TRAPPED!

I
I looked twice at the hills.

the mountains...
I couldn't help but look at their direction again; and, again. They looked familiar. Blue-green, lucious green flora, so dense! I sighed in wonder. But, something was just not right. They were not supposed to be there, were they? I thought to myself. They looked so familiar, because, I was sure, we sure as hell enjoyed spotting them on our way to our destination. But that was in another location altogether, a different direction, if I was not wrong. The road trip was a long winding one, exhilirating too...but the images were etched on my brain forever. In my mental calculation, we had crossed those hills long back, hours ago. They simply could not be where we currently stood. It was a totally different landscape. Was I the only one who noticed this. I looked at my parents and sister. There were several other visitors too that day. Their animated conversations echoing across the hollows of these ancient caves we had come to visit. Ravana's cave to be precise. We were in Sri Lanka. My dream destination ~ having come true atlast! The journey had been most epic so far; And the caves...all were lost in admiration of its sheer magnificence ~the caves. They were all so engrossed in absorbing up the majestic beauty of the place, Clicking pictures, making reels, discussing amongst themselves; all deeply immersed in those typical 'touristy' activities that they hardly noticed what I was noticing. I called out to them several times, trying to get their attention, but it was as if I didn't exist. They were so mesmerised by the art and history of the oh-so famous mysterious caves.

II

I turned and looked at those hills once again. Strange, they seemed to have moved closer now. I rubbed my eyes. It couldn't be true. Was my mind playing tricks? They looked larger...and larger. I couldnot believe my eyes as I stared in astonishment. The hills were moving, and, they were moving fast; approaching us. They got bigger as they neared. I looked at the chain barrier at the entrance of the cave. The others had gone much deeper into the dungeons. I could hear their muffled voices. My legs would not move. I stood frozen at my spot...watching in utter disbelief as those hills raced towards us.

I called out to my parents. "Hurry!" no response. By now, sweat was begining to drip down sides of my temples. The weather had been pleasant throughout the entire morning we'd been there, but, suddenly I was feeling hot and sweaty. Was it my growing nervousness or anxiety, that made me feel warm all of a sudden? Where was everyone? I called out again. How far had they gone. And then...a loud Bang!

To my horror the hills had banged against our cave. I watched terrified; bewildered, as it moved away a bit, halting, and then racng back at us. Another bang! And, another! A weird long whistling sound accompaning each bang, as though teasing. Or was it the wind? A crashing noise!
One part of the cave opening was shut now by a huge boulder that had come crashing from the hill. The other part moving back, halting, and then came crushing at us again. What the hell was happening. It was as if the hills were alive and had a will of its own and were playing around. Banging against the cave....over and over.

It seems the others too had heard the loud bangs...as I could hear frantic voices. All were rushing from the deep caverns towards the entrance. Footsteps, voices and and a myriad cachophony of sounds echoing all around, all at once. And finally, a loud bang. Our entrance was fully sealed shut. Another big boulder had closed the only entrance of the cave.

Commotion followed. Nobody understood, why or what just happened. I could hardly explain to them what incredulous views I had just witnessed. Maybe, some other time. This was not the time for that. I hurried towards the visitors. All were looking amongst themselves; confused, and counting if everyone was present. I waved at them, urging them not to panic. Most important task at hand was to get everyone out of the caves, alive! We were all trapped and oxygen was running out. My family was there somewhere amongst them too....there were lots of visitors that day.

The guides and organizers got down to work. It was an emergency. We needed to get everyone out somehow...fast!


III


the long queue...

I heaved a sigh of huge relief when I spotted my mother at last. She was standing in a line. My father and sister was ahead. It was a long queue. My mother slowly sat frail in a bench. For a second I thought she looked my way, but she didn't seemed to notice me. No wonder she was tired. I was so glad to see them, safe. That was one heck of a rescue mission. It had taken hours getting everyone out thtough a small crack between the huge boulders that had shut the cave. Ravana's cave... Was it how Ravana trapped his victims. I thought wryly, trying to find a joke in all of these madness. But, boy, was I glad, we were out of his clutches. Try hard next time, Mr.Ravana, I challenged him in my mind. We ain't coming back for that, lol, I smirked.

The queue barely moved. It was just too slow. My mother sat at the same spot, for almost three hours, I looked at my watch. It was already late afternoon. How long would it take~ the whole process. I wondered when we'll be completely out of the whole ordeal. The queue suggested, how in thousands, visitors had thronged the caves that day. So, it'd be a long wait. Especially, since, we were all in another country. Atleast we were out of the danger. So waiting to get out of the premises now was not as painful. I saw everyone was waiting patiently.

rocky passageway...


IV

I looked at my mother again. They had moved few steps ahead now. Phew! Atleast, the line was moving, albeit, at snail pace.
Then suddenly, my glance fell in another queue, little far from where everyone was. Strange, not to have noticed it earlier. It was moving in another direction. And yes, fast too! Oh..yes..it was moving a lot faster. I wondered how come this line was moving so fast. I looked at the line where my mother stood. It seemed the visitors were segregated. Two seperate lines..one fast; the other ~ dead slow.

Might as well follow the fast one, I thought to myself. Will meet the others outside at the parking. I hopped the barriers to move to the line that was moving swift. I followed everyone happily as they were exiting quite rapidly. I looked back where my mother's line was, they were still stuck at the same spot. I'll have to wait for them outside, I thought to myself. It'd be a long night tonight. I followed the faster line, and, I was just too glad to be moving out fast. It was a long line too, but thankfully, lot lot faster. We passed through several make-shift rooms, crowded cabins, jumped over big grey and white pipes and crossed through a long market-type place with plastic sheets as roofs...although, it was closed now. The stalls on both sides were empty. Only people were us, moving in a line, outside - to safety, towards freedom. Some children ran past, giggling and doing gynmastics on the odd shop poles that stood, and then vanishing far ahead.

It was almost dusk now, and our line was moving between some boulders. Oil-burnt torches lit the stony cobbled path. They looked ancient. I think we've reached the end, I thought to myself. Because, the terrain had changed. I could see the tall black thick iron gates at a distance. We were approaching those. Guards stood at those gates, in black shiny robes, and gold flashy earrings dangling from their earlobes - scene straight out of some mythological series. Their well oiled brown bodies glazed in the torch-lit pathway. They were letting everyone go past. My turn comes next, I thought happily.

"Hey! Where do you think you are going?" Two large brown muscular hands pressed against my arms. They were holding me, and was pushing me back. "I have to go out," I tried to explain. Surely, they knew what had happened back in the caves, they had to let me out.

"You go back, this route is only for the natives," saying this, those strong hands pushed me back, letting those behind me go past the gates instead.
This can't be happening. Damn, how could I have been so dumb. So much for trying to be smart. Of course, I now understood, why the queue where my mother stood was taking so long to move. It was for the foreign visitors, hence, was taking time. Meanwhile, the native's line which I took moved faster as there was no checking to be done, no protocols to be followed. With a long weary sigh I turned to go back the way I had come. Damn, this was tough. It'd be a long way back.


V


...

Will I remember the way back? I tried to recall the path I had come, the exact turns I had taken. Treading carefully so as not to make new blunders, I walked back. Crossing the boulders, I was happy when I finally saw the now familiar deserted market place. I was on the right path, yay! I crossed the labrynth maze of pipes ~ grey and white. Soon, I'll be back at the waiting area where my mother previously stood, and everyone else. They must've moved much ahead by now. No worries, I'll catch up with them once I reach outside. Determined, I climbed back through the make-shift rooms I had crossed earlier; and the cabins. So many of them. Going earlier was so quick; but the same route back was taking ages. There were people working like before. No one seemed to notice me. I saw one or two others following me. Maybe, they had made similar mistake and were heading back too. Atleast, I was not alone, I heaved a sigh of relief.

VI


I reached a big hall, and there were lot of people inside. I ran upto them to enquire where the visitor's line had moved. Did they see my mother, and others?

I asked someone, if he saw where the visitor's line was. No response. He seemed to look past me. "Hello?" "Can you hear me?" No one answered. Everyone looked as if I wasn't there. They were busy amongst themselves. Weird, I thought. Come on, at least answer or make some announcement as to where everybody had gone, all the foreign nationals. The ones who were following me had no success either. They tried asking the people present, but it was as if they didn't exist too. Everyone looked past us.

"Hello?" I yelled, "Can't you hear, what we are asking? Where is the visitor's line" I grabbed a person by his hands. But, what? What the...efff? I couldnot believe what had just happened. My hand just went past his arms. I tried to catch hold of him. Again, my hand went past. This can't be happening. My followers too saw what had happened. Strange, he could see me though, while the others I was shouting at top of my voice didn't. Language couldnot be the problem here. Everyone knew English and it was a famous tourist spot. They had to understand my language. Surely, everyone in the hall didn't turn deaf all at once.
And...my hand...my hand. I watched in horror as my hand passed through this person's arms.

My follower came by my side and looked straight into my eyes. He had a strange look in his eyes; a very sad, defeated look. He said slowly, "I think, we are dead...thats why they can't hear or see us." He gestured at the others. Just then, one person suddenly walked from the crowd straight towards us. It seemed he could see us. Thank God, I was bit relieved. He stood next to me and in a barely audible voice whispered in my ears, "He is right, most of us here are dead," his fingers pointing randomly at the crowd in various directions. "the boulders...err...those hills! At different times, got hit. We died," reminding me of the incredible incidents I had witnessed earlier. He too had seen those racing hills it seems. As if hearing my thoughts, he nodded and continued, "Yeah...at different times...happens. Err..so some can see us...some see the others. The ones alive, see none." He paused. My whole world collapsed. What was I hearing? This could not be true.

My other follower too had joined us. We all stood in the big buzzing hall with the stranger, watching, as everyone walked past us...through us, all over us. It was like an unending matrix.
We were dead. I was hit by a boulder? This realisation hit me really bad. Was it why my mother didn't seem to notice me earlier? And, the fast line that I had followed? Were they line of the dead too? Come to think of it, those guards indeed looked like some Yamdoots too, hadn't they? Strange, if I was dead, why didn't they let me pass like the others? Just because I was not a native?

Shrugging my thoughts back to the present, I continued to watch. Some new ones had joined us. We were all a group now. Group of the dead. None of us were natives. And, we could see each other. We decided to keep together. I had given up hopes of communication with my family or the outside world. The future looked too gloomy all of a sudden.
But, atleast, we had us. We had to look out for each other now. We decided to move in a group, always; have each other's back.



VII


I don't know how many days had passed. It seemed like forever. The crowd never acknowlegded us, and we didn't care anymore. We always hung around in that hall, same busy hall filled with buzzing activity. It was huge and always lit dim. It had become our home, our permanent adda. We saw new ones arriving everyday. Must have met the same fate as ours, we'd think and shrug helplessly. We could hardly do anything about it.
We joked and chatted amongst ourselves. At least we had our own company.


As days passed, the stranger from the crowd who had first noticed us, and who had informed that we were all dead, had become our best buddy. He kept our spirits up, always. He kept reminding us of the special day that'd be comming soon. We waited for that day, everyday. It was the day, we'll be hearing from our loved ones, he said. It seemed impossible, but we were all hopeful.



VIII

And finally, one day he approached us excitedly,"Its that day, it has come!" He came running. We all rushed following him to a place that looked lke a gallery. There were steps all around. We were in the middle. It reminded me of a stadium, but was much smaller; the steps though, taller. The crowd that barely noticed us, came from one of the entrances at the top and dropped a huge box of what looked like small pieces of paper. They were notes, scattered now, all were colourful...flying about.

"Come...lets search the ones meant for us," the man exclaimed as he began searching through the huge pile. We all followed suit. I didn't understand what these notes meant, but began digging through; searching for mine. They were from the loved ones he had said. So, maybe, my family had sent for me as well. "Hey, this is yours," one of my followers handed me a light lemon coloured note, and continued searching for his. I held the note in my hand. Strange, it was the only thing that the 'alive' crowd threw at us, the 'dead' ones, that we could touch or feel. I opened to read it. It said - 'Obuitary'. It was from my parents. It read, they had reached safely years ago; and, after long, had given up search for me. They hoped, I was fine wherever I was and that these obuitary notes reached me. It was arranged by the Sri Lankan govt to send messages to the lost ones.
Tears streamed down my eyes as I clutched the note in my hands. Years had passed? I saw the others too in a similar state. They had got their notes too. I held the soft note. It was the only contact with the living world I had. Next note would come after years, how many ~ no one knew. till then, it was all we had. Emotional, all clutching our notes we headed back to the hall. Things were functioning as usual. The crowd doing their job. Nobody sensed our presence; or cared.
We only waited for the next 'obuitary' day. That was the only purpose left for us, for our existence.


IX


My fellow mate one day, informed me that they had discovered a cinema hall near by. It was of the 'living', in other side of the hall where we seemed to hang about all the time. We were dying to watch some movies. It seemed like forever we had watched any. I decided to go up there. Sneak in and watch a hindi movie, I thought to myself. Once there, I reached the ticket counter. What was the use, nobody saw me anyways, I rolled my eyes. I ditched the idea of getting a ticket, and went straight to the screens It was a multiplex. I hopped from one screen to the next. Not a single bollywood movie. I was frustrated. How could it be! There were movies of all the foreign languages playing, but, not a single hindi movie. How strange, considering how popular bollywood was in our neighbouring countries. Fed up, I sat in the lobby, totally disappointed with my unfruitful adventure. Maybe I should head back where the others were and tell them, how they had neglected to keep hindi movies in the theatre. Hmph!

Just as I was begining to head back, I noticed an airline counter in one corner. I ran towards it. A ray of hope rising deep within. Was there a chance after all? I looked through the list of flights. Flights to all other countries were listed there. The countries list was a long one; and covered even the small obscure nations. But, wait....not a single flight to Bombay? Not a single flight to Guwahati? All flights to India were banned, specially the ones I so desperately wanted to board. Not a single damned flight...not now...not forever. Banned!


X

There was no escape from this place...I was truly trapped! I finally surrendered to my fate. Ravana had won...


Copyright 2024 © Nandini Deka

P.S : This is a work of fiction and bears no resemblance to anyone living or dead.
( Images - Google )