Chapter 2
The Mystic Shikara
There is a mountain called ‘Shikara’ near ‘Leh’ in the Himalayas. The shape of that region almost looks like a skull. It is known as the base of evil forces that want to haunt this world.
Only a few Buddhist monks used to travel through this mountain path without fear.
These monks, with their most deadly rituals, are the ones who know the secrets of life through their sturdy penance and practices.
It is quite an unbelievable fact that these evil forces are visible only to their eyes and that they will obey the monks taking commands from them.
Snow- covered the entire area, and the vision has become very poor; it was just like looking through a screen of smoke….
There’s no greenery now as far as the eye could see. The snow has begun covering the entire area.
Surprisingly, only the part of the hill, which is known as Shikara, seemed to stand alone without being touched by the heavy snow fall. On the top of a rock was an old eagle, with not even one single hair on its neck, and its neck looked like a maroon piece of iron tucked into its body, which you can hold within your palms.
It looked like it is waiting for someone and was staring in a particular direction.
In the path, you could see the imprint of the tyre of a jeep, indicating that it just went into the frozen forest.
At a distance, a truck of the army's border security force was coming.
On a closer look, we can understand that there are more than thirty soldiers in it, with a soldier standing ready with a ‘machine gun’ in his hand in the front portion of the truck.
The truck was struggling a bit to climb the hilly road. The snow on the road created a haze of smoke because of the moving truck.
Most of the soldiers in the truck looked at the mountain with a sort of fear. Some of them who were not bothered about it was cracking some jokes and were laughing.
They were talking to each other in Hindi.
“I could not believe that all those evil souls are on the Shikara Mountain.” Major Sukumaran said.
“Is it? If so, do you dare to climb that mountain and return with a small stone taken from there?” Shailesh asked.
“A small stone? I will bring a bag full of stones for you. Ha-ha …”
“Why a bag? One piece of stone. Only one is enough, Major Sukumaran.”
“Okay. Come on, friends, stop the truck. We are not even scared of Pakistani guns, and I feel it is disgusting to be afraid of these lifeless rocks.”
The truck stopped, and Major Sukumaran jumped out of it.
“No, Major Sab. No one who went there has ever returned. “Dinesh said.
“No...I have decided to go there. We will install a tent and construct a ‘Telescope view point’ on that cliff, where there is no snow. We can even set up a canteen to cook the food needed for this zone, if necessary.”
“Sab, already these sorts of things were planned by a Brigadier long back, but he never came back after going to that rock.”
“Whether it be a Brigadier or Colonel. I don’t care whatever you say. My way of thinking is always unique and different ...”
“No. We should be in Leh camp within an hour. Colonel Joshi will be waiting for us for the farewell party, and we should not miss that ‘special ‘dance by Poorvi…”
“We will definitely join that party. I would be proud if I had that Shikara Mountain’s stone in my hand, at that party, of which you were all scared.”
Major Sukumaran walked towards the path leading to the rock with determination. The soldiers in the truck could do nothing but stare at him.
Generally, climbing a mountain is a trivial matter for army soldiers. Besides that, Sukumaran was one of those who climbed the tops of many peaks. He even placed our national flag without worrying about the lack of oxygen in those snow-covered mountains.
So he climbed very fast and at ease. The eagle sitting on the top of the rock was staring at him. In between, some of the big rock hid him from the view. He climbed over those rocks, looked back, and waved his hands with excitement towards the truck.
In some places, the soil between the rocks was very wet as mud. He walked carefully, observing it.
He could see the salt spots in those rocks. He thought that for the ice to thaw without freezing, the soil would contain some acid.
He became wild when the thought came to his mind that how the Shikara has become the realm of spirits, without no one studying the facts?
He stood upon a rock and shouted, “Major Shailesh- Brigadier Dinesh- Soldiers, there’s nothing to fear here… If Geology and mining people could come here and do an excavation, they may find even oil here. You fools, you all have misunderstood the facts.”
His voice reached the truck very feeble. Brigadier Dinesh took his binocular and viewed through it; he could see Sukumaran …
He adjusted and zoomed the lens of the binocular to see him more clearly. At that time, Dinesh saw some black and smoky objects flying above Sukumaran's head.
"My god! Dinesh said with fear.
"What happened, Dinesh?" Major Shailesh asked.
"Something …. Some black colored objects are flying above Sukumaran's head, Shailesh…"
"Give me that." Shailesh took the binocular from Dinesh and viewed through it, Sukumaran who was standing on the top of the rock, was now not visible. The black objects were also now missing….
"Why Sukumaran is not visible there, Dinesh...?"
"He was standing there only…"
"He's not there... Look…"
Again the binocular passed hands, and now it is with Dinesh. Only the rock was visible. At the same time, the sky all of a sudden filled with dark rain clouds.
"Oh! This is monsoon rain. If it gets so dark, it means that it will rain heavily. It is quite awful that Sukumaran has gone to Shikara at this time…"
The rain came down as small drops first and then it began raining very heavily.
"Sab… It is very dangerous to stay here. If a landslide occurs, we will get stuck here forever…"
"Okay. Then we have to leave. Come on, quick."
They got into the truck to move from that place at the earliest. As Shailesh shouted, “Friends, it seems like a bridge might have collapsed, see, the snow slides that are behind our truck.
All of their eyes got widened.
Shailesh said, “We lost him, poor Major Sukumaran."
Shailesh hit his head on the side of the truck and was about to fall, losing his balance but luckily, he got hold of one of the steel sidebars of that truck and managed to stand. That truck was moving with much difficulty on the hilly road.
After travelling a distance of about twelve kilometers, that truck reached the plains with tall grasses all around.
When they stopped the truck and looked back, the dark rain clouds wholly covered the Shikara Mountain, and was not at all visible.
Everyone's face expressed grief - The truck driver said, 'Oh Jesus!’
Silenced reigned the truck…!
“The Farewell party is not going to happen today. Instead, it is going to be a condolence meeting for Sukumaran. Commander will not leave us just like that. I’m going to get a black mark in my career.”
While Shailesh expressed his regret, they heard a loud and quite different sound.
Everyone turned around to see from where the noise came. One Buddhist monk was walking, making that noise with a khakkhara in his hand.
In that snowy mountain forest, he wore a saffron dhoti tied around his neck, and his head was clean shaved.
There are many monasteries of Buddhist monks here and there in that mountain forest. At some places, there are Chinese style conical-roofed Buddhist temples and even places where monks stay.
Just as the saints, the monks even wander here and there. They do not care about cold, rain or the weather conditions.
All these were not new to the Jawans on duty here. They can now see that the monk is walking towards the Shikara Hill, which is a rainforest region and inaccessible, shocked, and amazed by this the soldiers in the ‘truck’ were sitting dumbfounded.
The monk disappeared from their view within no time…..
The truck resumed its journey…!
