Book Description

It all happened in mid-June, 2013. The nature’s fury had broken loose in Kedarnath valley………….. Excerpts from the book:- …….It didn’t take long for nature to reveal its frightening designs. It was indeed a natural calamity, but, a manmade disaster too. The sudden blackening of the blue sky, which Inder had witnessed, was caused by a cloud burst over the Chorabali Tal, situated at the height of 14,000ft, four km. from the Kedarnath temple…… It remains blanketed throughout the year with snow white flakes. The clouds poured – god knows how many thousand cusecs of water- into the lake. Consequently the walls of the lake could no longer withstand the water pressure and were breached at several points, releasing a huge water jinn which tore apart whatever tried to block it. And then …when no shackle was left to constrain it, the jinn was free to wreak havoc upon the lives of the people…. …….Chetak again raised its two bleeding forelimbs to hit the attacker. But by that fraction of a second the war was lost and won. The poor dog tried to bark. But its neck was stifled between the leopard’s two sets of teeth. The hapless creature could not make even a final cry. Blood was oozing from its throat. The black brown hairs of the neck gradually became crimson. ……..The birds had returned to their nests. They were chirping all around. The leaves of the kafol tree were fluttering in the evening breeze and emanating the sound like ankle-bells. The temple bells were ringing. Standing on the ramparts of heaven, with silver peak railings on the sides, the not so bright moon was smiling and peeking through the fluttering leaves of the peepal tree in front of their house. The heaven and earth extended a warm welcome to the long lost son of the family. The sky above Himalaya was bathed in a crimson red hue.