Agumbe Ghat… Walking down…

Believe me readers; it’s very difficult to stand, straight without a movement, at a gunpoint. Especially when your eyes are blindfolded by the blackest cloth of the century. That too, damn tight!

My legs were trembling when the second person with a shabby beard and eyes as wide as the blackboards of our college, walked behind me and put a black cloth on my eyes and taking it all the way back, tied it tightly behind my head. He then pulled both my arms behind my back and tied them together with a rope. I could hear nothing but the beat of my heart. Standing at the end, I was the last one to be blindfolded. After that I was pushed by him and I sensed the same case with other two of my buddies. He forced me to bend my head and literally pushed me into the van.

As soon as I sat, I felt the zippers of Sandy’s six pocket jeans. Felt relieved that atleast we were together in whatever we were, literally a dark blue van.

Though I heard them chatting, their voices were so low that I doubted if atleast they were able to hear each other. We were sitting packed tightly in the van that was being driven by the craziest driver I had ever driven with. He neither cared for the pot holes nor the turnings of the ghat. We were being thrown to our left and to our right and many a times we bumped into each other and a few times our heads bumped to the roof of the van. At any normal time, I bet all three of us would have been angry to hell, but the smallest thought of being pointed by a gun and kidnapped had left us dry.

I wish I could atleast talk but never took the risk and kept to myself. After a drive of around 30 minutes, I sensed the van taking a deep right turn and suddenly the van started shaking very ugly. The driver really had a heart colder than a stone, to kidnap three little innocent kids and then drive at top speed without even caring for them. I bet on my pocket money, he even had the suspension of the van removed just to torture us. If this was a trailer of the torture those cruel heartless guys could give, what would be the real torture we would have had to face? The slightest thought sent a chill down my spine and I sat upright suddenly only to be bumped again by another turn taken by our reckless driver.

After a journey of another 15 minutes on the worst road ever travelled, the van stopped. The van did not move for some complete five minutes but still the engine was on. The tedious journey of our kidnap started again after a not much relieving break.

Finally breaking the silence I heard a man speak, “You guys are being kidnapped”

Oh! Thanks for opening my eyes! I had thought we were being taken on a romantic Golconda ride in Venice!

“But why?” I heard Shetty’s voice.

Oh man, this guy had guts, though his voice seemed abnormally like a 3 year kid.

“You are no one to ask questions” the man suddenly whacked at Shetty.

I felt pity for Shetty, remembering the day when he had daringly stood up in the Biology Class in our PU Days and asked the lecturer, “Why can’t I refer my own notes from other books?”

“Just sit and listen to the lecture” had come a reply as sharp as an arrow and as fast as it and pierced straight into Shetty’s heart cracking its walls and then puncturing it!

“We were given orders to kidnap you” I heard another man speaking with a voice rougher than the voice of van’s silencer.

It was not like we three were obedient and obeyed their orders to not ask any more questions, but none of us dared to ask any more questions!

The journey turned silent and tedious with none speaking. We even lost the count of time we had been travelling. The van would take random turns and the driver never tiered driving as rashly as possible. It was loud screech of the brakes that woke me up. The van suddenly stopped and even the engine stopped.

I heard the door open on both sides of the van and a tough hand pulled me out. With everything dark, I had to feel the end of the door and then carefully keep out my leg, but the person or better say kidnapper, dint give me a chance for all that. He just heartlessly pulled me out of the door like pulling a bag of rice. He guided me to walk a few steps and then I stumbled upon something.

“There are steps” he said coarsely

“Sorry, I dint see them” I said, pretty sarcastically.

“There are two more” he said not even caring for my sarcasm.

Climbing the three steps I again walked into what I felt to be home. The smell of freshly cooked rice made me realize of my hunger.

Damn! This kidnapping thing had taken out all my senses!

“Now better they cook a nice sambar with the rice” I said to myself.

After hearing a door lock, I felt silence rule over us.

“Are you guys also here? Vish? Shetty?” I heard Sandy’s voice.

“Dude I am here” Shetty said

“Congrats, we have been kidnapped” I said

“Just shut up. This is no time for fun” Shetty said in anger.

“Where was your anger when we were being kidnapped” Sandy asked him

“Ofcourse I was afraid. I know you two both are afraid. We are lucky they dint shoot us or hurt us” Shetty said

“Don’t panic Shetty, it’s of no use. We can’t do anything until we get to know what all this is about” I said

“Naxals. What else?” Shetty sounded disgusted. I was sure, he too was pissed off by the rash driving more than by being kidnapped.

“It is really dangerous guys” Shetty continued after a long gap “We are finished”

“Don’t panic. Be brave man” Sandy said.

“I am brave Sandy. Else anyone else could already have pissed in his pants at a gunpoint” Shetty said

“Now please stop boasting. I know we dint piss only because we were dehydrated” I said

I heard Sandy laugh just when the door opened.

“You three have been kidnapped” we heard a voice, again as thick as a Hollywood Devil.

“Now how many times in the world would they be telling us that we are kidnapped” I thought.

“Your eyes would be tied till our boss comes” he continued.

“Oh this is new information, keep ears open” I said to myself

“It may take 10 minutes or even may take 2 hours” he said.

“But you will be served dinner now. Don’t worry” we heard a female voice.

“What??? We were kidnapped by a lady?” I was questioned by my heart.

“Don’t try to escape. Don’t try any stunts. You be good, we will be good. You try to be bad, we will be worse. Pray you remain safe till you are here. Our boss will take all the decisions once he is here. That’s all we have to say and we won’t listen anything that you say” the man with Hollywood Devil’s voice continued and walked out of the door.

I heard few footsteps and a loud bang of the door.

“Guys, there is a lady in this gang” Shetty said. His voice seemed little relaxed and more excited now than it was few minutes back.

“I am still here” we heard the lady’s voice.

It was very difficult for me to control my laughter and I heard Sandy laugh loud as I joined him. I wished if she could open my eyes for a few seconds to catch a glimpse of Shetty’s face.

After a few minutes of silence, which seemed like months, we heard few voices and then the door opened. Again after few whispers, finally the man with Hollywood Devil’s voice said, “We will be serving you dinner, rice and plain daal. We won’t open your eyes but we will give you plates into your hands. Speak only if you need water. No more food will be served. You are not in a five star hotel”

After a minute my hands were untied and I felt a hand holding my left hand and kept a plate on my left palm. Holding the plate in my left hand, still sitting on the floor leaning to the wall of an unknown home at an unknown place I checked the food on my plate with my right hand. I felt my heart cry out for all those poor humans who had no vision and still managed to be equal in all ways to us. Feeling the hot rice and daal, I mixed it and took it into my hand and put it in my mouth. There neither was any spice nor any salt, making it the best cooked plain daal ever. Without much treat for my tongue, I simply munched the rice in my mouth. Atleast we got something to feed our hungry stomachs.

After a short dinner, our hands were wiped by paper and we were given a glass of water. While drinking water, I heard a loud screech of brakes. Suddenly it seemed like the activity increased in the home while our hands were tied back again. We could hear voices, footsteps, opening and closing of doors. All the rough voices continued feeding into our ears till sometime and then everything died down. The door of our room opened and then within seconds closed with a loud bang. It felt being slapped every time the door was banged.

After that loud bang, silence prevailed. Everything turned so silent that even the wind coming in between the gaps of a closed window to our right brought a shiver in us. Every passing moment started teasing us with our heart growing more and more tensed. The hair on the back of my neck that had risen on hearing the loud bang had still not settled down.

Though everything seemed adventurous, deep down under my heart, even under the layer which was trying to be humorous, I was damn frightened. Being kidnapped is obviously no fun to celebrate. All the numerous scary thoughts buried under were now being woken up by the silent wind blowing in.

I had to break the silence but I was now too scared to speak anything that might land us in more trouble. I even felt Sandy and Shetty would also have been feeling the same. There was no string of doubt in it.

The silence continued scaring us with a mysterious hum in its tone. I felt the wall and the floor turn cool with every passing minute. There was now no use in thinking of anything.

Banggggggggggg!

I heard a loud thud on the door. And then the door was opened so furiously that the door went all the way and hit the walls on both the sides. Then we heard few footsteps and whispers.

I felt a hand hold my left arm tightly and pull me up. I stood up. He, I knew it was a man’s hand holding me by its firm grip, pulled me ahead and I stepped ahead like a sheep stepping ahead when pulled by a rope tied to his neck. After a few steps, he reached behind my head and untied the knot in the black cloth that had been tied on our eyes.

To be continued…

Please do leave a comment below if you are liking this and are more than eager to know what happens next…

Vishal…

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