Christmas and New Year Wishes

Poem - Joto joti Chinho - Victor Kalyan Ghoshe

Simlipal National Park, Orissa - Travalogue by Victor Ghoshe

The Mystery of Monroe Island - Professor Shonku Adventure - Translation by Victor Kalyan Ghoshe

Part 3

I need to write about our discoveries.
Firstly – we have come to know that there were people who lived on this island other than Munroe and Brandon.
We have found some skeletons, glasses, bottles, knives, earrings etc. in a cave - we now have reasons to believe that the pirates - who survived the shipwreck, came here and took shelter in some of those caves we have visited. We have found twenty two cutlasses - the typical swords carried by the pirates in those days.

Well ! We have not found any treasure till now, but there are many caves to be explored yet; and god only knows what lies there.

We left the cave and walked for ten minutes and then suddenly Rocket started barking, following him we found Callenbauch’s Camera case and tape recorder beside a bush.
It seemed he wanted to get rid of them and run away. But the question was, why?
We requested Suma to switch on the telecardioscope on that very spot. The result was not very hopeful. We turned the receiver towards all directions but couldn’t find any signal of life other than that unknown animal’s.

It could only be so – that Callenbauch was somewhere within a kilometer.

But what is he doing? Is he injured? He’s got a gun; he can just shot once and let us know about his position. The heartbeat of the animal has gone back to fifty and the colour of the light is in between yellow and green; means the creature is just about three kilometers from here.

We collected Callenbauch’s Camera case and tape recorder and came here - on the beach to take rest and have some coffee. Suma made Callenbauch’s damaged tape recorder stand on the sand and switched it on. And when it started playing, Suma smiled silently, possibly because of the only reason that the recorder was a Japanese one. We all stood around the machine in the late afternoon sunlight and heard Callenbauch’s voice.

“This is Bill Callenbauch. 14th March, 8.10 in the morning.

My sole expedition has been successful. Just a few moments back I have seen the animal. It came out of a cave and was just fifty yards away from me, it is larger than human being and possibly walks on four feet - though it was standing on its two feet when I saw it. It couldn’t see me as I was behind a tree, but before I could fix the telephoto lens on my camera it went inside the cave.
From a distance it didn’t appear to be a ferocious animal, and from it’s walking pace I could make out that either it was unwell or it was very old. I am approaching the cave quietly.”
The recorded voice ends here.
And it’s time we should return. God only knows what tomorrow has in its is reserve for us.

16th March: 6.30 a.m.

Frightening experience
Last night around 2.30 am, Rocket’s loud growl and David’s shout woke me up. When I came out, I saw Rocket roaring frantically facing the north and vigorously pulling the leash in David’s hand to be free. As it was a moonless night and that too a cloudy one, we couldn’t make out why was Rocket excited. Saunders went inside the tent to bring the torch and before he came out Rocket pulled David down on the sand and ran away towards the northern hillocks. In the mean time Suma had switched on his telecardioscope, but it showed no result; which meant - even if that animal came close to our camp, it was still within a kilometer's range.

Silence prevailed for some time. We couldn’t find out anything with the torch; Rocket had disappeared behind the hillocks. We were discussing whether we should also go and search, suddenly a spine-chilling howl of Rocket left all of us spellbound. It was not a loud howl of excitement or anger but a cry of pain.
Saunders held the torch high and we saw Rocket coming back. David ran towards him and we followed him. The reason of the ‘howl’ was clear;


there was a deep wound on Rocket’s back and blood was dripping out from there. We could also make out one more thing, that it was not only the animal who caused a wound on Rocket’s body but Rocket also got it injured - as Rocket’s mouth had it’s blood all over.
We dressed Rocket’s wound, it was not anything major, he would surely be fine within a day.
Suma tested the blood, found on Rocket’s mouth and announced that the group of the blood is ‘A’.
‘A’ group is normally a human blood group but it is also found in some species of monkeys. There was no doubt that the animal was some kind of a big monkey, because half an hour back we visited the spot - it was just fifty yards away from the camp and had seen it’s footprints on the sand. The footprints followed closed palm prints; the foot was slightly bigger than a human foot and had five fingers.
Today we need to be prepared to fight this wild beast. The island, which has a ‘nectar-like’ fruit, also has a ferocious monkey, which has surprised and frightened all of us.


17th March – 9 p.m.
We are leaving this island tomorrow morning. I can’t truly describe the state of my mind, because now – words like ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘surprised’ all became mediocre for description.

Actually I have observed this pattern – that none of my expedition had ever been totally a success or a failure; as in many cases there had been astonishing gains, and in many cases there were irrevocable losses.
One thing can be said about this expedition – that the stock of my experience, knowledge and astonishment have grown many folded.
The place where we got Callenbauch’s camera case and the tape recorder yesterday– today we reached that spot and Suma switched on his telecardioscope. The machine signaled for only one animal’s heartbeat. The rate of it was 50 per minute; the colour of the light was Orange – which meant the creature was within a diameter of 2.4 kilometers from there. But it was moving and Suma had to turn the receiver constantly to capture the signal. We already knew from Callenbauch’s description that the animal could not run fast, so even if it coming towards us – we still have half an hour in our hand to survey the area.
None of us still believes that Callenbauch has died. It is possible that he is seriously injured and is lying somewhere within a kilometer and that was the reason for which his heartbeats were not been reflected in the telecardioscope.

But all our hopes were shattered when Jeremy Saunders discovered the dead body of Callenbauch, behind a bush of poinsettia flower (Euphorbia pulcherrima, indigenous to Mexico and Central America, sometimes found on islands at this part as well).
But Callenbauch's entire body was not there; the major portion of the lower part was missing, and it was easy to guess that the beast had eaten the missing part of the body.
Callenbauch’s movie camera was still strapped around his waist - the lens was broken into pieces and the frame was absolutely damaged. Suddenly our Japanese friend uttered, “We might have some interesting film there” - and did something which shocked all of us.
He moved forward and started un-strapping the camera from the dead body.
the rest of us moved on as we could not bare the horrible and sad sight.
We knew that we had to burry Callenbauch’s body, but it was not the time, we had to move on then.
Another few minutes walk and we all could see a huge, dark entrance of a cave next to a hillock. Did Callenbauch mention this cave?
We walked on. From our camp it seemed that this side was only rocky, but now we could see that there are trees also. After all these explorations since last couple of days - now we are sure of one thing that our miracle fruits are only available in one specific area of the island and nowhere else.
When we were close to the cave, David walked faster than the rest of us and silently walked into the cave like a spy film hero. He still could not resist the temptation of visiting a new cave before the others.
Over these last few days he visited all the big and small caves, which came in our way. He had been inside all of them with a torch and surveyed thoroughly. We all knew that he was doing all this because of his dream of discovering a treasure.

Had he ever dreamt that his dream would come true someday?

“Yo! Ho! Ho!” –David’s shout was genuinely a pirate’s war cry...
For a moment we were compelled to think that possibly he was not Munroe’s but Brandon’s descendent.
Has he got something?

Yes! The Pirate’s cry had a good enough reason. We all were familiar with the look of a pirate’s chest. Exactly similar looking - a very old and very big wooden chest was lying on the floor in one corner of the cave.

We could not make out from outside, that this cave was so big; at least a hundred people could stay in this one.
It was very clear that this was the main cave among the others, which Brandon and his men used.
David was staring at the chest in such a way as if he was in a trance. He wanted to go forward and open the chest but it seemed that he could not move.
At last Saunders went forward and opened the chest and David fainted with a shrill cry. Suma attended him immidiately and brought him back in sense within a few seconds by just three little knocks on his forehead with his ring finger.
We should all agree that there were genuine reasons for David to faint. His childhood dream has been fulfilled today; the chest was full of seventeenth century Spanish gold coins; Black-hole Brandon’s treasure - which he had gathered through his whole lifetime.
In the meantime another discovery had caused quite an excitement among all of us. This was also a wooden chest, but much smaller in size. The copper plated letters were still visible on its top – Dr. H. Monroe


When we opened this box, among some very old clothing and some medical equipment we found a very valuable thing – Dr. Hector Munroe’s Diary. The diary started from the next day of Dr Moroe's landing on this island. This Diary is a great documentation. It even gives details about how Munroe came here, etc. And we were happy that our guess was quite right.
The ship conquest was attacked by the pirates and drowned. Brandon rescued Munroe and got him on his ship. Then they started for Jamaica. On the way the ship faced a storm and lost the way. Some sort of unknown epidemic was also spreading among the sailors and after a week from the conquest attack, the ship came close to this island and drowned. 33 people other than Brandon and Munroe could somehow save their lives. A sailor named Ragland who was very sick discovered this blue fruit, and got cured within an hour. After this incident that fruit cured all the sick sailors like magic. Munroe gave a name to this fruit – Ambrozia (which means The Nectar). One question came in Munroe’s mind. Whether the birds and animals of this island also eat this fruit?’ He wrote-

If not any other animal but monkeys eat this – which I could understand from their health and swiftness. And not only that – they are not vegetarians, they are carnivorous. I have seen them catching chameleons and frogs and eat.
Munroe is clearer in his next sentence. He ate the fruit without any sickness and wrote –

“I have tested The Nectar today. This fruit has an amazing appetite enhancing power. Today we have relished deer meat in the morning. Though there are so much of fruits and vegetables in this island but they cannot satisfy our appetite any more. Should this amazing fruit be confined to this island only, and no one else on this earth would ever know about it?

In the later pages there is a hint that Brandon was trying to kill Munroe as there was no need of a doctor. Munroe was absconding to save his life, but he knew that he could not save himself from Brandon. On the other side, food was becoming scarce in the island. The pirates have finished all the deers and started hunting birds and monkeys. No one was ready to eat fruits and vegetables any more.

The last thing Munroe wrote was very shocking and we all could see Munroe in a different light from this. He wrote:

I do not know whether I did the right thing by sending the letter in the bottle. Now I have doubts whether I can call this fruit – ‘The Nectar’ at all. I can see with my own eyes that within last three months these people have become beasts from human beings. And I also am going to be the same? This eternal cure from all diseases, this indomitable appetite……
these things can’t be good for mankind!

We had finished Munroe’s diary and were sitting quietly and sadly in the cave and suddenly the thought came in my mind that its time we should again check with the telecardioscope.

Immediately we put it on but no result was shown, possibly the animal had already came within a Kilometer’s range.

Exactly at this point of time my nostril captured a new smell in the cave, which was not there earlier. We were sitting on some rocks at the entrance of the cave to read the diary in the tilted daylight. But the smell was coming from inside, and that was getting stronger every moment. There must be another entrance of this cave from the backside and the animal must have entered through that entrance. He must be coming towards us very softly because till then we could not hear any sound.

There was a little sound of a displaced stone. The next moment there was a spine-chilling howl and a stone came out of the darkness and hit Saunders on his head.
Saunders immediately fell on the ground. The next thing was amazing – David picked up Saunders’ gun from the ground and fired twice in the darkness.

Now we saw the animal for the first time in the fading twilight and heard it’s heart-piercing cry. It was on its two legs and coming towards us...
before even I could reach out to my anihilin, a whistle like sound came out from Suma’s gun and a poisonous capsule-pin hit the beast on its chest. It fell on the floor of the cave within a second, facing the ceiling.

For the first time I saw Suma to be excited. He shouted and said, ‘Now just imagine the amazing power of the fruit – Shonku, I figured it out, and that’s why I asked you to not to eat it. Whoever eats this fruit for once, only starvation and accident can take his life and nothing else. This animal alone had eaten up all other animals on this island and finally was dying of starvation, but when he got Callenbouch as food, he was revived. Now his appetite has been satiated for good!”

Suma then twisted his left wrist towards the animal’s face and pressed a button on his wrist watch and a very powerful beam of light came out of the watch and fell on the face of the animal.

‘Gentlemen, the creature which you are looking at now’, said Suma – ‘its age is more than four hundred years.’

‘Black-hole Brandon!’ – David almost shook the cave with his cry.

Saunders had recovered. Four of us were staring at the dead creature. This tall and huge animal could no more be identified as a human being, only the deep hole in the place of his right eye which seemed much deeper in the laser beam of Suma’s torch – was announcing it’s original identity.

David Munroe’s bullet had injured him and Suma’s poison capsule had stopped his heartbeat.

Now my weapon wiped off this bloodthirsty pirate - a human being who was contemporary to Shakespeare, from the face of the earth for good.

For the previous 2 parts of this story please click at the Blog archive - 2011(Nov, Dec), on the rightside of the main template.

World’s first photograph

Bringing change is all about being the change