12.30 Ki Netravati Super Fast

It was a Friday morning which brought down my life to a very critical stage.i woke up at 3 am to receive a call.The strings of guitar which i kept as a ringtone in my cell phone was continuously ringing.I was surprised to see my sister in law calling me at this early hours.I was shocked to know my brother who had left Mumbai to go to Karwar in Karnataka was missing.The train had reached on time at 12.30 am.Being a hot tempered guy from childhood,i thought he must have been engaged in some fight with co-passenger and was detained by the police at some station .I was worried and couldn’t think of anything at that point of time.I tried calling up his cell phone.The attempts were failed and the response was that "the person you are trying to call is unavailable.My mom was in a state of mental trauma when she heard.We even thought of losing him.My sister in law rushed to the railway station to enquire,but we were not able to trace him.

We called up all the railway stations after which he had last called up at 9 pm.Finally we had a sigh of relief when we heard a railway officer saying that they have found one person on Mudgaon Station in GOA.We were happy to know it,but our excitement ended as soon as we came to know that he was a 70 years old person who lost his way and was waiting for his family to take him.We were still in the battle to find him.I called the ACP of RPF in Ratnagiri and gave him the details of my brother.My cousin and sister in law were waiting in Karwar station for a ray of hope.At 7 am the phone rang and a policemen from Kundapur station(Karnataka)called to inform that we have a person in our custody with the similar identification.The person on the other side explained that the person with them was "drugged"and was not in a state to talk.Only words he uttered was his name "Vishal".We identified the person is non other than my brother.After hearing the news on my cell phone,i rushed to the Mumbai Domestic Airport to find the earliest flight to GOA as it was the nearest airport which was located around 110 kms from Karwar.I booked the tickets with JetLite airlines and was in a hurry to reach. To my bad luck the flights were delayed due to bad weather in Delhi.I screamed at the airport on the staff for the delay.The staff was good enough to understand my problem and placed me in the Jet Airways flight which was fortunately scheduled on time.I reached GOA airport at 3.30pm.I took a cab to Karwar and was curious to see my brother.I reached the Civil Hospital and was shocked to see my brother.As said by the policemen he was drugged and was unconscious.He looked at me and i was happy that he was fine.He was unable to talk and was looking like a drug addict,his eyes were swollen. The first question he asked me was-"Varun is my gold chain safe with you". I was told by my cousin that he was robbed by some co passenger in the Netravati Express which starts from Mumbai to Trivandrum.After 24 hrs i was able to talk to my brother.he illustrated me what had happened with him.He was fine till 9 pm when he last called  home.He was forced by a co passenger to have a biscuit which he insisted as home made biscuit by his mother.My brother agreeing to his insistence had it.After having a bite of the biscuit he felt a sour bitter feeling in his throat,that was the last thing he remembers.Even after 4 days of the incidence he still murmurs the same thing.But our family was happy to find him safe.

The truth is most of us who is reading this have been lucky not to go through such an experience; but as said, precaution is better than cure. We can actually refresh our young-days advices of our parents regarding strangers, or just ignore it. Only that the fact is, sometimes cure is just not available.

Take care.

Author: Varun Nayak

Image Curtsey: Wisearce