Jungle

'You are on the wrong side of the road!' Mita scolded. Andy smiled
and said, 'Who cares? We are almost there.' He was right. They were
very near the forest department office. Andy stopped the car and took
the documents out of his bag. 'Now sit here and wait.' Saying this he
went into the small building . Inside, there were many offices that
were connected to the massive forest all around. Andy knocked and
entered the cabin of Mr Joe. Joe was the person who sanctioned them the
departmental jeep. After that was done he rang a little bell on his
table. In a few minutes a wiry young man entered the cabin. Joe
introduced him to Andy, 'This is Dalip. He knows this area very well.
He will take you around the forest'. Andy took a good look at Dalip.
Dalip seemed to be a person who eternally looked sad. Could he be
trusted? Andy said to himself, 'This is one risk we must take'.
After the formalities were done with Andy returned to his car. Mita,
his newly-wed wife was looking quite bored. It was Andy's idea to
honeymoon in this forest. Given the choice she would prefer some exotic
beach destination. Andy had not told her that they would not be able to
take their own car inside the forest. He decided to break the news
slowly to her. 'You know Mits there is a wonderful Watch Tower behind
this office. Mr Joe was saying that you can even see tigers from the
tower if you are lucky. Let's go and check the place out.'. 'You go',
Mita said, 'I have come here to be eaten by the tiger'. Andy decided
not to bother Mita any further and broke the news of the jeep to her.
Her first reaction was 'What, you must be crazy. I am not leaving my
car for anything in the world.' Andy laboured to explain to Mita that
there were no roads inside the forest. The trails that cut through the
trees could only be covered by jeep. Mita refused to believe anything
that Andy said, but then Dalip arrived with the jeep. There was
something very impressive about Dalip that seemed to affect Mita.
Perhaps it was his green uniform. Perhaps it was the sturdy jeep he
drove. Mita seemed game for a jeep ride through the jungle.
It was now ten in the morning. Andy and Mita had had breakfast. After
locking up their car they were ready to start their jungle safari. To
begin with it was not terribly exciting. They drove through a muddy
trail at slow speed. There were not too many animals to be seen just
the odd jackals. Then, suddenly the car stopped. It was a herd of
rhinoceros passing. The animals were huge and seemed to attach no value
to the people in the jeep. They took their own sweet time to drink at
the adjacent watering hole and move on with life. After the rhinos had
gone the jeep sped on with ease. About an hour into their journey there
was a grand roar. It seemed that the world would crash around them.
Dalip, their driver seemed to show no emotion but both Andy and Mita
were very very scared. As the jeep moved slowly through the heavy
thicket, there was suddenly a gunshot fired from somewhere. Suddenly
from the heavy jungle they moved into open ground. It was an open space
surrounded by very tall trees. The area was bathed in sunlight from
many sides. At one end there was a pond. As Andy and Mita wondered
where they were another shot was fired. Before they could bat an eyelid
a very tall man jumped down from one of the trees. He took one look at
Andy and Mita and declared, 'Welcome to the territory of Vanvan, my
dear hostages '. It now dawned upon them them that they had been
kidnapped. They also understood that they were in the custody of Vanvan
, the man who controlled the jungles of Betla. He often took people
hostage. With the help of local villagers he always kept his hideouts
secret and never got caught. It became clear to Andy and Mita that
Dalip was in cahoots with Vanvan and his men. They were informed that
they had been picked up with a definite plan. In return for their
freedom Vanvan wanted the release of Cancan, his trusted accomplice.
Dalip was sent back as the emissary.
In a space of few days Andy and Mita were shifted from place to place.
The hideout would always be near a source of water. They would rest in
a clearing. Vanvan had three other members in his gang. Banban the
lame, Dandan the sharpshooter and of course Komba. Komba was a woman
who seemed to have her eyes on Vanvan. She would sometimes cook for the
gang. At other times food would be brought from an adjacent village.
Vanvan himself was an excellent mimic. He could imitate the call of any
animal and frighten the rest of the people. His mimicry of the tiger
was really superb. After a while it became clear that Vanvan was not
sure about his next course of action. Dalip would come and go but
nothing much happened. On one occasion Andy directly asked Dalip about
his release. Dalip gave him a smile of pity. Anyway Vanvan just kept on
moving through the vast forest waiting for something to happen.
One day Mita was putting on her earrings. Komba was nearby cooking for
the whole party. Suddenly she asked to see Mita's earrings. She seemed
to like them. She asked Mita whether she could give her the earrings.
The shrewd woman that she was, Mita agreed to give Komba the rings on
one condition-their freedom. To their great surprise Komba agreed. Next
morning while everyone else was sleeping Komba took Mita and Andy to
the forest department's office. Of course the earrings had been handed
to Komba before they started their journey which took all of ten
minutes.