One Great Escape, Part-4

One Great Escape, Part-1

One Great Escape, Part-2

One Great Escape, Part-3

Parag Da stayed at that camp for 12 days and he had to follow a  typical daily routine during his stay out there. The place was deep inside a dense forest and there was no trace of any other human being, apart from themselves. He had to wake up early morning at 6 AM and they used to serve him tea with biscuits.In one of the camp, they used to prepare food and at night, 2 of them used to sleep out there.  Parag Da had to share the middle camp with 2 of the rebels and the remaining 4 guys, used to sleep in the other camp. Within a couple of days, Parag Da got accustomed with those guys and also with the environment. Even though he was quite anxious all the time, as he knew it was a matter of life and death for him, but he enjoyed his days out there, especially during the day time. Once everyone became friendly with him, no one bothered to guard him for his daily activities. It seems they were quite confident that Parag Da would never dare to escape from that place and to be honest, they were not wrong. Parag Da could remember one peculiar character among the rebels in the camp. His behavior was quite unusual and he had some scar marks on his face. Others used to say that he was under army's custody and they used to torture him with electric shocks, as such  he became little mad kind of. The poor guy used to do most of the work in the camp. The guy who looked like Keanu reeves, was the main leader among them and usually he used to take the final call out there. 

After morning tea, everyone used to have rice at 10 AM.  All the rebels treated Parag Da as a friend, in fact they were just doing their job, to keep him with them. They used to have tea during the afternoon, usually at  2 PM and by 5 PM everyone used to have their dinner.  They strictly followed one of their rule "after 5:30 PM, everyone should be inside the camp and there shouldn't be any trace of fire or light". After the initial few days it became little boring and  quite a monotonous life for Parag Da, out there. No one discussed with him regarding why they abducted him? On several occasions during the night, Parag Da's  heart beats accelerated little faster when he heard those typical elephant sounds.

The only source of entertainment Parag Da had during the day time was a small piece of transistor radio. In fact the song “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” still reminds him of those exciting horrific days. The evening was real torture for him, as everyone prepared to sleep by 5:30 PM and that was very disturbing for him. Parag da was under the impression that the abductors would ask for a ransom from the owner of the company he worked for. He was not very worried and thought, since he was working for a government project, so the government would definitely interfere and would make some sort of deal with the rebels. Parag Da noticed that the abductors had enough weapons including grenades.  They had enough stock of rice and medicines, including syringes and saline bottles. 

3 days passed just like that and on 4th day, their leader had a discussion with Parag Da. He took some personal as well as official information from Parag Da, including few telephone numbers. The guy even asked Parag Da to write in a piece of paper that he was being kidnapped and is under their custody. The leader said to Parag Da that, he along with one of his colleague would go to meet the higher authorities and would come back after 2 days. He asked Parag Da whether he required anything. Parag Da asked for few cigarette packets and a pair of shoes. 

Life was pretty monotonous for the next 2 days and Parag Da didn’t really enjoyed the food out there. After 3 days, the leader and his colleague returned to the camp. They bought a few cigarette packets for Parag Da but couldn’t manage the shoes. Entire camp was happy as they bought a few chickens with them. The guys also bought a few newspaper cuttings and Parag Da was quite happy to see that the news of his abduction, spread far and wide and was in media. The leader said to him that negotiation is already started and within a few days they would release him. Parag Da had a very good time for the next few days, he really enjoyed the chicken meal and the cigarettes were just a bonus for him. Parag da offered cigarette's to few of them, but they said that cigarette and alcohol were strictly prohibited for them while they were on duty.

After a couple of days the leader along with his same colleague, again left from the camp to meet the higher authorities. They returned the camp after 2 days and as usual, brought a few chickens and cigarette packets. Life was pretty cool for Parag Da out there and then on the 12th day, something happened that entirely horrified Parag Da and he started to worry for his life. 

Image courtesy: google images

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