Next morning Manish and I set out for my much awaited, self-hyped adventure. It was 7am in the morning when we left our hostel with a backpack with mainly water bottles, a cake and some corn-flakes; basically all that we could gather from our rooms. We reached the exit gate of our township, beyond which was a highway and right across were some villages, with our target hills in the backdrop. We confirmed with the gatekeeper if it was safe to trek them up. I don’t know if he understood us correctly, but he directed us to the same reservoir we had earlier been advised about.
So here we walked taking the village kuchcha roads. We came across a few villagers and Manish joined his hands to say “Namaste”. On God! That was both embarrassing and funny, making us look like some silly foreigners who would Namaste every passer-by. We finally diverted to reach the much recommended reservoir. It was pretty, but not what we had come for. We walked up the low hills, while the sun shone bright in the clear sky. There were interesting rocky cliffs; one, as pointed out by Manish, looked like the ‘The Lion King’ cliff. It was getting sunnier and the climb up these lower hills kept us panting, sweating, but yet breathing a fresh, clean and cool air emerging out of the forests ahead. Manish wanted to climb this giant hill in the backdrop, but I wasn’t even sure if we would be able to reach the foothills of the big one. So I suggested that we first climb up the peak-point of these low hills from where we could assess the distance and route to the big one. 
To our surprise we never reached any highest point from where we could look far and below. Instead, we reached a T-junction of a trodden path, and decided to take the one that looked like heading towards our target hills. And so, even before we could realize we were already walking downwards. The path was getting thinner; our mobile phone network was falling; and somewhere within I was getting a little scared…All types of wild grass and tree branches had started closing in on us. The sunlight, very bright a few minutes ago, had started to scatter. And few minutes later, we reached a diversion in the path we had stuck to. One of the paths appeared broader and cleaner which meant the human movement on it was frequent; while the other was thin, really thin, mostly because of the grass that had grown on and over it; what that meant was quite obvious. But at this point Manish demanded some excitement and there we took up the latter. Jumping and hopping over the wild grasses that were now scratching my legs (I was in a pair of shorts!), we went on and on.
Few minutes later, we crossed the rivulet and started walking. This time around I had picked up a thick stick as a precautionary measure against any unexpected passer-by. (I knew it was breakfast time, I was hungry too. But I did not want to be on the menu!!). Struggling through the tall grasses and branches, we were bravely fighting our way through them. All of a sudden we walked into an open area, not something we could rejoice about. I was shell-shocked! Manish looked at me for a hidden signal on “What now!!” There was a tribal man standing there, wearing only a small 'dhoti' sort of thing. He had an axe in one hand and, what appeared to me from distance, a rifle on the shoulder… I didn’t know what to do, and we spent a few seconds of silence staring at each other. So just trying to break the silence and appear harmless, I asked innocently, “Bhai, kya hum aage jaa sakte hain?” to which he replied “Jaiye naa!”. So we moved ahead. While bypassing him I confirmed that what hanged on his shoulder was anything but a rifle. But yet, I could not convince myself that there was no possibility of his connections with the Naxalites. What if that “Jaiye naa!” was filled with sarcasm!!
But we had not decided to stop as yet. Now that we were here, we were to climb it. But it was easier thought than done. The path had completely vanished by now. The trees were dripping water. The scattered sunlight that hit us occasionally would go away if we moved ahead. But guess what! We did. Only this time, I asked Manish to find a thick stick too. And the climb began.
To avoid losing our direction on the way back, I started making crosses on the rocks that came our way. The climb had become steeper, while we had to pull ourselves up the rocks. There were bamboo grasses around us, and from what I had heard, pretty good chance that even some snakes like cobra would be in the vicinity. We kept warning each other to be careful. In between we kept arguing if we should talk loud or not. I believed talking loud would keep away any animals, while Manish thought it would attract unnecessary attention.
And suddenly, we were stunned at the sound of something moving behind the trees. Manish claims that he saw something in brown there. We stared at each other trying to figure out what it was. Until then we had demonstrated enough courage trekking up all the way, but to go ahead to discover what stood behind those trees seemed foolish. We were just two of us, and heavily under-equipped with just a stick in hand. We wouldn’t even be able to run in that dense jungle if required. Manish asked in a hushed voice, “Kya karna hai?” pat came my reply, “Waapas chal”.
And then there was no looking back. We walked; in fact, we walked faster on the way back. Crossing the place we had rested, crossing the rivulet (while I tripped over a pebble!), loving the sun-rays falling on us, we finally reached the diversion where we had chosen to reject the frequently trodden track. We came across 2 men going to some village, who advised us to go there only in the mornings after 7am, when the sun is shining bright, as the bear sightings were frequent otherwise. They also advised us to carry a small weapon while venturing into that forest.
To tell you the truth, I was more scared of humans than any animal. As Manish puts it, 90% of the time an animal would run away on spotting humans. There can still be some ways to escape their attack. But what if you come face-to-face with a naxalite in their area! Do you run; do you climb trees; what do you do? May be just beg for your life. In the real world, one who has the gun has the power. The hype around Chhattisgarh being a disturbed belt, with naxals and the like residing under the cover of these majestic forests has killed the tourism of this beautiful state.
In hindsight it was awesome fun going on an unplanned hardly trodden trek. What was missing was a good quality camera.
It was 10 a.m. while we came out of the forest. As a bonus we were ready for a well deserved hearty breakfast, even though a curiosity to know what hid behind those trees, that we missed, will always remain.
