(Part 3/4) “One day I was bringing the cattle back to the Goth. The trail was difficult. I slipped and fell into a crevasse. As half of my upper body got stuck, I saw one of the Chauri slip and fall on top of my legs. I screamed for help. There was no one around. The beast also got stuck and it could not move. I screamed for help some more. But no one heard me. No one was there, except for the forest. I started to panic. I started to lose breath. The more I tried to draw air, the less it filled up my lungs. I cried. I kicked the Chauri but it would not budge. I cried and cried. It started getting dark. My body started getting weak. There were visions of my wife and my crying children. I was thirsty. I closed my eyes and started to pray. I knew there was no way out anymore. I passed out.

The next morning I woke up. The crevasse stone had become my pillow and my cover. The Chauri was still there. I looked at it. I thought I saw tears in its eyes. It could not move. We shared a common problem. For a moment we became like brothers. After a few hours of trying to move, I watched the Chauri die. There I mourned its death. I cried at my loss. Its body became heavier than when it was alive. I was still alive. And when you are alive you need food. The germs of hunger started to growl in my stomach. I was not going to eat mud. I swallowed gulps of air. I started calling out for help again. I stopped screaming and just lay quiet. The Chauri has found its peace and its place, but not me. I still longed for life. It was getting dark again. The cold had returned to the stones. My wife had returned to my vision and was telping me to hurry home. “Did she know I was lost? Did she know that I was on my way to die?”

After the second day in the crevasse, the hunger stopped. My anxiety disappeared. My breathing started to regulate. I thought: ‘I would have died already if I was going to die. But I have not. I have won over my hunger and my anxiety. Now there is going to be a miracle that is going to get me out of this pit.’ I waited. On the third day, they came. They found me. From the pit, I instructed them to tie the Chauri and drag it out so that I could come out. They did but I could not move. They took me out and gave me some warm water. And then they gave me Nun Chiya. They then took me to Chini Maya. She had been waiting for me. I ran to her and cried in her arms. She cried too. That was the happiest moment in my life.”