The trio was fortunate not to encounter any wild animals. Yet, they hoped to encounter the right humans in the right bus.
Finally, the tsshhh sounds of a bus could be heard at a distance. A blue and yellow striped bus snaked its way slowly across the ghat roads. The girls hurried to the road, waving their hands.
Shreyas climbed down and walked the ducks on the road. Though this was not a designated stop, it still stopped.
They climbed the bus.
'Going to the market to sell?' one passenger asked.
Another passenger immediately followed, 'They don't look like localites going to sell.'
Lisha spoke, 'We want to call our parents. We were kidnapped. We can barter some things to get money for tickets.'
One passenger immediately paid for their tickets. Soon, 3 mobile phones were thrust in their direction. They talked to their parents and the police was alerted to search for the other trio in their vicinity.
Lisha, Shreyas and Leena were showered with a lot of love inside the bus. One fruit-seller was going to sell bananas in the nearby market. He offered some bananas to the teens. They accepted as it was plucked from the bunch.
They refused other food as it was not a good idea to accept food from strangers. When kidnappings happen in a locality frequently or infrequently, then parents and the school coax the students not to accept food, drinks or things from strangers.
Shreyas smiled and volunteered, 'No, thank you. Sorry, after our jungle episode, outside food suddenly will not be good for our tummy.'
The passengers smiled back comfortingly.
Leena queried, 'Where are we headed?'
A co-passenger replied, 'This bus is going to Preshan. Nimbushaya is three stops after that.'
Leena smiled, 'Thank You.'
Their co-passengers pressed them for the story of their escape, again and again. Narrating their story and of their friends in danger again and again, they reached Preshan Main bus stop. The bus would stop here for 20 minutes as it was Main Bus stand.
Leena said, 'Rishant Uncle will pick us up here.'
Finally, Rishant Uncle and his wife entered the bus and smiled. They had come in their big car. They hugged the children. Credence Aunty cried while hugging the children.
A co-passenger asked them, "Are they your parents?"
"No, they are our Uncle and Aunty," replied Leena.
The parents of the teens mixed feelings on hearing about the escape of the Trio : happy for the Trio and sad for the other Trio.
They had conferred among themselves and called the teens again on the three phones stating that Rishant Uncle will pick them up. They should not discuss this matter inside the bus. So, they kept quiet. Their parents trusted Dr. Rishant and his wife.
Before they arrived, Rishant Uncle and Aunty had purchased some clothes, grocery and refreshments for them. Their daughter Lila was also a good friend of the teenagers. The families were close.
"These ducks? You all purchased them in the bus?' Grace Aunty was smiling now.
"No, we got them inside the jungle stream. They were supposed to be peace offerings for wild animals. Sorry ducks… now, we can make them best friends for life," Leena replied.
Some policemen were also waiting outside the bus. It was tough to say who was on the side of justice. Rishant Uncle drove them to the police station or questioning.
In the police station, each of them was asked to narrate the incident in their own version separately. After the examination work was over and the teens tried to give every bit of information known to them, they got the phone number of the officer-in-charge of the case and left.
They refreshed themselves in Rishant Uncle's home. He conducted a physical examination of the teens. A hearty meal was served in front of them. They ate and slept off their exhaustion.
Parents of the teens arrived and chatted with Dr.Rishant and Grace. After the teens woke up, they prayed for their friends. Suddenly, Lisha had an idea.
'Dad, let's call the police officer.'
Her father asked him to come over the phone.
'Dad, please cross check and see if he is on the side of justice. 'Lisha begged her father.
'That is hard to say.' Her father replied.
Shreyas described the settlements/jungle areas that he had surveyed. As he was refreshed, he attempted to give points as per the questions generally encountered in studying Contour Maps in Geography, at school.
'This is exactly how we studied the contour maps in school. Maybe if you search the two districts and the places in the vicinity of Nimbushaya and Preshan, in the contour maps at the library, you might be able to zero in on them.' Shreyas excitedly added.
Leena explained the flora and fauna of the jungle in detail. She recalled that from concrete road, they had gone on bumpy mud roads and later the vehicle had travelled on concrete ghat roads, with a pothole or two, here and there.
Lisha mentioned the ducks in the jungle stream and showed them the 3 ducks. She described the vehicle and people. She mentioned the colour of the minivan-black and the physical features of the two men and the toll booth person. She informed them that the toll booth people worked for Promdhu extremist group.
As they were refreshed, they answered in a detailed manner to help the officer locate their friends.
Their parents were curious about the police officer so they began chatting him up to discover more about his views and ideology. Then, the police officer left and informed another villages, towns and cities in the vicinity.
The elders could not make up their minds about the police officer, while, the teens played with Lila on their large farm. There were large fruit trees, shrubs, cows, buffaloes, rabbits, hens and ducks. There was a large pond. A huge fence shielded the house and farm from outsiders. The elders stood or sat on the porch and watched their children play.
In the evening, the group had wonderful snacks prepared by Grace. Then, Dr. Rishant drove the two families in his multi-seater car to Nimbushaya. As the situation was still tense at Nimbushaya, he stayed with Leena's family in the night and drove back to Preshan in the morning.
At school, their bravery was commended and they were treated as hero and heroines. But they felt unsettled, as their friends will still in danger and they were not in a position to help.
However, there was no news from Tina, Raj and Nishit! Days crawled by. Agony and guilt began tearing their hearts, even though unfounded.
'We should have been there…all of us…' Leena piped up.
'True…we should have never left without them.' Shreyas added.
'Everyone is praising us but I feel so guilty.' Lisha responded.
'What can we do to help? It's bugging me,' Leena said.
'I know… we should have stayed.. we should have all escaped together… did we do the right thing?' Shreyas was deeply unhappy.
'I really thought that our descriptions and escape will help the police catch them. Are the police officers-in-charge just? I do not know.' Lisha puzzled over in an uneasy manner.
'I… we… I.. do not know…what else we could have done…I was so scared…' Leena coughed up.
'We didn't save them.' Shreyas shot out.
This was lunchbreak. Suddenly, a group of students caught the Trio and asked them to recount the events again.
'We would love to… but we have orders not to talk,' Shreyas answered them.
'After our friends come back, we will answer each and everyone of your questions,' Lisha added.
This was a regular feature when the Trio came back to school.
The group was enchanted and awed by the Trio. Word spread around like wild fire. There were fanciful stories about them cooked up by their school mates and horrifying stories too, regarding the other Trio.
The police still prevented the media from interviewing the teens. The police informed the media that they were pursuing leads and they too, refrained from giving interviews.
After the group had dispersed, Shreyas suddenly said, 'There is something we can do.'
'What?' Leena questioned.
'Well, CONTOUR MAPS.' Shreyas said. He continued, 'We can enlist our Geography teacher's help and she can form a small group of fellow students to search out places that I surveyed.
All the places in the vicinity of Preshan and Nimbushaya can be checked out.
We do not know the exact sheet numbers of these places. The overview and minute view will help us in giving more information to the police. Our Geography teacher will exactly know how to proceed.'
'Yes, let us go.' Leena was excited.
'Sure.' Lisha chimed in. 'Well, we prayed to God to save our friends. Now, God has provided us with the tools to help our friends. What is beyond our ability, let us leave that to God'
The Trio headed to the Geography teacher. The Geography teacher was overjoyed that students would practically apply their learnings to save their friends. Internet and cybercafes were quite rare. It was almost non-existent in their locality.
The Geography teacher invited a Geography teacher from another school and a Geography lecturer from a nearby college alongwith a bunch of students from their school. The Geography teacher and the lecturer each brought two more students from their institutions ; they had arranged for On-Duty leave from their institutions.
The teens specifically asked for Reshab and Mohit. Quizzing and Geography were Reshab's forte. The duo was glad to join them. This group of 16 picked out a name for themselves : Geo group -Save TRN. They pored over the contour maps , posing and answering questions. The 3 teens often went to the front of the classroom to present their survey. Geo group – Save TRN just loved a good challenge.