It is about faith !

Before that terrace could become the onlooker of the bitter memories we shared, he asked about going for a movie the next day. I agreed at once, there was nothing important in life to do accept teaching a dozen of children including them whose mom's were working as maid in the house of the director who ran the spoken English class, where I read earlier.

It had been five years since I had left studying in that coaching centre but I often went there as his and mine family shared a very familiar relation. We both belonged from MUNGER, a city in the southern bank of river GANGA known for the one of best YOGA University in country stabilised by Swami Satyanand Saraswati, which attracts a large no of foreign tourists.

He was already teaching English to her maid's daughter without any fees, when I shared my desire of teaching for utilising the vacant time, which I had in bulk. He asked his maid for bringing more children from her neighbourhood, whose families were suffering due to poor economic condition and provided me a class in his large coaching centre.

I had all the time other than that one and half hour, for watching movie. I always believed spending this kind of time with him would decrease the bitterness that we had in our friendship. I always wanted a better tie-up with him, but why?

Except god no one could be perfect in every field, we always need someone to strengthen our weakness in the way of achieving something. Social welfare being the prime aim, the clash of egos would not let me achieve that, it needs co-operation in every step. I always termed him as one of the person who was capable of covering up for my weakness.

We decided for the morning show from 10:30. My days were going so monotonous that a movie opportunity was a big happiness for me. Since morning I was excited for the movie. I was having my breakfast nearly one hour before the show time, when he called me for informing that he forgot booking the ticket last night and now the theatre was houseful.

He suggested me Hollywood movies for

which tickets were available; I instantly turned down his idea. By that time I had not watched Hollywood movie for being fond of it. The last Hollywood movie I saw was fast and furious 7. Though it was an awesome movie, I eschewed taking chance on the things I didn't believe in.

Soon I got busy in my daily routine of getting bored. It was 10:15 when a vehicle horned twice outside the building where I lived. I trampled the sound, but next second my phone rang, it was Rohit. He called me downstairs and invited for a ride to enjoy the pleasant weather outside. He also desired a good friendship with me and doubted that I could feel bad for the cancellation of movie plan. So he felt it right, coming there and having a ride around the city along with me.

I quickly got ready and moved towards the door, I saw he was already inside my home and was reading the title of monthly magazine which my father brought for improving my general knowledge. He came downstairs along with me but not without taunting me for studying secretly for civil services.

In that sublime weather the plan of watching movies stood nowhere near to a ride of bike around the city. The pleasant smell of soil coming along with moist air, gave the satisfaction to my senses it required. He wiped out the seat which got wet due to the tiny droplets of rain.

We had twice circled all the areas in centre of city while continuing our previous discussions. Heavens had stopped pouring its blessings, though our topics were interesting, we decided to visit the other side of city where new medical college was under construction. The fuel indicator was asking for its dose, each of us contributed fifty rupees for rising up the pointer of fuel meter.

The college was seven Km away from the city centre, we had gone there when the construction of the medical college was in its initial days. We had curiosity of watching, how it looked like then? It had been raised to an enormous campus. We both praised the effort of government.

'Sarvesh, do you remember once Sahil and Rakesh told us that they went to Kanaktura, a village on the border of Chhattisgarh and Orissa.' Rohit queried with thrill.

'Yes, they got clashed with the villagers due to their adventures for having fun. But the police officer whom they called knew Sahil's father, who had a political background, and escaped anyhow.'

'The villagers were quiet kind; others would have first broken their bones for squaring up for the fun which both were having there.'

We both laughed out loud on the imagination of that situation. 'Should we visit that village?' he queried my interest. 'Don't risk going unknown places that too which was only surrounded by forest,' showing up the sincerity, I replied. 'What would we do in case of any uncertainty?'

'Don't think too much, they would never guess us as same guys, who are there for troubling them after having plastic surgery.' He chortled.

'Let's go, we would handle, if something happens.' I said with lot of vigour. The charming blow of air kept our mood at high for doing anything different that day.

We moved forward with excitement of experiencing something new. The village was more than 10 Km from that college. We had lot time for our discussions.

Remembering one incident while those discussions, Rohit said, 'Once grouping was at peak in our class.' 'Few had made their own gang and you too had started opposing them with your friends.'

'Yes, everyone there had taken Bollywood too seriously,' accepting the fact, I replied.

'I always remained neutral,' he claimed.

'No, you often took my side.' 'Did you remember, once I sat behind Shubham in classroom and while asking for notebook from him, I hit back of him head with my punch when he ignored my two calls.

In the recess, he came with his gang and began smashing me. That time you tried saving me by punching them all, but by time I had been smashed enough to have foot prints of them on my white dress.

'Yes, I remember, they often troubled me too.' He replied, hiding the fact that he too wanted a friendship we never had due to egos.

The drizzling was getting heavier and still a lot of distance was left cover, also we had to return home timely, there was even no network for informing back in home if we had to take shelter somewhere due to heavy rain.

As we thought of returning, he saw a board indicating an eco-park near that location. He drove further and followed a subway beside the main road to reach the gate of that eco-park. The gate was closed from inside, we entered by crossing over the small boundary wall. I found a big staff straight to my eyes and picked it up for self protection, in case if we encounter with any wild animal or unwanted person.

We went deep inside that park, and finally saw any creature other than us. One of the four men was boiling chicken in big pan under a large tree. Another was gazing at us; his eyes were dreadful, probably due to high consumption of alcohol, which frightened us for a while.

First we decided to communicate with them but went against the plan as the odour of non-vegetarian food disturbed both of us. We didn't find anything exciting there and came out very soon. The rain had nearly stopped, it was better to head towards home as fast we could.

After the subway was over, we saw an old thin man in lungi and purple kurta standing on the other side of road. He was carrying something in box on his bicycle. He brought out some small fishes from the box and transferred it to a larger box; our curiosity of watching those fishes took us to him.

He was very friendly man and answered our every question with smiling face. Though he was able only of speaking Chhattisgarhi, I got his every word easily and replied to a few in same language as I was living in Chhattisgarh right from my initial days of childhood. He told us the rate on which he would sell those fish and told us the location from where it was possible to trap most number of the fishes.

'I hope I could buy an aquarium for keeping these beautiful fishes,' Rohit said while wondering.

Kelo River streamed parallel to the road, the rain had adorned its gait, and we decided to go that location from where the man had caught those fishes. We easily found the place due to a large temple of lord SHIV within sight from there. The edge of river was bit away from the roadside; he drove his bike down the slope.

The natural beauty of that place gave appealing sensation to my eyes. The blue blood flowing in veins of body covered with green attire, the slope embedded by naturally shaped tiny pieces of rocks which narrowed near the bank forming an open cave like structure with trees all over its raised part on the both side of slope, delighted my mind.

A cemented bar was kept on the edge, of size equalling the narrow opening of the slope. The rain had again geared up its speed but this time we ignored that, we were busy in enjoying the essence of nature. We spend nearly half hours diving and bathing in river, while coming out of river we heard sound of whistling.

'Is someone keeping eyes on us from behind the trees?' I exclaimed.

'It may be twittering of any wild bird' Rohit said in aplomb.

'We need not to worry, we always keep rods with us,' I warned in the direction of whistle thinking of the case if someone was actually hiding there. Not discussing any more about that sound we moved towards our bike.

Rain had cleaned the seats and mirror of bike while befouled its tyres and lower part by reflecting the soil along with is droplets. Heavy rain had modified the whole slope in sludge; engine had not enough force neither my push was enough for riding up the slope. Our several attempts produced no result. The wheels were steeping more and more inside the sludge. Rohit too get off the bike, he went to the front wheel and with me already at back wheel tried to get the bike out of sludge. The soil there had became too wet and slippery that on applying excess force once Rohit fell badly with all in body horizontal to the surface with his mouth downwards, letting him taste the soil. He walked down to river and washed his face before our next attempt.

Time was passing rapidly towards dawn. Our every endeavour had gone in vein, till now what was a matter of fun for us had started inducing lines on our forehead. More than half hour had passed; we didn't see anyone passing by the road for seeking help. The possibility was increasing that I would not reach home anytime near to 4:00 pm, and of getting rebuked by my father for being out for so long.

Finally when we saw no hope in our effort, Rohit said, 'Sarvesh I think we should go to the village near that Shiv temple for asking help, otherwise we won't be able to escape out from here.'

I said, 'you are right, I will stay here with the bike, go fast!'

Five minutes had passed since he had left for the village. Fear of being alone in such a place tried to size my mind but I eliminated it by remembering lord Shiv, whose temple in visible distance gave me the courage of escaping out any possible uncertainty. My mother who had been a devotee of lord Shiv from early age always termed me as fate of her devotion. I always believed he would never like me getting hurt.

As I was thinking all this I saw a muscular, average heighted boy wearing half pant and having a towel on his shoulder running rapidly towards me. I thought he must have forgotten anything here, for which he was running in fear of losing that thing. Other second I noticed he was hiding a sickle in his back, I was terrified. Before I cloud dodge out he had reached close enough to put the sickle before my eyes and threatened me of penetrating through it if I made any movement against him. Probably the sound of whistling was made by him. He was spying at us and attacked when he found me alone.

All my senses were seized with fear, mind neglected to think anything else than standing still. I had a mobile phone and few coins in my pocket, losing the phone would have been a great loss but my biggest concern was the situation if asks for my clothes too.

He ordered me for knelling down and bringing out all that I had which was valuable. I had no option other than following him, I was praying to lord Shiv taking me out of this condition. I had almost loosed all the hope of saving my phone, and then suddenly I saw Rohit coming with a large staff. He had understood the entire situation, he hide himself and slowly went behind the boy. Watching him coming I acted like giving him my phone to him without any resistance which loosened his body.

'May I take the sim card out of it,' I questioned him for engaging his mind.

Rohit was slowly coming down the slope from his back, before he could come close enough for any action he fumbled on that slippery surface. The concentration of the boy went on that sound of thudding.

Watching my friend there, courage had overcome all the fears

Utilising his lapsed concentration, I quickly grasped his wrist. Seeing the opportunity Rohit got up rapidly and blocked the boy's other arm with his one hand and bashed on his leg by the staff he had carried with him. The agonising pain loosened his grip further on sickle; I snatched it out of his hands. Rohit bashed him again on his legs and this time he fell on the ground. While getting beaten somehow he managed to run away from our custody.

Our co-ordination had again brought us out from the difficulty. My faith on him had increased infinitely. Failure had given us lot of time for unnecessary adventure. The uncertain trouble had made us fighting it out together; the co-ordination was installing faith in our mind for each other. What god had planned to bring out of our unity it is still a secret to him only, but god had created enough coincidence for strengthening our bonds? Our failures had left both of us alone and it was the only reason for our unplanned meeting. I had now something in from of his friendship which I could see as positive gain of failures. Mind had become habitual of settling with goods no matter how dense the odds are. Life had kept me practicing this so often that even the biggest disappointment of life till yet had brought something inspiring in it.

The danger had not been eliminated completely. We doubted he could come back again with his companions.

'How did you come back so soon and why didn't you call anyone for help?' I asked.

'I thought what if villagers looted us instead of helping.' 'I found a lever in the way which could help us pulling out the bike and came back from there.' He replied.

If god had decided to safeguard you he could anyhow influence minds for sake of that reason.

We used the lever for pulling out bike but again we met only disappointment. Suddenly we heard horn of a bike, we ran towards the road for help. Two bikes were coming towards up, these were the same people that we had seen in eco-park. We taught of begging help from him but stopped for a while thinking him as companions of that boy who we had just smashed here badly. But when they crossed us almost without noticing us, we both shouted together, 'Please stop, we need some help.'

They looked back at us and stopped their vehicle. One of them asked from his seat, 'What kind of help?'

'Our bike has steeped in the sludge. Please help us in pulling it out.' We insisted.

Two of them came to us and saw the bike. One said, 'there is too much mud, our clothes would get dirty.' Humanity was ashamed by his words. Our worried face and continuous pleading shook the slept humanity inside them and somehow they got ready to help. With their help finally the bike was on the road and we were ready to move towards our homes.

We were completely wrapped up with mud, going home like this would not have helped us from escaping anger of our parents. We stopped at a water tank made by municipal cooperation in the way. We sat under the tap water and washed off all the mud, after this it was bike's turn of getting rid of all the signs of being in that sludge. Finishing all the cleansing work we were on the way to our homes. We had just travelled 1 km when I saw a little boy learning to ride bicycle, my eyes followed him and when I turned to my back, I saw the linings made by leaking of petrol from our bike. I immediately informed Rohit about it. He stopped the bike, we tried to stop that leakage but the fuel kept coming out of it.

It was bad idea to stop there. We knew no one could help us here. Still we were 10 Km away from home, and next 4Km had nothing other than forests on either side. We decided to go as far we could go with the remaining fuel.

When it seemed, fuel is just going to be over, we saw a small shop near few homes beside the road. It was a small grocery shop, we told him our problem. Surprisingly he brought out a bottle full of petrol; probably he had kept this for selling it in such an emergency situation. He demanded nearly double for it from actual price. From his tone he seemed to be a bihari. Observing the fact I asked, 'Are you from bihar?' He replied in yes. 'From which district you belong?' I asked further. 'GAYA,' he replied. 'I from MUNGER' I added.

The fuel price reduced to the actual and thanking him we left from there.

Such coincidences always kept increasing my faith on god. After 10 min of travel forest area was now behind us and a garage was in-front of our eyes, but we didn't have even a single penny to pay for repairing the leakage. Without caring about that fact we asked the mechanic for repairing the leakage.

He showed his high value of humanity in him when we told him the truth of not having any money with us. Understanding our problem he said, 'pay it after taking money from your home.' 'Ok, sure' I said.

After all the hardship we were back in the city. 'So, when we are going back for paying the mechanic?' I asked Rohit.

'Don't you think it is rubbish idea to burn lot of fuel for paying few rupees?' he chuckled.

It was not about money it was about the faith, if we didn't pay him he would surely think twice next time before he helps someone.

I stopped myself from saying anything, it would have again started a debate and all the coincidence that god had created in previous few hours for keeping us together would have been meaningless.