Untraced-A Short Story

It was a wedding gift from her parents - a honeymoon package trip to the Kincaid hill-station. Dheeraj, 28 and Monica, 26 college friends who had fallen in love and had gone steady got married on the fifth of October, 2016 after a courtship of five years. Dheeraj had been working as a Content Developer with an upcoming Content Marketing firm, while Monica had been working as a teacher in one of the well-known schools in the national capital region of India. Dheeraj, who stood six feet four inches, had married a woman who was just a few inches shorter than him at five feet nine inches.

The couple was a perfect match and they complemented each other in nature. While Monica a Punjabi, was a more patient and seemingly mature girl, Dheeraj, a Haryanvi was a little bit impatient and impulsive. What Dheeraj liked about Sakshi was her maturity and ability in making educated choices, she was the restraining factor for him, the reality check that he needed in life. A woman with delicate features that belied an inner strength - the perfect example of an Indian woman was how one would define her. Dheeraj, on the other hand, was a strapping young man with over proportioned shoulders, the result of his being a regular at the gym, a bit more likely to pick up quarrels with others. People blamed his ‘hot blood’ for making him what he was, his male relatives thought he was, ‘cool’ and nothing was wrong with him, while the women shook their heads with disappointment and a sense of disapproval.

The couple left for Kincaid from Delhi having booked tickets in the Volvo bus. They had left Delhi at five in the morning and after a six-hour drive reached their destination. Their hotel had been pre-booked and their room had been as described in the brochure. Being tired of the travel they decided to rest for an hour. After unpacking and taking a bath, they went out for a stroll on the Mall. Even as they were exiting the hotel lobby, Monica noticed a  heavyset man sitting in the lobby, he had worn a rather loud shirt, crimson in colour with the buttons open revealing a rather thick gold chain, he was staring at her, and it made her shiver involuntarily. She decided to inform Dheeraj about the man, but then when they stepped out of the hotel, it was to be greeted by a mesmerizing panorama of snow-clad mountains glinting in the distance under a clear blue sky. That day, both of them wandered hand in hand, the typical lovelorn couple lost in themselves, just living in the moment, a moment that was magical and too valuable to be squandered.

They stopped at the One Up Restaurant, a joint that served exemplary Mughlai and continental food. It was while they were having their food that Monica suddenly exclaimed to Dheeraj, ‘, I think I saw that man sitting at the table close to the door, at the hotel lobby, he seems to be taking too much interest in us.’

Dheeraj sneaked a look across Monica and looked at the man sitting by himself at a table close to the entrance to the joint. He looked a bit shady, but then he thought that perhaps Monica had been getting a bit too imaginative – ‘Look I don’t think he might have come after us, you might be mistaken, Monica. Anyway, let him not spoil our meal!’

They resumed their meal quietly, savouring the spicy Biryani and the Rogan Josh. After they had had their meal, they stepped out and did lots of window shopping, buying things that were probably cheaper in Delhi, but then did it just for fun, and the shopkeepers were most welcoming. Two days passed away slowly with them going off to bed late, tired after just wandering on the Mall Road, waking up late in the morning, and then returning to the Mall for more window shopping. In the afternoon of the second day, they visited the Company Garden and spent time photographing the flowers and having pictures taken of themselves with the flowers as a backdrop. That day they decided to have dinner at the Hotel itself. It was while they were having an early dinner at eight that Dheeraj’s mobile began ringing consistently. Monica nudged him when he seemed to ignore the phone. Looking at the display, Dheeraj’s face wrinkled in apprehension. It was his boss Arjun Thakur, calling up from Delhi.

Rather reluctantly he took the call. ‘Hello, Arjun, what is up?’ - Putting the question before he could say anything.

‘Sorry, Dheeraj, this is rather urgent, you need to return to Delhi at once!’ there was a pause, and then he continued, ‘Our website has been hacked, and we are being robbed black and white.’

‘Sorry, you know how it is, I am in Mussourie and well, Sakshi is with me, come on, Arjun, it is not going to work out.’ Dheeraj replied.

‘It is only for one day, Dheeraj,’ Arjun went on, ‘you could bring her with you, moreover, I will do you a favour, fund a honeymoon trip to Singapore next month, all expenses paid. Take the late-night Volvo for Delhi, work for the day on the firewalls!’

All this while Sakshi stood by him looking anxiously at him. A sense of foreboding was writ large on her face.  He nodded at her trying to put her at ease. This was wrong he thought and wondered if he should refuse. But then here he was, stuck in an ugly middle position.

‘OK, let me discuss this with Sakshi,’ Dheeraj replied, ‘I will call you in five minutes.’

‘Ok, call me back in five minutes!’ Arjun responded before cutting the connection.

Dheeraj turned with a heavy heart and told Sakshi all about the conversation he had had with Arjun. She was supportive and suggested that he should go alone to Delhi by the late night Volvo bus while she stayed back in Mussoorie. She was sure that he could be back the next night and they could resume their one week stay in the town. They rushed back to their hotel room where he quickly changed into a fresh set of clothes. They walked together to the bus stand. What they did not notice was that while walking to the bus stand they were watched by a stranger lurking in the shadows. He boarded the bus and Sakshi returned to their hotel room. She did not feel hungry so she decided to go off to sleep.

The next morning would be different for both of them. At about two in the morning, the mountain range was hit by an Earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale. The town was cut off from the rest of the world because of the roads that were completely buried under tons of debris, whole mountains collapsing on them.

Dheeraj was dozing as the bus drove downhill when the earthquake struck. The driver attempted to stop the bus even as the mountain ahead of them erupted into a shower of big rocks and dirt. The bus slewed and skidded half on the road and half stick over the bluff onto a hundred foot chasm. Dheeraj was flung out of his seat towards the rear door which had come open.  He was helpless and in spite of grabbing for seat struts, he slipped out of the open gate onto the chasm. Surprisingly enough, Dheeraj had accepted his fate, but as things would have it, he came to a stop on a ledge that was comfortably wide enough. It was dark and so he thought not to move too much until morning. Thus it was that he lay on the ledge waiting for the approach of dawn. He wondered about Sakshi, how she was doing and whether she had been spared by the earthquake. He looked at his watch and saw that it was three 0’ clock. Then he felt in his pocket for his mobile phone and breathed a sigh of relief. He would call Sakshi first thing in the morning.

He must have dozed off for an hour or so when he heard a scream! Waking up with a start he realized that he was not alone on the ledge, for there in the morning light he saw a woman who had been in the bus lying on a narrower part of the ledge ahead of him. He crawled to her and noticed with horror that her part of the ledge was jutting out over a slope that plunged into a sickeningly deeper chasm. The woman had been somehow clinging onto tree roots that somehow protruded over the ledge. It was clear that she had lost all her strength and that she would soon slide down the slope into the chasm. Already part of her torso, her legs were hanging out of the ledge over the chasm.  

“OK, just look at me, Miss!” He said, “Can you hold on a little more?”

“Just hurry up, Mister, “ the woman stated, “ I have got a cramp coming on, and can’t hold on any longer.”

“Alright, listen, what I am going to do is to take out my belt which I want to loop around your waist. I will grab hold of the loop and try to drag you to the broader part of the ledge. However, I will have to  buckle the belt myself if it is alright with you.”

“It is fine with me,” she said nodding towards him.

He undid his belt and then edged towards her, not looking at the looming chasm beyond. Hooking his feet onto a couple of rocks jutting out the ledge he managed to loop the belt around the woman’s waist. He knew that if he didn’t hurry up, the woman would lose her strength and sweep both of them down the chasm. Struggling hard he buckled the belt and hooked one of his hands into the loop and said to the woman, “Alright ease off, I am going to drag you to safety now.”

The woman replied, “Ok, I will let go, by the way, in case I don’t survive, my name is Monica, and I teach English at the Modern School in Mussoorie. I was going to my uncle in Delhi for my Niece’s sixteenth birthday.”

He replied, “ I am Dheeraj and my wife and I had gone to Mussoorie for our honeymoon. I was called to Delhi for an emergency when this happened. OK, now ease off, easy does it!” He exclaimed even as he took on her weight with his left hand.
Morning found them seated on the ledge with their backs to the mountain wall. It was six o'clock when Dheeraj's mobile phone rang, it was Sakshi.
"Hi, Dheeraj, have you reached Delhi?" She asked anxiously.
He thought for a moment and then decided to delay telling her that he was stuck on a ledge on the mountainside with a stranger. Instead, he said, " How are you, what about the Earthquake?"
"Dheeraj, the town has been totally destroyed, the hotel is gone, and I have taken shelter at the bus stand. The only electricity supply is at the bus stand."
"Hey, Sakshi, just hold on, I was on board the bus just above Mandi when the earthquake struck, I was thrown over the road and landed upon a ledge. But don't worry, I am sure people will arrive to rescue us."
"Dheeraj, just take care of you, I will call you every morning at six, by the way, I've got to go, it looks like that man, along with a few more have been shadowing me. I am a little scared. Just in case, I am going to merge with the crowd at the bus stop so that I might be safe."
"Fine, just take care of yourself, I will try to get back to you!" He replied, trying to assure her.
Dheeraj and Monica were rescued by the Disaster Management Team, and they were taken to New Delhi for treatment. After a brief recuperation of four days, they were released and went back to their hometowns. Of Sakshi however, there had been no information.
When I got to meet Dheeraj a couple of years after all this had happened, he was still looking for his wife, Sakshi. The authorities, unfortunately, were of much help. Dheeraj continues to hope that his wife might be alive and in good health. Once he even got a call on his cell phone that he thought was from her. He had pressed the answer button and even heard the sound of someone breathing softly into the mouthpiece and then the call got disconnected!