When I look back and think about the scariest day of Field Support, I
still get goose bumps.
I was returning from my
Field Support visit. The route back home was very long and tiring. After the school got
over, I took the bus and started for home. The day had been quite eventful and I
was left with NO energy. I was in the local bus, which was passing through
villages after villages; many people were boarding the bus while few were
getting down at their destinations. I was just looking at them, I normally
enjoy my journey by observing the passengers and trying to figure out what
their day must have been like.
Since I am
located in a very hilly region, it takes a long time to reach my destination
and the crowd makes it even more difficult for the bus to move at a faster pace.
Unlike other days, all I wanted to do was, to take a nap. I was so exhausted
and I just wanted to rest. As the bus reached at the hill top, I felt the speed
of the bus was very slow, and it was stopping.
Something disturbed my sleep.
I got up to see
four young guys, crowding near the drivers cabin at the exit gate of the bus, having
an argument with the conductor. It was a chaos, and people started raising
their voices at each other. Their tones alerted me and I leaned forward from my
seat, confused and worried to see that one young guy was snatching money from
the Conductor. I was still confused as to why the bus had stopped; it was a
very unusual place for the bus to stop, because there were no villages at the
top of the mountain, hence no stops! But this person had stopped the bus in the
middle of the forest, on the hill top, where actually there is not Bus Stand. I
saw that, they had pushed down the conductor from the bus , I could sense fear
and shock in the bus. Everybody was panicky and so was I. what shocked me to
greater lengths was that a kid was also involved in looting the bus! The kid
had revealed a glass bottle full of local wine and threw it at driver when he
protested the loot. The driver somehow managed to dodge the bottle and it flew
right towards my window smashing it in pieces. I froze with fear. I went
completely numb for a few seconds. All I could think was what if the bottle had
hit me?
But the show wasn't over yet, one of the gang members removed the duppata from his hand, he
was wearing metal knuckles, the other was carrying a lathi in his hand. At the
moment when driver shouted for the help, I looked around to see what the other
passengers were thinking... Two- three mid aged, healthy men looked at each
other, I figured that they were probably devoicing plan to counter the thugs. My
legs were frozen i and my body was heating up, my hands started sweating and my
heart beats increased. People got up from their place and the situation became
even more chaotic. There were shouts, people pushing at each other, in anger
and frustration. Two of the thugs managed to catch the thug with metal knuckles in his hand. The driver managed to dodge the lathi again and threw it away and
caught hold of the young thug. I was screaming inside my not a single word came
on my lips. I had frozen with fear. The passengers had managed to catch hold of
two of them and the situation was under control.
I
don’t know what made me so stunned, freezed, May be that bottle which had smashed
my window before occurrence of the event or was it the fear of not having
anybody around for help, for we were stranded in a lonely place. It took me hours
to be normal, and calm. I came back home and directly slept without saying
anything to anybody.
Till that day,
I thought I was fearless. Even today I travel in that same bus and every time I
cross the place where the incident occurred, I question myself again and again,
what was I fearing at that moment, what would I have done if I wasn't frozen to
death at that moment. Till date I keep wondering……
Vishvajeet
Pawar.
Udaipur.
