Inside Out

Inside Out

............the bike stopped, the dust settled and Manoj got down. He pulled out his halmet to reveal a very fair face as if being not tanned in the sun anytime. He parked the bike and pushed the iron gate. He was now facing a two storey palace where once his ancestors had lived. On the borders of China in a small village where they once ruled. It was at the change of the 20th century that his great grandfather decided to leave the place since public revolt was now out of control.
Manoj's grandfather a scientist of his time did visit this place after his infamous divorce with his grandmother. However today it had become important for the youngest son of the family to come back and claim what was theirs.Manoj is a free lance interior decorator who had specially come to study the interiors of this once beautiful palace. He entered the palace and was stunned to see the number of rooms. He tried to count but then gave up since something else attracted him. One of the room doors had the name as labaratory. He immediately understood that this was the same room where his grandfather spent his last few days doing experiments.
He slowly walked towards the room. The stairs made up of wood seemed to gone week as they shook everytime Manoj took a new step. He tried to help himself by holding on to the side wall but that was too dusty for Manoj's liking. Once he was on the first floor he began to look around, and he spotted the room once again. He walked towards the room. While he walked he could smell bird poops. He also saw a rat moving on the old electric wires hanging from the ceiling. Manoj decided to ignore all that. He was now in front of the door when he saw the lock. He was angry on himself for not looking at the door carefully before. He kicked the door in anger which made is slam to the opposite side. It seemed the door hinges had gone rusty. But the slamming of the door on the floor made the dust blow up. Manoj covered his mouth with a handkerchief and squinting his eyes moved in. There were lot of electric machines lying around. He saw a printing machine which had a paper stack stuck in it. He also spotted an instrument that pretty much looked like a washing machine. Manoj looked at his new shoes they were not looking the same with all the dust. The dirty shoes brought another frown on Manoj's face. He was about to get out of the room when he saw a small cupboard on the floor.
Manoj squatted and opend the door of the cupboard. He could not see what is in there since it was too short for him to see inside it. Manoj slowly moved his head downwards almost touching the floor. In fact his breathing made the dust blow away. That is when he spotted the red cloth.He tried to pull it out and soon understood that the red cloth was wrapped around something.Manoj picked up the object and slowly removed the red cloth around it. Manoj stood up, since the room was a bit dark, Manoj opened the window. Manoj tried to guess what it must be while touching the cloth and unwrapping it at the same time.
A pigeon was sitting on the window, Manoj was now holding the object pointing at the pigeon. It was a gun, a sparkling silver gun. Manoj was ready to shoot, when the pigeon flew and he stopped himself from pulling the trigger. Manoj threw the cloth away which after touching the floor revealed a paper in it. Manoj bowed down to pick the paper and read it loudly.
“When you try to clean the dirt outside don't forget there is more in you that needs to be cleaned first, only when the inside is clean so will then the outside look beautiful”

Manoj, tried to understand the meaning but then just gave up. He pushed the gun into the inside pocked of the coat he was wearing. He kept the note in his trouser pocket. For another hour Manoj tried to find something but nothing interested him and he left the lab. The lab was not the only room Manoj visited he did enter each and every room. Some were unlocked and the locked one just required a gentle push to bring them down. Manoj wondered if he could push hard the whole palace might also come down. Manoj was now in the last room, which had pictures of his great ancestors hanging on the wall. He saw one of the photo to be cruked he, adjusted it however it still would return to the same titled position. Thats when he tried to look behind the frame and saw a small door handle. He quickly pulled the photo down and pushed the secret door in the wall to see a vessel. He pulled the vessel out and opened it to see gold coins, a few gold chains and also a lot of pearls. Manoj pocketed them and got out of the palace. It was unfortunate that he could not wait in this place. The palace was away from the village, there was not even a neighborhood only forest as far as one can see. Manoj walked towards the bike got on it and decided to go back to the nearest village to rest for the night. The bike started after two unsuccessful tries, Manoj kept the found treasure inside a box fitted on the sides of the bike. Wearing his halmet Manoj began his journey back.
After riding his bike for an hour Manoj recalled the incidents that had taken place in the last 3 hours. He was thirsy and looked around to see if there was any water source. Just then he spotted a well. He decided to walk towards the well. He slowly looked into the well when he saw there was no water to see. He streched him self to see more but there was no water. He quickly looked out and then again looked in. At first glance he did not believe it but now he was sure there was a skeleton lying at the bottom of the well. The skeleton made him worried about himself. Manoj decided that he is not going to waste any time and just walk out of the jungle. Just then he turned around and saw a very differet picture. A more pleasant one. A woman who had wrapped a saree around her just to make sure her body is not revealed was walking across the jungle with a vessel of water. Manoj rushed towards her and got down on his knees. “Please give me some water..........I have to go across the forest by tonight and I will die if I don't get water............”
The woman who was at first scared to see Manoj acting weird had now got back her composure and did manage to give a smile. She revealed a perfect set of beautiful white teeth. She poured the water on Manoj hands. Manoj was holding his hand like a funnel to help him to drink water. Manoj drank the water and seeing satisfaction on his face, the woman moved forward. Manoj got on the bike but the thirst of water was now replaced by the thirst for the woman in Manoj's body.Soon his brain tried to figure out a plan to make sure he ends the night wih the woman. He kicked started his bike and traveled behind the woman leaving behind the expected path. The woman turned around hearing the bike noise. “Can I drop you, if this bike can go upto your house I will have no problems dropping you. The woman gave an uncomfortable smile but then gave a second look at Manoj she realized he was from the city and also looked educated. She was also tired of walking and was tempted not to turn down the offer. Manoj helped her get on the bike. As she sat on the bike holding the vessel in one hand and Manoj's shoulder by the other the bike came alive. As the bike moved Manoj could not stop imagining himself with the woman. It took over 15 minutes to get to the house. It was just a hut. It had a wooden cot and was roofed with coconut leaves. Manoj could not control his thoughts and his feelings. Just then he heard another voice. He saw around and a strong looking man came out from behind the house. Although he was strong he gave a very humble smile to Manoj. The man grabbed the vessel from the woman and moved back into the house, woman followed him and Manoj followed the woman The woman used some signs to explain the man and the man responded in the same way. Manoj was not able to guess which one of them was deaf and dump or rather both were. He also wondered how they might have lived in this jungle with this disability. The woman got into the hut, she decided to change her saree. Manoj looked into the hut from the holes in the wall. The man was busy cutting wood.
Manoj was seeing the beautiful body, he just could not control his temptation and a more evil thought crossed his mind. “What if I kill this man, then in this jungle this woman would be all mine.........but how would I, luckily I hav a gun and since it is so heavy it perhaps is loaded, I need to take this man away from this hut, kill him somewhere and come back to the hut then the woman will have no place to go.........”
Manoj moved towards the man and started to speak in sign language, “I can speak..........it just that she was shy speaking in front of you” Manoj heaved a sigh of relief. “Friend I picked up your wife near the well and dropped her here because she helped me with water.........” “I know she told me...” the man answered. “But there is a problem, when I got down of the bike I dropped my purse over there, there is lot of money in it, but I am scared to go back alone over there, will you please come with me............” The man without answerig got into the house and then came out again “I am ready we can go now........” Manoj and the man got onto the bike. Manoj was now started to feel bad and perhaps he was thinking he was doing something wrong. But the image of the woman was not getting off his mind. Her touch was still fresh on his shoulder. When they reach the well, the man started to look into the bushes around while Manoj moved towards the well. He pulled out his gun and pointed towards the Man's brain who was trying to find the purse which was not there. Manoj pulled the trigger, there was a loud noise, the woman came out of her hut hearing the sound. Little that she knew what had happened. She sat outside the house for a lot of time, it turned dark and now she was really worried. Just at that time she saw something moving when she closely looked she saw the figure. She was worried and she jumped and ran towards the approaching figure. She hugged him and asked him “What happened...........?”
The gun made a noise that was deafening, but the shocking part was that Manoj was now falling into the well. The special gun was made in such a way that it would shoot back at the person who was holding the gun. The man had stopped looking for the gun in the bushes, he tried to look into the well and scream out loud. He even thought of getting into the well but then he remembered his wife and thought otherwise. The man sat besides the well and cried for a while. He was still not able to understand why the city dweller had shot himself. After a long time the man got up and decided to forget about it. He knew that city police can come and they might think that he has killed the tourist. He decided to walk out of that place, keeping the bike in the same position that Manoj had.
The woman was shocked to hear what had happend and was even more shock when her husband asked her to pack her clothes and move out of this place. After travelling for about 3 days the man and his wife reached a village and forgetting of the dreadful indicident decided to live a fresh life. The police till date are not able to solve the mystery, they found the body, treasure, bike, money and the gun. The gun is with the police as an evidence and is untouched so little does anyone knows of its secret. Also as a proof the police have kept the paper that was found in Manoj's shirt. The note saying the two lines Manoj once read out lout.

“When you try to clean the dirt outside don't forget there is more in you that needs to be cleaned first,
only when the inside is clean so will then the outside look beautiful.............”

Misson Karnala

Misson Karnala

Based on the discussion of all members of safhayedh kawla (white crow) organization it was decided to conquer the Karnala fort. Karnala fort is 75 kms away from Mumbai and is about 12 kms away from Panvel. It is around at a height of 450 mts from sea level.
We started at about 6:00am in the morning. While trying to take a shortcut towards the vile parle station we were greeted by dogs. In dark morning, we were unable to spot where the dogs were but could hear them bark, so just like the brave men would do, we ran away to fight another day. Now we were in problems since we had just wasted another 5 mins. We were not sure of the timings of the train so decided to get into an Auto. The auto driver was not happy to have 5 passengers, however he had little choice since we literally hogged him to take us. Once on the station, Trushal Pawar, bought the tickets. However he only bought single way, which he realized later. We got into the 6:09 C.S.T from Vile parle which dropped us on the Wadala station at 6:35am. We then got into a 6:35am Panvel. The train was pretty empty and since we were a bit bored we started reading the train advertisements. Thats where we found a new name for Trushal, and he was renamed as Baba Ajmeri, a psychic who can cure anything.
We got out on the Panvel station at 7:50am. From there we walked to the panvel state transport depot. We found there was one bus that suited our requirement. We were soon in it and Baba Ajmeri as usual was joking with the bus conductor. There was no place to sit hence we remained standing. After 20 mins at about 8:15am we were at the Karnala stop. The sanctuary official responsible to give away tickets to get into the sanctuary acted quickly. We gave him 100 Rs and he returned nothing, it was 20 Rs per man, and we were 5 of us.
After walking for another 300 mts, we saw a bird cage. It had a duck in it. Then we soon spotted a few more cages. One had a peacock both male and female. There was a himalayan parrot, rabbit and some other birds. We watched the map that was placed a few meters from the cage. The map showed two roads to get on the Karnala fort. There was a long route meant to go to the top safely and there was one route for crazy people to go trekking. The trekking route was a steep one. It was stupid to take that route. However we still took it. Then started the great trekking, crossing a small bridge, then many roots, tree trunks fallen in between as barriers and a lot of stones that some times helped and some time acted as a barrier. Slowly Deepak, Trushal, Sumit made there way up. Mayur remained behind taking one photo every step he took. I was all out, sweating, and litterally crawling from behind. Another 30 mins and we were soon near half point. We reached a flat plateau where we took a few snaps. There was a thought to stop and eat but was soon discarded. I started walking briskly leaving other to continue taking the snaps.
It was getting tougher towards the end. I climbed over the big stons and then climbed on to the steps to get into the fort. When I entered the fort it was 9:50am. I mad it quickly to a spot where there was a cool breeze blowing. I sat down. Other slowy followed and I was happy to claim that I was the first one to get on the fort. We then decided to have our breakfast. Following was the light breakfast we had, around 35 theplas, 10 dosas and 3 chapatis. After this we took rest. It was 10:30 am when we started again. We saw a few caves at the top and decided to move there. When we reached into the caves and found there was very clean water there. We were able to see the bottom. However we were sure it was not good for dinking. Baba Ajmeri got into the caves and showed how he meditate which made everyone laugh. After relaxing some time at the caves which included singing, Mayur snapped a few pics and then we left. We then explored some other areas of the fort and were amazed to see how people might have lived there. After some more snaps, we decided it was time to go down. At that time the clock said 11:30am.
We decided to take the long route to get down this time. It took around one hour to get down. However during the one hour descent we encountered with monkeys. A group of about 20 monkeys were hanging from the trees and seemed to charge around us. Thats where I took a risk and asked the rest of the guys to do that too. This is not something that you should try. We raised our hand and taking a position that we do while doing jumping jacks screamed loudly. We screamed so loudly that the monkey ran upstairs on the tree that they hung on too. After that we continued to descent downwards taking little rests in between. Once at the foothills we saw the peacock in the cage again. This time, the peacock was dancing and displaying the wonderful designer feathers that god designed himself for this great bird. It was a great sight and would remain in memory for a long time. We were resting below a tree when we saw a few more monkeys hanging on the trees. We decided to do the same exercise. But to our surprise the monkey this time retaliated and made us run.
Next mission after conquering the great fort was trying our hand on cooking some rice. We read boards of no cooking, or no litting fire in the sanctuary. We did not break the rules and got out of the sanctuary. Then walking a few distance we found aother place with no one around and decided to make a small fire to cook. There was one big vessel, we added rice, cereals (moong not sure of the English name, but then who cares), turmeric and salt, and yes jeera (again don't ask the english name).
Baba Ajmeri lit the fire. Sumit thinks its his old business ('aag laagane may he has done phd' were his exact words). Trushal left us to refill the bottles. The fire soon started to work around and made the rice boiling. Wait a minute this is a lie. Nothing of that worked, the fire was not making anything boil. The fire was picking up in the wrong place. I and Deepak tried to adjust the fire. Sumit continued complaining that we have no clue what we are doing and this is not going to work. Mayur was collecting dry leaves. Soon Trushal (Baba Ajmeri) arrived and made a new fire. We adjusted the vessel on the new fire and it started to boil. Basically we were missing a simple point, that you should allow oxygen to make fire work and not pack the leaves from all sides. Trushal made sure that does not happen again. After one hour of this effort rice was all cooked. We all enjoyed it, there was morning thepla left, which we ate and then there was pullav which we also ate everything.
After the lunch and cleaning the utensils, we started walking towards the higway. After some time the state transport bus arrived and we reached panvel. Then once at panvel, we got the Andheri train and after another hour and thiry minutes we were back at Vile Parle station, it was 7pm then.Its about 11pm now, I am sure all of us are suffering from body aches. In the words of Baba Ajemeri our legs are yzed (whatever that means)........................................