Mo Yaling

The Message

‘What is this?’ I exclaimed.

‘Thread! Fishing line!’ Shankar smiled wide.

‘And what are you going to do with that?’

‘Very simple bhaiya – I will knot an end of this line to some point and then as we move I will go on tying up this thread to different points along with our path. So we will have a clear demarcation of our course! No need of any compass or anything!’ He explained.

We all stared at him incessantly. He remained standing with his broad smile. Then Nayna started clapping. Quentin joined her. Me too was forced to clap. Undoubtedly a brilliant idea! Fishing lines are light yet strong. It will not be a burden to carry ten or fifteen kilometres of nylon threads with us. And the fact that happened – Shankar became an obvious member of the team!

We were all so excited that no one slept easily at night. The next morning I woke up first and made tea for everybody. Quentin prepared a rough budget for our expedition within half an hour.

‘How did it went?’ I asked him.

‘I’ve calculated a ten days programme. It will cost about point four million rupees max.’ He said.

‘Only four lakhs!’ I exclaimed. ‘If we haven’t our marriage ceremony – we could have all arrange it – isn’t it Nayna?’

Nayna nodded with consent. We then all worked on it immaculately and finalized it at three and half lakhs.

‘I was thinking – why aren’t we informing this to our government? After all it is an international affair. If something happens to professor … we must get help from them.’ Nayna said thoughtfully.

‘I think -’ Quentin stopped a little before saying, ‘professor wouldn’t have liked it. If you go through the permission letter – you will notice it. There it is clearly stated that we cannot enter more than three kilometres inside the park.’

‘Oh yes! I recalled too!’ I said.

‘Yes. And professor got lost beyond that range. We will be in trouble if we inform the government.’

‘So true. Are those guides trustworthy?’ I asked.

‘Most probably.’ Quentin said. ‘They were arranged by that rich student.’

‘Let me call him.’ I tried to contact the guide. As usual his phone is switched off. ‘He is a late riser I think. Will call him later. Let’s have our breakfast. Then we will proceed according to our plan.’

After breakfast we all left the house except Quentin. Shankar went to procure those fishing lines and some other things. Me and Nayna went to meet different peoples and friends to convince them about our purpose and to collect fund. And also I had to take some print outs of those necessary documents. By evening we accumulated more or less sixty percent of our calculated amount.

We were happy with our progress. That evening we had our dinner early as we had purchased the tickets of the morning flight. This time we all wanted to report at least an hour early to avoid any kind of misunderstanding.

All went well. We landed at Dibrugarh around nine thirty. There we got divided. Nayna went on her own way to search for that student of professor Oda. It might take a day or two – depending on the situation. She will then come and join us on the camp-site. She has the phone number of our guide. I forgot to mention that we contacted him last evening.

We continued to hire a car. The driver was a little bit scratchy but we bargained to drop us at the mouth of the hanging bridge over the Siang river. It will save us an hour of hiking. We packed some lunch for the road. In this land evening comes early according to IST. We have to reach camp-site before sundown. We decided to give a single break in our journey to shorten the time. But by our misfortune, one of the tire punctured.

After we board the car again after repairing Shankar said with regret - ‘Eh! We lose almost half an hour!’

I couldn’t stop myself to pull his leg. ‘Haven’t you brought your blue underwear Shankar?’

Quentin suddenly broke into laughter. Shankar became serious.

After sometime Nayna called me.

‘Yes Nayna – did you find that person?’

‘I can’t hear you.’ She shouted. ‘Can you hear me?’

‘Yes Nayna – I can hear you, tell me.’

‘Hello! Neel! Hello! Hello!’

‘Cut it Nayna. I’m calling you back.’ I said as I disconnected the phone.

Then I tried to contact her but there were almost no signal. I felt so disappointed. Then after sometime Nayna’s message came. I hurriedly opened and read it.

‘Oh! It’s a good news! She has contacted that person. His name is Tamo Jamsenpa.’

‘Tamo Jamsenpa! You know him?’ The driver exclaimed.

‘Tamo Jamsenpa is my – kind of mate!’ I lied gladly. ‘He is one of the student of my professor.’

‘Good man – Tamo Jamsenpa. Very helpful. He has helped me many times. His cousin brother is Anshu Jamsenpa. I know him also. He has climbed Everest four times.’

‘Wow!’ I exclaimed.

‘You are Tamo Jamsenpa’s friend. I am happy to drive for you.’

The closed door of his sentiment – the driver – seemed to open suddenly. He continued to say so many things joyously. The man – whom we persuaded as a scratchy person – turned to a open hearted one! A single name of a person changed the relationship between a service giver and his customer to a friendly acquaintance! When we got out of the car I gave Takam Rijiju – our driver and new friend – Nayna’s Number. And he promised that he will bring her here and will safely reach to our guide.

Our guide and porters were waiting on the spot where we told them to wait. It was almost five o’clock. The light of the setting sun has softened. It will be dark when we will get to our camp-site.

‘Would it be safe to walk in the dark?’ I asked the guide Prema Tuki.

‘I won’t be a problem.’ Prema said. ‘We will light up some torches. There are no fear of wild animals. But still to be in safe side we will use torches instead of battery lights.’

It was a strenuous hiking. We were so tired that it took almost two and a quarter hour – a forty five minutes more of the normal hiking to reach the camp-site. After our dinner at eight thirty we all sank into the abyss of sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, there is a glimmer of light in the sky. I felt so fresh after my quietus. I wake Quentin and others. We were ready by five thirty to enter the forest.

After reaching the forest camp we checked our mobiles. There were no signals but all the offline apps were all okay.

‘The mobiles are working fine except the signals – the watch particularly.’ I said.

‘Yes. They will. For the time being. I noticed the problem almost after twenty four hours.’ Quentin replied.

We took a break of an hour and send rest of the people back to our base camp except two persons. We had planned that from the next morning our helpers will move continuously between this camp and the base camp on a gap of three-four hours to keep the communication on.

Then we reached the point where professor was lost. Quentin guided us followed by Shankar tying his lines followed by me at the end with my gun. Quentin almost enacted the scene to show us what happened that day. We decided to climb the slope down the next day and came back.

I was a little sad thinking about professor. Suddenly something caught my eyes, falling under our supply materials, a strap of a bag. I dragged it out from there. It is professor’s bag – I recognized!

‘Hey! Isn’t it professor’s bag?’ I asked Quentin.

‘Yes. It is.’ He replied.

‘Did you checked it?’

‘No. Why?’

‘Nothing. Just asked. Would you mind if I check it?’ I asked again. Quentin just shrugged ambiguously. ‘Okay. Come here. All of you. Let me check the bag.’ I called everybody around me.

Then I brought the objects from the bag one by one. There was nothing important. A few set of dress. Photocopies of the required documents. A small diary with notes in Japanese language. And a basic mobile phone. The battery of the phone wasn’t exhausted yet. There were unopened messages in the message box. I opened the message box. Three unopened messages. The first one has come from ‘me’! I was shocked! I checked the number in my mobile. It is professor’s number! We all exchanged our looks. My hand was trembling with some unknown reverence. I opened the message. It said - ‘I’m fine but I’m trapped.’

The message dated just two days ago!!