Season 1: Life takes a turn around

Chapter 6: Take You Back to Aranyaka (Past)

There was one evening when I was in my Sundance apartment living in Eldoria and the whole community was asleep and I thought it was my chance to relax a bit before they woke up. There I was, seated in a cafè, holding a coffee cup and possibly in a bid to wash down the acrimony that comes with the name Aranyaka for the first time, anger welled up. It was there, amidst bustling markets and serene temples, that I had embraced a role that would shape my life in profound ways: Much to my own shock I was able to identify myself as one of the volunteers who had embarked on a Rescue EMS.

Those were the days of hurry in Aranyaka – the thrill in a way rather than anything else – the sense of duty which was throbbing in one's blood. Every Call was a suspenseful bet for which you had the time and against which you had nothing. Indeed, each individual client was a shrill declaration of existence. We attended to any emergences that we encountered from the rampage effects of road accidents in the city to emergences caused by heart attack in the rural setting we treated. All of them were training seminars in group cooperation, in conflict management, and in the recognition of the worth of the individual.

Some volunteers did not understand that EMS was not just a part-time job of responding to emergency situations and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation: it was also an adventurous socializing mission in multiculturalism. This was so where the emerging crises were rooted in cultural differences, and marginal differences in approaches and communication avenues. Again most of the times we were followed by guests, who in one way or the other helped us, for instance, they hacked some bushes for us, interpreted or else attended to some of the injured way before we could or got a chance to. It was most apparent in assertiveness, wherein people depend on each other within the process of the disaster, as they depend on the services of the medical staffs.

It was then that the urge of going back to the days of learning came over me, the desire to be a student. The buzz of adrenalin, the ominous feeling of being on a very important mission and a group which they considered as a family. Those memories were evidence of the days that I was sure that every second held something important.

But, as it were, there I was indulging in some pleasant day-dreaming, when, out of nowhere, my phone buzzed, which snapped me back to reality. It was Gallagher, my guide, and, without a doubt, the most typical representative of the people of Eldora. His text read: Almost daily texts and calls: "Hey, let's go the cafe at 10:00 tomorrow, I have something to tell you."

I laughed to my self in an attempt to imagine gallagher addressing the entire nation with all that extravagance. Having found out about him, the 'surprise' could be as mild as a dish peculiar to the region or as wild as one might think of. As I finished my coffee and prepared to leave, my phone buzzed again with a message from Skyline: "Do you know who we shall be having with us today? Everyone that matters shall be around!"

The "gang" referred to three of my most memorable friends from Aranyaka: Raoul, the man who could not move fast without a cup of coffee, and always had one pressed between his lips; Mina, the inventive tech-savvy woman, who could repair almost anything with duct tape and a few choice obscene words; and Lian, the strong-willed soon to be a traumatologist and an actual paramedic. They all had vowed to visit Eldoria and the clique seemed to have arrived in the country at long last.

When I got to the cafe, I saw Gallagher sitting at one table; he looked very cheerful, and he was waving at me broadly. "Oh, star! Over here! I cannot believe the things I will give you!"

I didn't get a chance to answer him that, before a tall man throwing caution to the wind and bursting open the door came striding in, with all the restless energy that characterized him at most times. "Star! So glad to see you! You look like you could do with some proper coffee!"

"Why, Raoul !" I exclaimed, putting my arms round him. "Of course you do. And yes, I think I could do with a proper cup of coffee. "

Mina N and Lian trailed right behind her; their twin presences were a welcome sight, or rather more comfortably chaotic. Mina had her ever present toolkit attached to her belt while Lian stood looking at the scene while sporting an expression of amused disbelief.

"When does he not wake up with a new plan or revelation?" her eyes flicked back to the man in question, who was now standing with his arms spread wide and a very large and complex-looking. .. basket?

"I promise you that you don't," I said, sitting down. This I think is what Gallagher means in as much as he has a way of presenting even the mundane events in life as something that one is on an adventure.

With all the excitement of a magician showing of his newest card trick, thus did Gallagher pull out the basket to be met with a display of more Eldorian foods that could be considered strange and a couple of devices. "Take a look at the fruit of Eldoria's finest wine and prepare for what is stored in these. "

Excited by the idea of adding more food to the already existing pile, Raoul looked to the basket and instinctively, picked up a peculiar-shaped pastry. "Right in and pronto!" I said, thinking that hope this is not one of those 'peculiar' food challenges that Gallagher loves to prepare.

Observing Raoul chewing his sandwich, the author mentions as an aside that the man's eyes have just popped out in realization that this is indeed ketchup, rather than blood. "Oh, that's..."he replied gripping the dough, "Wait...that is delicious; it is like a doughnut fused with a spicy chili pepper; what is this called?"

Gallagher grinned. "That, my friend, is an Eldorian specialty—'Flaming Donuts. ' Excellent to jump start your day or induce a coma—your choice, how hot you like it. "

After greeting each other we moved to other news making discussion about each other's lives. Mina was as per usual, an inventor with a new invention that she had been working on; a project that deserved a lot of complicated jargon and much more duct tape. "I have also been perfecting the concept of a universal remote, one that can operate lights appliances, cars and even your neighbor's TV I was on the final stage where all it could do was cycle through scenes from a soap opera."

Lian, as always filled with sarcasm said 'I'm just here to monitor that none of you, blow yourselves up.' ...*Turning to star* 'And on a far less serious note, remembering when you decided that you could handle a metropolitan blackout all by yourself and left Aranyaka?

I bellowed, bringing to my remembrance the happening. "Well, I solved the problem, did I not? And the solution did require some jury-rigging and a roll of duct tape.

When we talked nostalgically, Gallagher had a mischievous look in his eyes. "For instance, speaking of adventures, look, Star, I've got you something You remember enchanted gnome, which you picked last time? There is a cousin of it in Eldoria now and I thought you might fancy meeting it."

Before I could say anything though, Gallagher pulled a tiny, and to my mind, barely menacing gnome from his sack. "Presenting the Eldorian relative of our mascot Lucky Charm 'It is said to bring good luck'. .. or it could be a cheap yard decoration. Only time will tell."

The team burst out laughing; and with jokes and stories being exchanged, one did not get a lonely feeling. It was like they touched something I knew, something familiar, the absurdity, the lack of order, the jokes, the banter – it was all rather comforting. While living in a Civilized life in Eldoria, a part in me, yearned for the unadulterated savageness in life in Aranyaka.

During the afternoon there appeared a certain shift of tone in the conversation as it became more philosophical. Of all the persons present, it was Lian who normally had a combination of comforting and teasing remarks to make, and so after a while she had to say something. "Are you ever going back to Aranyaka?" Lian asked me curiously, "Because if you are, I must begin making myself ready for the next time you decide to make me your one-woman help-line."

I glanced at my friends all of whom wore worried and curious expressions on their faces. "Well you know I do have feeling of belonging there. The rush of the action, the purpose, even the wild wild west kind of a lifestyle . I intend to go back once I am done here in Eldoria. It's never over. Aranyaka will always pull me back. "

In response to it the heads bobbed up and down and the words of approval were murmured. The eternal optimist that Raoul version was, he took his cup and lifted it up. "Here is to going back to Aranyaka. May the experience be as crazy and the coffee as punchy as before."

Mina, with a wink, said, "And, of course, the universal remote better be working by then, otherwise, you'll have to come back here and fix it yourself."

We stayed for a long time talking and laughing, enjoying old memories and new stories; it felt as if I've seen a large part of my life glue between the two. The road that was waiting for them in Eldoria was only one episode of a broader narrative that, someday or another, would come back to Aranyaka.

In the end, thus, I found that it did not matter where I went or what new paths I turned on – Aranyaka would be with me no matter what ever I did The new paths that I chose were full of the past, and the past was full of new paths, and embracing the next new path, I knew I would have to return to my first path once more.