Raat Akeli Hain, Bujh Gaye Diye...

It has been a week of being here in Dangs, and I have experienced lot of things, did the things that I have never done before like, I had never been alone in a villa, in the jungle, where clouds to rain all night. The first morning brought a snake predating over a wall lizard in the bathroom to our sight. Two different species of snakes were spotted by the Ankur and Roshan Bhai during the field and for second time, Lasu Kaka just put a step aside of snake. Thank God! We stayed safe because snake was in deep sleep or maybe in the thought of someone singing 'Tere sang pyar main nahin todana’. After that incident, I asked Lasu Kaka if there any plant that we can use for snakebite. Of course, there are many but the question was for current location and unfortunately, he replied ‘NO’ there was no plant in the field, which can get rid of snakebite. There, I realise how important is to carry anti-venom in the field. In field, you do not have any fear of Leopard, Lion, Tiger, or of any other wild animal, because you do not even get a second chance. Before you realize that you are being targeted; the game is already over. However, in case of snakes if you carry anti-venom or get the plant using in snakebites at least you can call 108 and reached up to the hospital. Anyway, it was a great experience and it is good that I am alive and writing this.

Well, if I talk about my current situation, then it goes like this; I am at the Forest Rest House at Pimpri. Today’s experience was very good. Students of 9 to 12 standard were here to visit the garden. There I went with a guide in the garden. There I asked them some questions, like how plants influence our lives. Answering this question many of them discussed the use of the plant in medicine and food. One of them stated that plant fulfils all of our basic needs i.e. food, shelter and clothes and why not, we all have been taught, not actually, but some sentences have been carved on our mind and ‘food shelter and clothes are the three basic needs of human’ is one of them. Later on, I asked them the names of the biggest and smallest plants. The reason why money plant known as money plant and many more.

Actually, these questions were basic, but for them, they proved to be important, and why should not, there were here to know something different, to know something curious, and to know something that they do not know. To create an interest in the plants is one of the aim and objective of botanical gardens. There I had many ideas about the activities to be done in the garden. Firstly, a good guide script is required and good training too. For the high school students, there should be something, which can lit up curiosity in them. There are lots of things that we can do like posters and banners of interesting plants which are not available in the garden can be put on. Making short videos related to gardening and botanical techniques can be displayed on the TV screen in the garden. Another idea came was about the mini version of Botany Fest, ‘Botany Fest Junior’. Actually, I am here at Waghai Botanical Garden (WBG) for my Botany novel ‘Botanists of Baroda Chapter One - The Conservation from Dang’ but before starting this novel I’m thinking to start a series of short stories; ‘The Gardner and Son’ in which a Gardener cum Traditional Plant Practitioner gives an introduction of the plant world to his son. Starting The Gardener and Son series is another idea that I came across today.

But what I am experiencing right now is horrible, terrible, miserable, intolerable, indescribable, you can put the suffix ‘able’ to the all the negative words you know and only for passing the time I am writing this. I am alone at this Rest House. It is situated fifteen kilometres far from Waghai, it is a small village, and has a large area for Rest House surrounded by hundreds of trees. The Rest House is a Villa with two bedrooms and one common room with all the amenities. There are some quarters for Forest staff. However, there is only one wireless operator cum cook, Ashok Bhai aka Dilip Bhai other than me and probably be gone for preparing dinner for his officer. Well, coming back to the scene. It was raining heavily as someone had made big holes in the clouds and all the water was bursting out from them. I was reading Ashtavakra Geeta when suddenly the electricity went off. There was a power backup but unfortunately the battery was not charged and I did not have candles or torch and even my phone was with a battery of 17 per cent and it was a time of shutting the shops off at village. Looking forward, I decided to go out and look for Dilip Bhai; he might have some candles or something to light up. With that 17 per cent battery, I turned on the torch, took my umbrella and went out. It was darker than room inside. The clouds were with the fifty shades of grey. The darkish blue core was of depth of Mariana Trench surrounded by small rivers and lakes having shallow water of fading dark blue colour. I looked for Dilip Bhai, but his bike was not there. He was gone for cooking.

I went out on the road to look for any shop open, and fortunately, I found one. There was a girl at the shop, she was waiting for the shopkeeper and I saw another shop shutting down far away. I brought a packet of candles and a small torch from there and get returned to the rest house. On the way between, I tested the torch and it was really with a good range of light. The first shop I visited was closed now, but the girl was still there, I told her to bring the things she wants from the next shop, but she said she is waiting for the bus to come. She looked strange, so I thought it is better to leave and I came to my room and lit up the candle, firstly I put it in front of the mirror of the dressing table. Usually, I do not keep the door open due to fear of snakes and other wild insects, but this time I kept it open for the ventilation. I remembered a night at my new home, and there it all started. Frankly speaking, up to that thought all went good, yes, of course, I was afraid of snake and insects but after that though, new characters were introduced in the story. I was feeling to get being watched but from whom? And just after these thought process initiated negativity spread all around the environment. I was trying to turn on the inverter any way but it was not turning on. To get rid of negativity I started to watch movies, I clicked some photos of the candle, I went to the common room and clicked the picture of Ashtavakra Geeta with a candle, made a video, and finally, I started to write this.

After writing some paragraph, the lights in the room turned on and electricity had come back, the inverter started to get charged, and I put my phone on the charging too. The electricity stayed for a few minutes longer and again went off. And after half an hour it came back again. It repeated several times and finally, it stayed longer. I was in the toilet when it suddenly went off. Somehow I walked to the door of the bathroom which was near about fifteen feet away from the toilet hitting the buckets which came in my way. It was total dark in the bedroom, and obviously yes, in the toilet too. I started to search for torch, matchbox and phone to get some light. I was behaving like a blind, looking for the source of the light everywhere. At that time I realize that the importance of electricity cannot be realized when it comes to paying a large amount of electricity bill, it can be realized when you have limited sources of it and have to use it for a longer or indefinite period. Finally, I found the torch on the bed and went back to the bathroom to finish the work I started.

It was near about to quarter left to twelve, I recalled the words of my friend “My mom told me there are ‘Dakans’ in the Dangs”. Dakan, Dakini, Chudail, Witch are all the synonyms you can call whatever you want to or can derive new words. And again the cycle of thoughts and thought process initiated. It reached the speed of thousands of thoughts per seconds in just a few moments. The brain thinks in the form of images and the same happened to me. Thousands of images were passing from my mind. On one image of a scene, my mind paused. Once I was with the Dangi people and asked about Dakans, they agreed to their (Dakans) existence in Dang. They said, in the earlier period, there were a Bhagats who used to the practices related to Dakans; like to capture them, manipulating them to do the things of his desire, and also the Dark magic. One of them told me that Dakan can adapt to any living form. Usually, the tail of the cat is up in the air, but if the tail is lying on the ground, then it might be Dakan or she can adapt to a beautiful gorgeous girl up to her anyone can lose is fate. She usually gets out and roams on the occasion of Diwali, full moon and dark moon nights. They suggested me to not get out of the house on these days.

Now shifting the focus from snakes and insects to the Dakan my mind started to think over it and about the forms in which the Dakan could attack me. I was feeling like I’m in Chanderi, where the ‘Stree’ hunts for the men and what if I wrote on the walls of rest house “O Dakan Kal Aana’ probably this could save my life. But again it was only a thought. A terrifying thought. And now I was able to see the Cat, Stree and Dakan everywhere. To stop this thinking process, electricity came in the form of positive energy, all the lights in the room and street, and the compound of the rest house lighten up and this cycle broke down. I put the mobile on a charge, laptop, Ashtavakra Geeta, and other things on another side of the bed and fell asleep.

Next day, after finishing all morning routine, I went to the garden, there I again started to think about what new can be done in the garden. I met Lasu kaka and shared my idea of Botany Fest Junior, and about the phytohunt. We took a short round of town. It was raining, and my phone rang. It was Dhwani. She was worried about the Raksha Bandhan. She told me this time you all are in different cities, at different locations, so it was quite difficult to send Rakhi to all of us. After asking her the date of Raksha Bandhan, I came to know it is on the fifteenth day of August. I describe her the days I was living here, the experience I was getting, obviously not this but about the field. Lasu kaka and I returned to Ashok Kutir, Calendar came into my sight. Just for having a look I took it. I recalled Dhwani’s voice, Rakhi is on 15th August, A voice uttered in my mind to avoid the meeting with Ms Dakan, why don’t you get back to Baroda... everything paused for some time, I went into silence, again a thought strike in mind…

‘The last night was of Dark moon…’