A midnight walk

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

Thirty-five years ago, during one winter trip in my sales career, I arrived Gudalur late night after a hectic coverage of Ooty and Coonoor markets. Next day morning I had a meeting with Gudalur customer and rushed to Kotagiri. The plan was to finish the Kotagiri meeting early and board an early evening bus by 6 pm to avoid the chill weather of the hills. Everything fell in place perfectly but the time! I managed to board the bus by only 8 pm!

As usual, the descending of the bus was an uncomfortable experience for me and I started counting each hairpin bend and was just about to sleep when I heard the screech of the bus braking. I woke to find that the bus was in a thickly forested area. I thought that an elephant had blocked the way or a truck might have broken down. A few of us got down and walked ahead to understand what went wrong. As I reached the site, I was awestruck to see a toppled tanker from which concentrated acid was leaking. There were dense fumes and a pungent smell had pervaded the air.

Without mobile phones, the next available landline was 15 km away. Were returned to the bus and discussed our next step. Someone on the bus offered to guide us to next town, by walk, through a 10-12 km stretch provided we were willing to take the risk. The guide was confident —if we went as a group, we may avoid the risk of wildlife encounters and reach Mettupalayam within two hours.

I decided to join him and also convinced a few fellow passengers to accompany us. The path was full of trees, bushes, thorns and the stones were slippery. Along the route, we encountered a variety of sounds — that of birds, insects and maybe those of wild or not so wild animals. Nevertheless, we all walked with 100 per cent confidence, accompanied all the way with our beating hearts. By god's grace and the great knowledge of the unassuming guide, we arrived in the village at half-past midnight.

We all assembled in a tea-shop and thanked the guide several times, who just smiled and vanished without even waiting for tea! No words can explain the help that I received that day, my heart is full of gratitude every time I remember that night.