The bus reached Donigal at four in the morning. We got down from the bus and then realized that the bus had stopped one kilometer before our destination at Munzirabad fort in front of hotel picnic. Probably the conductor mistook the Hotel Picnic as Hotel tourist. Hotel tourist opens at 6:00 a.m. and it is supposed to have facilities to refresh and clean ourselves before the trek (as told by trekkers who had been here during the summer). Hotel picnic was open at 4:00 a.m. but, it did not have adequate facilities to freshen ourselves.

The distance between the Hotel Picnic and the Hotel tourist is 1 K.m. We decided to wait there till visibility improved and then walk to Hotel tourist. But hunger couldn’t help us from getting into this small restaurant at Munzirabad Fort. Some of us ordered parothas and idlies out there, for an early breakfast. Parothas cost us R.s. 7.00 per plate and each plate consisted of 3 parothas and some vegetarian curry.

Visibility improved at around 5:30 a.m. so we set on foot to hotel tourist along the highway (NH 48). We reached the Hotel tourist at 6:00 a.m. and were shocked to find that it was not the kind of place we (at least I) expected it to be. The place was not that clean and food I think was better at the previous food joint which had snacks and soft drinks too. It was not that clean though, to refresh ourselves but couldn’t expect anything better than this ahead of us.

With fog around us and the sun not out completely the location was inspiring me to take some wallpaper snaps with my not so technologically advanced camera. I took a brief walk and took some early morning snaps of the highway along the Ghats. Babulal, I mean Vipul ordered a plate of dosa. The dosa had a strong flavor of coconut such that if Kurt Cobain were there having the dosa, he would have written the song "Smells like coconut oil". Some of us had tea and some others ordered coffee.

I was in a jinx to find that there was no service of airtel in Donigal, hence it looked like bringing my cell phone to the trek will not be of much help. Finally I managed to call up dad’s cell from the phone booth (no STD facilities) located at the hotel and informed him about our whereabouts.

The plan was to walk up to Donigal station and start trekking along the railway tracks and reach Edukumeri station by evening where George (or I think his name was Joseph) would be available and he would provide the accommodation for us to stay there. We then would start afresh the next morning and continue the trek to Shirabagilu and then head back to Bangalore. We cleared the place at 7:00 a.m. and walked along the highway towards Donigal station.

The path to Donigal station was an upper deviation on the right side of the highway at a distance, which was a 15 minutes walk from the hotel tourist. We reached the Donigal station at 7:15 a.m. and started the trek along the railway track towards Edukumeri across the bridges and through the tunnels which were countless in number. There were sudden outbursts of rains for short spells at regular intervals.

We trekked along the path and found workers working along the railway tracks for some distance, but after few hours there was no sign of people or traces of civilization. Then came, the bridges at heights of over 100 feet. These railway tracks were laid along wooden sleepers with gaps of at least a foot or two. In between the tracks there were iron planks joining one another over the sleepers. Over the years, most of these planks have got rusted due to the heavy rainfall which this region receives. These planks provide a safer platform for trekkers to cross the bridges. But, some of these planks have given away to changing weather. Hence, some of the bridges have no planks and trekkers have to be cautious while walking over the bridges. The view of the valleys and green meadows from these bridges is of that found in picture postcards. The monsoon had made this place lush green and more captivating to the eyes. Walking across the bridges brought to my inner eyes the picture of India as described in the master pieces of E.M. Forster and Rudyard Kipling.

Seven or more years have gone by since the train services between Mangalore and Bangalore have been discontinued along the Western Ghats. This, I heard was done to convert the meter gauge to broad gauge. But the work doesn’t seem to move on fast as like any other government project in our country. This has deprived one generation of my country men the privilege to embark on a train journey through one of the most picturesque routes. I have heard about this beautiful train journeys from time to time from my dad, uncle and other relatives who have been through this. This trek for me was a special one because it had given me the opportunity to see by myself what I always saw through my father’s eyes.

This was my first "big" trek and thank god it was the very special destination to which I always wanted to travel by train. Anyway, walking along this place may get me closer to that experience that I had longed for. Pradeep, Vipul, Vijay, Vinay, Manohar and Santhosh had been on treks together before. Karthik is an avid trekker too. He had been on a Himalayan trek after completing his 2^nd PUC exams and had been even to the famous wagah border. As for Avinash, I didn’t know much about him before the trek except that he was Vinay’s classmate.

But neither I nor the rest of the other eight brave men ever expected the adventure and risks that lay ahead of us. The fears that we went through and the moments that we are going to cherish for a long time to come is unfolded to you in the following pages.

The tunnels were of varying lengths, some were just a hundred meters long and others were up to half a mile. The tunnels were dark and visibility without the torch lights was zero. Moreover due to the monsoons there was a lot of slush filled in the tunnels. These tunnels were home to lot of bats and snakes. My advice to anyone who wishes to go on trek here is to carry a lot of extra batteries for your torches. Every time we encountered a bridge it was followed by a tunnel and this pattern was repetitive all along our journey. At certain points there are bypass routes to avoid the bridges which begin near the one end of the bridge and terminate at the other end. Some of the bypass routes have small waterfalls in them. These water sources were our pit stops to fill our water bottles. These bypass routes were probably for vehicles to supply the construction materials for the work which were supposed to occur along the tracks. For a long time during the first day of the trek these bypass routes went unnoticed by us.

We walked along the bridges in a single file, with Vinay leading the way for a long time. He walked at a pace which most of us, especially I found it difficult to keep up with. I am till date not sure whether it was his self-belief or over-confidence that kept him walking at that speed over the bridges at a height of over a hundred feet where a fall would guarantee your ticket to heaven (or hell). Never mind, Vinay did not face any problem walking over the bridges but, if anyone who considers himself lucky to be here after walking over the bridge then it is none other than Kitta, I mean Santhosh.

Sometime before the clock struck 12:00 noon we were trying to negotiate crossing another bridge. Vinay as usual was leading the way followed by Kitta, I somehow managed to walk at the third spot instead of being the last one as usual trying to keep a slow pace so that I don’t miss a thing. The bridge we were walking on had no planks at all and hence we had to be really careful at every step we placed on a sleeper. Due to the rains the sleepers had turned slippery too. I looked down on to the sleepers and kept an eye on every step I placed. I was followed by Avinash.

Somewhere near the center of the bridge I stopped and looked towards my right to get a view of the green hill-tops. There was no stream flowing under the bridge unlike the other bridges which reminded me of the classic academy award winning movie "The Bridge on the river Kwai" starring the late Sir Alec Guinness. Then I luckily looked front before I decided to keep my next foot forward. I saw that Vinay had reached the other end of the bridge and I couldn’t see Kitta, who wore a slightly dark pink-colored windcheater with a hood at the other end of the bridge. I lowered the angle of my vision and saw Kitta’s bag sticking out between two sleepers which was covering something pink at the front. To my horror I saw two hands holding on to a sleeper at its two ends. It was Kitta, he had slipped in an unusually awkward position and fell between two sleepers.

Kitta, out of the shock couldn’t scream for Vinay. I gave a wild cry for Vinay who turned back and rushed towards Kitta. I moved to left and walked along the left side of the track so that I could get to the side of Kitta so that he does not lose the grip and made way for Avinash to come from behind and provide force for Kitta to climb. I reached towards Kitta who then spoke the words-"don’t leave me guys, I’ll fall and die". Avinash was trying to calm him down as I held on to his left hand and then I looked straight below where Kitta was holding on. He was freely suspended in air in a classic pull-ups position which a gym instructor would be proud of if Kitta were trying to work out. But, it was no work out here guys, as he was hanging at a height of nearly a hundred feet with rock bed straight below him with a few shrubs around the rocks which did no good to anyone who is hanging from the bridge.

Kitta at that moment was carrying my trekking bag, which I had borrowed from karthik (shetty), my childhood buddy. The width of the bag offered a little bit of resistance to the sleepers while Kitta slipped, so that he had enough time to grasp on to the sleepers. Avinash was behind Kitta trying to convince him to push himself up as KP (karthik) and Manohar joined in. Vinay was in front of Kitta. I was holding on to Kitta’s left hand. We were trying to calm Kitta down convincing him that nothing would go wrong. Kitta was kind of heavy, so it was not that easy for us to pull him up unless he made an effort too. Manohar, with just a momentary lapse of reasoning suggested that we remove our trekking bags and lessen the load on our backs and then try to pull Kitta up but, it could be too late for Kitta. Somehow, Kitta managed to pull himself to the front over Vinay and then we had a sigh of relief. Kitta lay in that position for a few seconds till he came in terms with the situation. He felt that it was his rebirth (Kitta 2) and couldn’t believe his stars, his face told what he was going through. We tried to underplay the situation a little bit to cheer Kitta up by adding humor to the scene. But at the back of our minds we knew that Kitta had a close shave. Kitta might say that he was born again but, one thing was sure, at a height of hundred feet Kitta was not holding on to the sleepers but was holding on to his life.

Well, Santhosh finally recovered from the shock of the freak accident he got involved in. It was time for lunch and we couldn’t wait for the chapattis after having walked for nearly 5 hours. Short break for lunch and we were off again walking across the bridges and tunnels and stopping here and there to have a snap taken. Kitta’s face looked different in the snaps taken after the lunch (no prize for guessing why). It didn’t look like that people were getting little bit cautious after the incident on the bridge. There was the same mood and same spirit which bought us here. We stopped in between a long (really long one) bridge which had a small platform for us to relax a bit and have photographs taken. The bridge was over a wide river. It connected the track to a tunnel which immediately followed the end of the bridge. The tunnel was also an equally long one. Just as I was about to take some snaps, there was a heavy downpour and we had to pack up and move to the tunnel that lay ahead of us.

The rainfall was funny throughout the trek. There was some bright sunshine then an unexpected downpour and then suddenly a complete halt for a few minutes and then slight drizzle which looked promising but then again it was hot, in short the rain was unpredictable and you just have to keep walking (My advice to anyone going for a trek to Western Ghats in the month of July and August is to carry extra clothes and some rainwear too).

I looked around and found that rest of the station wore a deserted look and more looked like a place evacuated due to war ( an idea which crept to my mind due to lot world war movies I have seen of late, too many I think). The control room of the station, which was not functional anymore, had telegraph machines which were covered with cobwebs. This added more fuel to my wild imagination to start believing that the place was evacuated due to war (oh god, I think I better stop watching those world war movies.). There was this ticket counter, whose grills at the counter window seemed to have been blown off due to the blitzkrieg by the Nazis (enough nishant, enough! It’s getting too much) and the timings of the arrival and departure of the trains to Bangalore and Mangalore was still displayed on the walls of the ticket counter. All the sheds along the station seemed to have been filled with water and it was muddy inside and was not ideal to sleep in there. The doors of these sheds had got rusted with lot of holes on it (I bet these holes were due to bullets sprayed out of the guns of the Nazis, no comments!).

As we walked along we came across another room which had posters of Jesus Christ on the walls. This, I think belonged to that guy whose name I am still not sure of. This place was kind of clean but I don’t think nine people could fit in there. Well we screamed out for this mysterious guy but he seemed no where in our vicinity. We waited for sometime and then we had a conference to decide our next action.

Karthik had a map, which was hand drawn and it showed that after some distance further away from Edukemeri there was an escape route to the right of the railway tracks which after six kilometers of downhill trek will lead us to a small stream which was just few feet wide and hardly deep, which upon crossing will lead us to the highway. It was decided that we take this escape route and terminate our beautiful trek and catch a bus to Mangalore (maybe even back home too) upon reaching the highway and maybe we could halt at grandpa’s house for the night and spend the next day in the beaches of South canara, probably check out the chicks in Manipal and then take a bus back to Bangalore. So we set out on the search for the escape route. One word of caution to every one who wants to take this escape is that this place is infested by a lone wild tusker which is known for its notoriety. But none among us knew the exact location of the escape route. We decided that if were unsuccessful in our attempts we shall come back to Edukemeri and halt and start fresh the next morning to Shirabagilu.

So, of we went in search of the escape route. After some distance we encountered a deviation before the beginning of a bridge, to its right. We took this path and were baffled to notice that it bought us to the other end of the bridge. Again after sometime we noticed another deviation from the beginning of a bridge this also led us in too a path which just terminated at the other end of the path. This was the first time we noticed these bypass routes, which I have mentioned earlier in this piece of text. A sudden feeling uneasiness and urgency started creeping in our minds as these bypass routes confused us and began giving a blow to our quest of finding the escape routes.

Well, the glimmer of hope died down here as this group also had no idea where the escape route from Edukemeri was. They had heard about it but were not sure where it was. One of them gave a "piece of information" that there was a guy at Edukemeri station who knew the escape route (the same guy we searched for at the station, laugh out loud people). They did not know that we had already searched for him and were unsuccessful in finding him or even his ghost. On enquiring if they knew where the nearest route to highway was, they answered that they hadn’t spotted the tarred roads since they started of at Shirabagilu, which was 18 kilometers from Edukemeri. Even it was long time since they had also spotted somebody other than people in their group. However, they mentioned that there was a hut at least five to six kilometers from the spot where we met them. The hut, according to them was empty and they had cleaned it. They said that it was sufficiently large for us to have our meals and rest.

Well, they bid farewell and then set off towards Edukemeri. At the right of the tunnel from which these people had emerged lay a path. Paths next to the bridges told us the need of the bypass routes to avoid the bridges but it was unusual to find a man made path next to a tunnel. After another small conference we decided to traverse this path hoping that this unusual path will be the escape rout we were looking for.

Guys, life is full of crossroads and forks, and at times we have to take chances to choose a path at a fork. We have taken chances at every point in life, like deciding which school to study in, the college to get into, coke or Pepsi, Nike or Reebok (or even Adidas), the girl to go out with on a date, the career to choose and things like that. In front of these major decisions of life, the decision taken to go in quest of the escape route may not be of much significance. But, still it was like any other chance whose outcome remained unknown to us at the beginning.

Well, it had been more than eight hours since we began our trek and our feet and toes began showing signs of fatigue and shoe bite. The mysterious path led us downhill and it was kind of difficult to walk downhill with the pain in the feet. At one point we encountered a fork where the path to the left led to an uphill route and the path to the right led a downhill route. By common sense it was assumed that uphill path may lead us back to the tracks and the downhill might lead us into civilization. Karthik at this moment remembered his brother telling him of a fork in the escape route where path to the right had to be traversed. So off we set out downhill again. Some distance after a hairpin bend, there was another fork where the path to right seemed to lead us to no where. We again followed the downhill path to the right.

This path seemed endless and we kept on walking with nothing but a hope that seemed to float. This path was filled with what seemed like the elephant dung. We knew that this place was infested by a lone tusker and the latest observation made us sure that the path we were walking on is frequented by that tusker. The fallen tree branches and uprooted plants all along the path showed signs of this powerful creature. We hoped, that we never have to encounter this "big bully" in our trek.

As we went further down we began to hear faint noises which seemed like that of a passing vehicle. It could also have been that of a gushing waterfall or a stream. As we moved further and further downhill, the sounds began to be getting louder and clearer. It seemed that we were in the right track. At some point we could hear the sounds of the horn of a vehicle. We spotted a lone tortoise (not the lone tusker) in our path which just gave us an opportunity to slightly to cheer ourselves. I and Vipul admired this small creature’s hard shell and then I clicked a snap of Pradeep holding this animal. Cracking some stupid jokes we walked off again thinking that we had finally made it.

Vinay, as I mentioned earlier had no sympathy for us, mere mortals who walked slowly. This time he seemed to have a lot of company. I, Vipul, Pradeep and Karthik were left behind. Finally, we seemed to catch up with them at a point which looked like a big fork in the path and it was the end of the downhill path of almost five to six kilometers. The path on the right side was bit broader than the bushy path on the left side which was getting narrower at every step. There was slight of quicksand on the path on the right side neatly camouflaged by the Mother Nature. As expected, a person to whom the terrain is unknown will walk into it. Who else could have been the first person to step into this tunnel other than the person who was ahead of everyone. No prizes for guessing that Vinay walked into it along with another guy whom Vinay inspired to get into his pace. Anyway, they easily got out of it and so there was nothing much to worry about. This path led us to the banks of a river which was really wide and the water was in full swing and force, thanks to the monsoon. Eureka! On the other side of the river at a certain height was the highway and we could see cars, buses and trucks zipping away at great speeds. So finally it looked like this was the escape route.

So, it was indeed the escape route. There was the characteristic elephant dung all over the river bank. But, one question; how do we cross over to the other side? Nice question but it seemed to lack a good answer. Karthik and Avinash checked the path on the left side and came back and told us that they had spotted a point were the river had narrowed down to about just around eight to nine feet. We went back to the fork and took this path of hope. We reached the end of the path which was elevated slightly and it looked like the beginning of a bridge on the river (not the river Kwai), because there seemed to be remains of huge pillars that support a bridge. Maybe, there existed a bridge across this river at one point of time and got destroyed years ago ( hmm…, maybe it was the Nazis who did this too (LOL). I am sure you don’t agree with me).

We got down from this elevation through a bushy, almost eighty degree angle path. Here the river bank was rocky and the river had narrowed down to almost eight to nine feet in width and it didn’t seem to be much deep and at the narrowest point the river looked just at the most two feet deep. But, the speed at which the water gushed through, made sounds nosier than those of trucks and this would have impressed any river-water rafting enthusiast. It was next to impossible to attempt to cross this "stream of water". We inspected other points where the water flow seemed to have calmed down to find the depth of the river. The depths at these places were almost waist or chest-high and attempting to cross the river at these points may have ended up in us doing the same mistake which many youngsters had done before and had never lived up to tell their stories.

Our efforts to find a safe path to cross the river had failed. The promised escape route, which had been told to us by other trekkers may have been applicable in the months during the summer when there was not much rainfall and the river would have almost been dried up. Then, this "nine feet of screaming water flow" would have been calm stream and anyone could have crossed it. Now, it was clear that we were lost in the elephant infested forest.

So, under the fading lights we had to make some decisions. It was not possible for us to get back to Edukemeri station which was now nearly at least eight kilometers away. Trying to negotiate the bridges without bypass routes might make us "Fidayeens". Moreover, the Manipal crowd would have already camped there making it difficult to fit nine of us there. River banks are always frequented by animals to quench their thirst , it might be stupid to camp there in the wild waiting for that tusker to come and show us the way out of this place and also we did not know exactly what kind of wild animals dwelled in this geographic regions. So, there was another small conference among us and we decide to trek back to the beginning of that tunnel from where we took this escape route and spend the night there. We could then start the trek the next morning and keep on trekking till we get to Shirabagilu or till a miracle occurs leading us to some exit point or to somebody who could show us the way out of this forest where we were lost.

So, we dejected, tired souls began our trek back to the beginning of this escape route. The ten hours of trek had drained most of us completely, specially yours truly. I had the will to trek back but didn’t seem to have the stamina to do so. Now it was almost twenty four hours since I had put on my shoes, the pain it caused was like adding insult to the injury. The jokes and the songs sung by Pradeep didn’t seem to do any good to my mood. We kept on trekking uphill and the light kept fading into the night.

I was almost drained out. At one point of time I had to apply the brakes. I fell weak for the first time and that too at the wrong time. The whole unit had to stop because of me. Even they were tired too but mine was the worst case. Thank god, that Vipul (thanks babulal) had a packet of glucose which could provide solution to some temporary hypoglycemia due to a harsh trek. My moral and confidence was getting a boost from Vipul and Pradeep, who kept telling me that I had fared really well for my first major trek and more than that was expected from me for a trek which seemed to go totally wrong (thanks guys, it did help me a lot). Few minutes of stoppage time and we were of again. I had to hold on to my buddies for support to walk all the way till we reached the place where we all planned to camp that night. It was not possible for me to make till there without their support. Indeed I am grateful for them to having helped me too climb till top.

For some point of time Vipul and Pradeep helped me on till I had to take another stop. Kitta, in spite of having that near fatal accident was helping me climb up, looked like he had realized the importance of the one life we have. I had to stop for the second time, my body could not take it much longer. At this point of time it was almost pitch dark and torch lights had to be switched on. Now the fatigue began to show in others too. Even they sat down on the sloppy, wet, rocky path to rest for few minutes. Water seemed like a rare gem to us and we refilled our bottles at a place where the water seemed to have flown from the top of the mountain. We set out again and this time Vijay helped me on. Some more distance and there was another stop. Then we set out again and guess what! This time it was Vinay, who had come to an all time slow pace and helped me climb up. I was holding on to him and kept dragging myself, walking wayward on the stone-trodden path like never before ( I think I had walked much straight even when I had hangovers).

It felt like one of the longest walks that all of us had ever taken together. I wouldn’t have made it on two legs without the help of the team. Nine of us stuck together as team in that stupid rain and walked together slowly up the hill. I thank everyone of the team without whose help I wouldn’t have made it to the top and also feel proud of the whole team for not having lost our hearts and belief in ourselves. It was a collective team effort which bought us to the top and to the beginning of the escape route.

We finally made it to the beginning of the escape route which was located near the entrance of the tunnel where we had planned to spend the night. It had been a total of almost Four and A half hours of downhill and uphill trek along the escape route spanning a distance of ten to twelve kilometers.

We took shelter in that tunnel as it continued to rain outside. We moved some distance into the tunnel and felt safe there and freed ourselves from our trekking bags. I couldn’t wait to take a nap. There were few torches switched on to provide the light. We rested on the right side of the tracks. Some of us including me sat on the track facing the right side of the tunnel and others sat on the concrete bank on the right side separating the wall of the tunnel and a small drain of water and faced the track. All our bags lay in between the two groups. We planned to have the instant noodles (Nissans Cup noodles). We had carried a small gas cylinder, a stove, a large vessel and some rice too. We boiled water for the noodles and sometimes later had the noodles as a nice dinner. No one had the mood to cook rice as every one of us was tired. I finally freed myself from my shoes after a whole day. Our feet, which had turned pale-white looked like that of the morgues in a horror show. Along with the shoe bites there were leeches all over us ( only Manohar didn’t seem to have trace of any leech on him and he remained free from the leeches throughout the whole trek).

Sometime after 9 in the night, we put on dry clothes and sat down to have a chat. My cell phone did not receive signals in these Ghats and hence most of us were feeling upset that they could not contact there families, who would have been worried by now ( especially Vijay and Vinay).

Kitta, Manohar, Vipul along with few others sat on the concrete bank. Out of the blue, Manohar looked at something moving right next to him. A quick look at it with the torch and then everyone jumped up. There was a snake next to him trying to stretch to the wall behind him. This sent a chill down every one’s spine. Somebody wanted to kill that snake some others wanted to let it go. We tried scanning the surrounding with the torch to see if there is any other snake close by and holy s***t our worst fears came true, there was another one coming towards us on the concrete bank. Close examination and seeing the pattern of the color on it, we realized that it was a CRATE! A toxic crate, in the tunnel where we plan to spend the night, oh my god, how many more of these reptiles could be in this tunnel? Well my plans of having a peaceful six to eight hour sleep seemed to be a distant dream now. Worst of all, we had to put on our shoes again, to prevent a snake bite on to the feet (shoe bite feels better, anyone who disagrees?). We were stuck in a tunnel in the middle of forest, miles away from the places where men dwelled and would not get any help if anything untowardly took place. In short, we were lost in a dangerous terrain and were helpless.

We used a torch to flash the light onto the crate and the other snake (which we ‘think’ was a rat-snake, not sure though) so that we don’t lose sight of them. Both of them fell into the drain between the wall and the concrete bank, and swam out of the tunnel. We didn’t know how many of them lived in this tunnel and also were worried if these two would come back into the tunnel. Also there were a lot of holes along the walls of the tunnel which looked like possible shelters for these snakes. We put all our bags in between the tracks. We decided that five of us would sleep at a given time in between the tracks and four of us sat on the four corners and guarded the surroundings to raise an alarm if any other snake was coming close to us. I looked into my watch and saw that it was only 10:00 p.m. We had to survive in this tunnel for another eight hours before we could venture out of the tunnel to broad daylight. It looked like the longest night which followed the already gone wrong longest day and a longest walk. The situation was playing on our minds and the fear of the wild was showing in us. We just want to get out of this place alive.

I and Avinash kept vigil on one side whereas Vijay and Pradeep kept a watch on the other end. A candle was lit and placed in between Manohar and Karthik so that there was some light other than that of torches, so that the batteries of the torches could be conserved for the next day’s trek (there was a shortage of batteries). We tried to keep each other awake by keeping on some conversation. In between we kept on flashing lights to make sure that things were safe. Most of us while sleeping, crouched ourselves in between the tracks to avoid stretching the legs beyond the tracks in fear of getting bitten by something poisonous ( it was not a joke guys. You have to be there to feel what we were going through). I could not sleep, the fear of getting bitten by a snake kept me awake. Sometime later Avinash decided to take a nap, so I was alone guarding one end. After sometime he woke up and he decided to take my place. I tried to sleep for sometime but something didn’t let me sleep in peace. I got up after sometime and I joined Avinash.

It was around 12:30 Avinash asked someone else to take his turn. Pradeep fell asleep at the other end. Sometime early in the morning, the only candle we had couldn’t last any further and along with it Manohar’s blanket caught fire. Vijay put it off and things were back to normal. It was surprising to note that only a handful of us knew about this incident and couldn’t believe myself that others were in deep sleep. I decided to take a nap and I think Vipul and somebody else took the other side ( I vaguely remember who it was). I tried my best to sleep but the awkward position I slept in did not do any good. I kept waking up and at around 2:00 in the morning moved myself to one of the corners were we kept a watch. It was 4:00 in the morning when I got up after having peacefully slept for two hours. In the meantime everyone took turns and kept a watch.

As I got up, I noticed that Manohar was trying to keep a watch but was almost going to crash. So I offered to take his place for half an hour and told him to take a nap and get back to his work at 4:30 a.m. Pradeep was at the other end. After about half an hour Vijay got back to keeping the guard replacing Pradeep, but Manohar was in no mood to get up (in fact he doesn’t even remember me trying to wake him up). I decided to stay on till the end as I could not get any further sleep. So I and Vijay kept a guard till we could spot day light at one end of the tunnel. It was 6:00 a.m. and we were glad that the night had passed by without any further trouble.