Landed at Guwahati airport and felt like I have been drugged
and kidnapped in the flight. Now along with fear, a lot of questions started
echoing in my ears. The airport was compact and in no-time I was stranded on
the huge parking lot with my backpack. A lot of taxiwalas kept buzzing around
me with loud noises of ‘Ma ka temple’, ‘ISBT’, ‘Rooms’, ‘Majuili’, ‘Kaziranga’.
I kept reading about how to reach, where to stay and the
transportation options for Sela Pass. But when someone shouted ‘Kaziranga’, my
immediate thought was ‘Let’s do this!’.
I stood there holding my bag tightly with a hope to find a
taxi driver who can communicate with me. I am from a place down south of Tamil
Nadu and thanks to my forefathers – I know only Tamil and English. After 30
minutes of careful watch, chose a guy and went with him to his car – of course
he is the cheapest. He took my bag, locked it in the boot and before I ask him
‘How much time Bhaiyya?’, he vanished, and I am in the car with 2 other
strangers.
After a long wait of another 30 minutes which seemed to me
like a year with all my thoughts of life and death, he came with another two
strangers. I could sense from the situation that this must be a shared cab and
he is asking us to adjust. Thanks to my heavy built – with layers of fat – I am
voted unanimously to move to the front seat with the driver.
It took 40 minutes to reach ISBT, Guwahati. From the broken
English of driver, I guess this must be the place where I should be taking the
bus to Kaziranga. A guy literally held my hands and took me to a counter, made
me pay, gave me the ticket and told ‘Bus 1 hour come’. I sat right next to the
counter and kept staring at the ticket and the bus terminal. It was a busy
terminal with small shops around (got some snacks) and a whole lot of buses
were going to either Tezpur or Shillong.
After an hour and half, boarded the bus and the conductor
asked for the slip. He gave me another in return which read K-O-H-O-R-O.
“Kaziranga, Bhaiyya”, I told him and kept a puppy face at
him. From the minimum conversation I had, it was very evident for him that I
know one Hindi word – “Bhaiyya”. He told a very lengthy sentence and finally
signaled me to get in and sit. I reached Kohoro by 5:30 PM, it was pitch dark.
My initial plan was to finish the evening safari and reach
back to Tezpur by night. More than the darkness, being alone scared me. I am
stranded in the middle of a small town full of shops and a lot of crowd. I know
it’s totally absurd to ask for a possible forest safari at this time and
started to enquire about the stay options available.
Its 2 hours since I started searching for an accommodation,
I ended up where I started. Standing still in the middle which is getting
colder by every minute with a range of emotions rushing through my heart. The
fear which was initially a small thread now has woven a blanket with time and
covered me over without a streak of light.
That moment, that moment made me mad. I screamed inside my
mind. I blamed every single decision I took – the trip, the driver, the
airport, the ISBT and I was so much frustrated that I had no control on what
was happening.
The next few minutes were nothing less than a miracle. A guy
came towards me and asked me if I would be happy to take a small room in a
government guest house and I nodded yes involuntarily. I learned that he is
Bitu, care taker at the guest house and his family lived with him there. They
cooked me a meal and gave me a small bed with a mosquito net. I kept thinking
about who to thank for being so fortunate and that one hand that always holds
you from falling. I never know when I slept.
The next morning first half went in a jiffy witnessing the
one horned rhinoceros at the Kaziranga national park safari. I never had a
chance to meet Bitu next morning when I reached back to room. ‘Thank God! he is
not here. I would have messed up my thanks with broken words!’ I thought to
myself and with a heartful of gratitude took my bag, left the keys at the table
and started to the bus stop. On a second thought, walked back to the room where
I kept the keys and placed a note that read ‘Thank you’ and a snicker bar. That
moment – I felt happiness.
A sense of calmness ran through the 4-hour journey and
reached the empty Tezpur bus stand. As I found no buses but only a few ‘agents’
shouting names of places, grabbed a packet of biscuit and sat on one of the sit
outs close to a pillar. Some distant conversation from behind brought me back
to senses and my goal of traveling to Bomdila came alive again. As I started to
walk towards the agent, I noticed a girl with a backpack talking to him. My
heart won the race with my brain to process the fact and started to beat faster
than ever. With all the memories rushing through my senses, I stood there still
– possibly staring at her. I have lived my best days with her. She is Aarushya.
Is this how life works? Crushes your hope and pushes you hard enough that you badly want to quit but always gives a reason to come back stronger!
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