ADVENTURE ON
TAKLADWEEP
ADVENTURE ON
TAKLADWEEP
Arundati Dandapani
Srishti
P UBLISHERS & D ISTRIBUTORS
SRISHTI P UBLISHERS & D ISTRIBUTORS
64-A, Adhchini
Sri Aurobindo Marg
New Delhi 110 017
Copyright Arundati Dandapani 2002
First published in 2002 by
Srishti Publishers Distributors
ISBN 81-87075-97-X
Rs. 95.00
Cover & inside illustrations by Vikram Nayak
Printed and bound in India by
YUGEEN PRINTERS
B-52, sector 8, Noida-201301
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or other wise,
without the prior written permission of the Publisher.
Acknowledgements
A whole lot of people have helped my first book see the light of this day, and I would like to extend my thanks to them:
Mrs Suparna Sen for sowing the seed of inspiration through an English assignment. Something inspired me to be different and my answer took the form of a 1000 words supense story instead of what I felt was a 100 words boring essay! She gave me excellent grades, and appreciated my flair for creativity. Of course with all this she did add a slight caution to stick to the CBSEs prescribed pattern!
Mrs Rupa Chatterjee, Ms, Meenakshi Chaba, Mrs Neelam Sharma, Mrs Mani Shankara, Mrs NL Puri, Mrs Alka Khanna, Ms Gayatri Balasubram aniam, and Ms Mary Mekhla who helped in molding me through different stages of my growing up, and lauding me for every attempt at creative statement. Mrs Gowri Ishwaran , for setting a wonderful example, and imparting beautiful values with a view to progressive living. My present schoolteachers at Sanskriti too are to be thanked.
My Grandpa , who supplied me the key word Srishti, sitting in Bangalore!
I feel it only complete to make a mention here of how I followed up on that one with the Yellow pages by my bedside. There were about twenty listed Srishtis and it took me nineteen wrong numbers all in one sitting to finally get to Srishti Publishers. Srishti Publishers who accepted my work inspite of my being a child author. In fact when I submitted my collection of stories to the publisher who gave me prompt and valuable feedback. It was his idea to expand the 1000 words story into a 15,000 words novel. And so I did make it to 24,000 words with support from him and his team at every stage.
Mom , my first personal reader and critic. Of course there were times when I would sit up late at night in the worst of moods, and she would humour me over pots of coffee and bags of popcorn!
My ever ready Dad who got reams and reams of print outs, whenever I needed any.
My friends, whom I would call my first, public analysts; they patiently flipped through the pages of my book and gave me precious feedback: Eshita Jayaswal, Rohit Jain in its initial stages and Aditi Gopalakrishnan, Kairtik Nair in its final published version.
And should I thank the World Wide Web for being the best and the most convenient source of my research study?
Foreword
I remember the day I announced to the neighborhood, my plans of stealing the Kohinoor from the Tower of London with a friend. We planned meticulously, not leaving out the minutest details from buying wigs to tasting beef and pork!
Instead of smirking at the impossible, my teachers and parents helped foster these creative inflows with pure encouragement. Everything proceeded smoothly till it came to financing the actual air tickets to London! This eventually did materialize three years later, the gap being enough to make me crazed with other important plans ... and one of them was to write a book. Finally I did it!
ADVENTURE ON TAKLADWEEP
Bomb Threat? A forced landing ... on an unknown island by the name Takladweep. Its mysterious owner with pots of wealth ... his extravagant parties ...
When twelve year old Nikhil is sent alone for the first time aboard Bharat Airlines, he is caught up amidst a circle of peculiar grown ups each with their unique habits ... From the pleasant, refreshingly beautiful airhostess, to the affable middle aged businessman, the giggly gang of four seventeen year olds enchanted with the fascinating Linda Rathee and her quiet humble husband Desmond, the Punjabi boys and their socially conscious Gul didi ...
Almost everybody looks attractive from the outside. But as people begin to settle down, secrets start unfolding, and many truths are revealed. The truth behind the unexpected stopover, concealed identity of B.B.S., a long dead classmate and a perpetually puzzled Rahul Uncle ...
Are the Takladweep tribes able to coexist with the sudden disruption of two hundred and fifty city people all on one island? An island which hasnt been exposed to the public eye in many many years?
Read on to find out more ...
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter
L adies and Gentlemen! Please fasten your seat belts. There has been a slight change in our schedule for we have just received information from the Air Traffic Control about a security lapse before take-off at the Delhi airport. Bharat Airlines flight BT646 traveling from Delhi to Sydney via Bangkok might now have to make an emergency landing. We need to land within the next half-hour. But please do not panic or worry. We have help reaching us as soon as we touch down. We might have to halt for a couple of days on an island called Takladweep, till our experts from Mumbai are sent in. This would require your cooperation ...
After this announcement rumours spread at lightening speed ... Hijack? Explosion?
A quiet descended upon the passengers of the Bharat Airlines flight, as Capt. Pande continued gently, a few more instructions and standard details like the temperature outside. He finally expressed his apologies.
Everybody started talking all at once. The passengers took no trouble to hide their irritation and anxiety. In the middle of this disgruntlement, Linda Rathee broke out all flushed and excited, TAKLADWEEP! My heart will go on ... Her annoyed husband pulled at her ponytail to quieten her. The lady squealed and recovered a moment later to comment in a completely different tone, Arrre! But Ive got to attend an important conference in Bangkok.
Aye Hai! You mean, on a desolate stretch of land for three whole days! complained another grumpy old man.
There, were more such protests from the passengers around. The airhostesses and flight bursars lent them a sympathetic ear. And most people soon calmed down.
Heaven on Earth! This had been the fourth time adventure was crossing my path during air travel, and I had almost started considering it an evil omen not bringing along Riya and the children, for my overseas business trips.
