Layla: The City That Wakes Up At Night

The girl's name was Amara. One day she and four of her friends decided to visit the Thar desert, India's largest desert in Rajasthan. They planned to visit only Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, and leave for Kolkata but due to some reason, their flight to Kolkata got canceled. They had 10 more days before the next flight. So they took their bag and baggage and left for the Thar desert. 

Firstly they reached Jaisalmer city, also known as "The Golden City" because of the sand and local houses made of yellow sandstone and the Jaisalmer fort was off-course a big attraction. Amara was a curious girl. She liked exploring different cultures and ancient legends, stories about places, and practices. So the first thing she did after checking into her hotel was that she went out to explore the locale. 

She roamed around the streets of Jaisalmer enjoying and talking to random people there. She was more interested in local stories about old legends or something like that and she got to hear a lot of them about great Kings, wars, local culture, practices, and foreign invasions. But out of all the stories, the one that Amara found most fascinating was about a village that wakes up at night and sleeps during the day. It wasn't a ghost village or something supernatural except the reverse sleep cycle and the most interesting part is there was no proof of that village i.e. no one was sure about the existence of the such village. There were claims by a few people who said they went to that village but no one could confirm its location. Even the government itself denied the existence of such a village.

That many stories were enough for a day so Amara decided to head back to the hotel. All her friends were in the hotel since their arrival. Amara couldn't get the story of that village out of her mind. To her, it was like a tale from Arabian Nights, an untold tale waiting to be told. She somehow slept that night and by the first ray of the sun the next day she again went out to visit the nearby villages. She got to hear so many more stories but all of them were quite similar and she got bored of it so she decided to investigate more about the village that wakes up at night. She went quite far from her hotel but she was with a local driver who knew the place so she didn't care about the time or distance. 

After talking to so many people she finally stumbled upon an old man who claimed to have visited the village that wakes up at night. The old man was around 75 years old and was living with his son and 2 grandchildren. The old man told her that long ago when he was 25 years old he came to that village and heard about the village that wakes up at night from an old woman who used to live in the same house the old man was living now with his family. He later told her that the old woman used to call that village "Miyabi". The old woman also told him that she came from a very distant land. The old man described that she wasn't looking like a local but she sure had the local accent.

"Tell me more about Miyabi, not someone old woman". said Amara to the old man.

The old man replied, "There's no map that can show the location of Miyabi. No one knows in which direction it is".

"What" Amara exclaimed, "How did you go there then ?"

"Someone guided me........", the old man replied and slept in the midst of the conversation.

It was already 9 P.M. The driver suggested that they should move back to the hotel. So they did. She was again left with unfinished stories going all around her head. Everyone in the village said that the old man was a liar and had been lying for more than the last 50 years. No one had ever seen such a village. With all her thoughts Amara spend yet another night. 

The next day they planned to do camel riding in the outer parts of the Thar desert. A visit to Rajasthan is incomplete without camel riding. They did camel riding in Jaipur but Jaipur wasn't much like a desert so this was going to be a thrilling experience. As the temperature during noon wasn't suitable for any activity nearby the desert so they decided to go camel riding after noon but before the evening. 

Finally, it was time for camel riding. Everyone was very excited. They hired 5 camels for the ride. The ride was like the one who is taking the ride would sit on the back of the camel and the owner of the camel would walk holding the whip attached to the camel. They were to travel 2 km around the Thar desert. But Amara had something else in her mind. She wanted to go deep inside the desert and she requested the whip holder to take them deep inside the desert instead of roaming around the desert. The camel owners denied but Amara promised to pay them extra so they finally agreed. After traveling for 1 hour it started getting dark. So the whip holders decided to turn back but Amara resisted. She wanted to travel a bit further. Her friends also supported her. They had a quarrel with each other for another half an hour. 

Suddenly out of nowhere, a sandstorm appeared. They all started panicking. The whip holders told them to hide beside the camels. and cover their face with a cloth or anything. It was quite a frightening experience. After the sandstorm passed everyone was shocked. They were safe and unharmed but their camels were gone and so was Amara. It was like they disappeared in the sandstorm. Everyone started panicking again. They all got scared and started searching for Amara. After searching for 1 hour they couldn't find either of the camels or Amara. They went back to the hotel walking along with the camel owners.

After reaching the hotel they told the manager everything and pleaded with them to contact the local police. The management assured them not to worry and wait till the morning.

The next morning, the first thing their friend did was to go to the local police station with the hotel manager and told them about the whole incident but the police rejected their plea as according to them there was no record of any sandstorm for the last one week. But after quite a quarrel the police agreed to initiate a search investigation.

The investigation went on for 3 days. On the third day, they finally found Amara 100 km away into the deep Thar from the point she was lost. A group of nomads found her and took her to the city police. She was uninjured and safe. Moreover, she was healthy and hydrated. She was then admitted to the local hospital. Later that day when she woke up, she was sad and crying. She was saying, " I don't wanna leave, I wanna stay. Please let me stay". She kept saying those words until she slept.

To be continued........