Kashmir Diary

THE GYPSY ADVENTURE

We had cogent 2 years remaining for the Coachella. 

Chi and Diljeet were going to Patiala for 4 months for some personal reasons regarding their family matters, Zeenat was going to Dubai to meet her relatives, Inaaya went to Hyderabad to meet her grandparents and as always I didn't have a clue about Aadil.

My dad and brother were both posted to north east. My mom was also leaving to Himachal for her work reasons. So I was the only one in the entire bungalow. However there were about 25 workers and maids who lived inside our mahal in different cabins.  So being alone was not that big of a deal.

So in this situation, post-graduation was a good option for me. I again went to college. Most of the students were younger to me but it was not awkward for me, you know because I was quite popular at that time. I had the same old routine. College in the morning, bridge in the evening.

Days passed and again the curfews increased. There were serious terror activities going on in Uri and Pattan, our neighboring villages. It kind of scared me. After a few days all the schools and colleges were called off. The roads became empty. Even the stores and the market were shut. There were so many soldiers patrolling the streets. We were allowed to come out only for an hour in the morning to buy essentials. 

The situation started getting worse. Entire Kashmir was under strict curfew. No one from outside could come here and no one here could go out. My mom couldn't come that day for the same reason. I was so terrified. No one from my family or friends were with me. I was stuck. Those nights were so bad. Two weeks passed by.

One evening our landline rang. 

But I knew it wasn't my family because there was telephone service only within the state. I was really scared to take the call. But I couldn't ignore it either, the feeling that there might be a even the slight possibility that it could be my family urged me to pick the phone. I held my breath and  took the phone in my hand. 

I heard a shaky voice, "Bhi, please help me, come to the band shed right now. Please, please." It was Aadil. My stomach dropped. I was so so scared. "But it's.... It's curfew..." I said. "Please Bhairavi, I need help.." He started crying. It really hurt me. I went blank. I didn't know what to do.

I couldn't think anything else. I just went out of my house, took my brother's Gypsy keys and left the house with the vehicle. There were so many soldiers with rifles along the road. The Gypsy had the words 'ARMY' written in red so no one seemed to notice me. I reached the eco park. I got down and ran towards the band shed. 

Before entering the shed, a deep thought occurred to me. That moment I don't know why, I lost trust in Aadil. I felt maybe it was all a trap. I felt devastated. 'In all those times I didn't have a clue about where he was were maybe the times when he was into the dark activities' This thought caught my head. I wanted to run away from there as fast as possible. 

But then someone swam out of the river down, I tried to hide myself from that person. I sat down and curled myself behind a rock just above our shed. But the man approached straight towards me. He looked terrifying. He was completely black clothed, was holding a rifle and two grenades were hanging down his neck and their strings were connected to the rifle. I didn't know what to do. I closed my eyes tightly and prayed to god. I was pulled from behind and and I fell down somewhere down. I opened my eyes to see Aadil fallen down too beside me. He had pulled me down into the shed through the window. He shushed me before I could yell. The terrifying man went past the rock without noticing us and I was saved. I took heavy breaths. Then after a few seconds Aadil whispered, "I am trapped. Please help me." He was badly sweating, his eyes were red and his head was bleeding. He looked like he had cried for a really long time and was hit by someone really bad.

"I don't trust you." I said right away. Tears rolled down his eyes. He just fainted. He literally fell down unconscious. I thought of running away. But the six years of our friendship didn't allow me to do that. My heart did not listen to my thought. If I didn't help him and if even there was the slightest possibility that he was not bad, that could make me the worst human being.  I sprinkled the river water and he fluttered open his eyes. He sat up, looked deep into my eyes and practically begged me. "Please..." he pleaded.

"Tell me." I whispered. "I was in a really bad company long before. Your brother had helped me come out of it.  The last time your brother visited Baramulla, I had signed a form to even volunteer as a spy for the Army whenever required. So he had shared me the location of the secret code to operate and diffuse the Indian Army's specialized time bombs n case of emergency. Those people now somehow know that I signed that form. They have stolen the bomb from the command and now are forcing me to tell where the secret codes are. I denied. They hit me. But then I further denied and so they did this to me." He said. 

He started to remove his shirt and I became careful. But then I was horrified to see a freaking time bomb locked to his chest!!! I screamed out the loudest and he shut my mouth. I was panting heavily, I still don't know how I didn't collapse in that spot. "Where are the codes?" I tried to say, but words didn't come out. "In your home, inside the watch your brother gifted to you long back." He said taking heavy breaths. There was just 7 hours for the bomb to detonate.

"We then hurried to the Gypsy. I drove to our house as fast as I could. My faith-Lord Krishna  really rescued us from being caught on the road. We then ran through the stairway, invaded into my room and I hurriedly opened the cupboard and took out my precious watch. We opened it with the help of a pin and inside it there was a tiny metal plate. It had a code. Aadil read it out and I typed it inside the bomb's inner screen. The lock opened, I pulled it out from his chest. It made a few beep sounds and it turned off. We sighed a deep breath together.

I was relieved. He looked at me teary eyed, "Thank you" he said with a smile.

I had no words, I was still processing what just happened. Within a few minutes I fell asleep on my bed. I was so stressed with all this.