Our adventure in Hatgad Fort
During the Diwali vacations my friends Nandini, Gauri, Arjun and I told our parents that together all of us should go on a driving holiday. So, my father suggested Hatgad, on the Gujarat Maharashtra border. Everyone agreed to a 4-day trip. Who knew it would be one of the most exciting times in our lives?
We left early in two vehicles, my dad’s Jeep Compass and Sanjay Uncles’ (Nandini’s dad) MG Hector. After a fun drive and a delicious breakfast en route, we finally reached Hatgad. Our resort was located right at the base of the hill that had a fort atop it.
I was the most daring among us wanted to trek up the hill to the fort right away. However, my mother mentioned the legend of the “haunting of the hill” by an evil spirit resident within the fort. Immediately we were all dissuaded and decided to defer the fort trek for later. We all were hungry and wanted to gorge on the scrumptious buffet lunch.
After lunch we played air hockey, chess, and table tennis in the recreation/ gaming room. We decided in we would leave early the next morning for a trek up the hill. It would be cool and pleasant, and we could avoid the hot afternoon sun.
Nandini however, was worried about the supernatural elements who might attack us. “What happens if they jump out at us?”, she chirped. Arjun responded with his usual confidence, “we will be fine Nandini. All of us know how to defend ourselves. We have a Karate Brown and Green Belt among us, and I have been practising my Taekwondo of late.” Gauri too nodded in agreement.
The next morning, we carried maps, compasses, magnifying glasses, torches, cell phones (Gauri had one), juice cartons, water bottles, biscuits, jackets and of course a first aid kit in our backpacks. We were sure our tired parents would be up late for a leisurely breakfast, by when we would be back already.
When we went out of the resort and were near the fort, we saw shadows of pillars of the fort. The pillars were crooked in its shadows. Then there was bit of fog it was quite eerie, so we got frightened, but we kept on going. Then in the shadows something was moving but before we could speak it vanished. We went after it. But to our great surprise it was only a goat. What a disappointment!
While we were walking up, we heard three voices of men?! We decided to go back but Gauri’s alarm on the cell phone alerted those men. One of them yelled “Get those kids!” angrily. We ran for our lives, but they caught up with us. Arjun and l were about to kick one of them, but someone must have hit us on the head, and we blacked out.
It took some time to come to our senses but when we did the four of us were trapped in a small room. Ropes were tied on our hands and tape was on our mouths. Nandini was muttering something. I looked around the room and saw a sharp rock. Using my legs, I moved the rock towards my hands. I was sliding the rope against the rock until I heard it snap. After I wriggled my hands out of the rope, I took out my piece of tape and using a penknife I quickly cut the other’s ropes. We saw that our backpacks were kept beside us. We picked them up and then we tried to open the door, but it was locked. Gauri knew how to pick locks. Using her hairpin, she picked the lock. We heard the men snoring, so we ran for our lives.
We ran inside the fort, and we took shelter in an old house. In the house we found a box inside it was an old Pali manuscript (an ancient language of the common man in India). When I saw it, I recognized it! It was the manuscript of Hatagargiri. It had been lost for centuries and we found it! Gauri put it in her backpack. Then we were running without stopping until we reached the gate. Outside the gate there were policemen, our parents must have called the police when they did not find us. We told on of the historians accompanying the officers the story. He was overjoyed when we found the manuscript of Hatagargiri. We gave it to him, and we proved that the fort wasn’t haunted. Officer Rajesh asked us where the kidnappers were. We took him there and the officer captured the men. He said that they were the notorious criminals Bonda Dada, Sapa Sidi and Hangiri. The police were looking for them for two years. They took us back to the resort where our parents were waiting for us. When our parents saw us, they were overjoyed. Soon the news spread around the village, and we had a feast of all kinds of goodies. We got free entry to the pool for the next three days.