As We Keep Searching

Chapter 13 - Planet Earth

I looked straight ahead, through the giant windowpane that was the front of the bus. It was drizzling ever so slightly; some droplets caressed my face through the open window as I watched the melting portraits of the moistened world. Every turn revealed either a rainwater-fed lake, or a cave-like canopy, with the trees that flanked us gently brushing past us, like goodbye hugs.

I looked at my leech-marked legs. All the wounds had healed, leaving just trickles of dried blood, below the cursory cuts and scratches from all the brambles and rocks we had battled; remnants of our conquest of Mother Earth.

I smiled sadly. Well, we humans had done much worse to her.

As we left the town, the roads grew wider, and buildings emerged. Nature slowly recalled her forces and gave way to the hustle and bustle of human life. The rain grew thicker, blanketing my vignette screen, like a reflection in the sea being dissolved by sudden waves. It was Her way of telling me, there was nothing more to see here.

I went back to my co-passengers. Most of them were asleep, rocking unconsciously with the swaying of the bus. Shankar was sitting in the front. I could see the ghost of a lucid dream playing in his eyes. As I sat beside him, both our heads turned to the window to my right.

'Dude, have you seen Planet Earth?'
'Yes yes. Oh my God...'
'Dude Oh my God...'
'Oh my God...'

And we gushed over little details of the various episodes, like the Ibex climbing a vertical dam, or the iguana island chase, or the fish tornado owing to their uncanny synchronization...every discussion served an addition to our infinite bucket lists. I knew I had found a fellow wanderer.

I went to Vedant, to ask him about his leech bites. He was looking at them with horrified fascination, like an ominous storm-cloud you can't take your eyes off.

'It's not as bad as Kerala,' he sighed as he saw me coming. We had gone to a Talacauvery-Mondrute trek a month ago, having been practically ambushed by leeches.

'So, you got what you were looking for?' I asked him. Vedant was an aspiring filmmaker and ardent photographer. We had a mutual love for flora and fauna, even though I was on the opposite end of the shutterbug spectrum.

'Didn't get any birds, cause we didn't stick around anywhere long enough, but I got a few gems.' He piped up excitedly, producing his camera. 'Look.'

'Beautiful,' I breathed. 'I'll sprinkle them all over my last blog post, pakka.'

As we perused through the photographs, everyone stirred awake one by one and started voicing their gastric woes, like newly hatched baby chickens clamouring for food. I went back to the driver to tell him to stop for refreshments.

'Refreshments,' I would chuckle to myself an hour later.

Chapter 14 - For A Few Vadas More

'Let's all just take a nimbu pani or something, and scram.' I spoke to the bus, having parked in front of a tiny snack stall. It poured heavily now, and people were getting torn between the primal urges of laziness and hunger. Someone had to take the first step. 

Parag stepped up (or rather out), rushing to the plastic chairs that were within spitting distance, and asked for a lemon soda in visibly uncomfortable sign language. 

'One lemon soda, right?' The lady replied fluently, and Parag nodded sheepishly. 

'Hey, me too...'. Spurred on by seeing their fellow human make it to the watering hole without getting eaten, the herd followed. Soon, lemon juices were being handed out all over.

'What's that?' Vedant asked, looking at a dal vada sitting near the frying pan. Everyone's eyes swung to the object of admiration. I was reminded of Genghis Khan and his forces, looking at China with the same sentiment. Little did I know how accurate that analogy would turn out to be. 

'Didi, one neer dosa, please. Make that five, actually.'

'Could you keep the medu vadas and dal vadas coming? They're excellent...'

'Get more sambar and chutney. In fact, get that entire vessel...'

And we devoured hungrily through the rain, watching the entire shop working overtime and replacing gas cylinders to feed our troops. The hot sambar, spicy chutney, crunchy vadas and soft dosas did their work in minutes, supplying their elemental forms to our half-dead cells and jolting them back to life, like a defibrillator to our senses. 

'More ale, wench!' I growled, pirate-style.

'No money, stupid!' Anjana retorted. 

I apologetically produced a Rs. 500 note and the festivities began again. Apparently they were buying vadas from the neighbouring store to meet the demand. 

The orgy lasted for over an hour, and the total cost came to a mere thousand rupees - nowhere else would we able to feed seventeen hungry baby elephants at such a price. Having been filled with heady bliss and processed rice, we climbed back onto the bus, almost ready for an another trek.

'Hey, people, we could go to the Mullayanagiri trek in Chikamagalur. Anyway, it's a holiday tomorrow. What say?'

I dodged the confetti of dirty socks and bolted to the front of the bus.

Chapter 15 - Blur

'Is this one of the hardest treks you've been to?'

I thought for a while. 'Definitely in the top five,' I started, 'But it was one of the most beautiful, hands down.' I looked back at the others - some had donned earphones, some were dozing off, some were engaged in hushed conversations drowned out by the wind, and a few were looking out the window; peace etched into their faces like subtle contours on a statuette. 

'This was a completely new mode of travelling for me. Normally I like travelling solo or in small groups of four or less, taking state transport and hitchhiking to and fro. Seventeen people,' I chuckled for the hundredth time. 'I would never have imagined it.'

'My favourite trek till now, though.' Shankar mused, turning his attention back outside.

The sky had darkened to a melancholic, cloudy blue. All the hues of the terrain had deepened, with a ray of the last light lurking around the horizon. The setting sun radiated Charukeshi, pure and unadulterated, for a blink of an eye. In seconds it vanished, taking the shuddha Ga with it, and Asavari drizzled from the sky, with a lullaby of raindrops that endeavoured to wake me from this reality. The wind grew colder, and the komal ni gave way to its pure form, as the breeze played Keeravani; the infinite ending to an ever-setting sun. 

"For in the end, all the love and laughter, anger and pain,

 Will all be in vain...

 Like tears in the rain..."

Before I knew what was happening, it was night, and plans were being made about dinner, drop-offs and one last game of Mafia. 

We had one hilarious game with the villagers scuttling their own ship again and again, with a last-minute ingenious move by Karthikeyan that had them down to three people. The game was interrupted by a logistical error in booking the bus that surfaced when Shankar pondered about the payments (having been viciously ousted early in the game by Prajyot). 

It was possible that we would have to pay for three days of travel. 

Everyone fell silent (no two words get a bus full of youngsters quieter than 'pay' and 'more'). We went to talk to the driver and called up the manager of Tejas Tours, trying to figure it out. Dinner was now a snag. There was also the matter of returning the tents and sleeping bags. 

We stopped at a shady highway dhaba and resolved the issue. Dinner was here, and the tents et al would be relinquished some other day. We would pay for two days plus whatever extra hours we took starting now.

'Guys, we won't have to pay more.'

It seems the same two words suffice to get a bus full of youngsters shouting again. 

The dinner paled miserably in comparison to our nectareous lunch, and we comforted ourselves with an Enigma game (trying to guess the mathematical pattern used by someone to make three numbers in a set). 

We raced off again, with the only objective being to get to Bangalore before the full exhaustion of the trek hit us. Me, Jaydev and Shankar quickly planned the drop-off path and collected cash from everyone to pay the driver at the end.

The driver switched off the main lights, leaving only the surreal blue LEDs on. As if on cue, my eyes grew heavy, and the rest of the night passed in a blur.

Chapter 16 - We Back

I awoke past midnight. We were in the city, with the Ulsoor lake to our left. Behind me, everyone was suspended in the dreamy blue haze surrounding us. I could hear the roar of the traffic and rain outside - a typical Bangalore symphony. We back.

I stumbled to the front and asked the driver to turn on the lights. Despite silent cries of protest, they collected their bags with half-shut eyes and wore their shoes. One last ordeal before collapsing for a day and a half.

First, we came to Indiranagar; Ravneet, Harmeet and Parag dismounted together. We said our hasty good-byes through the rain and sped off towards Phoenix Market City to drop Radhika. 'Please keep me in the loop regarding future treks,' she said sleepily. I nodded and opened the door - the rain had calmed. 

Then, it was a long drive towards BEML Layout. Jaydev, Saurabh and Prajyot left en route. 'It was a great trip, man. Thanks.' Prajyot clasped my hand and stepped down. Jaydev nodded at me as he left - a silent acknowledgment of the same. 

Anjana and Rashmi got down at BEML Layout. Anjana threw me a glance as she left, and for a brief moment, I saw the veiled sadness I was hiding behind my own tired eyes. Why do things end?

So we can begin them again.

We shall do this once more, I tried to speak telepathically, and it didn't matter whether she heard - I knew wanderlust when I saw it; she was in before I would ask.

A hard left from Kundanahalli Signal, and we stood outside Mahaveer Maples, blinking blue in the pitch black night. The rain had stopped. 

Me, Ravindra and Shankar hauled the luggage back to our flat, setting it down in the hall and lumbering back to pay the driver. 

It was a quick transaction. Abhinav and Surendra got off, making their way to their respective societies. We would meet the day after, in office. 

Shankar asked the driver to do a final stint to Spice Garden and then Bellandur, who gladly obliged. We saved his contact and saw them all off. 

'Thank you, Anna,' we expressed our gratitude to the captain of our ship, and waved to the others. 'Put a message on the group once you're home,' were our parting words. 

That left the two of us standing under skies bereft of rain and light, and the compasses of our minds swung to the building behind us - home when we weren't home.

We sighed, in a silent debate on whether to move on, or just walk off into the darkness, to grasp at infinitesimal moments before our everyday rigmarole returned. Finally, our legs took their steps inside - but we seemed to have left our minds out there, still debating. 

No way but forward, right?

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over questions posed as riddles, and answers that spoke like lore.

As my mind travelled distances, through dictums, morals and fences,

Through my ether-sailing senses, came a question, seen before,

To my eager, flailing senses, something someone asked before,

Saying, 'What are you looking for?'

Oh, this query is rhetoric, as its answer is symbolic, 

Through my mind so melancholic, I perused a trove of yore.

Every hue and song and ballad has remade me far from pallid,

Ne'er have I slighted a mountain, or refused a grove before.

But the specter soon dismissed it; it had heard all this before,

And said, 'What are you looking for?'

Ah, maybe it held the notion there was no truth but emotion,

Swimming my hedonic ocean, my commotion called 'Encore!'

And every pain and pleasure roaring sent this cosmic saga soaring,

As my symphony's outpouring had left nothing to explore,

But the shadow shunned my song, said there was nothing to explore,

And said, 'What are you looking for?'

As my wanderings grew frantic, I espoused an end romantic,

In this universe pedantic - who sits scheming at its core?

Don't we all know it's uncertain who's behind this cruel curtain?

Whose kingdom is this concert in, where we're dreaming evermore?

But the phantom smiled and sighed again, as it had evermore...

And said, 'What are you looking for?'

Left with nothing, I traverse the night to ponder or converse,

With those who search the universe for what lies yonder, or inwards,

And I find souls in restless numbers; not a single spirit slumbers,

And as whatever encumbers them is gone; I hear these words...

Now one of millions of these passengers, I say to them these words,

I say, 'What are you looking for?'

Now my hourglass is broken, and my minstrel cloud has spoken,

And my mind has left no token of the mind that it was dreaming,

And the bus is roaring stronger, in the land where night is longer,

And atop a cliff, or rock, or tree, you'll find one of us perching,

And I hope to walk these trails with them, again, as we keep searching,

And I hope to talk these tales with them, again, as we keep searching,

Yet again, As We Keep Searching..."

Epilogue: Two Blogs Walk Into A Movie...

'It's noon, let's release everything.'

'Yeah, just a moment, I have one last picture to upload.'

'Come on Anjana, we'll miss the moment...'

'Oh, I'm sorry, had we timed this with the alignment of the planets? Is someone's life hanging in...'

'All right, all right, just finish it off.'

'Okay, done. Vedant, upload the video.'

'All right, we do it together. Three...two...'

'For Pete's sake, it's not a High School Musical. Just put up the video and send us the link.'

'Okay, okay.'

Bandaje Falls Trek - The Movie : https://youtu.be/NFWNOzhYSZU

And Anjana's Blog Post : https://anjlifeexperiences.wordpress.com

Photos, courtesy of Vedant Sapra.

Anjana's Blog : https://anjlifeexperiences.wordpress.com

Vedant's YouTube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_-wTP-OKAF6HskDOqSeREw

Vedant's Instagram Page : https://www.instagram.com/vedantsapra/