Mountains Went Missing

“How can you lift a mountain?”, he was visibly curious. It was a Friday evening and I could see vast stretches of agricultural land, ploughed and ready for the monsoon rains.

I was jogging beside my son who was on the bike and asked me the question.

Kids are generally free in their minds. No hangover about asking or doing anything. They actually have less of space and time hangover I used to think.

Yesterday I had told him the story of how Hanuman lifted a mountain to bring the Sanjeevani herbs when they had to wake up the dead Lakshmana during the Ramayana war.

His question sprung out of nowhere now.

“Hanuman had magical powers. He could lift mountains, cross oceans, grow as big as a mountain or shrink as small as an Ant” I said.

He stopped cycling and turned his head to the side and looked at me. I knew he was seriously thinking about what I said.

“Come on. Lets go there”, I showed him our usual spot which was a block of stone where we rest, watching the mountain range at the far end. There were tracts of land which are usually covered with corn or sunflower. Beautiful sight.

Today the land in between was pretty much empty. The mountains were visible.

As we sat, I said “ Look at those mountains, they are supposed to have some really special people called Siddhas. They can do what Hanuman did. They can cover long distances in no time, Shrink their size, or grow it, appear and disappear at will”.

“Are they there now ?” he asked

“Quite possibly” I said.

“Do those mountains have Sanjeevani herbs?” he asked

“May be, but no one knows how they look” I said.

I was not exaggerating. I have heard stories about the special properties of those hills. People had told about sage Agasthya who did meditation there and a Shiva temple somewhere deep in those mountains. They still talk about spotting siddha like people occasionally who appear from nowhere to guide people who lost their way in the mountains. There was always something mystical about that place, which had only grown with time.

There was a herd of sheeps coming on that road where we were sitting. My son was keenly watching them now.

It was getting dark.

“Come let’s go home” I said and got up to go back.

*******

It was raining heavily outside.

The officer had just got inside his home. His wife followed him closing the door.

“You look tired, I will go make a cup of hot tea” She said and went into the kitchen.

It was a cottage refurbished to house the Officer who was on special duty.

“How is he?” the officer asked his wife changing to casuals.

“Today he is quite a bit down, sleeping all day”, tears were filling her eyes as she said this. “I am not sure what else can we do, day after day I see him getting weak”.

The officer was silent for a while. It cannot come at a worse time for him. He was outright honest in his job. He used his power to help the needy. He never bent to please his political bosses. His current posting has been the hardest. He was asked by the court to submit a report on the illegal granite mining that had robbed the state of thousands of crores.

He was at the fag end of his enquiry. His only son was a happy school going kid until last week when he was diagnosed with Cancer. The Sky fell on him since then. He could not focus on the last bit of his report to the court.

“How are things going with your report” his wife came back with the Tea. She wanted to keep him focused and get it out of his mind so that he can take off to be with his son.

“There are a lot of obstacles. The local politicians do not want to see this report done. But I feel I have got a lot of evidence now. It should nail these goons who have made a large portion of this mountain disappear”, he said as he closed his eyes for a moment in the fresh aroma of the Tea.

He walked into the bedroom and saw his son sleeping. As he came out, his wife said “The peon came and left a sack in your office room. He said you asked him to keep it there”.

The officer said “OK” and walked into his office room and started to look into the documents he brought.

******

“Today I should complete the story of Hanuman”

I thought to myself as I was walking on the road. I had come to buy some veggies.

“Hey man, how are you ?” I heard a voice behind and looked back and saw my friend.

“How is the kid?” I asked and realised I could have delayed asking it.

“Sleeping all day. Effects of Chemo”, he said.

“Oh boy. That sounds awful. You look pretty worn out”, I said.

“Yeah. In the last stages of the report. All of these taking a toll on me”, he said.

I had known him through my son who studies in the same class with his son . We met over a school annual day and few more occasions and slowly became family friends. Once we had a long discussion about this whole illegal mining stuff. He was candid about many things.

Suddenly I had this thought “Hey, why don’t we go for cycling in the mountains this Sunday?” and added “May be it will give your body some exercise?”

He was initially not sure. After a while he said “That may be a good one to do. OK. Let us do it. I gotta go now, See you”.

*******

It was quite hard for me. I had not done much cycling recently. My son wanted to come along. But I felt it was too long and hard for his age.

There was mild breeze and we could now start seeing the town far away from the altitude we stood.

He was quite at ease. Being an IPS, I was not surprised by his fitness. As we cycled, he said, “ Come 

let’s go this way, and I will show you something”.

We now detoured into a narrow path moving away from the road into what looked like a deeper side of the mountain.

It was very silent except for our occasional talking and the creaking of the wheels. Tall eucalyptus trees and numerous other trees were all over the place. It was beautiful and suddenly my mind was not wandering. Every sound, every rustle I could hear.

It must have been easily an hour ride through that road which looked like 15 minutes. I realised we had come to another part of the mountain range. My friend, the officer was looking around and said “We need to go little more this way”, he showed a path that continued from where we had come but even narrower.

I was a bit hesitant. My friend said “Come on. I wanted to show you something. It’s not far”

After some time, we had almost come to a view point from where I could see the whole valley. There was no sign of any one around. My friend pointed somewhere and said, “Look. Over there you see those huts. Its a village. They have been living there for ages. They worship this mountain. There are some folks who are beyond 100 years of age, but can lift a rock. Such is their life”

“Our whole country must have been like this thousands of years ago, tribes of different kinds. What we see is just the remnants of our past” I said.

He showed another part of the hill, which almost looked flat. He said “ You would be surprised if you know there was a Jaina cave with sculptures and paintings. But its gone now”

“What ? Did I hear you right?” I was shocked.

“Yes. The villagers had told me about it. Fortunately some writers who came here had taken some photographs of those caves. But our greed had destroyed them as well”.

“Why do they need so much money ? What will they do with it ? Don’t they realize they are leaving a vicious place to their sons and grand sons where it is all about money and nothing else? With money in everything do they think they can expect their sons to live happily? Mindless idiots” I was pouring out.

My friend was smiling now. He said, “See how you feel. Every one of us sits behind four walls with four others and they are happy to watch things on TV. No one cares beyond their house. Not even the road leading to their house. This attitude has cost us dearly. A large portion of the hills this side of the mountain range has been mined and sold. Most of our historical past has also gone with it. All of this because they found a BMW better looking than this piece of earth”.

When we cycled back, my mind was filled with images. I was silent to the most part. My friend was talking about how the whole system has been bought by the mining mafia. Right from the customs to the check posts. I felt helpless listening to all this.

******

After reaching home I washed and settled in front of my computer. My son was excitedly narrating the herd of sheep he saw the other day to my wife.

He came to me and asked “Appa, did you see any Sanjeevani herbs ?”

My silence remained in me. I was nodding my head unable to talk anything.

“Why don’t you have your dinner” I heard my Wife call from the kitchen.

“Coming..” I said.

“Appa, continue that story of Hanuman” my Son started, not giving me any time.

“OK. OK. will do” I said and typed “Hanuman lifting Sanjeevi mountain” and after clicking some links, went to a Wikipedia page.

It is believed that fragments which fell from the Sanjeevi hills while being carried by Lord Hanuman created …..

“Wow!” — I could not believe what I read.

“Dinner is ready” I heard my Wife again.

*********

The officer was about to leave for work. His wife came out to see him off. ‘It is going to be a busy day’ . He thought to himself. The peon came and lifted his bag.

“Appa, when will you be back?” he saw his son running towards him.

He turned back and was surprised to see him look suddenly fresh and live. It had been a while since he saw him like that.

“Come on…kid”, he ran and hugged his son.

“Let us plan a movie tonight. Will be back as soon as possible” he said charged up and got into his Jeep.

On the way to office, his phone rang.

“Hey! are you OK” — Officer

… — Me

“I was thinking , may be we cycled too much in a day” — Officer

…. — Me

“Go ahead tell me.. I am on my way to office” — Officer

… — Me

As the officer spoke, his face was lighting up. He suddenly could see the connections with what his friend was telling on the phone.

“So do you mean to say the Wikipedia page has the name of these mountains?” — Officer

… — Me

“Amazing. Unbelievable”, the officer could not contain his excitement. “Wow. That’s an interesting find.” he said and kept the phone and looked at the peon.

He then asked “Where did you collect the rock samples you left in the house the other day?”

“Sir, they were the places marked by you as we interviewed the villagers and went with them in the mountains.”, the peon said and asked “What sir, any problem?”

“No. No. Everything is alright. I just wanted to make sure” the officer said.

The Jeep halted in front of his Office building and the peon took his bag and walked in.

‘The Sanjeevani is working. Tonight I will watch the movie with my kid’ The officer thought to himself. Now he had a spring in his steps as he entered into the office to close the report.