Nanu - her story

Nanu and Tina were sharing a tent and their tent was adjacent to the tent occupied by Cathy and Shana. As soon as Zia ma'am and Zoya, Shana and Cathy called it a day, Tina and Nanu also decided to go to sleep. Nanu was very tired. She felt pain in both her legs but like Tina she did not advertise how she was feeling. She had walked a lot but never in hilly areas. She wanted to rest badly so she bid goodnight to her fellow students, Luke Sir and Sherpa and proceeded to her tent along with Tina.

Everyone was tired and wanted to sleep early. But She knew that she would have problem in trying to sleep due to the exciting trip, tiredness. All that knowledge in her brain, she wished to jot down everything in her little diary.

She got into her sleeping bag and tried to sleep but the pain in her legs was not going away. Suddenly, she could smell an ointment. She knew this was an ointment to relax the muscles. The smell was very strong and she knew that Tina had applied it. She wanted to borrow the ointment so that she could apply also. So she asked Tina what she was applying that the strong smell had scattered throughout the tent. When she found out that it was indeed an ointment, she asked Tina to toss it over so that she could apply as she was also having pain in her legs.

After applying the ointment and massaging her calf muscles, she felt better. She saw that Tina was tossing and turning in her sleeping bag and was trying to sleep. But she could not sleep. After all, it was not her bed and her bedroom at home. The comfort of one's bed and one's home is the best. That is why the saying goes, 'East or West, home is the best.'

There was nothing to pass time. She could not make notes as the torchlight was switched off early. Without phones life was extremely difficult. No phones no books to read as torchlight had to be saved. Zia ma'am had rightly said that here, there were no telephone towers and no landline cables; hence, no connectivity. There was no mobile data which meant no what's app, no social networking site, no YouTube, etc. Nanu felt cut off from everyone and wanted to talk to her family members.

She started to wonder how people managed when there was no connectivity in the past before mobiles and internet. In the early 1980s, you had those landline phones which were the push button types. Earlier than that, the phone had a dialing system where slots were from numbers 1 to 0 and you had to place your index finger in one slot then dial it all the way around one after another to dial a number and call someone. Her father used to tell her all these things.

Anyway, it was quite peaceful without phones. No phones were ringing. No one with earphones stuck in their ears and phone in hand, or the phone to the ear under a headgear could be seen anywhere in this area. These chaps were a great hazard to themselves and the traffic as they walked and talked without looking or being attentive to their surroundings. Technology has its advantages but it has its disadvantages too.

Tomorrow morning, when they all assembled for breakfast, she, along with others, would ask ma'am to try to see if the guest house had a system whereby they could contact their relatives just to tell them that they were safe and enjoying themselves. If the guest-house could not help then, of course, there was the Sat phone with Luke Sir. He had mentioned that he possessed one when they were trekking to this camping site.

Nanu had her eyes closed tightly and could hear the rhythmic breathing from Tina. She realized that Tina was perhaps asleep.

She was restless due to the unfamiliar place. No one can enjoy a good sleep in an unfamiliar place that too in a sleeping bag and that too at a camping site. She was more concerned about her family that they might be worried about her.

She liked Luke Sir and felt he was made for Zia ma'am. She felt he had fallen in love with her some time ago and followed her around without her knowledge in order to see her from a distance and in a way protect her. No, he was not stalking her. He just wanted to assure himself that she was safe. Zia ma'am was a reserved person and it would take her some time to be at the same level as Luke Sir when it came to emotions. Maybe by the end of this camping trip, she might really come to like him immensely which would turn into love later on?

She then thought about herself. Her father's name was Alan and her mother's name was Rhea. She had a younger brother whose name was Will and who was a year younger to her.

She liked to read a lot. She was also on the internet or watching the Discovery channel to enhance her knowledge. She was like a walking encyclopedia having knowledge about everything under the sun, so to speak.

Both her parents were IT professionals and like them, she was more interested in computers than other subjects. She wanted to study further, its various programmes, etc. Maybe she would make a few programmes herself one day. Sunny, her class fellow was also interested in General knowledge and he was an expert and a walking encyclopedia like herself. But he was more interested in studying rocks and mountains.

She and her brother had become quite independent from an early stage and could manage to look after herself. Her father and mother were busy people, giving their children quality time and not quantity time. As after work they had very little time to interact with their kids. Both her parents were in the kitchen in the morning and at night. Money can make you hire cooks and servants but the love and affection that is transferred to the children from the parents are unprecedented. So they did all they could and the hired part-time help did the cleaning, mopping, washing, etc.

She had come to this camping trip at the behest of her parents who wanted her to have some change and become more independent and sure of herself and her abilities.

Slowly she started feeling drowsy and her eyelids started to droop. After a few minutes, she was asleep. Maybe her brain got bored thinking about itself.

It was around 5 a.m. that Nanu awoke with a start. There was a huge disturbance coming from outside their tent. She could hear the sounds of screams from one of the boys, and then there were grunt sounds as if it was a pig or a bear. Thereafter there was the sound of persons running. After that, there was the sound of gunfire. Tina and Nanu jumped out of their sleeping bags immediately and rushed towards the opening of the tent. Nanu quickly unzipped the opening of the tent so that they could go outside. Just as they were exiting the tent they heard another shot being fired.

By the noises that were coming as they moved out, it seemed that a wild animal, probably a wild boar or a bear, had made its way to their tents and attacked one of the tents. But whose tent was attacked and who could have fired a shot? Hopefully, whichever animal it was, would have been scared away by the gunshot. Hopefully, it was not injured as an injured wild animal is dangerous.

The gunshots must have been fired by Luke Sir, Didn't he say that he was always prepared for any eventuality. He must be carrying a gun, she thought.