut his eyes after dinner and we followed suit.
“Guys, we’re here.” Shruti nudged us gently as the dimming city lights of Dehradun shone from thousands of feet below. We all felt a sense of anticipation. Our two-week vacation has started!
“Got everything?” Naveen asked as we picked up our backups and waited for the plane to land. “Let’s keep our ears open for the terminal to collect our check-in bags.”
The airport was full of sleepy people, struggling to collect their bags in the cold of Dehradun. Naveen stifled a yawn and trudged off to find a trolley. I scanned the itinerary of our trip and saw that we still had three hours until our train. It would take an hour to reach the railway station, so…
“Guys, two hours of waiting at the airport.” I led them to some seats near the exit gate.
We let down our backs, Akansha making a pillow out of one and immediately dropping off. Shruti glanced over my shoulder, and we discussed how we were going to take a taxi to the station.
Two very uneventful hours later, I cajoled Akansha into waking up and we went out to see tinges of blue just starting to purge the sky. Akansha pointed to a taxi stand and we set off.
Dehradun looked a lot like Pune, a sleepy city at this hour of the day, not forever busy, like Mumbai. It was frustratingly cold, even in early April, and we saw many people warming in front of fires.
Finally, the station loomed above us. Our driver graciously agreed to help us in with our bags- for a tip.
We had booked a seater train, as Mussorie was just four to five hours away and our slumber had vanished faster than the flight.
We talked about our results and our upcoming plans in Mussoorie.
“We need to go water boat rafting,” Naveen suggested, his eyes shining. “My brother went last year with his friends…... Ah, they had a blast.”
“We need to go explore the town first, enjoy local dishes, and buy local handicrafts,” Shruti said seriously. “It’s the only way we can mingle and blend in.”
We spent the rest of our journey squabbling about different ideas. Finally, a bit of a row broke out between Akansha and Naveen. Akansha wanted to chill in the hot tub all day, while Naveen wanted to go trekking, rafting and basically anything that required energy.
“Ok, guys!” I stopped Akansha from pulling Naveen’s hair. “We can do all of that and more. And look at the view!”
That shut them all down. The mountains were glazed with specks of white, yellow and green. They were nothing like the Western Ghats, which was a green wonderland. These were rocky and jagged, with scrubs, but weirdly, they looked much more beautiful than the hills near our city.
The slope was a bit uncomfortable, with Shruti nearly taking out a plastic bag to puke in, but we felt just like those passengers in old Hindi movies, with the chug-chug of trains rolling through the hills and the landscape whistling by like it’s oblivious to the whole world’s woes.
The township was amazing. It was buzzing with life, with rickshaws and cars zoomed down the road. The whole town was on a wide ledge overlooking a steep drop, but it was so wide that cars could have taken U-turns without getting heart attacks. Houses clung to the cliff, with owners tending to gardens, buying goods, bargaining, and everything that defines a typical Indian city.
We lugged our luggage from the station and booked two rickshaws down to our hotel. The ride downhill was immensely enjoyable, with us passing hawker’s stall, smelling delicious noodles and breathing in the dust-free air.
Our hotel looked like one of those vacation villas in Greece and Rome, with a perfectly maintained garden, roses, daisies and apricot trees, and the smell of baked bread drafting in.
“Mmm,” Shruti closed her eyes. “Your dad booked an epic place for us, Roop.”
“Yep,” I replied, noting that I had to thank Dad tonight.
“Breakfast seems like forever ago.” Naveen rubbed his stomach.
We walked into the shaded reception, where the sunlight fell in shafts through the blinds. The lady at the reception gave us the keys to the lounge on the second floor of the villa.
“Much better than a stuffy hotel with the same old greasy food,” Akansha asserted. “Where is the oven, man? The smell is divine!”
We couldn’t agree less. The suite was amazing, with four different bedrooms and a common living room. It wasn’t any less than JW Marriot in terms of cleanliness and ambience, with the added advantage of a breathtaking mountain view.
“All right, people!” Shruti said briskly, setting down her bag and smacking Naveen and Akansha, who had collapsed on the couches. “Let's freshen up and get to sightseeing. Let’s roam the city first, I got a map from the reception. We can contact an agency and-”
“Hey,” Akansha interrupted, her voice muffled from a pillow. “It’s ten in the morning. I say we relax all morning and go out in the evening.”
“All right!” I stopped them before Shruti’s face got redder than it was then. “An hour for changing, taking a bath and relaxing. Then we go to explore the city.”
Everyone agreed on that and Naveen jumped up to get his trekking shoes and hat.
A bath felt great after the sweaty train, and even Akansha was ready by 11 am.
We went up a slope to reach the roadside markets. We saw a puppet show, with orange and yellow puppets being made to dance to a tune that sounded like a snake-charmers. The sun shined like a yellow curtain through the trees, instead of like an invisible bonfire, which was a common feeling in Pune at this time of year.
We passed shaded stalls where women were selling Jamawar shawls. They felt like butter and cloud at the same time, with colours shining like peacock feathers. We got one each for our mothers, at surprisingly reasonable rates.
We stopped at a fridge magnet store. Akansha went crazy over one showing a mountain against the backdrop of sunrise, with ‘Mussoorie’ written over the Sun.
By the time the sun disappeared behind a mountain, our stomachs were churning. We headed back to our villa. The eating area was a little pavilion surrounded by pillars, with circular stone tables that seemed to emerge from the ground like the roses and daffodils. The waiters laid down deliciously steaming gravy, rice, roti and paneer, which felt like heaven after the cold omelettes of the train.
The evening was pleasant. We had spent the afternoon sleeping, so were as fresh as daisies. A shining establishment called ‘Surya Lok Travelling Agency’ caught our eyes.
“Ooh, let’s see if rafting is there!” Shruti called.
“Or trekking, or skydiving!” Naveen exclaimed.
“Or just a ride to the nearest mountain view so we can take some pictures,” Akansha shrugged.
“Welcome!” A guy with rosy cheeks, light stubble and shoulder-length hair came forward with a dazzling smile. “I’m Shankar. I guess you youngsters want some of our hair-raising offers, like fast water-rafting, or paragliding or rock climbing.”
Shruti listened to all the options intently, with her brows crossed, while Akansha looked a little alarmed. I was excited but not as much as Naveen, whose eyes shone brighter and brighter with each word.
“Let’s go water-rafting first,” I said. “It’s great at this time of year when the rivers aren’t too tumultuous and the weather’s divine.”
Akansha looked hesitant but we assured her that we wouldn’t be paddling, we would just be clicking pictures in ridiculously large life jackets and getting our adrenaline up.
It was decided that we would go the next morning.
Waking up to the sound of uninterrupted bird-song and diffused sunlight is not like waking up in Pune. It was as if the environment was telling me to get up and start the day.
Shruti was up and getting ready while Akansha was still snoring. Naveen mumbled unintelligibly until we threw pillows at them to wake up.
After a scrumptious breakfast of paratha and sabzi at the pavilion, we set off.
Shankar met us at the bus stop, where Shruti had bought a newspaper.“Guys, look at this.” She showed us the front page of the Mussoorie daily, which showed a factory with people banging at the gates. “A factory of 1000 people has been shut down. Ugh……..unemployment is rising in leaps and bounds.”
I frowned and so did the others, but Naveen immediately started adjusting his camera so the matter was dropped.
“Where’s my phone….” Akansha rummaged in her bag. “Oh!”
A skidding cycle startled her and her purse fell. It rolled down the street almost till the edge of the cliff!
We all gasped and crossed the road. The purse was hanging on a boulder. Akansha picked it up and notes and coins scrambled out of the bag.
“Rats!” She picked it up. “There goes 5000 for buying souvenirs. Wet and muddy.”
“It will dry out,” Shankar said reassuringly. “Come, here’s the bus stop.”
A bunch of other tourists: parents and their kids, old couples and youngsters piled on behind us.
The ride was awesome. We saw snow-capped peaks, looking pink in the sunlight, grasses and rugged rocks. Intermittently, we also saw houses where the ridges smoothed out to wide valleys. I imagined living life here. Peaceful, but no honking of cars, no street food at every corner, no malls every ten streets.
The bus rumbled like a mini-factory, and we trudged along. Shruti and Naveen were clicking pictures like maniacs, and Akansha was reading a book. I took a few snaps but mostly stored the scenery in the camera of my brain.
We reached the Yamuna bridge and the majestic river (sometimes a goddess) showed us her face. It was perfect for rafting. The laughter of the people zooming downstream seemed harmonious with the animal sounds.
We got down and Shankar told us to meet him there in two hours. He told us where to get our tickets.
The walk down to the bridge was a shaded bazaar, with everything from necklaces to nameplates. Akansha wanted to buy a fridge magnet, which was a bit hard with soiled currency, but they had dried out surprisingly fast.
I have to admit, the gurgling of the river, regardless of any rock in its path, did make my hard leap. We each paid for our tickets and kept our bags in lockers. We were handed life jackets.
“This is the most epic thing ever!” Naveen exclaimed. “I’ve only been boating with my parents once, and it was boh-ring!”
“This does look great,” Akansha said. Shruti was busy strapping her jacket and she said, “Can’t wait to write about this in my travel diary.”
Finally, we were ready. The owner of the boating enterprise took us to a big yellow one, which looked like it was a blown-up balloon. I was afraid it couldn’t hold all of us but I had another surprise.
Another tourist got on with us. He was a young guy, probably three years older than us.
“Hi,” he smiled. His hair was flying and his eyes were crinkled, probably due to the high-velocity wind mercilessly beating against our faces.
We introduced ourselves. The guy told us his name was Arjun and he was on a solo trip after graduation.
So yeah, exactly three years older than us.
“I know this sounds weird, but have I seen you in an ad or something? You look familiar,” Naveen said.
He laughed. “Well I was in this local commercial once, and I do modelling a bit. I’m a film student.”
We were fascinated and the conversation went seamlessly till the boat was ready.
“Here we go!” The paddlers arrived, grinned at us, and instantly took off.
It was exciting and terrifying at the same time.
“Ahhh!” We all screamed. I guess we weren't going that fast but the wind was blowing towards us. Eventually, we laughed and forgot our fears.
“I’ve never felt more alive!” Akansha yelled. Even Shruti, who tried to be as less childish as possible, couldn't stop herself from whooping.
The rowers were undeniably skilful. One time, we were within one metre of a rock and they steered us away at the last minute, getting our heartbeats way over the normal limit.
We went pretty fast, but it was enough for Naveen and Akansha to take snaps. We took selfies in which our eyes looked crinkled because of the heavy wind.
An hour later, we disembarked, our faces wet due to the spray of foam. It was the best time we’d had in a long, long time.
We changed and got onto the bus. We had figured we would spend the evening roaming the city, eating and buying stuff. It was just like yesterday so it wasn’t especially remarkable. We did have fun eating Maggi though. It just seems way better in hill stations, getting all warm by consuming Maggi, than Pune.
Dinner was great too, the garden pavilion had multicoloured lights that day, like a light and sound show.
Little were we to know the vacation would take an unexpected twist.
And not a good one.
WE had decided to go rock climbing the next day. Shruti was up first, as usual. I readied my sneakers, mosquito repellent and other quintessential trekking supplies.
Akansha was reluctant to go. But if there was anything she hated more than straining activity, it was loneliness.
We met Shankar at the station, paid him the day’s charges and set off to the Himalayan Adventure Institute. Shankar shook my hand heartily and commented on my smartwatch. He was a great conversationalist.
We talked a bit more about the factory shutting down. Apparently, Shankar knew one of the employers and he had gone completely bankrupt. That news made us disheartened, and I personally thought about it for a long time.
We had done rock climbing for beginners in our early teen years but were a little scared nevertheless. We had another surprise, as Arjun joined us on the bus. “Hi!” Shruti said brightly. “You’re with Surya Lok travels?”
“Oh hey,” he smiled. “Wow, what a coincidence. Yeah, I’ll join you today too.”
We were glad. The ride passed as amazingly as yesterday’s, and we reached it in an hour. The place was a bit expensive, as professional trainers helped you gear up, but there was a summer discount and a package for 2 or more people.
It was great getting into the gear you usually just see in movies. I know my mom would have gotten a heart attack if she saw us, but this was barely fifty feet off the ground and the beginner level.
Akansha fussed about not being able to take a selfie, being so high and all, but Arjun took one for her. He really was charming, but I don’t know if it was just me, but his smile seemed half a watt less bright than yesterday.
The scenery looked even better hanging sideways like a very disciplined monkey and I couldn't help feeling a surge of adrenaline. I propped my bag onto a ledge with the help of a trainer and we got started.
It was like trekking, except we literally crawled up a mountainside with ropes tethered to a rock on the ledge above us. The whole height would be half the height of my building, but the world looked minuscule.
“This is the best day of my life,” Naveen said solemnly.
We climbed over rocks, learnt how to keep our foothold on pebbles and not to step on vegetation springing here and there. Shruti had her brows wrinkled in concentration and was determined to master the task at hand. Akansha was whooping in delight and so was Naveen.
After an hour of climbing upwards, we were exhausted along with excitement. We were pleasantly surprised when the ledge that was our finish line led to a Dhaba! The snacks were complimentary and we discussed our exhilarating climb.
“My life flashed before my eyes when I stumbled on that mossy stone,” Akansha said dramatically. We laughed at that and discussed how Naveen had reached the top quicker than us, and how Shruti claimed she could climb any hillside given to her.
It was when we were climbing down that something weird and frightening happened. We all know downward climbs are more dangerous than upward. Arjun was climbing right next to us, breathing a little heavily.
So Shruti had forgotten to put her wallet into the bag that the professionals were carrying to the top, or make sure that nothing fell out during the climb. It was in her pocket. During a particularly demanding climb involving us almost having to lie on our backs in midair, she shrieked as a mouse-coloured purse began dangling by the zipper from the end of her bag.
“Aaah! Someone give the trainers my bag!” she thrashed and screamed.
“Shruti, you’re going to hurt yourself! Let the bag go!”
“No,” she gasped for breath, and we were startled as tears glistened in her eyes. “That purse has my grandmother’s picture. It’s the only picture I have of her before…….”
She faltered. We were silent. Shruti’s grandmother had died in an accident around a year ago. She never wanted to talk about it, but we knew that she loved her a lot.
We exchanged worried looks. We were dangling practically in mid-air by a rope, and Shruti had just been reminded of the most traumatic incident of her life.
“Arjun!” I said. “You’re right next to Shruti. Grab the purse and give it to the trainer!”
And that’s when things got weirder and weirder.
Arjun reached out and her fingers shook as he held the bag. Then suddenly…..
“I can’t.”
We all stared at him, too shocked for words.
“Get the bag, Arjun! Shruti could fall over if she tries to take it herself!” Naveen said, his voice rising.
“I’m sorry.” We were shocked to see his eyes glaze with tears. “It’s the only way…”
And he swiftly started climbing downhill, leaving us alone with the bag hanging.
“What…...why did he just…” Akansha shook her head. “Come on Shruti. Get a bit more vertical and we can Siddle in closer to you so that we catch the bag before it falls.”
It was a loooong way down. Shruti was still sniffling. We were worried she would get distracted and lose her foothold, but the trainers helped her stay stable. We went into horizontal positions, ready to catch her bag.
Finally, we jumped onto solid ground.
“Where is that unhelpful jerk?” Naveen growled as we took our bags and headed to the bus.
But it seemed as if Arjun had vanished into thin air.
“Shruti could have overbalanced, and we could have died up there!” Akansha exclaimed. “What was he thinking? He’s older and obviously more experienced. He could have helped us.”
“That was not right,” I muttered. I hoisted my bag on my shoulder. “Come on guys. Let’s head home.”
So our exhilarating exploit had a rather strange ending. Nevertheless, we chatted on the way back to our hotel.
We decided to go river rafting the following day, in the morning, before we headed to the Kempty falls. That feeling of the wind racing past our very dishevelled hair was too good to be felt just once.
That made Shruti happy. I was glad because she had been down in the dumps since Arjun’s episode.
We had lunch at a nearby hotel. Nothing was especially worth mentioning there. We spent our evenings discovering nearby shops and listening to this amazing rock band that had come to town. They were playing in a place that looked like the town square. We settled in with some lemonade and cheered until our voices were hoarse.
Akansha insisted that we buy an ‘amazing’ pair of heels she just had to have, although we would find dozens like that in every shoe store in Pune. It was surprisingly affordable, and we headed to our awesome hotel, souvenirs and accessories in tow.
We decided to take up some less daring stuff over the next two days to make room for a day of water rafting and visiting the renowned Kempty falls. So we just relaxed, went shopping and discovered the city. It was cosy and laidback, I loved it.
That’s all for right now because the next day was really shaking. It all started with discovery, leading to a near-fatal accident.
It must have been seven in the morning. I rubbed my eyes and was about to start blaming Shruti for keeping her alarm so loud when I saw Shruti fast asleep, the door open to her bedroom.
I narrowed my eyes. I usually didn’t wake up that early and groaned. It was so long till the others would be up.
I grabbed my wristwatch, the sunlight warming me up like a very warm Xray. I had never paid attention to my watch during the trip, just slipping it on in the morning, and off at night. I groaned again when I saw the time was 6:38. I was about to rotate the dials on my watch to set an alarm for an hour later when I felt a square strip right next to the dial.
I looked at the watch from far away. Nothing. It was perfectly camouflaged but something was definitely there. I tried to prise it off. No luck. I couldn’t remember a black square accessory stuck to my watch like glue.
I dug my nails under it and finally took it out. A tiny steel circle was stuck under the square. A magnet.
“What is this?” My hand itched to call my dad and ask him right then and there what was on the watch he had gifted, when I noticed a black shadow passing over the square, then vanished. It was like, it was pulsing.
I gasped. It was a camera.
Dad had put a camera on my watch? He was spying on me with a super tiny chip?
Anger boiled in the pit of my stomach but I decided not to reach conclusions. I counted to ten, and decided to calmly call Dad when it was at least 7 in the morning.
I usually hate being bored, but having nothing to do for an hour gave some clearance to my thoughts. Dad had to be the one who put the camera right? If it wasn’t him, it meant someone else was spying on us all the time, and that thought made me feel like a cornered rat.
Finally, Naveen and Shruti woke up. They were a little surprised to see me up, but when I told them my doubts, their sleep shook off them in a second.
I finally called my Dad with all my friends around me.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Roopkatha! How are you? It’s so good to hear from you again! How’s the trip?”
“The trip’s …… great, Dad. “I tried not to feel guilty for almost accusing my Dad to his face, but it had to be done.
“Listen, uh…... I noticed something…..uh…..unsettling about the watch you gave me?”
“Yes?”
“I, uh… saw a black chip that I think might be a camera…..” I winced, my stomach somersaulting.
“Hmm, that’s strange. The watch I gave you does come with a camera that you can sync to your phone.”
“But that camera was, like, not synced to my phone. It was as if someone else was spying on me through that.”
I could feel his voice get heavy as thoughts had suddenly burdened him.
“Look beta, you know I’m not like that. I trust you one hundred per cent. But it’s one thing if I was doing that. But if it’s someone else, this doesn’t sound good. Maybe it’s best to leave the chip at the hotel. Take it back to Pune. I’ll see it.”
“Ok, Dad.”
He gave the phone to Mom, and after fussing over my food and stay, she hung up.
“Who do you think it can be?”
“Well, if it isn’t my Dad, it can be someone who we know. Someone who met us on this trip, and who touched my watch.”
We thought maybe Shankar, or Arjun, but they didn’t seem likely. Even after Arjun’s strange behaviour that day, it seemed too underhanded.
We started out on time, after a light breakfast, as we were going rafting. My worry dissipated the instant we entered the familiar shore where the boats were anchor
ed. We had passed some shops, like before, including a really cool prank shop, with fake money and rigged dice and stuff. Naveen excitedly bought a huge wad of cash to trick our friends back home.
The paddler looked like a mummy with mufflers instead of bandages. It wasn’t that cold outside, but we could only see his eyes. The scarf wrapped around his mouth lifted when he saw us which probably meant he was smiling.
“Say cheese!” Naveen took a selfie and we geared up.
I should have known something was wrong when the paddler didn’t put on his life jacket.
I thought maybe because he was too experienced, or maybe because the river wasn’t too troubling that day.
It started out fine. Akansha was thrilled, of course, and between her shrieks and the roaring river, we were quite deaf.
Shruti diligently managed to take photos of every hill we crossed, while I just soaked in all the beauty around me.
We had reached a bend that took us down a forested riverside.
The paddler was very quiet, minding his own business as we joyfully talked and took pictures.
My eyes veered off the river to the paddler. He was holding a pencil, or a screw and fixing something on the side of the boat.
Reading a lot of detective novels obviously did some good, as my senses tingled uncomfortably as he pierced the boat side with the screw.
“What are you doing, sir?” I asked, trying to keep my voice calm.
“N-nothing, ma’am,” Was it just me, or did his voice sound familiar?
My friends were listening. Their eyebrows narrowed. “Do you hear a hissing sound?” Shruti asked.
As I said, we were almost deafened, but there was no doubt about it. Like a pressure cooker ready to blow off some steam (literally), the boat whizzed and started rocketing over the waves like a rodeo bull, or rodeo fish maybe.
Shruti looked like she was trying hard not to panic but her face turned from skin tint to baby pink to ghostly white.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked, anger and fear made my voice sound deep.
The guy turned to us. I could just see his eyes and I saw something I didn’t expect-pain. “I’m sorry.”
And just like that, he grabbed a surfboard that was under his feet the whole time, jumped on a wave-like a professional, and rode into the Yamuna river.
“Help!” we screamed but our paddler was smart. He had marooned us where there was no one. Just trees and rocks and birds.
“Oh my god!” Akansha looked like she was about to vomit. “He tried to kill us! What do we do? AHHH!!!!”
“Ok, ok,” I said, trying to be calm.
“Ok? We’re drowning and in a capsizing boat! SAVE US!!”
Naveen’s earth splitting yell did not cause some heavenly being to rescue us, but I shattered. I began screaming too.
“We’re going to die!”
The boat was careening like crazy now, bobbing up and down and nearly smashing into the rocks on many occasions. There was no paddle and the current was too swift for us to jump in, although we knew swimming. “We’re going to have to jump!” I shouted.
“How? We need to slow down!” Shruti said.
“The...the rock over there!” I pointed to one near us. “If we can jump onto it before we sink…..”
“We’ll get maximum leverage and then swim to land!” Akansha finished.
“Ok, when I say go,” Shruti said.
We waited……...waited…… “GO!”
We jumped up and nearly crashed headfirst onto the boulder, but luckily it was covered with moss and was a soft landing. Unluckily, we slipped and desperately caught the rock with our hands.
The shore was ten feet away, the river roaring and gushing. We could swim, but hadn’t ever swum in anything but a swimming pool. Well, it was time to test our marine expertise of ten years.
We went in, bobbing up and down. My muscles felt like tearing, but the absence of chlorine made the water fresh and swimming in it felt amazing. I was shivering, going nearly blind in the slush and sun, but I battled the waves and soon we were sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath.
“We - need - to- call the police,” Naveen panted. “He tried to kill us!”
“Before we find out who he is, we just wait.”
Suddenly, Akansha’s eyes widened. There was a paper on the ground ten feet away from us. She read it and her face turned ashen. We all surrounded her.
You have been warned. Leave all your money at the boat landing area by tonight, or else.
“We’re being watched.” Naveen’s voice came out in a low gasp.
I gasped.
“The watch! The camera on it! The person behind this put the watch to spy on us!”
Everyone gasped.
“Oh my god,” Shruti muttered. “But why our money? It’s not like we’re rich foreign tourists or anything.”
“Let’s go back,” Akansha looked pretty shaken up. “We can’t tell anyone yet.”
So we walked straight uphill. It was pretty far away from land and we might have gotten lost, but luckily cell service was still available there. It was like an unexpected trek, and I would have enjoyed it if I wasn’t aching all over, and my heartbeat racing.
We arrived at the landing of the boats an hour later, tired, hungry and terrified. Fortunately, the bus hadn’t left and Shankar had hung back for some work. His sunglasses and red face made him visible from at least a staircase away. We waved and went over.
“How was it?”
We looked at each other, “Amazing as always.”
He smiled. “Hey, do you want to go to the Shiv gardens after this? It’s not very far, a nice walk through nature and rocks. It’ll be relaxing after the death-defying boat ride!”
We stared at each other, a little creeped out about how accurate he was.
But we couldn’t deny it. We were exhausted, a bit sleepy and hungry. A walk through a park would do us a world of good.
So we followed him down the road to the bus and reached within ten minutes.
Shankar was our personal tour guide. He explained the different varieties of flowers, how some had been introduced from abroad, and how he had planted some in his childhood. We walked with the other tourists through lines of cobra lily and dahlias and our worries disappeared for a moment.
“Let me take you to my favourite section,” he smiled and brought us to this little glade that was shielded by a wall of vines and creepers. We felt like we were in the secret garden, from the book.
It was an overgrown path of some of the best-coloured flowers under the sun. My jaw dropped. This was better than any picture of the Valley of Flowers I had ever seen. It probably didn’t get much attention so it was overgrown, but somehow that made it even prettier.
“My grandfather took me here when I was little,” Shankar reminisced, sighing. “He said this was our secret hideout.”
We smiled.
“It’s his family business that I run, you know,” he said softly like he wasn’t talking to us. “Ok, enough about me. How was your trip? Exactly.”
I remembered the horrible note, and the death-defying swimming, and said, “Good. Just great.”
“Didn’t get wet much did you?”
“No,” Akansha grinned. Then slowly, her smile faded.
“How did you know we got wet……”
There was an uneasy silence as Shankar tried to look confused.
My eyes widened. “It was you.”
Akansha gasped. “He lured us here, he tried to kill us.”
We looked at him. His head was down, but it felt like our world had just tipped over.
“You brought us to your ‘secret garden’ to separate us from the others,” Shruti’s voice choked up in fear.
Shankar, strangely, did not have a cruel look in his eyes, he just looked sad and beaten down.
“I need to do this,” he said like he was steeling himself.
“Do what?” we said, backing away.
His eyes turned different. I can’t explain it. It’s like he tried to look like a fierce kidnapper but was trying to hide the pain. I wasn’t sure what to do.
“Let us go,” Naveen tried to sound stern but his eyes reduced to a whimper. “Please, we have nothing of value. We’re not famous, really.”
“I know, but you have enough.” Shankar’s voice shook. “You know the factory that shut down? I was the manager of that. I lost….everything, even a little money would be like heaven. I used all my savings to start the travelling shop. I’ve been in debt for the past six months. That day you first went rafting, and Akansha’s purse fell out….. 5000 rupees you said,” He looked wistful and so desperate that I felt a little scared. Desperate people can do pretty crazy things.
Naveen put down his phone that he had taken out to take pictures. “You put the camera on Roopkatha’s camera. You spied on us the whole time.”
“Yes and no,” Shankar said slowly. “I had someone be my agent. You might recognize him.”
A scrambling noise nearly made me jump out of my skin. A familiar person stepped through the vines and we all gasped.
It was Arjun.
He smiled in the same way Shankar had like he was trying to sound intimidating.
“Why are you doing this?” Akansha asked, her voice choking.
“I told you I had done some modelling before, but the truth is I was unemployed and homeless for six months, trying to get an acting job.” I felt a pang of sympathy, even when I realized his eyes were shining in the same way our paddler’s had, he had tried to kill us.
We backed up, my heart beating as loud as a cannonball. I didn’t see what way we could get out of this.
“Don’t try to call the police,” Shankar said, eyeing our purse hungrily. “There isn’t cell service here.”
We were trapped. I considered yelling and making a run for it before they could react, but my voice died in my throat when I saw Arjun pull out a revolver.
“A prop gun,” he said wistfully. “But very much loaded.”
My friends looked pale and I knew they were thinking hard.
We hadn’t unpacked our purses. All the money we’d got for the trip was in our bags.
“Why are you doing this?” Shruti’s voice shook. “You can just get another job! Hurting innocent tourists won’t bring you riches!”
“It won’t.” Arjun agreed. His eyes turned sad. “You know why I acted so weird during the rock climbing? It’s because I was supposed to take your purse. But you said it was your grandmother’s, and I hesitated. My grandmother’s sick. I need medicine for her treatment.”
It was a weird feeling- pity and hatred at once. “But you couldn’t take the purse in front of the camera you had planted in my watch, so you bolted.”
He nodded. “But enough for now. Take out all your money. Every bit of it.”
We saw that negotiations were worthless, so we took out our purses.
Then suddenly, an idea hit me faster than a lightning bolt.
We had all our money with us. All of it, whether real or fake.
“Please,” my voice turned wet. “We don’t have that much on us. Let us take some to go back.”
They exchanged glances. Meanwhile, I grabbed all of our purses and gave them a ‘I’m going to fix this’ nod.
I quickly took out all the money we had, aware of the two staring at me intently. I put my hand to my head as if mourning our bad luck, quietly scrunching up the notes and slipping them into my hoodie.
Then I came to Naveen’s purse. It was filled with wads of cash tied up in a rubber band. They were 500 rupee notes, at least 100 of them.
The prank shop. Naveen had bought a wad of fake notes to trick our friends back home.
I figured an intelligent criminal would check for watermarks or something, but these two were as desperate for money as a thirsty man in a desert.
“Here,” my friends didn’t get it at first, but their eyes widened after a while.
“Oh,” Shankar nearly broke down at the sight of so much ‘money’.
“Can we go now?” Akansha asked.
“This much money is enough to start my factory again,” Shankar mumbled happily. “And for my grandmother’s treatment.” Arjun looked at us. “I’m really sorry. We usually don’t hurt people. It’s just……...our world came crashing down without warning.”
We glanced at each other.
“Be that as it may, stealing is never the option,” Shruti said angrily. “You nearly killed us.”
They now looked as happy and kind as when we had first seen them. I wanted to help them somehow, but I figured we’d better dash before they realised the notes were fake.
“Don’t inform the police,” Arjun said pleadingly. “Please.”
We said nothing and ran out.
“Oh my god!” Naveen said as soon as we were out of the garden. “Roopkatha, you’re a genius! I can’t believe……..those scumbags….”
“What do we do now?” Akansha pondered. “They’re going to realise soon enough. Let's prepone our tickets and fly home ASAP.”
“No,” My eyes became steely. “If we leave, we lose. We need to find a way to outwit them without handing them over because they really will come after us.”
“They weren’t all bad. Rough times can change people.” Shruti declared.
“Well, we don’t need to worry about proof.” Naveen grinned.
“What do you mean?”
Three hours later, after we had reached our hotel, and I had pulled the crumpled money out from behind my ear, Naveen showed us the chip.
“You know about the video recorder my mom gave me? Well, I sensed a red flag when he was taking us away from everyone.”
“Wow, I sensed nothing,” Akansha muttered.
“So I hid it in the rose bush outside. The radar of the recorder is huge, so I was sure we would have all the proof we needed.”
We praised him for his quick thinking, but Shruti frowned after a while.
“What are we going to do? It might be weird but I don’t really want to turn them in.”
“I know,” Akansha bit her lip.
We huddled up and all of us came up with a plan.
We went out the other day as if nothing had happened. In fact, we even went to the travelling company and talked to Shankar, although looking him in the eye was the hardest thing ever.
I don’t think he realised the notes were fake. He, too, looked jumpy and refused to look at us, but tried to keep it together as there were other customers.
There was a man in a jacket next to us, looking through a brochure.
“So, Shankar,” I tried to keep my voice low. “About yesterday, what do you plan to do?”
That question wouldn’t give away anything, but Shankar still had a pleading and scared expression.
“Relax,” Akansha said.
“Well, thank you and sorry again. I can start my factory again, and lead a decent life. Of course, I’ll have to give some to Arjun.”
“What factory did you say you worked in again?”
“The steel one that closed down two weeks ago,” he said miserably. I still couldn’t believe he just tried to kill us, took our money and seemed apologetic. Like that was the right way to start afresh.
No, it wasn't. He needed to be punished, but not in the usual way.
“You mean this one?” Naveen held up an article from last week’s papers.
“Yes.” his voice shook and he looked around furtively.
We went on like that, asking him questions about the factory, it’s produce, his relationship with Arjun, etc. He answered most satisfactorily. There was no one in the store other than the jacket guy, and he was too engrossed in his brochure to notice.
You’re probably seeing where we’re going with this, but what happened ten minutes later was unexpected.
“All right,” I smiled pleasantly. I was a bit surprised at his willingness to share information with us after the horrors of yesterday, but he had come through.
“Thanks for telling us everything, because now we have the proof.”
“Proof?” He looked like a cornered animal.
“Oh yes.” but none of us said a word. The jacketed guy turned around and we saw the badge on his chest.
“You sold me out,” he said, horrified.
“Oh, no,” Akansha said. “We called this gentleman this morning and he agreed to not arrest you if you actually proved you were in a crisis. And now we have it.”
“So….what are you going to do?” he backed up, obviously panicked.
“Well attempt to murder is a pretty serious offence,” he said grimly. “You’re going to return all the money if you want us to help you establish your business again.”
“But……” he backed up. “You’ll help me set up my factory again?”
We all nodded.
“Well enjoy that,” he smiled and suddenly looked sinister. “Because I won’t be here to see it.”
We looked at each other in shock as he pushed a rack of itineraries backwards and a rumbling sound emerged. A ladder suddenly dropped with a swoosh from above and we saw a trapdoor open right above us.
“What’s the meaning of this?” the policeman asked angrily.
“Oh, well, you see, I’m not the real owner of the factory. He’s up there and if you want to set it up again, be my guest because I never cared for any of that!”
We stared at him in horror. We had shown him sympathy, agreeing not to hand him over but he was faking the whole time?
Just then, like an agile monkey, Officer Sharma bounded over to him, giving him the element of surprise. But the fake owner was quicker. He leapt over to the rope ladder and climbed up desperately.
“Catch him!” Akansha yelled desperately and we clutched at the ladder while he was still climbing. It wasn’t very tall and we managed to push him to make him dazed, reaching what looked like the attic.
It was the stereotypical dark, dingy attic with a shaft of light through a window. It was closed and Shruti quickly jumped in front of it.
Shankar’s eyes darted from her to me to the officer.
“You may catch me,” he cackled, “But I’ve already sent the money to a secure location.”
“You wanted to escape with the money and frame the real owner because you thought we would go to the police. So you made up a sob story,” Naveen brought out the horrible truth.
“How was I supposed to know you knit wits would be kind enough to let me go?” he said irritably. “Now decide if you want to arrest me, or help him.”
Officer Sharma had cocked a gun to his head. “You three, what is he pointing at?”
We turned around in horror.
There was slight movement behind a pile of suitcases, just how it is in movies, a gagged prisoner locked up in the attic. I had thought of the theme as so done-a-million-times but the reality of it was way more horrifying.
Akansha took a deep breath and removed the suitcases. We held our breaths.
And………
Nothing!
It was a trap, again! The movement must have been from the wind. My head was spinning at the tricks the man was playing,
“Where have you hidden the owner?” the officer asked angrily.
“Oh, you don’t want to know, it’s too, ah, cramped for your taste.”
I racked my brain, possible hiding spots for a defenceless man, where no one would think to look…….
I looked at Naveen and his eyes widened.
“The garden! You tranquillized and hid him in the garden!”
Shankar just smiled. I could tell he wasn’t saying anything because we knew we had recorded him back down at the shop.
“Oh my god,” Shruti muttered. “You stuffed a man in there, and we were probably just metres from him yesterday?”
“Enough!” Shankar suddenly said. “Arrest me all you want but the money’s where you’ll never find it!”
Just then, there was a stumbling noise. We looked behind to see Arjun climbing up.
“What’s going on?”
Shankar cursed. Then as quick as a flash he turned around and flipped Shruti to the ground to escape through the window. She yelped.
The next few minutes were a blur. The police immediately went forward but Shankar kicked him in the chest. As he stumbled back, the rest of us grabbed Shankar’s shoulders. He tried to throw us off. He was undoubtedly skilled in combat because he nearly threw Akansha off. But he was outnumbered. Arjun jumped in, and to our surprise, helped us in holding him back.
“You told me you’d give me some of the money!” Arjun yelled. “And use the rest to set up your factory!”
“He’s a filthy - liar!” Naveen said, defending himself as Shankar’s kick narrowly missed him. “He isn’t even the owner!”
“You used me to track them! You used me to do your dirty work! At least I was going to use the money for a good cause!”
Officer Sharma gripped Shankar by the forearm and judo flipped him. He put up a brave fight but it was to no avail.
“You are under arrest.” Officer Sharma held him at gunpoint.
“You have no proof,” he said, gasping for breath. “You can’t arrest me based on assumptions made by four teenagers!”
“You’re forgetting me,” Arjun gritted his teeth. “I’ll give all the testimony against you.”
“It’ll be of no use! The money has already been used for its rightful purpose.”
We grinned at each other. Time to burst this madman’s bubble.
“We have a surprise for you, now,” Akansha said. “The money we gave you….was fake!”
“WHAT?” Shankar roared while Arjun looked faint.
“Guess you should check for authenticity,” I said smugly. “It was joke money, what we gave you,”
Now he deflated. He looked absolutely dejected and we could tell he was coming up with another sob story. But the officer got in first.
“Game’s over,” he said. “Let’s find out where you hid the real owner.”
The next hour was too repetitive to describe vividly. Our friend Shankar-the-fraud, tried to escape at least ten times. Once it was by kicking the car door open and trying to run with handcuffs. Not a good idea.
Another time it was by pretending to want water and trying to knock us out cold in the police jeep. Fail. We laughed at his desperation. He might have been a crafty criminal once upon a time, but fear of jail had turned him into a dimwit.
We reached the secret garden. Just as beautiful as yesterday but more sinister with a man kidnapped and hidden in it.
We found him after searching for ten behind a curtain of vines, in a little ditch like those dug for coffins. I was astounded.
He looked terrible, like a man who had lost a lot of weight in a short time, sickly and pale. He was barely breathing and we were petrified. But he was just out cold.
Shankar was guarded by reinforcements from the station. He looked livid while Arjun kept wringing his hands.
“I was telling the truth,” he said devastatingly, “My grandmother is sick and I need the money!”
“We’ll give some to you,” an officer nearby said curtly. “After you get your due punishment for almost killing these four.”
“But I wasn’t trying to kill them! It was just to scare them into giving the money!”
All this while, we were helping Officer Sharma and some others in waking the man up. Finally, a warm blanket and some water did the trick.
He coughed and spluttered while the rest of us sat down in the empty flower bed.
“Who…….who are all of you?” he asked, his voice weak with hunger and shock. We all looked at him in pity. Oh, the poor guy! He had suffered so much for the rascal’s evil plan.
We had called an ambulance. But until then, the man, with some difficulty, recounted his tale.
His name was Adarsh Mehta. He set up the travelling agency when he lost his factory due to debt because he was a certified tour guide. Things were going okay when suddenly Shankar came into the scene. He was in charge of embezzling money, which the police had confiscated from him in Shimla, and to get some more money, he decided to pose as the owner. He drugged Mr Mehta’s drink one day and stuffed him up in the attic. He would occasionally bring him food to know about his life and business dealings so he could outwit his friends and colleagues.
He had been looking for a way to dupe rich tourists when he came across Arjun, who was unemployed and desperately needed money for the treatment. (this part was recounted by Arjun). He used him to do the dirty work of spying on us and trying to steal our wallets. Once he saw that wouldn’t work, he set us on a death ride to scare us into coughing up the money. Mr Mehta had been shifted to the garden that very day as Arjun had begun to suspect that he wasn’t just a helpless ex-businessman.
Shankar heard all this, grunting with frustration and often interrupting with, “Liar!” or, “You fool!” or, “You’ll regret this!”. As for us, we were too in shock to hear the weirder-than-any-fantasy-novel-ever story.
Finally, the episode was over. Shankar was escorted to the station, giving us murderous looks, but Mr Mehta gave them back to him. He was pretty tough for a man kidnapped for over a week.
“We should get you to a hospital, Mr Mehta, just for some regular checkups,” Shruti said. The ambulance arrived and we took him there with Arjun.
As for Arjun, he was crestfallen and didn’t take much part in the conversation. But all that changed when the chief inspector of that district in Mussoorie said, “I’ve spoken with an attorney. We’ll give you your required money for the treatment if you return the same amount at 10% interest by a year. And you will stay in police custody for a month.”
None of the remaining sentences mattered to him. His eyes lit up when he heard of the money. We felt a pang of sympathy for the poor guy. Brainwashed by that conman, he had been forced to do foolish things, even though he was way more qualified.
We parted ways at the station. Officer Sharma locked eyes with us and said seriously, “You four have done an amazing job. Your quick thinking has brought us a dangerous criminal. Keep it up.”
“Our pleasure,” I said and we all grinned. But once back at the villa, escorted by police personnel, we felt like…………….woah!
We had just solved a crime, like detectives. We had saved an innocent man and trapped a fraud!
“I cannot believe that just happened,” Naveen said simply, lying on the couch.
“We came into near-death situations, guys,” Akansha said in a daze. “Near-death.”
“I’m so wiped out after all that, oh my god,” I said breathlessly. “This has been one crazy day.”
But the day wasn’t over just yet. Just then we got a message on our phones. It was……the police station.
“Oh no, now what?” Shruti asked.
“We’re writing this SMS to inform you…………..you’ll be winning 2000 rupees each for your wonderful work in catching named fraud!” Naveen read aloud as we all gasped.
And then started the mayhem. We all acted like five-year-olds, jumping on the couch and screaming “YESSSSSSS!” at the top of our lungs. We would have to give our bank details and they would transfer the money within 24 hours!
But amid all the joy, Shruti suggested something that was so insanely amazing that I couldn't speak for another ten minutes.
“Hey, why don’t we write this crazy adventure down? Then other people can see that it just takes intelligence and bravery, not superior martial arts skills to solve a crime!”
“That’s AWESOME!” Akansha yelled and we jumped some more.
Since I loved writing the most out of all my friends, I took up the challenge.
And that’s pretty much it! Our crazy, enlightening, death-defying adventure. And in case you’re wondering how the rest of our trip went, it was quiet compared to this week. We visited the Kempty falls and went swimming there, you know, without worrying about the strong current drowning us to death. I had thought my mom would officially put me under house arrest when I reached home because I could have died on the trip, but she just teared up and told me how proud she was on the phone. I teared up too, I’ll admit.
And that ends our crazy first without-parents trip! I’ll have to admit, I loved even the scary parts ‘cause that was a real adventure. I just hope our future solo trips will be a little less extreme. I think I need a vacation after this vacation!