An Incredible Journey of 4 Friends!!

The following story dates back to the incredible summer of 2005. The 5th semester University exams of our engineering course had just begun. The first 3 papers had gone well for me and 3 of my close friends and classmates - Jaidev, Amit and Viraj. We had bonded quite well in the 1st year itself and used to study together in a group for the exams.

The next paper, "Communication Skills" was after a 3 day holiday. None of us had bothered to touch the CS book the whole semester, still we were taking things easy. Reason being, this paper - CS, was in many ways very similar to the English language paper we had in our 10th/12th and hence was considered a piece of cake by us!!

The first 2 days of the 3 day study break went by in a breeze. We would sit down to study but just could not concentrate. We would either get chatting on something or the other or sleep away like a king... the time just flew by. Out of the 4 of us, at least 2 would not be in a mood to study which meant that the whole group would be distracted and CS would take a back seat.

The Day Before The Exam...

Having wasted yet another morning, we were all sitting in my hostel room having just returned after taking a heavy lunch. After an hour of incessant yawning, Amit spoke, "Let us go into the forest today!!!", looking intently at the thick forest which lay at a distance, visible from the window.

Our college was surrounded by lush thick forests on all sides and comprised hilly terrain. We 4 (Jaidev, Amit, Viraj and myself Dhiraj) regularly ventured deep into those jungles and found great joy discovering new trails, climbing trees, crossing valleys, studying the vast flora and fauna, eating mangoes, jamuns, karvands etc... Once in a week, at least, we would go out to explore the forests which many would find intimidating to look at even from a distance! Sometimes, friends joined us for a trek but they would never come back next time as they found the whole expedition very arduous. But we loved spending time in there... trekking and walking for hours... Unfortunately, it had been over a month now, since we have had one of our routine excursions as we were all busy preparing for our upcoming exams. Needless to say then, the mere thought of it had got me excited!

View from my Hostel Room Window,
the vast jungle lays beyond...

"Yeah, let's go there. As it is, we are not studying. It will take our mind off the studies and freshen us up too!", I chipped in, always eager for a break.

"You have got to be kidding me!! Break? Break is what we have been having since our last exam got over... This is simply ridiculous!", Viraj tried to take stock of the situation, looking a touch worried.

"What is there to study in CS anyways? We have not studied these 2 days because there is nothing to study!", Jaidev blurted out, most of which I thought was not true.

I suddenly intervened Jaidev, "I have an idea!!" Now they all froze because they knew whenever I spoke those words it meant that something really unimaginable was coming their way!

"Today we will carry our CS books too with us. A 250 odd page book won't pose any burden and we will study under the Mango tree for sometime! This way we get to go into the jungle and we get to study too!!", I said with an air of nonchalance while glancing at Viraj.

Viraj, the most studious of us buddies, dint look quite convinced but his love for nature finally got over him.

"OK then, let’s go! It’s been pretty long and I am myself missing the greenery and dense vegetation!" said Viraj with a faint smile on his lips and a glint in his eyes.

At about 5 in the evening, we left for the wilderness escaping through the side of the hostel through the barbed wires. Our CS books, a couple of loose sheets and a pen dangled loosely from our back pockets.

We trekked for about an hour and a half, forgetting all about the exam scheduled for the next day at 10 am. We crossed narrow paths strewn with dried leaves, passed through rocky areas, and waded through small streams most of which had dried... 

The Jungle Adventure Begins...
You can see how dense the Jungle is...
It is so gloomy...

Partners in Crime :P

Is that a Snake?? Or a creeper??

Some Sweet Moments... Frozen!

We observed the ever busy ants walking busily in a long disciplined line, red colored crabs besides a dried pond in a desolated area, prayed at the Shiva Temple which was situated in a dark cave and went through areas strewn with cacti plants...

Thorny Cacti Shrubs

We then approached the large Alphonso Mango tree which was laden with big, juicy, ripe, yellowish green Mangoes.

Amit climbed up the tree in a jiffy along with Jaidev, both of them taking care not to disturb the large ant colonies situated at the foot of the tree. I and Viraj, meanwhile stood with handkerchiefs spread to collect the booty! After we had collected some 2 dozen Mangoes, both of them climbed down.

Ant Hill (can you spot the ants?)

Usually, we would eat them on our way back to our hostel rooms and distribute the surplus amongst our room mates. But today, we decided to clear a small patch of land under the tree and relish them there itself while studying CS for a while. We collected some large banana leaves to make our seating comfortable!!

The trees towered high above us forming an umbrella that blocked away most of the light! Thus light was always scarce and at 6.30 pm, it felt like night would fall soon. We collected some dried twigs and leaves (available aplenty), lit it and sat around it in a circle.

Sunset -- Time to head back?? ..Naaaahh..!!

As we were relishing the Hapoos Aam, Viraj slowly took out his CS book. We did the same.  A subtle change had come over us. There was a fire in our eyes. For the first time in 3 days, we all seemed serious about the exam as we discussed parts from the syllabus. The fact that it was an University Exam had finally dawned on us.

After about an hour, it had gone completely dark. Night had befallen. It was unanimously decided that since we were finally studying at that place and since it would be very difficult and risky to go to the campus in that darkness, we would spend the night there itself!!!

The night was spent well, with those rough pages and pens which we had casually brought with ourselves finding use. There were plenty of doubts which cropped up but most of them were solved easily. It was a subject probably resembling the English Language paper about 70% but there was much more to it. None of us slept even for a moment that night. We knew we were too far away from the college and in too dense a part, so there was no danger about someone noticing our bonfire. The cool night breeze relieved us greatly from the blazing hot summer that we were witnessing at that time. Thousands of fire flies kept glowing in perfect sync flashing greenish yellow light in one corner every few seconds, the toads croaked all night, the insects created a ruckus, the dogs barked often at a distance... But nothing deterred us from studying. There was no frivolous gossip, no time passing. By the time the first rays of the Sun broke through, we had finished off CS as also the Mangoes!!

We were done with the subject in just one night... a subject we had not even bothered to touch during the whole semester! The most surprising thing was that none of us felt tired or sleepy. We felt fresh and excited... We trekked back to our hostel, each one of us took a long cold water bath and we were ready to leave to write the exam.

Trailing Back Finally..after an adventurous night of Studies! The college visible in the distance!!!

The exam went well and the rest of the papers too, soon got over. When the results were declared a month later, we 4 were in for a pleasant surprise. We were in the top 7 scorers for the subject. When others asked us how our whole group had managed to secure top positions in CS, we just shrugged our shoulders and replied "Hard Work!!!"

The hard grind and the stress associated with University Engineering Exams meant that we never studied in the forest again. That was a night which was extra ordinary and incredible in more ways than one. We did many bizarre activities during our college days but this incident still ranks right up there with others!!!

Our group still has discussions about that night whenever we meet or talk... We still imagine ourselves sitting below our favorite Mango Tree... in that dense jungle, on the night before our University exams... and coming out as Winners...

PS - This is a true story and all the photographs used are original.

PPS - This post is written for the Incredible Stories! Contest sponsored by MahindraXUV500 and Indiblogger.

PPPS - If you are an Indiblogger and like the post you can promote it here - An Incredible Journey of 4 Friends!!