Romancing the Leopard…

Hello Readers,

Found this story in my old back-ups written by me few years ago. Nostalgic! Enjoy reading.. Chintan and Priten, Cheers!

Romancing the Leopard…

“Arun, Hold that tree tightly, do not leave”, shouted Priten.

I had just slipped from the edge of the mountain and managed to hold a tree, which I doubted would support my weight for more than a minute.

People say that you should remember God in the last minute of your life. But when you are hanging on a tree and you know that if you leave it, you would fall thousands of feet below, you cannot remember God even for a millisecond. You only remember the bad deeds and karmas of your life, which brought you in this situation.

You forgive your enemies and want to say sorry to all of them. You want to hug your family and friends. You feel you should have told them how much you love them. You realise you have missed something important in life – TO LIVE LIFE. You think of things which you would do if you get one more chance.

While these things were going in my mind, I heard the roar of a Leopard. I saw Priten above me, completely panicked and frozen.

A week ago, I was sitting in a café with Chintan and Priten, who are my best buddies since childhood.

“Why don’t we go for a trek to Tulsi Lake?” I suggested and repented immediately.

Chintan jumped and gave me a hi-fi. Looking at his excitement, I wondered if he would kiss me.

Priten replied, “Tulsi Lake! It is the restricted area for humans, dude. We need to take permission of the forest department to visit there.”

I mentally thanked Priten for saying this and I agreed that we should not go there as it is the home of Leopards, Snakes, Crocodiles and other similar animals.

Chintan spoke, “I shall take the permission for all of us. Just a pink-colour note and we get the permission in our hand.” (Earlier Chintan mentioned Green Note of 500, as it was prior to demonitisation).

“But there are Leopards. I read in yesterday’s newspaper that a Leopard was caught on a CCTV camera eating a street dog in a nearby locality of Tulsi Lake and I have seen a video of the same on YouTube. NO! We are not going there”, said Priten folding his hands.

Chintan replied, “We are humans and not dogs. So we do not have to get scared so much. In fact Leopards are scared of humans. We only need to take care not to stare in Leopard’s eyes and stay away from its babies. That’s it.”

I was listening carefully and interrupted, “I read somewhere that Leopard attacks on humans when it is badly injured or when it did not find anything to eat since days. And I am sure Leopards must be damn hungry in this rainy season.”

However, there was no point of arguing with Chintan. I and Priten surrendered and agreed to visit the adventurous trek to Tulsi Lake on next Sunday.

The whole week, Chintan was excited for the trek, whereas I and Priten prayed to God that we do not become food of a hungry Leopard.

I googled for various things sitting at my office like – “What to do when a Leopard attacks” and “How to survive a Leopard attack”. The only thing I could conclude from the research was that no one was left alive after Leopard attack.

Priten once told me he was getting dreams of being eaten by a Leopard.

“Come fast. Leopards are hungry. ;)”, I got a WhatsApp message from Chintan to tease me and Priten. He was waiting for us at the start point of the trek as we were late. It took me twenty minutes to convince Priten to come out of the toilet.

We started climbing the Hill and it was raining heavily. Occasionally, we heard the roar of Leopards from distance. Once Priten almost felt that he is dead when Chintan made the sound of a Leopard in his ear from behind.

“Huh! We are lost”, cried Priten. We had reached a point where we could not decide where to go. We were almost at the middle of the trek with no sign of humans around. We found pieces of broken bones and we could imagine what must have happened here before few hours.

“When in doubt, we should always take a left”, Chintan said confidently.

Priten asked, “And what makes you say so?”

Chintan said, “Okay then. I shall take a left route and you both take a right one. Let’s see who reaches the destination first”

I said, “Are you mad? We should be together”

Chintan ignored me and started walking towards the left route saying, “Say Hi to Mr and Mrs Leopard on my behalf if you meet them”

I and Priten abused him mentally and started walking towards the route on our right hand.

Priten was walking ahead of me looking carefully at the short space to walk, while I sensed that something is watching us and following us. So I was continuously looking at and around trees. Since I was not aware of the slippery ground, I missed a footstep, slipped and kept rolling downwards until I got hold of a tree branch.

As I was counting few last breaths of my life, Priten shouted, “L… L…. Leo….. Leopard!” He saw a Leopard approaching slowly towards him.

My eyes were closed. However, I felt someone had lifted me in arms. I was standing near Priten when I opened my eyes. I was being saved by a girl. I felt like gifting all my properties in her name.

However, on the next moment, I saw a Leopard staring at three of us and I felt more safe hanging on the tree.

“Wo kuch nahi karega” (It will not harm you), she said. And we saw Leopard going away and vanished between trees as if he understood the language of the girl.

The girl became friends with us. She said she was a regular trekker at Tulsi Lake and started narrating her adventurous stories, while we were worried for Chintan.

We reached the Tulsi Lake where we found Chintan sitting on the mat and eating a piece of Thepala with pickle. He offered us, “You want one?”

Listening to this, Priten immediately jumped on him and attacked him like a Leopard. Chintan failed to understand the reason and I smiled standing and watching their love.