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Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

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^0 L A N D I N G 06manager facing each other, the policemen with their rifles uprightbetween their knees. Hanging on the back was the chaukidar who hadbeen cooking the rice. The sub-inspector revved the engine, put the jeepinto gear, and it shot forward. Away at last! The jeep lurched and therewas a grinding of gears. The sub-inspector did not seem to be much ofa driver, but who cared—we were off. He drove out of the compound,turned into the main street, which had the usual assortment of peopleand animals wandering along it, and set off for the forest. That’s whenwe got the result of all my impatience.The sub-inspector could hardly drive. We went around the corner fartoo fast, and with me crunched up against the sub-inspector he couldn’tget at the gear stick. He slapped my knee to get it out of the way, and Ilooked down. When I looked up we were just about to drive into someone.Time seems to stretch out forever when that kind of thing happens.I couldn’t believe we were not stopping or swerving, but we didn’t. Wejust got closer and closer and then ploughed into the man from behind.The body and off-white clothes of an Indian peasant crumpled and disappearedfrom view. There was a sickening softness to the jolting of thejeep. It seemed forever before the jeep finally stopped.A J A H N S U C I T T OWhump! I had landed. In front of me, a man’s body jerked back and thenforward and down under the impact from the jeep. The grating andgrinding of a body trapped between the jeep and the road skewered intomy mind for several long numb moments before we stopped; then wewere out of the cab in a scramble. The man casually walking along themain street a few seconds ago had become a moaning bloody heapdragged out from under the back of the jeep. Confused action; I tried toget closer, but the manager caught me with sad knowing eyes, tightenedhis mouth, and slowly shook his head. “No...better you go.” The policeclumsily picked the body up and loaded it in the back of the jeep, which2 4 9

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