The Chase

It was in 1984 that we were sent on a scouting mission to Chikhaldara (now known as Chikhalda) in Amravati district. There were the four us sent out by our MBBS batch mates to checkout the hill station and ensure that it be worthy of a picnic!

On reaching our destination we came to know that there was only the MSTDC (Maharashtra State Tourism Development Corporation) Lodge where tourists could stay. A small village sat on top of the rather sparsely forested mountain, a plateau of a kind, not really flat...

The lodge itself was located rather wonderfully overlooking a small lake about fifty meters below us with a gradual incline. It was there that we decided we would explore first, later in the day after lunch and a siesta...

We talked to the people around there to familiarize ourselves with the main tourist spots found out there were a few. Those could be covered in two days at the most and did involve trekking.

It was around 4 PM that we decided to go down to the lake, Rakesh and I. Sunil and Prashant decided to extend their siesta a bit! We headed towards the barbed wire fence picking up a packet of potato wafers and a bottle of water. I had a Sony Walkman which could accommodate two sets of stereo headphones. We headed down to the lake with headphones plugged in on the common Walkman.

The lake was beautiful, crystal clear water, you could see the fish, large and small... there were some ducks too. A significant distance away was a small boat with a couple of men who were fishing. They waved at us, we waved back, music on and eating wafers.

They waved at us again, we waved back... simple people these villagers... they were probably trying to be friendly... then they started jumping up and down in their boat, waving at us. Some sort of ritual? We looked at each other got up, jumped and waved, music blaring in our ears and wafers almost over.

But then I noticed those guys were waving at us rather in a peculiar fashion... you know, starting from one side, slowly to the other and then back. We just decided it would be better to just acknowledge them and ignore them for the time being.

Rakesh had a gulp of water and decided he needed to do the loo... we had had beer with lunch. So off came the headphones, that is when we heard those two men shouting... "don't run, walk slowly up the hill"! That was rather silly... suddenly I heard Rakesh's gasp... he had headed towards the bushes...

Rakesh was standing face to face with a sloth bear, about his size. He was stunned and was not moving! Neither was I actually, but those seconds fly! The bear wasn't menacing us in any way. Just staring us in the eyes. Not something anyone would like, I assure you.

I walked up slowly to Rakesh (and the bear of course), heart pounding... all I could hear was my heart! As I got close to him, I reached for his back pocket, tugging at it and asked him to start walking slowly uphill, towards the Lodge!

We started moving, hand in hand, step at a time, not looking back. A quick glance assured me the bear had not moved towards us... we walked a few more steps, eyes straight at the resort fifty meters uphill!

Suddenly we heard a sharp snap behind us, we sprinted without looking back, tumbling over lose stones and dirt but running like there be no tomorrow!

When we did reach the barbed wire fence all out of breath, perspiring, trembling and about to faint... we heard another snap behind us... summoning all energy that could be summoned we rushed straight for our room... the door of which was bolted from the inside...

Those two dolts! We kicked on the door, shouted, screamed... only to see Prashant's puzzled face morphing into terror... we ran him over, shut the door behind us and bolted it... simultaneously assaulting Sunil for not opening the door immediately...

It took us some time to settle down, probably a few minutes more to breathe and speak normally... hardly had that happened we heard a commotion outside...

Peeping out through the cracks in the closed door we could see three men looking up at the roof and shouting... the bear had climbed the roof! And it was a tiled roof. So much for four scared boys... we expected the bear to remove the tiles and drop in right on top of us!

But fortunately those guys managed to scare him away... we did not venture out till the morning, slept hungry! It was only with a lot of determination that we did move out... had a hearty breakfast. Talking to the waiters at the restaurant... they told us bears don't usually chase tourists. Must have been the wafers! Ha!

Our MBBS batch did have a picnic there... we had kept our story a secret till we settled down for the night in Chikhaldara... our narration then in the dark was enough to scare most of the boys and girls for the night!