My Adventures with Nani 

My Nani ( fondly called as Ammi Nani by almost everyone ) has always been the adventures types . I have heard that even in childhood she used to always be adventures , when all the girls in the house used to learn stitching and cooking , Nani used to learn bike . now she has grown up to be old having lots of  grandchildren but still her adventures nature hasn't left her and she looks very fit even at this age.

Nani is a great entertainment to have around , she is always active  and she always has some or the other interesting things to talk . Everyone would love to spend time with her .She has some great adventure experiences of her . Nani had a passion for hunting and shooting , everyone believes that she got the habit from her father who was a Archer himself. She has a licensed gun with her which she never allowed us to touch. Sometimes she used to go for hunting alone far off  in the woods. We children were not allowed on such trips as it was risky . I remember , She used to be the only woman in the town who drives a jeep , no one else dared to drive even a motor bike but, with her enthusiasm she learnt driving car and finally one day she bought a second hand jeep with open top and two seats in the front and two parallel facing seats in the back side . it was military green in colour and it had dark brown seats.

       I have got lots of cousins and everyone stayed nearby in the same town .Every Sunday it was a ritual  for us to visit Nani's house and request her to take us for a ride . Sometimes she used to agree and sometimes we would be shooed away by saying she has some work . On some occasions she used to agree , all of us would run to the jeep to grab the best seat available ( which is beside Nani) . Nani would ask us children to wipe the dust off the jeep with a cloth before we start . we would clean the jeep with great enthusiasm for the ride later .

     She used to take us far from the town where there is less population and more greenery , it would be a peaceful journey except for some of my small cousins fighting for the seat ,everything else in the ride would be awesome . The roads are lit with golden colour of the setting sun and on both sides of the roads stood lush green tall trees which added to the beauty.  The road seemed like it never ends , it always fascinated to see where the road ends, but it never did.After some distance Nani would stop the car in front of some paddy fields to enjoy the sunset . it’s a beautiful sight . Even my small cousins become calm by seeing the scenic beauty . The golden  colour of the setting sun behind the mountains far away . We used to see different kinds of birds going to their nests after their day , It reminds our Nani that we should also be going home now. She starts the jeep and vroom goes all the scenery in front of our eyes . As we head towards our town the we notice the  greenery is reduced and the surroundings feel bit warm  and by the time we reach home it gets dark and most of my cousins used to sleep. Most of our  Sundays were spent with Nani , we used to have lunch and sleep at her home listening to stories from her childhood .

There was one horrific experience which happened during one such trips with Nani , which has been etched in my mind forever and also of those people who unfortunately were a part of it.

    It was during our 8th class summer holidays and we were all getting bored sitting at home with nothing interesting to do, So we decied to go to Nani's house. When we reached there  we saw Nani was preparing to go outside for a ride , she was wearing a leather jacket and a jeans with goggles . My Nani used to dress in jeans and jackets only while going out for hunting so we understood what she is up to , so we decided to persuade her to take us along . We were a group of 6 cousins on that day .  I was the eldest and along with me were my younger cousins Aamir, Tanu, Tuba,Lubna, and Nigar. Me being the eldest had to go to Nani to persuade her and after a lot of convincing my Nani agreed to take us with her on one condition that we will follow everything that she says and stay beside her always . Our joy knew no bounds ,we shouted happily and jumped in the jeep singing songs and shouting .

   Nani bought her gun along and we started our journey at 2 pm it was a 40 kms journey from our town . we were delighted to be finally going with Nani for hunting , we were merrily shouting at everyone on the road and mocking people who we crossed in our jeep . Nani sternly told us to stop it and we kept quite after that  and the journey continued across the fields and never ending roads which I imagined to be heading towards the sky. Few Minutes into the drive we dozed off due to the pleasant weather, however my sleep did not last long as I was woken up when the jeep came to a halt .I looked around and found my Nani she had got down from the jeep and was  looking across the road . I checked my cousins on the back and saw that they were peacefully sleeping without any concern. I went to my Nani and asked if we have reached the destination , Nani said that she seems to have taken a wrong turn and lost the path to the forest .We might have left the forest behind us. 

There was absolutely no one on the roads , the roads looked deserted with no vehicle . After waiting for some time Nani decided to drive a bit further and look for some human population so that we could find a way out .Nani drove a bit further and after about 15 minutes of drive we could see some small houses made of mud and thatched roof , Nani drove towards the houses and as we reached near the huts small children started running behind our jeep shouting merrily. We stopped the jeep near the huts and got down and by now all my cousins woke up and they were looking around with confusion , they were completely clueless about the place we were in. Nani went to some people and talked to them and asked the way to the jungle we were going . It  turned out that Nani had actually taken a wrong turn 20 kms ago .It was already 5pm by that time so Nani decided to return  home, but the villagers insisted to stay back as  travelling at this time in this place would be dangerous . 

We were not aware of what they meant when they said dangerous , but we were soon to find out. Nani decided to stay back as per the advice of villagers . We were taken into a hut which was the biggest one among all the huts . It was probably a sarpanch office .We were  told to rest for some time , meanwhile Nani accompanied by two villagers went to nearby village which had telephone facility and informed about our whereabouts to everyone back at home. We were given some food by the villagers which looked very different from the food that we were habituated to eat but since everyone was very hungry every one ravished upon the food . 

      It took almost an hour for Nani to return and by the time she returned almost all my cousins had fallen asleep . Nani and me went to sarpanch’s house for dinner. During dinner Sarpanch shared their plight that their life stock has been missing since few months . Some huge animal has been attacking their sheep every day. Nani asked if it’s an elephant, to which the sarpanch replied, “ Since when has elephant started eating sheep” . Nani ignored it thinking it must be some wolf or some wild animal which is not uncommon in such places which are in close proximity to jungle. 

After dinner it started raining heavily with thunder storms. We came back after dinner covering ourself with a large plate made out of Straw weed. It was just 9 pm but the village was completely silent as everyone in the village had slept. I was having a hard time to sleep as it was very uncomfortable to sleep on the floor. Nani was getting ready to sleep just then we felt some kind of shake.

 

I looked at Nani in panic and after few seconds again we felt as if the house is shaking . Aamir woke up in panic and started crying which woke up everyone else. Nani asked us to stay silent . She said it’s probably a mild earth quake and everything should be fine . The shaking  was indeed mild but it was continues we were unable to understand what's happening , just then we heard a loud roar. All of us ran towards Nani in Panic and started crying. The roar was so loud that my ears kept ringing even after the roar ended. Nani told everyone to keep calm and sit down . 

      I could see in my Nani’s eyes that she was also very tensed , I had never seen her this worried. She ran towards the window to check what's happening and she could not believe her eyes , I could see her she was dumbstruck . I went from behind to see what's happening , I could not see anything properly as it was really dark outside , suddenly there was a lightning thunder  outside and I could see it was a really big animal .It must have been at least 10 ft in height. I could not understand what is it . I asked Nani what is it but she did not reply and kept staring at the window. I shook Nani and she was back to her senses , she went and sat on a chair and buried her face in her hands.  I my cousins ran to Nani and kept asking what is it that she saw. After some time she said , It’s a Dinosaur !!

Everyone started shouting and crying in fear , Nani asked us to keep quiet and don't make noises as the noises would  attract the dinosaur towards the house .Nani told us to turn off all the lights and sit quietly . The roars outside grew more and more louder , Nani slowly walked towards the window and peeked outside .I also went towards the window and saw that the dinosaur was walking towards the animal shed , we could hear all the animals shouting in panic , the dinosaur went to the shed and lifted a goat with its mouth , I was terrified by seeing its huge glimmering teeth . it was a horrifying sight to see a huge dinosaur in front of eyes and the rain and thunder added to the horror . we had seen these creatures  only in movies and always believed that they don't exist near human population . They must be living  some far off islands but seeing one in front of our eyes was something which we had never imagined in our wildest dreams.

      The dinosaur held the goat in its mouth and walked towards the jungle making loud sounds ,  Nani told us that it won't return again and sent us to sleep .I could see that Nani was really tensed . slowly we went to sleep one by one with fear in our hearts. And just kept waiting for the sun rise so that we could leave this place and go to our home . We woke up in the morning with the sounds of rooster. I could not find Nani in the hut. I peeked through the window and found that she was outside talking to people. We went out and joined the discussion. The villagers were saying that this animal has been frequent to this village and also some of the nearby villages . Their domestic animal population has been drastically reduced due to this. 

Nani asked the sarpanch if they have complained to the forest authorities about this. Sarpanch said that they have complained about it to the officials however they have not believe them and a search operation was conducted but they could not find anything . Nani was engrossed in deep thoughts after listening to this. Me and my cousins insisted Nani that we should now leave for home. Nani was not responding. Finally she spoke and said that she cannot leave the villagers in this condition and wants to help them out. I convinced her a lot to return to our town and let the officials handle this but my Nani had made her mind and was not ready to listen anything. She said that we would not have to worry about anything and everyone would be safe.

After some more thought Nani said to Sarpanch, “ lets trap this Animal” . Sarpanch was terrified by hearing this . Nani convinced him that if no one is helping then they should help themselves in this situation. Sarpanch reluctantly agreed for the sake of the people in the village. Nani spent the complete day planning on how to execute this operation. We children started engaging in playful activities with other children in the village. By evening Nani had made her plan and asked the sarpanch to setup a meeting with all the villagers.

In the Meeting Nani looked like a leader. Everyone was looking with a lot of hope towards Nani . Nani started by saying that she understands the plight of the villagers and all the troubles which they had to go through. She said that she is willing to help out villagers in eradicating this problem completely and wants their help in this. Villagers assured with great enthusiasm that they will do all that they can to help her out. Nani asked sarpanch to build a platform of 12ft height ,away from the huts. The platform should be covered with grass and leaves . The platform should have an open area and behind it should be a closed compartment with small windows. Sarpanch said they will need 2 days of time to build this . Meanwhile Nani asked villagers to shift all the sheep and goats to a different place which is covered and out of reach.

Nani suggested the sarpanch of village to send us back home in some vehicle but we all insisted that we wanted to stay back. After a lot of persuasion she finally agreed. The night dawned upon us and we were again very worried that the dinosaur might be coming again however to our relief there was no such incident. The next morning all the villagers started helping out in building the platform. Everyone was doing as per their capability and by the end of 1st day the platform was half complete. That night we again heard similar sounds and since we were prepared for it , everyone kept silent and observed from windows that dinosaur came to the village and started searching frantically for goats and sheep but it could not find them anywhere as they were already shifted to a closed place far away. It let out a huge roar and walked away towards the jungle. This was all the part of Nani’s plan.

The 12 ft high platform was completed by afternoon of next day , it was just like what Nani wanted. Nani instructed the villagers to take 2 goats on the top of platform and tie them there securely. Nani said that she will spend the night on the shed built on the platform right behind where the goats were tied. Few villagers insisted that they will also accompany her but she denied. As per her instructions the villagers tied the goats on the platform and Nani climbed the platform by 7pm and instructed everyone from village to get back into their home. The platform was 300 mts away from our hut but as it was on a raised surface we could see everything clearly from our hut. We waited near the window for more than 2 hours but there was no sight of the dinosaur. We assumed that it would not appear today and drifted off to sleep.

After about 1 hour we heard a loud roar and woke up from deep sleep and ran towards the window. We could see that the Dinosaur was approaching he platform with great speed. The Dinosaur had been kept hungry since two days and due to which the roars were even more ferocious due to hunger. When Dinosaur reached the platform to eat the goats , my Nani was alert and was watching everything from the small windows in her hut . She was waiting for the right opportunity. When the dinosaur open his mouth wide to eat the goat, Nani took 2 shots from her gun which were directly aimed inside the mouth of the dinosaur.  We could hear loud noise following which the dinosaur ran towards the jungle knocking off  one of the legs of the platform causing it to disbalance.

We came running from the hut and alerted the village sarpanch about this. Everyone started running towards the platform and saw that Nani was climbing down from the platform slowly. All the villagers  held on to the legs of platform to stabilize it. Finally Nani got down. She was looking tired yet there was a content smile on her face. Sarpanch asked her what happened. She explained that she had shot inside the mouth of dinosaur as the outer skin of dinosaur would be very tough for the bullet to penetrate and cause sizeable damage. Villagers wanted to go and see if the dinosaur had died but Nani asked them to not venture inside the jungle at night as she was not sure if the gun shots had done their job. Everyone agreed and went back to the huts , looking forward for the sun to rise.

At 6am there was a loud bangs on the door , We woke up with the sounds. Nani and me opened the door and saw that all the villagers have gathered go towards the jungle to search for Dinosaur. My cousins were still asleep so I accompanied Nani along with villagers.  We spread out in different directions in a group of 10.  Nani and me accompanied the sarpanch. After about an hour of search , a villager came running towards us and said they have found something . We rushed towards the spot and found that that the huge and ferocious dinosaur was lying still and lifeless on the ground. The villagers started dancing with joy. Nani went ahead and took a close look at the dinosaur and said it’s a  T-REX. She wondered how this had come in such a village. She took some pictures of it with her camera. The forest officials had come to the place by then and were awestruck by seeing the huge animal. They apologized to the sarpanch for not believing him. They thanked Nani for her support and appreciated her bravery. They promised an award for her bravery.

We came back to our hut with a lot of joy surrounded by  the dancing villagers. My cousins had woken up by then and I informed them the good news. Everyone danced with joy. We had a good meal at Sarpanch’s house. It was time for us to leave. The villagers insisted for us to stay for one more day but it was already 3 days in the village , we would not stay any longer. Nani promised to visit again sometime. The Villagers thanked my Nani with folded hands and gave all the children clay toys as gifts. All of us were very happy and bid goodbye to villagers and started our journey back to town.

We reached home in 2 hours and everyone back at home was very happy to see us . We decided to keep this story a secret so that our parents do not panic. However our story could not be kept a secret for long as the next day newspaper had the complete story. Our parents were initially agree with Nani , however their anger turned into pride for her selfless nature and helping out the villagers. Nani was given a bravery award by the CM on Independence day.  This was one of our unforgettable experience which would stay with us forever. 

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