THE LEFTOVER SPELL

2. TILL ETERNITY

The excitement in the eyes. Feet above cloud 9. The anticipation to capture the new memories packed in the backpack. I and my husband chose sunderban as our vacation spot.

The Sundarbans is a natural region in southern Bangladesh and the extreme southern part of the Indian state of West Bengal in the vast river delta on the Bay of Bengal. It is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. This region is densely covered by mangrove forests and is the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger. The Sundarbans National Park is a National Park, tiger reserve, and Biosphere Reserve located in the Sundarban delta in the Indian state of West Bengal. Best Time to Visit Sundarbans September to march. Living in Kolkata we got fifteen days of holiday leave for the Durga festival.

We decided to spend those fifteen days in a small hotel near the sunderban national park. This is the first vacation of our little one. As if he knew what was happening around him my 2-year-old boy advik, turned his head upward, from my shoulder and beamed at me. Seeing his enthusiasm his dad took him from me and made him sit on his shoulder blades and roamed around the car in circles.

Both of them were dressed in the same clothes of ecstatic. These moments are like pearls in the ocean. These two guys are my treasured diamonds in this coal dynasty. After sensing my gaze on them. They both came towards me. Aryan kissed me on my forehead and copying his dad Advik kissed me on my hair. Holding each other's hand we finally proceeded towards the hotel.

The fresh aroma of the land. The fragrance of the wild nature in the breeze. The low humming sound in the daylight coming from the forest as if people whispering in low voices from a distance. And without anyone's notice, it is turned from a low humming to a loud sound in the dark. The ever long excitement of seeing the tigers and rhinos from the jeep has finally been accomplished. Seeing the different type of beautiful birds like kingfisher Small Minivet, Black-hooded Oriole, Mangrove Whistler, was a feast to the eyes. Seeing the different breeds and types of reptiles like the chameleons, monitor lizards, turtles, green turtles; python, king cobra rat snake, Russell's viper, a dog-faced water snake, was much more chilling to the bone than any excitement. The earthy smell of the cooked rice from the maze. Everything will be engraved in my soul for a very long time. This is the last day of our vacation. We are trying to absorb this environment as much as possible.

Today we are going to explore in the boat. There are at least six boats in the water with eight people in each. We sailed for almost half an hours and stopped in the middle to admire the view. There are mangroves all around us it's like giant people resting their weak skinny limbs in the water after a long run and absorbing the water to energize them.

There is some sound in the background like nature is drumming its wildness. The water is so dark and muddy that you can't see past it into the depth. Far away we see something moving in a distance. It's not very clear but after a while, we see many of if. The horrified gasp around me confirmed my suspicion that they all are crocodiles. It's not very clear from here but there have to be at least 4 crocodiles there. The massive reptile's predator gaze was trained in our direction. Without a second thought, our boats were turned towards where we came from. After reaching there we all proceeded to move out from the boats. Our boat was the first to go so we had to wait for everyone to come out for our turn.

When our turn came everybody pushed and turned to leave the boat. The boat was shaking very badly because of all the commotion. I, Aryan and Advik was the only ones left on the boat. Aryan moved out of the boat very carefully to give us a hand. Very gently I tucked Advik on my shoulder and outstretched my hands towards Aryan. But soon enough Advik's toy fell from his hands in the boat and he started to cry. I tried to calm him while still balancing in the shaking boat. At last, I bent to take his toy. We both fell in the boat. I turned upward to gather him in my arms and what I saw at that moment was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

Advik was gazing at me to pick him up and behind him at the end of the boat was a massive tiger with his paws holding on to the boat. The tiger's skin was soaked in water and only his upper body was visible from where I was standing. It was painfully close to my child. It can easily grab advik and take away with itself and I have absolutely no idea on how to save him. All the loud voices around me faded into a void. My heartbeat was drumming in my ears. My palms were sweating very badly, goosebumps are rising all over my body. Please God have mercy on us. Please harm me but not my child. I will reflect on myself, please any divinity. Every second was passing like a decade. In a slow deliberate manner, the tiger lifted his right paws and was extending towards my child, my everything. Suddenly I felt a cool breeze touching my aura and a slow taking of breath beside me. The tiger stopped his task. His big hunting scary eyes were focused beside me. He stared for a while in the same direction and soon left from there. Without a second thought, I grabbed on my darling life from the boat along with his toy and left the boat. Aryan's face was turned paled when he helped us from the boat in a hurry. He didn't say anything and just hugged us tightly while we raced towards the cars. We were a little behind the others tourists and nobody saw what happened, they all were walking towards the cars. After tucking in safely and locking all the doors I finally took a breath. I closed my eyes and at last, all the emotions started pouring out of them, I am indebted to this divine intervention beyond limits. I thanked every power there ever is. After opening my eyes my eyesight landed in that awful place for the last time. A lady was standing in the same place at the boat I had just vacated. She smiled gently and waved towards us. I turned my head to look at advik sitting in Aryan's lap and blabbing something to him, when I looked again the lady was nowhere to be seen. We left the place as soon as possible.

It's been 15 years since that incident and still sometimes Aryan has to wake me up at night to stop my screaming and cryings. After many discussions we decided now is the time advik should know everything. He took the news as perfectly as he is. We both hugged him and showed him the picture of his real parents who died while he was very little. We told him how he changed our lives forever. After reciting the whole event of that scary vacation I told him how his mother saved him on that day. He started to cry and hugged us. We spent the whole night crying and thanking in gratitude.