A Long Way To Go: A Travelling Story (2015)

Chapter 8

As the sun rises, we woke up. There was no electricity except upstairs. Iliyas told us to be ready for the Nilgiri. We came out of the guest house with a jeep that was so open. We reached a little dhaba in which the items were ordered by Iliyas. The items were khichdi (yellow spicy rice with rich onions), roasted boiled eggs and spicy chicken curry. So hot and yummy! 

After we were done, we directly went to the Nilgiri. In the jeep, we ladies shouted so loud that the gents from another jeep shouted back at us. We all shouted so loud that we forgot that we reached Nilgiri. What an event! The mountains were so high that almost touches the cloud.  We ladies went a little down. When we ladies went to the corner, there were no people around. We went to the corner and sneaked into the tree. We saw a white bench but the one who sat was a scary looking skeleton. I was terrified that we went back and I vomited. Maisha gave me water.

After I drank, we went upstairs, taking photographs and the boys were doing their own things. I saw a man in the hood, stand in the resort. When Maisha called me, I looked at the back but when I looked front again, I saw the hooded man vanished. Then we went to the resort. After lunch, we just felt a cold presence of the rusty clouds. The mountains opposite of our window was covered with grey clouds. The lightning struck and the background outside the hotel became dark as if there was nothing but black. The resort shook as if the earthquake was surrounded. We were so scared that some went to the washroom, some prayed for their deaths and some felt they could not go out. It was cold and rainy that we all closed the window; even the manager of the resort was scared. We ladies hid ourselves at the table as the boys were scared as they fainted.

I chuckled a bit because the way they fainted. It was around five minutes. It was like an air crash! Calamity!  Until an hour, the clouds went away, we sighed with relief. It was overall fun. The boys gained back their consciousness. After that, I saw Iliyas was speaking to another woman. When I called Maisha, she came near Iliyas.

“She’s my secretary, Lamah, and Lamah, she’s my hottest wife, Maisha” said Iliyas while introducing each other. I found out that Maisha was quite supportive of Iliyas because of his honesty.

Then, we went to the guest house. I came to know that Sameen mistakenly exchanged wearing a girl’s shoe. When I asked about it, he replied that his shoes were similar to hers. I know that it was a girl’s shoe by its measurement. We laughed so much that he blushed. Iliyas came to announce that we would be going to Saint Martin where we would meet one of the boys’ batch mates-Ali. He mentioned that he was a school teacher in the Saint Martin Island.