(It was almost a year ago, i.e., Jan 2011,
It was customary for me that along with my school friends that we should at
least have one tour of India . Accordingly, we planned to visit quite a few places
in Goa as well as Karnataka. This incident happened on the fourth day of our
tour when we were in search of a hotel, while returning after a daylong of enjoyment
…)
Basically
it is a very well known hilltop hotel in Gokarna beach,
Karnataka (Sorry I don’t remember the name). The route to the hilltop was quite
scary with no proper lights and with dangerous curves ready to take you
down to the bottom. There was only one
light near gate of the hotel. We happen to reach the hotel in our cab at around
21.30 hrs. In our batch two of my friends, TK and Privinesh who happen to knew
kannada, went to reception office which is down the hill to find out the accommodation
details, while the rest of us i.e., myself , Arun, venky, & Pavan decided
to stay just near the gate.
As
we were engaged in our own conversations, we happen to watch two foreigners
emerge from the stairway, which lead to the reception office. There was a small
room for security check up near the gate, where there were two persons in the
room. One was obviously the guard who is on night duty for that day and the other
was an old man, probably in his 50’s.The guard was just standing near the
entrance of the security room and the old man was sitting at the entrance of
the room. We didn’t care much about them until, the foreigners who were in need
of some help asked the guard for directions towards their hut. The guard was
trying to help them but the old man intervened and offered his help. The moment
he opened his mouth, we understood that he must have emptied a few bottles to
get some good sleep.
The
old man, as though he was on a stage for an auditioning of a Hero role, set out
to display his dramatic acting skills. We couldn’t understand a bit except for
a few English words which he managed to pop out for his audience, as most of
what he was saying was in Kannada with emotions running high. The two
foreigners felt uncomfortable and we had to intervene and tried to bring some
sense in the old man. At one point, the old man even made us laugh at him.
After sometime, the two foreigners left towards their hut, leaving us to judge
the old man audition.
The
old man was unstoppable, almost his performance was reaching climax. At that
point, he happen to ask us something. We didn’t understand anything. But he
came to know through our conversations that we are from Hyderabad and that
might have aroused his regional feelings (No offence at anybody).
Venky
immediately replied “We don’t know kannada. We can only understand Telugu, Hindi
and English”.
The
old man said something and left us in search of something. Pavan happen to keep
a close watch on the old man saved many lives. The old man went near the bushes
just a few feet away from us and happen to pick up his most favourite tool.
The AXE!!
Pavan
cried out “Look guys, He got an axe !! Run for your lives”
Say Hello to my
little friend
My
friends immediately ran out of the gate, into the darkness and took protection
near our cab .I wasn’t actually facing the old man, by the time , I turn around to comprehend what
has happened, I saw the old man as though to take revenge for some injustice ,came
running towards me with an ‘AXE‘ swinging ,as I’m very near to him. A Sense of fear for my life went
through my body. By the time, I started running towards the gate and into the darkness,
he came very close to me. I thought this
will be my last day on this Planet called Earth.
As I
came out, I saw a car parked near the
gate. At ones, I decided to take protection near the car. By the time, I
reached the back of the car, the old man stopped near the entrance of the gate
with his Axe in his hand, swinging wildly and yelling some rubbish stuff in Kannada.
The only words we could understand were those that he would like to cut us into
pieces. God saved us all to live another
day!!
The
Security Guard came for our rescue and immediately took him away .We had a heated
argument with management of hotel. They assured us that the old man would be
taken care of and won’t disturb us anymore. Somehow we weren’t interested to leave
such a beautiful spot. We decided to stay in the hotel.
The
next day we left the hotel and were about to take our breakfast in a nearby
food centre, when we happen to see this old man with his friend walking along
the beach. We were quite sure that he would have not remembered anything. We
thought to teach him a lesson for what he has done to us. But the moment, we
thought of putting our thoughts to action, the old man took out his dagger to
show to his friend as though to warn us. That was instance, we gave up the
thought of doing something.
Dont ever mess with me
It
was a terrifying event for me, as I came face to face with almost certain death
situation. I just cant even imagine the consequences if he had thrown the axe
at me. Nevertheless, we continued to enjoy our tour of Western India..
