It’s our guide.’
‘Our guide. He is making this sound to call us.’ Silvia spoke in anticipation
We stood in silence and heard it again but could not pinpoint the direction
Neither I nor Aakash knew much about birds but there was nothing to lose
So, we rushed back to the edge with no other option from which to choose
No one knew any bird call and shouting in our voice seemed outright risky
‘But if we do not reply, he might just go away.' Silvia was getting panicky
I clenched my fists, took a deep breath and summoned all my fears to shout
‘HELPPPPP … PPP’, out came a call that reached everyone beyond doubt
We heard a faint voice, ‘Madam, where are you?’ tailed by a nervous encore
‘We are here.’ We shouted back, with a joy that we had never known before
What seemed to be just a dream a few minutes ago was in front of our eyes
Our guide was alive and walking straight towards us like an angel in disguise
‘Don’t worry. They do not come to this side.’ Prakash now led, with us in tow
‘But where were you? How did you escape?’ We were all impatient to know
‘When I saw that the elephant was about to crush you, I rushed to the pool
Taking off my ruck sack, I waved at them hastily so that they lose their cool
‘Distracted and irritated, he decided to let go of you and chase me instead
His companion also joined him in this.’ We hung on to each word with dread
Prakash continued, ‘I ran in the opposite direction for almost a kilometer.
And finally was out of their territory so they gave up the chase for the better
Then I took a circuitous route to come back to the spot where it had started'
He was smiling feebly, knowing well, how close an escape we had charted
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