PROLOGUE RISING WATER The man-eater of Pench had been moving restlessly for the past four days. He was a magnificent specimen of his species, and one of the few remaining tigers in the forest. He weighed in at almost 250 kilograms, and mea... [More]

PART ONE THE PLAYERS Chapter I The students were all gathered in a huddle in front of the main Notice board located in the central Lobby of the St. Aloysius College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Jabalpur. There were some f... [More]

Chapter II Rati lay staring at the ceiling in her room as she twiddled her hands around the little brown envelope that she held in both her hands. A tear coursed down her cheek as she lifted her hands and looked at the front of the envelope in... [More]

Chapter III Sundeep was in the thick of football action when his friend Yash waved to him from the sidelines. Yash had his hand up in the air and was holding a mobile phone and gesturing to him. Sundeep, a.k.a. Sunny to his friends, was a h... [More]

“So, how is the plan coming along?” The teacher mopped some more sweat from the forehead. The voice at the other end of the telephone was demanding and sounded very angry. The teacher feared that the person at the other end might carry out his thr... [More]

Chapter V The students had all gathered in the Assembly Hall and awaited the arrival of their Principal and his staff. This was supposed to be a meeting for all those who had given their names and subscriptions to join the picnic. The students... [More]

Chapter VI Pre-monsoon showers in the Pench area fell between the 10th and 15th of June and converted a large part of the National park into a lush green carpet. Wandering tourists were caught unawares by the lashing rain, but were happy nonet... [More]

Chapter VII It was Sunday, the 23rd of June. The Durgadevi Mittal Outdoor Sports and Recreation Stadium situated just in front of the Mission School in Jabalpur was full of spectators on the morning of this day. After all, St. Aloysius was to ... [More]

PART TWO THE DRAMA Chapter VIII Day Zero July 29th was a mist-covered morning in Jabalpur. It had rained in the night and the roads were wet. The temperature was in the 20’s, and humidity was nearly 65%, causing the stu... [More]

Chapter IX The change in the weather over the last three or four days had made Rising Water increasingly uncomfortable and hungry. He killed a chinkara that strayed into his path on the morning of Thursday, and by Friday morning, he had f... [More]

Chapter X The buses reached the main tourist entrance of Pench National Park at around 10:35 a.m. They had covered a distance of over 100 kilometres in just over 2 ½ hours, a remarkable feat, the overcast sky, intermittent rain and some... [More]

Chapter XI Fr. Anthony Mascarenhas had never, in his entire life, seen or confronted so many bad people as he had today. He was at a loss to decide what needed to be done to send these … these goons away and to make the students … his stud... [More]

Chapter XII A wave of palpable shock ran through the crowd as the news of the death of their Principal spread through them like wild fire. The first emotion was soon replaced by sounds of denial and then, predictably, anger. Some of the stu... [More]

Chapter XIII This was a heavy downpour. In a matter of just ten minutes, there was water-logging in and around the area of the Reserve offices. The teachers were imploring the students to proceed towards the buses for their journey out of th... [More]

Chapter XIV For almost 30-40 minutes the water carried the boys and girls farther and farther out into the jungle. Almost all of them except Nazima knew a bit of swimming, but none was an expert, so that they kept swallowing water along the ... [More]

Chapter XV Day One Nanda opened her eyes to a dawn sky with fading stars. It was raining even now, though not as strongly as it had rained the previous evening. It took her a few moments to realize that she was in the wilderness. She tr... [More]

Chapter XVI Chand and Seeta lay very close to each other throughout the night without knowing it. When Chand came to, it was a bright and sunny morning. He realized that Seeta lay next to him and she was still lost to the world. Is s... [More]

Chapter XVII The search and rescue team started from Seoni at a little after eight a.m. There were at least thirty policemen in the team. They were equipped to tackle all possible adverse circumstances such as heavy rain, attacks from pred... [More]

Chapter XVIII “I definitely heard a human scream,” said Bhairavi to Muhammad. The two of them had met up with each other just half an hour ago. Both of them had discovered that they were in good shape. They had each come to their senses ... [More]

Chapter XIX Rain resumed at about 5:00 p.m. in the evening. At that moment, Chand and Seeta were just getting up from their nap; Yash, Bhairavi, Sandesh and Muhammad were trying to negotiate past a small but deep cleft in the ground; Rati a... [More]

Chapter XX It took all of Sandesh’s ingenuity to get the fire started. Although he had been a President’s scout in school and was well aware of how to survive in the forest, he was totally at sea here on account of the rains and the fact tha... [More]

Chapter XXI Day Two During the later half of the night and the early hours of the morning of the second day of the students’ misadventure in Pench National Park, the rain came in fits and starts, but it did not pour like it had in the d... [More]

Chapter XXII The Seoni Municipal Hospital, where most of the dacoits were recovering or being treated had become a bedlam of activity. All the eleven dacoits with more than just minor injuries were kept here in a special ward, while the da... [More]

Chapter XXIII Day Three Three things happened at the crack of dawn all at once. The first of these events woke up all the eleven people who had gone to sleep the previous night under the shelter of the teakwood trees. The event was ... [More]

Chapter XXIV Carmen Lancaster flew down to India by an Air France flight and reached New Delhi at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. She had received news of Rati the day before yesterday when the college authorities had called her up to inform her... [More]