I am Smita, presently 52 years. My husband was an army doctor. The story I am going to narrate occurred when I was 34 years. As my husband had postings in border areas, we had given admission to our son in a residential school in Darjeeling. I used to go to stay with my husband only during vacations as I was working as a college lecturer. Our son was then 10 years old when this incident occurred.
It was mid-April. I had gone to the house of my in-laws at Siliguri so that from there I could visit my son at his residential school. My plan was to travel to Darjeeling early morning, meet my son and stay with him in a hotel and return to Siliguri next evening and stay that night with my in-laws and to return to my place of work following morning.
It was a Friday when I started in the early morning by bus from Tenzing Norgay Bus Terminus. Reaching Darjeeling, I went to my son's hostel, completed the formalities and with him booked a hotel. Next day after the lunch we checked out of the hotel and then dropped my son at his hostel and by 1.30 came to take a bus or taxi for my return to Siliguri.
In those days, Darjeeling was facing unrest over the Gorkhaland issue and there was a sudden strike in Darjeeling due to which all the transports from and to Darjeeling got off the road and anticipating trouble even shops and business establishments started pulling down shutters. I went back to the hotel from where I had checked out about an hour ago. But as the news of strike spread, all the hotels were full as most of the stranded passengers like me had already booked those hotels. The manager of the hotel was very sympathetic and since his hotel was already full, he tried to contact other hotels for an accommodation for me. But there was no positive response from any hotel.
Finding no otherway, I thought of approaching my son's hostel authority for a room. But the problem was again transport as the hostel was at a considerable distance from the hotel. As I was trying to decide what should I do, two persons in their respective motor bikes stopped there and removed their helmets. I recognised them by faces to be the students of my college though I couldn't exactly recall their names nor the classes in which they were.
They introduced themselves as students of Degree course and their names were Raj and Tilak. I then recalled both as they were outstanding athletes of the college and had won district level laurels for their performance. They said that they had ventured to travel Darjeeling and Kalimpong by bike and had reached there only about an hour back to find the sudden strike and like me they too coukd not get accommodation in any hotel. So they decided to ride to Kalimpong, where Tilak's grandfather owned a house.
They suggested that if I did not mind I might take a ride with them to Kalimpong and stay Tilak's grandpa's house. They told be that they would reach Kalimpong in one and half hour. As I was not comfortable in long journey by motorbike, I refused. However, they assured to drive smoothly and finally I decided to go with them. They asked me to put on my leather jacket as it would be cool.
I took the pillion seat on Tilak's bike and on the way we had tea and snacks. After the break, I rode with Raj. Though it was supposed to be one and half hour's journey it took about two hours to reach Tilak's grandpa's house which was a bit on the foothill of a hillock. But some sixth sense told me that I shouldn't have come there. The main reason was I thought that being the house of Tilak's grandpa there will be his relatives and family members in the house.
But arriving at the house we found it locked and Tilak had the keys with him. When I asked him whether his grandpa and family did not stay there, Tilak said, "Ma'am, my grandparents actually shifted to our place for the treatment of my grandmother and will be back in a fortnight. Since we were visiting Darjeeling, so grandpa asked us to pay a visit to his house which is vacant since they went to our place."
Somehow I felt uncomfortable to stay in the house with two students when family members were not at home. Anyway, there was no other option then. It was almost dark outside. As those were not the days of mobile networks, I used the landline phone of the house to ring my son at his hostel and my in-laws at Siliguri informing them about my stranded journey and asked them not to be worried.
Tilak's grandpa's house was small but well maintained. It had three bedrooms, a kitchen and a lawn outside. By the time I completed my phone calls, Tilak and Raj had already prepared tea for all of us and brought some biscuits. As we were drinking our tea, Tilak said, "For tonight we will bring our dinner from the nearby hotel. If the strike is lifted tomorrow morning, we will drop you to the bus stand so that you can start for Siliguri. We will ride back on our bikes."
"What if the strike continues?" Raj asked.
"There is cylinder in the kitchen," Tilak said assuringly, "If the strike continues, we will arrange to cook."
"Let's hope it ends tomorrow," Isaid, "I got not only stranded but became a burden on you two spoiling your holiday."
Both of them protested that I was not a burden. They showed me the room with attached toilet and Tilak said, "Ma'am, you stay in this room, it has attached toilet. So you don't have to go out in the cold. Moreover, you can also watch the TV."
"I'm very sorry to have caused you the trouble," I said, "But I will host tonight's dinner. You place the order to the hotel."
After protesting initially, they accepted my proposal and went out to place the order. The hotel was about 10 minutes way from the house we stayed. They told that they would return with the food and I might refresh myself in the meantime.
As both Tilak and Raj left, I locked the main door and went to toilet. It was fitted with geyser. I freshened up, changed my day long dress and started watching TV. At around quarter after eight, Raj and Tilak returned with dinner. The food items were prepared with real care and were still hot. They suggested that we should complete our dinner before it would get cold.
Already with the nightfall, the temperature had gone down and we were using room heaters. We had a delicious dinner and before going to bed Raj prepared coffee for all of us. Tilak brought out from his grandma's stock two blankets for me and two quilts for them. Wishing good night to one another we retired to our respective bed rooms. I had locked the door that separated my bedroom from other rooms.
Due to long bike journey on the hilly roads and day long exhaustion, I fell asleep almost immediately after going to bed. Nearly ten hours elapsed in deep sleep and when I awakened at the sound of the knock on the door. I saw in the wall clock it was already 8 AM. I verbally responded to the knock but as I was going to leave the bed, I shivered. It was cool in the morning: but more than that what filled me with horror was that under the blankets I was completely nude. Not a single piece of cloth on my body. I never go to sleep without clothes and there could be no question when I was at a stranger's place.
They were knocks again. I tried to locate my luggage bag so that I can change to a new dress but then recalled that I had kept it previous evening in the drawing room itself. I remembered to have changed my dress in the toilet and had kept the old ones there. I got out of bed wrapping myself in the bedsheet and went to toilet. But those dresses were not there too. I felt that I was in great danger and my mind raced as to what should I do.
There were knocks again on the door. I replied in a composed voice to wait. What I did not notice that both the rooms had wall curtains and under those were the sliding windows connection one room to the other. The sliding window was already open and both Tilak and Raj entered the room through the window carrying in their hands my dresses with which I had gone to be and they asked at the same time, "Ma'am, are you looking for these?"
"You bastards," I shouted, "How dare you do this to your teacher? Do you know my husband is an army Colonel and you can spend your life in hell?"