A Nightmare

We were at a construction site in the hilly regions of Nepal. The hills were just like any other, swathes of green lush hills as far as the eye could see. They were parallel across each other for miles and miles with traces of small or significant rivers flowing in between them. You’d take a road and it would inevitably lead you down to the rivers and high up again to connecting hills. Our work had begun a few months ago, and we were laying a few miles of asphalt road. If you’ve ever seen a road being built on the hills of Nepal, you’d know that we required a lot of rocks and strong stones. Mining the proper rocks that would qualify was a challenging task, to say the least.Rocks and stones were on our minds for weeks now. Locals and officials required wooing to get the job done, as is the case with any large construction project. We were quartered atop a small hill from which we could see parts of the road we were working on, it was a good vantage point. Across our small hill was a larger hill that brought sunrise an hour earlier every day. Between us, a small river locals called Ghost River (Bhootkhola).

On my first day around the village, I’d learned that a few hills away, on more difficult terrains, there was a military camp that bordered our neighboring nation. They were there for the conservation of the lush green forests and also to guard the border zones of our nation. From what the locals told me, land disputes among villagers that lived near the border were a regular occurrence which didn’t take much to start. Someone would construct a cowshed, someone else would graze their cattle on the wrong side, and a dispute would begin, only to cool off just the way it began, abruptly. No one gave a lot of attention to the matter, except of course the people who claimed those lands to be theirs. As we continued on with our work, it only took me a few days to realize that select locals, so called local representatives held a lot of influence and power over others. Not from any position of authority but on the account of significant land ownership they had. As they say, the desire to own land never quits the heart of man, and this was a one such society where patriarchy prevailed. Getting our work done properly required us to talk to these men, and most of the time it would be like whispering to the wind. We needed large boulders and rocks that would gabion off the road and keep it from cascading down to the riverbed. We were on the lookout for any parts of land that we could lease to excavate and mine those stones from.

On the second day, I was warned by the locals not to wander around at night, for fear of wild animals. They were known to attack livestock every now and then. A week went by and began April, on the 7th night in the at around two, I heard thunderstorms and damned the rain if it may come. Rain at that stage would mean we would have to hold off our work for the duration, and that meant loss of capital and wasting a good day's work. In the morning, I headed to our local tea junction to start the day with fresh air and a good chat with a few locals we were planning to meet. Rain didn’t arrive but as soon as I met them I could feel a tense feeling and thought that we might be in for some hard negotiations about mining deals, but the matter being discussed was entirely different. They told me that there had been a dispute among the military in the night and that the thunderstorms heard were rounds of live ammunition. Nothing was mentioned of the reason why such a thing occurred, and in the void of nothingness, rumors will emerge. For days ahead People started talking about the military taking midnight drills; some mentioned that there must be a conflict and something bloody must have happened, others were inclined to believe that distant villagers and the military were often at clash with each other and finally, this was the last stroke. No one knew for certain what happened, and we thought it best to ask our officials who were supervising the road project. They were aware of what happened during the night, but no one had made calls to them about the incident. They were quick to mention that since they didn’t know what had happened, the matter mustn't be serious. I did not believe them. The real clue came three days later on a Saturday morning, we saw hundreds of military trucks roll by the town square. Everyone at that sight became aware that this was not a small local dispute or a matter of military drill. A day later, military vehicles with PA systems showed up asking locals not to approach the conservation area until further notice. Upon being asked why, no answer came. Our entire crew of workers got spooked and took the message to be a bad omen. On a construction site, bad omens are like the flu; everyone is affected and incapacitated by it. Some of them wanted to leave the workplace and demanded their accounts to be settled so they could get as far away from the place as possible. Our construction team held a meeting and to assure our workers we asked them to give us a day or two to figure out what was really going on and how worried we should be.The day passed by and we were certain that if there is anything to be informed about, the officials would be informed by the morning.

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Waking up the next morning,  two of us prepared ourselves as fast as we could and headed out, towards our tea point. Someone there ought to know something. It took us fifteen minutes to reach the place. After reaching the homes on the edge of town, we realized something was off. Hurriedly we made our way past a few streets and turned to the corner where the market would begin and our destination lay. To our shock, we realized that we were the only people out and about. The cafe was closed, at a distance, we saw some people on rooftops doing some chores. The place usually would be beaming with people shopping and making their way to work or waiting for long-distance buses. Today it has turned to a desert of homes. An eerie feeling of being watched came over us, even though all was still around us, we could sense that we were being observed with interest. Maybe it was the townsfolk thinking that we brought some much-awaited news, we didn’t. Not being able to witness the calm, we hurried back to our place to talk to the others. We tried calling them, but there were no cell phone signals, which only made us pace faster. We got back and told the others what we saw. I don’t really remember how we spent the day, some of us slept, some talked about what-ifs and hows. The next day, the network was back again, and we called ahead to see if everything was back to normal. It was they said, and outside you could see familiar faces, even though the faces had a little uneasiness about them. It seemed like you both knew a secret that you couldn’t talk to each other about. Apparently, as soon as the networks were back on, the mayor had had made about a dozens calls to locals informing them that nothing was wrong and to go about their days as usual. Exactly why everyone decided to stay home yesterday, none could tell. Maybe it was mass hysteria from the events that were taking place, but it only took a few calls to turn them around. We decided to let the workers off for a day and asked them to start the the first thing tomorrow morning. We ourselves made way to a river basin where we would enjoy a cool bath.

By 8 the next morning, the place was running, and we had to cover for two days worth of work. Two weeks went by, and clouds started looming over, everyone expected rain, in the middle of May. On the night of the 12th, heavy rainfall covered the place, it poured down for 3 days. Unable to wait through the rain, we visited the tea shop on the 3rd evening. The air was fresh, light drizzle allowed the road to at least be walkable, and within 20 minutes, we were sipping hot tea, hoping the rain would stop. The clouds were masses of gray giants that would cover entire nations if need be; this was just a small country town. We only had hope as our excuse against them.

The next day, the sun came blazing over the horizon, and alas, we saw clear blue skies. Marching onto the town on muddy roads, we were glad that the clouds had gone, and we could resume our work once again. As soon as we reached the town center, a noise we hadn’t heard before tore away our vision, and we were looking up, as was everyone around. The largest plane I ever looked upon was traveling overhead. Gray, we assumed, were colors of the military; besides, there was nothing about it that would suggest it to be a commercial airliner. It went out of sight within a minute. Wondering if it might be related to all the other incidents that have been happening, we drank our tea and headed towards our site. A few hours later, I came across an online news article about the plane. It was diverted towards our borders by malfunctioning radar technology of our neighbors and was already diverted back to home base an hour ago. In the middle of the day, across our hill, we saw a lot of traffic movement. Usually, the road would only have a dozen route buses, but today, a dozen passed by each minute. We went back to our work. Evening came around, and we headed back to our rooms, discussing what to cook for the night. A local was waiting to talk to us; he wanted to inform us of a rock query that might be available for us to use. Absent-mindedly, I asked him why there was so much traffic on the opposite hillside today. He told me that when the highway was obstructed for some reason, the traffic would be diverted from there, and that was probably the reason. After dinner, I sat outside with my friends looking onto the clear sky with traces of clouds forming here and there. The sight of stars on a clear night like this would be rare in cities from where we came.

                                                                                    

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The next day went on as usual, and by 9, we were well-fed and sitting by the gabion walls our team had just put up. The traffic across on the other hill seemed to grow by the hour; I wondered what might have caused the diversion. The sun was scorching the land by noon, and we decided to take a break. Just as the work had stopped, a loud thump echoed through the hills, and birds and people alike started making wild noises. Across us, a large plume of smoke covered the roads where the traffic was congested; horrified, our workers got on their knees and started to pray. Their utterances brought others to tears, and we looked in shock as to what might have happened. A minute passed by, and to our horror, we saw the hill move just below the roads where people were gathered to see the sight of the explosion. Suddenly, as if pushed off by a force, a large segment of the road came crashing down, dust and screams filled the air. The explosion had caused a landslide, and we were witnessing everything from afar, our eyes closed from disbelief. The sound of boulders falling deafened our ears; the disaster would now only result in casualties and rescue effort. After the dust settled, what we saw as the road in days prior was no longer visible, only bare sand and stone remained; the hill was reduced to almost half its original height. We frantically called for emergency services.