The old man at the hotel

(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..