Leena Varghese's Blog - Posts Tagged "action-and-adventure"

Wildflowers in the Rain

EXCERPT

“Let’s walk down the slope and see if the ground levels out. We might find a safer trail.” Aditya looked at the overcast sky, while trying to figure out their exact location on his phone. There was no signal for them to get Google maps.

Everyone switched off their phones to save battery. They quickly shared the food items that included biscuits and chips, half a dozen bananas and some salted peanuts. Water was precious, so they used it sparingly. Unni Maya opened her bundle and handed a medium-sized food packet wrapped in aromatic plantain leaves to Rhea. It contained sautéed lemon rice with mango pickle more than enough for two people.

“Let her keep it,” Aditya said. “She needs it more than us. The journey may tire her out later.”

But Unni Maya only drank sips of water thirstily and refused to eat a morsel.

Rhea kept the food packet back inside Unni Maya’s bundle, which she clutched under her arm allowing the young woman to walk freely. She had serious concerns about the pallor on Unni Maya’s thin face.

The forest was thriving with birds, insects, and other sounds that they were worried about. No one needed to be reminded how dangerous it was now that they were well inside the forbidden boundary.

Aditya moved closer to Rhea. “You don’t seem very convinced about Unni Maya,” he remarked softly lest the others hear him. He dropped on his haunches next to her to clear his shoes of grass and pebbles.

She was surprised that he had gauged her thoughts so easily. “She can’t walk for long.”

The trek began. But it seemed like a futile search without a trail. It was all based on assumption. The only way that seemed easier and safer was downhill. They began walking in a file. Firdaus and Unni Maya walked together. Shashikant was commenting on everything he saw. Murali went ahead looking for a trail and Swamini trotted with mutiny brewing on her face. When Unni Maya sank to the ground once more Swamini scolded her. Rhea rushed to the poor woman’s side and helped her stand again. This time when they started walking again, Unni Maya was waddling. Murali reached up to the overhanging foliage of a tree and broke off a sturdy branch and handed it to her for support. He began walking by her side.

Aditya and Rhea were the last to move in line. He walked so close that her arm brushed against his several times. She was thankful that there was no signal. Dr. Ravidas could not reach her. She could hold on for some more time. In an odd way, she felt safe even though she was in the middle of dangerous territory. She sighed and looked at the group of people.

“Swamini is unpredictable,” Rhea said. The slim figure ahead was grumbling about the stains on her expensive designer boots and periodically hollering at Unni Maya and Firdaus.

“That’s an understatement,” Aditya grimaced as if he had bitten his own tongue. “I bet if she could have her way, she would tether everyone together and ride out of here on someone’s back.”

“I am surprised that you should say that. She’s quite pretty!” she teased, smiling.

That smile was going to be his undoing, Aditya thought. She had such dark drowsy eyes, like a dreamer that a man could happily drown in them.

“Of course, she’s pretty! However, I would be petrified if she got interested in me. She is the kind that mates with her partner and then gobbles him up whole,” he said with a wicked grin.

Rhea looked away, eyes alight with laughter. Realisation dawned rather painfully. It would not help matters if she began to like him any more than was required. She had to make sure that her involvement remained neutral. That brought out the haunted shadows in her beautiful eyes.

Aditya was ready to walk the entire length of the festering green forest if he could just know what she was thinking.

They walked for an hour and by then even Shashikant’s cheery comments were sounding insipid. He kept scratching vigorously, wondering aloud if something had bitten him. The fiery itch had spread upwards to his thighs and he was beginning to feel a little nauseous. But there was no time to take a look inside his pants.

Twice, they made a detour. They had reached a rocky valley with no way around it. It had become quite evident that they were not going to find the road they had left behind.

Unni Maya was trailing behind them. They had to stop many times to help her over uneven ground. Soon, they heard the gurgle of water falling from the overhanging rocks. A clear stream tripped down into the valley below. Somewhere above them among the tall, shadowy trees, monkeys chattered noisily.

It began to rain and they were unable to move further. As the slanting drops fell, the whole valley was covered in mist. The group rushed to find cover under a thick canopy of vine that prevented the fierce deluge of rain from drenching them.

“Oh, great! This is all we need,” Swamini sounded defeated as she dabbed the water from her face with a scented tissue.

Murali tried unsuccessfully to revive his phone, pacing to catch a signal.

“I am starving!” Firdaus whined, clutching her painful back.

“And I think I am dying…” Shashikant’s voice was a slurred whisper.

Everyone looked at him expecting it to be another joke. They were concerned to see him looking ill. No one had paid any attention to him earlier. His face had swollen and his eyes were red and watery. He was scratching away at his leg.

“You should have a bath more often,” Swamini sang with saccharine sweetness.

Rhea moved quickly to his side where he sat huddled on a rock. She rolled up his trouser legs up to his knees. Every inch of his skin was covered in bright red welts.

“This is urticaria. You have a bad allergy, Shashikant. It could be an insect bite or because of a poisonous weed. You need medication.”

“How do you know?” Swamini asked.

“I know. I am a trained…nurse,” Rhea stammered, almost revealing her identity.

Aditya knelt beside Shashikant and examined the welts. “These were caused by some weed. There are no bite marks.”

Rhea immediately opened her backpack and pulled out a box. It was more complex than a mere first-aid kit. She had always carried one since the time she had started travelling alone. She had lived in a permanent state of emergency since then.

Shashikant swallowed the pills that Rhea gave him. Aditya prevented him from falling as he swayed. He took Shashikant behind a tree and helped him change into a pair of comfortable shorts.

“The tablets I have are only for temporary relief. We need to get back to civilization urgently,” Rhea told them.

“Ya allah! We better make it fast then,” Firdaus cried in a strangled voice. Everyone was startled to see her stare at Unni Maya.

The low agonized groan from the pregnant woman stunned everyone. She clutched her belly and slithered down to the ground on her knees.

“Eww! What is that?” Swamini backed away from the blood-tinged pool in the grass around Unni Maya’s feet.

Rhea lunged fast, wrapping a supporting arm around Unni Maya before she could collapse. Aditya quickly seated Shashikant on a boulder. He shrugged off his backpack and grabbed Unni Maya by her shoulders to steady her as she gave out her first scream.

Rhea shook her head in hopelessness. “Oh God! All that running about…She is in labour.”

They stood dumbstruck in fear. But it was only a fraction of what Unni Maya felt as she began screaming hysterically.


*****

BLURB

When Dr. Aditya Menon boards a rickety old bus from Bangalore to Cochin after attending his best friend Sri’s cremation, he never expects to find himself stranded in the middle of the Bandipur forest reserve with a group of people he’d never met before.

Little does Aditya know that the answers to the mystery of Sri’s death could be found with the beautiful and enigmatic Rhea Balan who is travelling with him. Or, that the inexorable attraction he feels for her could lead to imminent death.

Rhea Balan had never imagined that life would fling her into the middle of a festering forest where she would have to grapple, not only with the hostile natural environment, but also evade the predators of the human world to stay alive. Someone is watching her every move and she must make sure that no one knows her identity.

Caught in the middle of wilderness and danger, in a situation that could either destroy everything that she holds sacred, or throw her behind prison bars, Rhea must choose. But how can she make a wise choice when she would lose both ways…For Aditya is the kind of man she would not forget in a hurry.

In a race against the vagaries of nature and time, both Aditya and Rhea must find a way to beat the odds before their nemesis catches up with them.


*****

Hi, everyone!

On one of my regular visits to Kerala, years ago, we stopped for a break from the six-hour bus journey on the highway that runs through the Bandipur forest reserve to Wayanad district.

Deep in the thrumming forest, as far as the eye could see, in the shaft of diffused light that penetrated the darkness under the canopy of thick bamboos and profusion of wildflowers, a flock of sunny yellow butterflies flitted over a jewel-like pool of water in a magical circle. It was such a beautiful sight that the elusive scene is stamped on my memory forever.

The story of Aditya and Rhea was born during one of those unforgettable visits. It never ceases to astonish me that we have become so complacent living in an illusory world of comfort and control, without ever thinking of it as being temporary. A person living in a box in a crowded metropolitan city would never survive an unsupervised trip into the wild. But then, I suppose, we are already lost in a concrete, tech-savvy jungle that consumes us everyday bit by bit. I also wonder if the inmates of the forest are any worse than the two-legged predators of the human world. As we move towards an increasingly technology dependent world, do we pause to think about the consequences of our apathy towards the natural world that bears the brunt of our selfishness and greed?

The forest of Bandipur is real. But the places and incidents happening inside the forest are all a product of my fertile imagination. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this one and I hope you enjoy reading it too.

It would really make me happy if you could leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads.

Thank you

All the best

Leena