Blog 3201: Weekend Extraordinaire

21st September
Lunch @ Symantec Cafeteria

Me, A and S were havin lunch.
Friday lunch at our cafeteria is usually the best - sometimes they even keep pudding on the menu.
Its like we're leaving for the weekend with happy memories of how good our workplace is.
Almost like: "Thank you. Please visit again"

Anyways.
A tells us he and his friend B would be going biking to Mulshi Falls at 2.30 pm.
He asks us to join.
I refuse - gotta finish work and get down to studying.
What was that about my halo and its shine? [:P]
S gladly agrees.
I'm coaxed.
Some.
Some more.

I'm told we'll be back by 6 pm.
"Owway... what the hell... a nice break would prolly get me in tempo for the whole weekend"
I give in.
Weekends, after all, are meant to be fun.

Bad move.

Having informed my manager, me and S head out on his bike.
A and B are on A's bike.
Mulshi is some 55 kms from Pune.
Nice scenic place... with a pretty lake and a rocky mountain with some waterfalls...
The works.

Uneventful ride... except for two things:
-> I drove the bike for some parts on the journey.
-> A decided he and B would have a drink while at the falls and bought a Smirnoff 1L on the way.
Me and S smiled.

Weekends, after all, are meant to be fun.

The sight at the foot of the hill was awesome.
Green waters, pretty mountain top on the other side of the lake, low clouds hovering around, a shaft of light piercing through the clouds on the glittering water, ...
The works.


Having parked the bikes at the foot of the main hill, we started climbing up the rocks to reach the a pool amongst the falls that was situated 60% of the way up.
Tip-toeing from one rock on to the other and rock climbing at some places, we managed to get to the falls.
This pic is of a spot thats 20% above the base of the hill

The pool I'm referring to is a place where the falls have eroded the ground they fall on to such an extent that its formed a pool there.
Once there, B and A headed for the waters and S followed suit.
I abstained.
It must have been 4.30 pm then.
It was also probably the last time that day I experienced 'peace' in my life.

Digicam in hand, I clicked photos at will.
People posed below the falls, behind the falls, floating on the pool, sitting on trees, showing-off inexistent muscles (:P), reclining on rocks, blowing smoke, splashing water...
The works.
A, meanwhile, had mixed Sprite & Vodka and was having his time in the pool.
B took a few sips... but it was A who was bent on drinking it to the lees.
It was, in any case, nothing new for A.
He had it his way and we didnt think much of it either.

Weekends, after all, are meant to be fun.

5.30 pm
It was fast approaching 6 pm.
However, with A & B living it up in the pool and S reluctant to get out of it, it made little sense for me to play spoil sport.
Ergo, I stayed on.
Bad move.

Meanwhile, it started drizzling.
That meant more fun for the guys in the pool.
That also meant that the rocks we'd climbed to get to the pool would now become downright treacherous when we would make the journey back.
It also meant that A needed to be in his full senses when making the return journey.

6 pm
Realisation slowly dawned on B and S that we needed to get out of there before it was dark.
Both got out and started to get dressed.
A stayed put with the last few shots of Vodka still remaining.
We still weren't bothered much.
A was pretty much in his senses, singing aloud, talking about lost love, floating around in the pool and entertaining the rest of us.
B and I realised we had to get him out of the pool.

At length, A sat on one of the rocks in the pool.
He swayed.
His head fell on the rock behind him.
The first alarm bells had gone off in my head.
How on earth would he be able to make his way back amongst the rocks?

A took another 15 mins to get out of the pool.
By now, he was blabbering, slipping on rocks, addressing ppl by wrong names and talking about his love that once was.
We made A sit at a safe spot amidst the rocks.
He swayed.
His head fell on one of the rocks before any of us could catch him.
A 1 inch radii swelling erupted on his head with a scar in the middle.
If only it'd made sense to A that he'd been hurt, it would still have been a situation we could have gotten out of.
It didnt.

6.45 pm
By now I was holding A by one hand and keeping him firmly down.
We had no idea how to get a drunk back to his senses quickly.
We tried making him breathe deep.
He'd do so for 3 seconds and then start blabbering.
This continued for what seemed like ages.

It was dusk already.
We knew of no way to get down the hill except the rocks.
We sent S to search for an alternate way.
B & I kept trying howsoever we could to make A puke.

That A wouldnt be able to make the journey back on his feet was eminently clear to us.
That we would be lucky to be able to make our way on the rocks ourselves was also clear to us.
That despite Reliance Mobile's ads, there was no sunlight or network there was also clear to us.
And more than anything, that we'd prolly have to stay the night there was also becoming increasingly clear to us.

Weekends, after all, are meant to be fun.

Out of nowhere, three people appeared at the scene.
Said they were locals and had heard voices from this place.
They suggested we mix tobacco in water and make him drink it - it'd make him puke.
We tried.
He puked - all over himself - but not quite enough.
He had been out of his senses for a long time.
He was now unconscious too.
All he was now was 80kg of protoplasm that had to hauled down a mountain in the dark.
Absofuckinlutely brilliant.

The three locals were in different shapes and sizes.
One wore a black jacket and was well built.
We'll call him black.
One was in a white tee and was slender.
The third was prolly 14 years old and shouldnt have been seeing all this.

They told us there was a way down - not over the rocks but right through the mountain-side.
They also told us that they wouldnt touch A.
We were in no position to argue or persuade.

To get onto that way, we needed to carry A across the pool and from there onto the dirt track.
I got under one of A's shoulders.
B got under the other one.
S held A's tee from behind to prevent him from leaning too much.
I havent mentioned it yet - so far, A was wearing two shoes, an underwear and a tee.

80ks is not a joke.
We realised this the hard way.
Carrying A amidst the flowing water, slippery rocks, coordinating with B and S to keep sync and all three of us keeping ourselves from tripping - all we could do was try.
Try, we did.
But if there was one person who wasnt helping, it was A.
He had no idea of what was happening.
He couldnt lift his feet properly.
He couldnt keep his feet from getting entangled.
He couldnt help swaying.
He couldnt help hitting out with his leg at those who tried sorting his entwined legs out.

He couldnt do a thing to help us keep him alive.
Yet, try, we did.

We were exhausted by the time we got him to the other end of the pool.
Again, I and B got under A's shoulders.
Black kept telling us where to go.
The two other locals carried out stuff.
S held A's tee from behind.

The ground was tricky.
Rocky at places.
Slippery at others.
Uneven everywhere - and with pits and slime thrown in for good measure.
10 steps into our journey, I slipped and fell.
So did A - a free fall siedways flat on his face onto a rock.
"Shit"

We carried on.
The fall got A some consciousness back.
We yelled at him to lift his legs in a bleak hope that it'd register somewhere in his head.
For the next 5 mins, I kept yelling "Left right left... left right left" and A lifted his feet in sync.

We reached a spot on the hill which was shaped like a J.
The long stick in the J was the mountain side.
The short curled bit at the bottom was a stone jutting out of the mountain side.
We needed to get across this one at a time.
Any of us could have lost our lives at that spot.
Carrying A just made it that much more probable.

Black went first and got to the other end.
I was next.
One of A's shouldes still slung around me.
The other slung around B.
80 kg of protoplasm was making every gram of its weight felt.
I made it across with A's shoulder still around me.

Now was the critical phase.
We had to somehow get A across.
This time, there's be no one holding him from behind.
If he swayed back, that would be it.
B still had some stamina left in him.
My legs were shivering with fatigue.

On count, I started pulling A towards myself and B started closing in.
A swayed forward throwing us all into the bushes.
We grappled.
Extricated ourselves from the moss and dirt.
Swaying forward was fine - I could use my body to ease the fall onto the mountain.
A decided to see what the opposite trick felt like.
He swayed back.
I screamed.
I thought this was it.
Remarkably, even with our fatigued hands, we managed to push him forward.
Another tug and A and I fell onto the safe end with B.
Only just.

We let A lie on the ground for sometime while we caught out breath.
Next up, we had to cross the flowing stream.

Black and his fellows showed us the way to the stream.
By now, I was positively fatigued.
For the life of me, I couldnt have applied any force to prevent A from falling if he happned to do so.

The stream bed was a foot below the ground that bordered the stream.
Black warned us to expect that.
There was, however, no way to feel the ground before putting our feet.
Carrying A on two feet was arduous.
On one foot, it was impossible.
Fuck Adidas.

B and I together placed our first foot into the water.
I slipped; dunno what happened to B.
If any of us fell there, we'd have seriously joepardised all three of us.
Luckily, even after slipping, I managed to hold my footing.
So did B.
Gradually, we crossed the stream.

That, however, was it
I realised I was riding my luck to stay upright.
I could have fallen anywhere and it would have hurt all three of us.
For some distance now, I'd had Black hold me by my side to prevent me from falling.

With 20% of the way left S decided to get under A's shoulder.
Even with S' slender built, there was no way out for us.
It had to be him or no one.
Trudging along, we finally made it to the bottom of the hill and from there to the gate of a run-down hotel nearby.
Black had already warned us that we wouldnt be allowed a room there given A's condition.
He was right.
With nowhere to go, we let A lie on the dirt track between the hotel and the road.
Visualize it.
Not too pretty a sight, is it?
A had had plenty of chances to die that evening.
His being alive today, a statistical improbability that it is, is miraculous.

We spoke to some locals who agreed to get a 'car' from a nearby village.
It arrived after half an hour in the form of a pick-up van.

S decided to drive his bike back to Pune.
B and A would sit with the driver.
A's bike would be hauled into the van.
And I had to keep the bike from falling over at the back of the truck.
Since holding it was out of question, the only way left for me to do so was to sit on it.

The bike's stand gave way within the first 10m of the journey
With two hands holding the two sides of the pick-up truck, I somehow stayed put on the bike and kept it from falling over.
Half-way through the journey, A's cell found some network and we called his room-mates.
With A's mother and grand-dad coming over the next day to meet a potential bride for him, we decided to take him home.
How he'd explain his situation to his family was something we couldnt have cared less about.

I finally got off some 1 km from home.
A's roomies took over from there.
One of them dropped me off at Pizza Hut.
I surveyed myself.
My blue jeans had turned brown.
So had my shoes.
I looked around at the happy faces in Pizza Hut enjoying Friday evening.
I wondered if any of them had ever saved someone's life.
Everything seemed so damned trivial.
And yet I knew I'd be one of them a few Fridays down the line.

Weekends, after all, are meant to be fun.