Upur 18

 Chapter 18: The Furious Stream 

Late summer had arrived in Udhampur, but the heat showed no signs of relenting. The afternoon sun beat mercilessly upon the school grounds, making the classrooms unbearably warm and leaving everyone listless. The day had already acquired a lazy rhythm when our Civics period ended.

Luck seemed to be on our side. The teacher scheduled for the next period was absent, and it was followed by two Games periods. In senior classes, Games periods often meant freedom. Once you reported to the PT teacher and marked your presence, no one bothered much about where you disappeared thereafter.

A football was issued, and a few enthusiastic boys headed towards the playground. The girls gathered under the huge banyan tree near the field and soon became engrossed in hopscotch. Some boys wandered towards the football ground, while others searched for shady corners to escape the oppressive heat.

John, Poondri, Panda, Karan and I quietly drifted back towards our classroom, giving everyone the impression that we intended spending the free periods indoors.

The moment we entered the empty classroom, an idea struck me.

"Why don't we go down to the stream?" I suggested. "We can carry our tiffins, have a picnic and perhaps even go for a swim. We have enough time."

The proposal was accepted unanimously.

Within minutes, we were making our way down the narrow footpath that descended from the school towards the stream flowing below our classroom. The path wound past the old cave and through a patch of shrubs before finally opening onto the rivulet.

The sight instantly refreshed us.

Crystal-clear water flowed gently over smooth sandstone rocks, producing a soothing murmur. The stream was nearly fifteen metres wide, shallow at certain places and surprisingly deep at others. Along the home bank stood a huge overhanging rock beneath which the flowing water had carved out a cave-like pool. The water there was deep, still and ideal for swimming. On the opposite side rose a steep hill cut, whose shadow covered almost the entire width of the stream during late afternoons, making the place pleasantly cool.

Tiny fish darted beneath the transparent water.

"This is perfect," Panda declared.

We placed our tiffins and belongings atop a broad, flat rock near the bank and sat there for some time gossiping and discussing where we should swim. Everyone washed his face in the icy water.

Poondri, the tallest among us, rolled up his trousers and ventured into the stream.

"Hey, the water is freezing!" he shouted excitedly.

That was enough encouragement.

Panda immediately stripped down to his underpants and plunged into the deeper pool beneath the overhanging rock.

"Oh, this is heavenly!" he cried.

John soon joined him.

Karan, who was the least inhibited among us, removed all his clothes and jumped in stark naked, carefully spreading his clothes over the sunlit rock.

I too joined them, retaining only my undergarments.

For nearly an hour, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

We splashed water at one another, raced against the current, dived repeatedly and explored every corner of the stream. Swimming in flowing water was completely different from swimming in a pool. The current constantly challenged us, demanding effort and skill.

Curious about the fish sheltering beneath the giant rock, Panda and I dived underwater to observe them more closely.

Suddenly I felt a sharp tingling sensation.

"Ouch!"

The tiny fish were nibbling at our skin.

Their bites felt exactly like ant stings.

Poondri immediately shouted towards Karan.

"Be careful! Those fish prefer soft flesh, and you aren't wearing anything!"

Even before he finished speaking, Karan let out an ear-splitting shriek.

"Oooooooooooiiiiiiiii!"

Clutching himself protectively, he emerged from the water at remarkable speed.

The rest of us burst into laughter.

Thoroughly alarmed by the fish, Karan abandoned the pool altogether and took refuge on the far bank.

We continued enjoying ourselves.

After some time, while floating quietly near the overhanging rock, I heard a distant rumbling sound.

At first, I dismissed it as thunder.

Far away on the horizon, dark clouds had gathered over the hills.

Meanwhile, Karan had discovered a new pastime.

Standing safely on the far bank, he began throwing stones at the clothes drying on the rock.

"Stop it!" John shouted. "You'll tear them!"

Karan ignored him and continued.

Soon a few undergarments developed small holes.

John scrambled out of the water to rescue the clothes, but Karan continued his bombardment, laughing uncontrollably.

Neither Panda nor I found this amusing and repeatedly asked him to stop.

Suddenly John, who was standing atop the rock collecting his clothes, froze.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Look upstream! What is that?"

Every head turned.

Nearly two hundred metres away, an enormous wall of muddy water was racing towards us.

It was accompanied by a terrifying roar.

The sound resembled thunder mixed with the grinding of giant boulders.

For a few seconds, none of us understood what we were witnessing.

Panda did.

Having visited the stream many times before, he instantly recognised the danger.

His face turned pale.

"Everybody out!" he screamed. "Run! It's a flash flood! Climb to higher ground immediately!"

Panic erupted.

We swam desperately towards the home bank.

John, already standing on the large rock, gathered everyone's clothes and sprinted towards the footpath leading back to school.

Karan faced a greater problem.

He was stranded naked on the opposite bank.

Realising that he would never reach our side in time, he scrambled up a tree whose branches projected over the stream.

I had barely reached the bank when I realised there was insufficient time to climb back to the rock. Without thinking, I clawed my way up the muddy embankment. The soil was slippery and soft. Digging my fingers into the wet earth, I hauled myself upwards like a desperate mountaineer until I finally reached the grassy ground near the school fence.

Panda ran towards the cave and climbed to safety.

Seconds later, the flood arrived.

The gentle stream transformed into a raging monster.

Within less than half a minute, the water level rose by nearly two metres—enough to drown even a tall man.

The roar became deafening.

Huge boulders tumbled violently beneath the muddy water, striking one another with tremendous force. The entire ground beneath us vibrated.

Sitting helplessly on higher ground in little more than our undergarments, we watched death pass below us.

Then Panda suddenly shouted,

"Look there!"

About ten metres upstream, several village boys who had been swimming earlier were now struggling desperately against the furious current.

Three managed to reach safety.

Two remained trapped.

The boys on the bank stretched branches and twigs towards them.

Just as one of the struggling boys seemed about to reach safety, a large stone carried by the torrent struck him on the head. He lost his grip and was swept away into the main current.

Moments later, the second boy too disappeared.

Their friends ran frantically along the bank shouting and searching for them.

We sat frozen with horror.

None of us spoke.

We were equally worried about Karan.

Still perched naked on the tree branch, he clung desperately while muddy water surged barely a foot beneath him.

We repeatedly shouted, urging him to move towards safer ground, but shock, fear and embarrassment held him motionless.

Fortunately, after nearly half an hour, the water level stopped rising.

Gathering courage, Karan cautiously climbed down and hid behind a large boulder.

Then came a request that, under ordinary circumstances, would have made us laugh uncontrollably.

"Panda!" he shouted. "Throw my trousers across!"

"How can I? The distance is too great!" Panda replied.

"Put stones inside them and throw them," Karan suggested anxiously.

Though shaken by everything we had witnessed, we quickly wrapped stones inside Karan's clothes, tied them securely with his belt and prepared an improvised projectile.

Poondri, being the strongest among us, was entrusted with the task.

"One... two... three!"

The bundle sailed gracefully through the air and landed safely on the opposite bank.

Karan rushed to retrieve it, undoubtedly thanking his stars that it had not fallen into the raging stream.

While all this was going on, we saw the carcass of a buffalo being tossed helplessly downstream. The animal bore fresh wounds and bruises inflicted by the boulders rolling beneath the muddy water.

The sight shook us profoundly.

If such a huge animal could be treated like a toy by the flood, what chance would any human being have stood?

Without exchanging another word, we decided to leave immediately.

Karan was instructed to return through the distant bridge after John successfully hurled his shoes across to him.

When we reached school, classes were still in progress.

Nobody knew where we had been.

Panda immediately ordered us to keep our mouths shut.

"If the Principal finds out that we skipped Games period and nearly got ourselves killed, we'll be finished," he warned.

Everyone agreed.

However, such incidents never remain secret for long.

Soon villagers gathered along both banks of the stream. Their shouts and cries could be heard clearly from our classrooms. Before long, students and teachers also assembled near the football field overlooking the stream.

Men carrying ropes, long bamboo poles and other improvised rescue equipment lined the banks. As the waters gradually receded, villagers managed to rescue several stranded animals and retrieve others that had been swept away.

The entire school remained abuzz with rumours.

That evening, after returning home, I found it impossible to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I could still hear the terrifying roar of the flood and see the muddy wall of water racing towards us. It had been the closest encounter with death any of us had ever experienced.

The following morning, the newspapers carried the explanation.

A cloudburst had occurred in the outer regions of Udhampur, triggering a sudden flash flood in the stream. Eight people had been injured and several animals swept away in the disaster. The two village boys whom we had seen being carried away had fortunately been rescued downstream with serious injuries and admitted to hospital.

Only then did we truly understand what a cloudburst was.

None of us ever ventured into that stream again.

We had escaped death by mere seconds.

Of all of us, Karan had perhaps endured the greatest ordeal. Alone on that tree branch, naked and terrified, he had looked death directly in the eye.

Yet, as always happens among schoolboys, fear eventually gave way to humour.

Nearly ten days later, Poondri casually remarked to Karan during class,

"You looked exactly like a monkey sitting on that tree."

Only four of us burst into laughter.

The rest of the class looked puzzled.

Karan merely blushed—something entirely out of character for him.

Some memories, however terrifying, eventually become stories.

But none of us ever forgot the day when an innocent picnic nearly turned into a tragedy.