The Himalayan Guardian

Sri Rama Chandra is a devotee of Lord Shiva. He gets up at 4:00 a.m. every morning. After morning ablutions, he puts on vibhuti on his forehead and shoulders. He does abhiseka to the Shiva linga, puts vibhuti and flowers to the Lord, and sits in padmasana before the Shiva linga for meditation in his room. He chants ‘Om Namah Shivayah’ 108 times with his Rudraksha mala and meditates for forty-five minutes. He closes by offering prayers to Lord Shiva.

After the meditation, he takes tea, opens his laptop, looks at WhatsApp messages, and sends birthday and wedding day greetings to friends and relations. He prays for the deceased to rest in peace and sends his sincere condolences to the family members.

He then opens the mailbox and reviews messages from office higher-ups, friends, and banks. 

He goes through the SMS messages on his smart mobile and forwards them if necessary.

 He then contacts his subordinates and issues instructions on the urgent work that day to be completed and presented to him in the afternoon. He checks his scheduled meetings with other organisations on that day.

His work is often on a laptop or mobile voice/video call rather than meeting people personally; otherwise, he uses WhatsApp or e-mail messages.

He gets ready for the office wearing a half shirt with one packet and pants stitched by a tailor, a bit loose for his body shape requirements. Sri Rama Chandra is 5 ft—6 inches high, average-built, and brownish.

 He drives his car to the office.

*

His wife, Sandhya Sri, readies breakfast on the dining table. While having breakfast, he discusses the groceries, vegetables, and fruits to be brought while coming home from the office. By this time, Sandhya Sri will keep his lunch box ready.  

The apartment watchman cleans the car’s dust with a wet cloth. Sri Rama Chandra picks up his lunch box, bids bye to his wife goes down to the stilt floor and starts the car to go to the office.

*

Sri Rama Chandra is an officer in a well-known tourist organisation in the state capital. He is known for developing devotional tourism in the organisation. He is interested in covering old temples built by the kings and their surroundings in the state so that tourists can experience peace and tranquillity.

Indian tourist organisations considered developing devotional tourism in the country. They wanted to study tourist places in Nepal and plan various tours to Nepal to attract more tourists from India. Nepal is a small country in the Himalayan region with a Hindu majority followed by Buddhism. There are 400 temples in the country built by Kings. The topography is primarily hilly and mountainous. The world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, is located in Nepal. The hilly region has dense forests.

Nepal’s temples are Hindu temples, and most tourists are from India. Nepal’s tourist organisations encouraged these Indian tourism organisations, thinking their visit would help improve the tourism industry.

 It was a ten-member team. Sri Rama Chandra was added because of his experience developing temple tourism. They decided on a date to fly from New Delhi. Flight tickets to Nepal were booked from  New Delhi so that all could meet and join together for the ongoing trip to Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. The list of members, their organisation, and contact numbers were supplied to all the members.

*

The members introduced themselves to each other in the hotel the day before departure. Their flight was at 7 a.m. from New Delhi airport, and they were there by 5 a.m. As it was a weekday-long trip, they had checked in baggage. After the check-in formalities, they were issued boarding passes and had breakfast and coffee at the airport restaurant.

They waited at the boarding gate for about half an hour and were taken by a bus to the flight to board the flight. The flight was on time. The pilot was an experienced one. The crew helped people put their cabin baggage in the overhead bin and sit in their seats. All the passengers fastened their seat belts, put their mobiles on flight mode, and listened to the crew’s instructions regarding the aisle, toilets, emergency doors, etc. The direct flight travel to Kathmandu was a two-hour journey. The crew served tea/coffee to the required passengers. All these ten people had coffee. They got seats in two rows. 

*

They were enjoying the flight travel, some looking from the windows. As the flight reached the Himalayan region, there was a sudden climate change, and it started raining heavily. The pilot could not see any further and tried to contact ground control in Delhi or Kathmandu. Both the ground stations were inaccessible, and the flight got cut off from the ground control. The pilot informed the passengers that the flight got into trouble with the weather change and that he was trying his best. He started to bring down the flight to find a plain area to land the flight. He could not find a plain area.

As the pilot lost visibility, his manoeuvring flight became difficult. He was in a dilemma about going up or down without visibility of the terrain. In the process, the aeroplane hit a mountain and crashed, and its fuel caught fire, engulfing all passengers within the plane. The passengers and the crew were crying and begging for help. It was dark, and heavy downpours were raging in the mountainous region with forestry. All the skeletons of burnt men and women were in their seats. After a few minutes, the skeletons and the plane parts were thrown hither and thither with the heavy wind blowing. The flames subsided with the rain. The passenger’s dress and body parts were burnt in the fire, and the wind flew them to distant places. With the heavy rain and wind,  the ice from the upper mountains slid below and covered all the parts of men, women and aeroplanes.

*

When the aeroplane hit the mountain, Sri Rama Chandra was standing to answer nature calls when the pilot announced flight trouble. The crew asked him to sit in the seat, but he was going to the washroom. When the flight hit the mountain, he was forcefully thrown out through its broken part. The wind blew him in the downpour, and he got stuck on a tree branch with plenty of leaves and got hold of it. He had scratches on his body with significant injuries. He clutched onto the branch and stayed there till the wind and rain subsided and there was sunshine. The clear weather in the Himalayas took two days and two nights.

He came down the tree and searched for his friends. The area was icy; neither his friends nor other passengers could be traced. No parts of the aeroplane could be found within visible distances. He was weak and without any food for all these two days. He searched for some fruits, found some, ate them, and drank ice water. He was tired of his fate, not knowing what to do. He was chanting ‘Om Namah Shivayah” and ‘Jai Hanuman’. He lost his purse and mobile in the wind. He had a torn-out shirt and pants on his body. His shirt and pants were torn off due to the heavy wind and the tree branches rubbing against his shirt and pants.

 No one could be found in the visible distance, neither human nor animal. He thought only God could help him out of this situation. He was chanting ‘Om Namah Shivayah’. Sitting on ice made him shiver, so he chose a tree to sit and chant. The tree had fruits to eat. It went on like this for two more days. He lost hope of getting help from ground control and of life.

* 

When it was raining, he did not feel that chill. Once the rain stopped, he started to feel the chill of the low-temperature effect of the Himalayan region. Unable to bear the low-temperature effect, he searched for a safe place, found a cave, entered it, chanting ‘Om Namah Shivayah’ and fell on the ground, unable to walk further.

A gigantic supernatural personality, neither a human nor an animal, heard the sound of a fall from inside the cave. The Supernatural personality lifted Sri Rama Chandra with his hands and took him inside the cave, where the temperature was average. The supernatural personality covered him with dry leaves to warm his body.

The supernatural personality(SNP) was twelve feet tall, with hair covering all over the body. The figure had two hands parting at the wrist of the forearm. With matching fingers, the palms were more than a foot in length and breadth. The SNP had two foot opposite one another at the ankle on each leg. The feet were comparable in size to those of the hands. The face was two feet X two feet, and the hair was black. The eyes were big, round-shaped,  placed at the corners of the head and projected out of the face so he could see 180 degrees on either side.

The nose was wide at the nostrils, and the mouth was equally broad. The ears were big and projecting out, covered with hair. The long, undressed hair was like the roots of a banian tree growing down, twisted from the head and falling on the back below the waist.

 When Sri Rama Chandra opened his eyes, he was terrified; SNP signalled with his forefinger on his mouth to keep mum. He tried to escape but could not move due to weakness. SNP put the two palms of his hands, one on his cheek and the other on his shoulder, and patted not to fear. With this care, Sri Rama Chandra gained confidence and sat and bowed with folded hands. SNP lifted and hugged him and showed his right hand from left to right and his fist with the thumb upwards, bent towards his heart, assuring him of his support and blessed with his hands not to fear. Sri Rama Chandra chanted ‘Om Namah Shivayah’ to overcome fear. SNP began to dance to this chant.  

With this dance, he increased the pitch of the chant. They both enjoyed chanting and dancing for an hour.

 After the dance, SNP  gave him fruits to eat. In return, Sri Rama Chandra offered him one of his fruits to eat. SNP showed his abdomen and moved his hand right and left, indicating that he does not eat anything. He also showed his two fingers up and down towards his nostrils, as if SNP was living on breath alone, and he took his hands wide twice and clubbed them and showed upwards to thank the Almighty the God. With this, Sri Rama Chandra understood that he was a Supernatural being and bowed before him. SNP lifted him, hugged him, and with his forefinger signalled down thrice, indicating farther away. He understood that SNP was trying to tell him he would be sent to his place and thanked him with folded hands. He now knew that SNP could save him from the trouble of being stranded in the ice-laden, chilly weather of the Himalayan region.

*

Delhi airport officials and the Kathmandu air base officials were worried about losing contact with the Kathmandu-bound aeroplane.

 Delhi Airport officials informed higher authorities about the missing plane and convened an urgent meeting of the concerned officials. The pilot’s last call, recorded at the Delhi Airport ground control station, was when the flight was nearing the Himalayas. The pilot said he lost direction due to cloudy weather and a heavy downpour. After that, the flight lost its contacts, though the airport officials made fervent efforts.

 The higher-ups decided to send an Air Force Helicopter in search of the missing plane and passengers. The helicopter returned because the weather did not permit it. The search continued for three days. On the fourth day, they tried to search for the remnants of the flight. They could not locate any part or person.

The press and electronic media received information about the missing plane, published with headlines in the next day’s newspapers. The electronic media carried reports on the same in the news updates from morning until night. They gave details of earlier missing flights and the number of deaths. They interviewed the family members of the passengers. The WhatsApp groups circulated related messages.

The passengers’ family members and office colleagues made flustered calls regarding the welfare of the passengers on the flight. They were all anxious and made fervent calls. The airport authorities could not answer them as they had no information except search operations were in progress.

*

At home, Sri Rama Chandra’s wife,  Sandhya Sri, started praying to Lord Shiva and fasting for her husband’s welfare and safe return, though her mother and children were against fasting. She was drinking only water. The TV people knew of it and started coming to Sri Rama Chandra’s house to take pictures of  Sandhya Sri, her mother, and her children and conduct interviews.   Sandhya Sri’s mother, aged 65, was critical of the flight organisation and the airport authorities in handling the issue.

The Air Force authorities got clearance for weather and started the search operations from the point where the Kathmandu flight’s communication was cut off. The helicopter pilot gave information minute after minute, as they could not find any traces of the aeroplane or the passengers. The helicopter pilot went deep into the Himalayan range without any trace of the flight parts, passengers, or baggage as they were covered with ice.

 SNP heard the sound of the helicopter and pointed out to Sri Rama Chandra’s ears to listen. Then, he took him out of the cave and showed him the flying helicopter. He removed  Sri Rama Chandra’s torn-out shirt and flew it to attract the pilot’s attention. On seeing a human, the helicopter pilot lowered but could not land due to the topography of the Himalayas. He threw down a rope ladder, which was very high in the air and inaccessible. At this juncture, SNP lifted and put him on his back, flew, pushing the air down with his four feet and four hands to the ladder, and handed it to him to climb. Sri Rama Chandra went into the helicopter and turned to thank SNP. To his surprise, he could not find SNP or the cave.

The people in the helicopter were surprised at how he could catch hold of the ladder at such a height. They did not see anyone helping him. Sri Rama Chandra thought Lord Shiva had come to help in his distressing times. He started chanting ‘Om Namah Shivayah’.

The helicopter pilot searched further into that area and could not locate any traces of the aeroplane or the passengers, so he returned to Delhi Airbase.

Sri Rama Chandra was given a hero’s welcome, as he was the only one who survived the aeroplane crash.

 Sandhya Sri thanked Lord Shiva for listening to her prayers and ended the fast with her husband offering lemon water.

After a week, both flew to Varanasi to have Darshan, pray to Lord Kaashi Vishwanatha, and thank the Lord for saving Sri Rama Chandra.

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