Day 6 (26st Oct 04): The day I’ll remember all my life!

This was the day! When events one after the other kept tumbling out of the unknown. Started the day preparing omlettes for everyone – first timer and I guess pretty good at it. Left Gulmarg at around 11 for Srinagar. On the way we got a chance to visit an Apple Orchard. Till date I’d seen apples only in the market or in our fridge, never hanging from a tree – tht looked like fairy-tale, hehe! To top it all, our escort was the Owner’s daughter, and boy she was beautiful, easily the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen – fair complexion, rosy cheeks, big eyes and lovely smile. Marrying a kashmiri girl would be one of my top priorities in life now, hehe! Left for Srinagar shortly, and on the way there was this Army truck ahead of us, and the folks sitting inside started waving at our car as I took out the handicam. Felt nice, and I saluted them as we overtook their vehicle. Just before entering Srinagar, we had to stop at a place to cover our luggage (in the carrier) as it started raining. Reached Srinagar and had our lunch at the same “Vaishno Dhaba”, and mom had a lot of shopping to do before we finally bid Srinagar bye. And I couldn’t help exclaim - “Dad! I see its really tough to be a husband.”. Even Kapoor uncle leapt to endorse the statement, hehe! Finally left Srinagar on our way to Pahalgam via Anant Nag. Anant Nag – the name that inspired a few shivers due to its rather late history.

It was raining all along, the road full muddy muddy, as we maintained a steady speed of 60-70 kmph. It had been around an hour that we’d left Srinagar. Things had settled down and everyone behind us was feast asleep. Myself n dad on the front seat next to driver, were discussing the possible reasons why the road was so muddy, occasionally taking out the handicam, when we entered the most eventful 5-10 min of our lives. Our driver had taken the car a lille off normal to allow one sumo to overtake a truck coming from the opposite end. He had to apply brakes, but the tyres were all slippery too and hence the brakes wont apply. The driver got shit scared, and hurriedly said “saabjee, brake nahi lag raha”, and pumped the break a couple more times, and unfortunately one of those times the brake did its job. As we were at a good speed and slightly off the normal (with my side tyres already off the road), a sudden brake was enuff to disbalance the car. Dad tried his best to turn the wheels and get the vehicle back in control, but by now the car had a mind of its own, and meanwhile went and hit a tree, uprooting it in the process. All this was happening in split-seconds and all kinda random thoughts were going through my mind. Suddenly the whole world started revolving around us, as our car finally headed downwards, took a couple of turns upside-down and finally attained peace a good 10-15 feet in a ditch next to the road. But the funniest part was tht the tape was still on in full blast – “Mera Babu chhail chhabila or something like tht”. Managed to somehow pull the wires and shut the damn thing up, and a few seconds’ silence ensued. I was the first to cry if everyone was fine and it was relieved to hear everyone respond. In no time the military folks and the localites around gathered around to help us. It was me, on me dad, and the driver on top of him (as the vehicle lay verticle to the ground), and he was struggling to open the door, and his attempts to break the glass went in vain. Thankfully he could open the glasses and hand over the keys to one of the localites, who eventually succeeded in opening the door and out we came one-by-one. And as I jumped out, I could read a board on one side of the road – “Welcome to Anant Nag” – what a joke! We were relieved to see no one even receive a scratch. More than shocked, I was all excited about the accident, strange me! I leapt around in search of the handicam to capture the sight of the accident and the reactions of people all over (u’ll get to see all that in a week’s time!!). The next job was to straighten the vehicle, so that we could at least pull it out. And it took just 4-5 jawans to do the job, but not without the use of certain words that generally tend to pump u up – a 4 yr stint in the hostel is more than enuff to appreciate tht! As Dash (my roomie) once mentioned - I expect honorable citizens of the society to be reading this. Those more knowledgeable may put their choice adjectives at will, hehe! These words generally don’t pierce ur ears, but they certainly do when ur parents around, especially mom, and more so when 4-5 jawans chanting it religiously, and making it very clear that u must’ve heard it as well, huh! But now the car wont start, n it was futile to try pulling it with rope; so the idea was to use a recovery van. Meanwhile, the jawans tried opening the bonnet to see if something could be done to get the car up, without having to bother the police (as that would mean trouble). Bang bang with the back of the rifle and tht dint work. “Abey yaar who militants ka rifle laana, usse khul jayega”. One bang and there the bonnet gives way. This was funny, and u again tend to realise that this India-Pakistan thingy is not just fictitious stories you hear on tv and read in papers; that there are real people fighting it out, who kill and get killed for the sake of the nation...

But, only in films, does the police reach late. One Inspector Shamaz came and monitored the sitution, as I could see dad having a word with him. As the recovery wan thingy would take time, dad asked me to take the ladies to the nearby police station (in BijuBiyara) and wait (cuz it was still raining).

We took the next local bus on the way and proceeded to the Police Stn. In fact it was a great feeling spending time with the common-man. At least, I was looking forward to doing something similar, inspired by the “Swades” promos, but certainly not after having a accident! It was great talking to the person sitting next to me, and I was touched with the way he was speaking. Something like “beta kisee ko chhoth tou nahi aayee” n stuff. It was from him that we got to know that there’ve been lotsa accidents reported in that area of late. In fact just 2 weeks back a Sumo had crashed in there and all 11 inside died, huh!

Reached the Police Station (which was bang on the highway) in around 20 min time and waited there to hear of some news. This Inspector was a smart guy, looked more like an Army guy than an Inspector (that we’ve been growing up seeing in hindi movies). He offered us tea, and was generally asking us about our trip so far. I couldn’t help asking him how the situation in the surrounding area was, specifically hinting at the attack on the Abdulla’s a few days back. He told that he was in the thick of things, and how volatile this area was. He’s already survived 2-3 attacks on his life, and how the intensity of terror increases proportionately to the distance you travel from this highway inwards. Also, I remember him mention about the attacks on the police station in the past, huh! It was all so scary, and it was 5 already with no news from dad. As I stepped out of the police station, I saw a recovery van standing outside load another crashed police gypsy into a truck. I jumped in and called the Sub-Inspector to see if we could send this Rec.van immediately to get the vehicle out. As I stood on the highway negotiating with him, I saw dad get out of a Sumo, and wasn’t I relieved. He told me that the vehicle had been picked and dropped at a nearby Petrol Pump, where a mechanic was working on it. He’d come to the Police Stn to pick us up and thank the inspector. Meanwhile he’d contacted Mr.Abdul in SriNagar to arrange for an alternate vehicle. Mr.Abdul had a friend called Dr.Aamir in AnantNag, who arranged for a Sumo. As we waiting for the Sumo in the Police Stn, Inspector Shamaz invited us to his room (within the compound) and offered us Roza sweets. The Sumo reached and we soon left for the Petrol Pump where our Qualis was “Getting Repaired”. But there happened to be another Junior Inspector who was all set for making money. He was telling Kapoor uncle (who was waiting with the driver) things like “Ab tou case karna padega, aur Driver ko arrest karna padega. I think bail ke liye around 10k lagege, u can gimme 5k” - types. And before we could reach the Pump, he forcefully took the Qualis (and the driver and Kapoor uncle alongwith) to the police stn. When we reached the PP, we dint see anyone, rather anything there. It was already dark and creepy. Finally we got to know what had in fact happened as well set back for the PS, catching the vehicle on the way. As we reached there, the Inspector immediately disppeared into the PS. The driver got all worried, and almost about to cry as his papers were with the Inspector. Dad asked me to go with the drivers into the PS and … But the PS was a completely different place now. It was all dark around, all doors close, a fencing was put in place and the guards were given strict instructions to not allow anyone inside. Seeing us approach the gate, the guard shouts in a broken voice – “woheen thehero. Aagey mat aao warna … “. Man! this was really scary. We’re like stuck in the most notorious part of the country, its already dark, n its like raining for ages, n a place “jaahaan police waale kee bhi phhati padi hai”! I couldn’t believe all this was happening, n all that I could see was headlights of the two vehicles (our Qualis and the new Sumo), pouring light on the non-stop downpour. Huh! But in 10 min the Junior Insp. came out and he’s like “Saab yeh lo apne papers”. Shook hands with dad and “Sir galati ho gayee”, with an ugly grin! I showed some rare sense of urgency and shifted the luggage from Qualis to Sumo, before another catastrophe happened.

Now we started for AnantNag (around 10 km where we had to drop our vehicle and the driver so that he could repair the vehicle), Sumo tugging the Qualis (hey how bout that for an Add punch-line, hehe!). Time n again, the chord would break, and it used to be spine-tingling to get down, and direct the two drivers to position the cars properly to tie it again. This reminded me of - The Matix Revolutions – where Agent Smith and Neo meet up for the final fight. We entered Anant Nag at around 8-30 and there was self-imposed curfew – no trace of life around, raining cats n dogs, absolutely no light around, the road completely empty, only the two vehicles standing, making an angle with each other, the feeling just cant be expressed in words. We somehow reached the hospital where Dr.Aamir would meet us. We decided to keep the car and the driver in his custody left for Pahalgam in the Sumo. I was in fact feeling bad for the driver. He must be surely wondering what would happen to him – “Already shocking things happening the whole day, n now he was left along in an unknown land, amongst unknown people”. He surely looked worked-up.

Our new driver well-acquainted with AnantNag, started taking us through those creepy lanes, any at any moment I expected someone militant to stop the car and …

Suddenly he says “saabjee… teen din pehle yaheen par bum phata thha”. “Sun k meri bhi phat gayee”!! But I was happy it was too dark for him to see my expressions, hehe! After a while we got onto the main road. Some 20 min had passed as yet started honking like hell, and using the dipper big-time. I could clearly see that the road was straight, and there was absolutely no on coming from the other side, so it dint make much sense to me as to why he was doing all that. Obvisouly, curiosity killed the cat, as I asked him, to which he replied - “ saab jee, yahaan raat ke samay woh us pahadi se yeh is pahadi tak ugrawadi ishee raaste se cross hote hain; so agar maine aise nahee kiya tou woh yeh gaadi apne launchers se udaa denge!”. I couldn’t utter a word. After sometime all I could manage to ask is, “aap ugrawadi ke baare mein bol to rahe ho, kya koi dikhegaa?”. He gave me a smile and asks “aap ko dekhene hain kya?”, as if he’s gonna take his gun out and show that “beta ugrawadi aise hote hain. Le dekh!”. I was in complete shock, but thrilled at the same time. I wished I’d recorded all that he had to say, damn! As we entered Pahalgam, there was no single jawan at the post. “Sab saaley dar ke bhaag gaye hain”, he chuckled. Hunh! Finally entered our cottage, and this one was even better than the one in Gulmarg. As it was already past 9, the driver stayed back, as he was too scared to drive back alone all the way. Myself, dad and Kapoor uncle set out in search of some food, but all the shops had closed. Finally we managed to find a place and got some dinner packed (but the bugger charged us some 400/- for 3 plates of rice), whateva!

When we got back, I couldn’t help ask dad y we’d decided to take up this ordeal of a journey from Anant Nag to Pahalgam. And he’s like “Don’t worry, Dr.Aamir told that he’d inform enroute”!

At the end of all this it was great to sit back and relax thinking about the way the day had turned out. Things that happened, and what if something else happened. In retrospection now I realised how lucky we were to have crashed into the tree first. That impact absorbed so much of the momentum. Then as we fell, there was no rock, or any other hard thing on our way, that would break the glass and injure us. Even the soil was so soft, that even the glasses dint break. And the fact that we all tightly fit into our sits, gave us less chance to move too much during the entire process, saving us from sticking out and bumping into something. Huh! Twas a memorable day, one I’ve got enuff to take home about.