The Scorching Heat

The Summer holidays was in full swing . My friends had participated in a football tournament . The tournament had Rs. 10000 as the prize . It was held in memory of a dead local football star . The village in which it was held is called "Dhanbasa". Since I had a holiday , my friends asked me to accompany them . Between our village- Bishanpur and Dhanbasa there is a hill . To go to Dhanbasa one needs to cross the rocky hill which has no wild animals . The villagers are used to crossing this hill as they often cross the hill to attend the weekly market at Mandro .

We set out for our destination early in the morning . The river and the trees near our village had created a cool atmosphere . But as we started ascending the hill , the morning sun seemed to have some grudge against us . We were all sweating badly . As we tried to move on our legs also started giving up . The friends were used to the hilly path but for me it was completely new . I started thinking about the mountaineers , how they could conquer great heights and I was struggling just with a small hill.

At the top of the hill there was a holy place , home for the god of hill . It was marked by a huge heap of stones and known as "Chappat Dhiri" . Any traveller who reached this point threw a stone in gratitude to god and this way the heap of stones had resulted . As I threw my stone , I prayed that a Dashrath Majhi be born in our village so as to make a path in the hill.

The descent was easy as the sun was left behind and the hill shadowed us . How relieved we were ! Soon we were at Dhanbasa ground . There were trees around the ground . Under the scorching sun , they were quite helpful for the audience . Small shops were set up , making the place more of a village fair . We played two matches and we won and made place for the semifinals , to be held the day after . We had no complaint because of the win except for the scorching sun that could yet be abused in the midst of the joy of winning two consecutive matches .

We had our snacks and set out for home . The sun was overhead and we knew what would happen during the ascent . The sun fell on our backs and it seemed as though a cow was being thrashed badly on the back to hurry up . We hurried and as we reached "Chappat Dhiri", we thanked the god for the win and our safe journey . My special prayer was that- let my mom let me not come the day after for the more matches . By her doing so , I could avoid the painful ascent and also maintain my friendship . We descended soon . I was there at home away from friends and I declared to my mom , " Now I shall never cross the hill . It's tough and for tomorrow tell my friends that I am sick".