Page 43 - Cornice Grade 8

Survival Story
Survival in the Lesser Himalayas
l Suvan K. Shrestha l
It was my second year at North Point. The Indian
government had announced that every board-
ing school needed to take their students for a
run, as many students were getting due to lack
of exercise. There were 5 houses in total. They
were yellow, green, blue, orange and red. I was
in the blue house with the other 30 students. As
I was walking with my circle of friends Don, Kap
and Sunil, my excitement rose seeing a bushy
plant with fluffy tendrils. I had never seen it be-
fore, I thought, as I crossed over the railing curb
to reach for the plant. I managed to grab hold of
the plant, but in the process, I lost my footing
and started to slip on the side of the mountain.
In panic, Sunil spotted a long stick not far away
and asked Don to grab it. Finally getting hold of
it, I grabbed it. The stick broke, almost making
me fall. Thankfully, the teachers arrived giving
me high hopes, until I lot my grip and dropped
down on the hard damp ground. I woke up con-
fused, not knowing where I was. My sight was
blurry and my head was pounding. I was near a
rock, it took some time to recall what had hap-
pened, but nothing came to my mind except
holding on for dear life.
My first priority was to find shelter to keep me
warm so that there are less chances of me dying
from hypothermia. I checked every corner but
saw no sign of a shelter. Just as I was about to
spend the night outside, I saw a cave from the
corner of my eye and went inside. Relieved. I re- get it and I started to make a fire with some tree
membered that the next step was to make a fire
to keep me warm. Even though I had matches in
my pocket, it was raining, so nothing could be
lit. Keeping my hands inside my pockets, I felt
something in my pocket and I took it out. Out
of the pocket came fluffy tendrils, which I was
holding onto. Finally, I had something to light on
fire. I slowly kept the sticks on top of the fire, it
started to light up, due to the warmth of the fire,
I slept praying to be found. I felt safe. I looked
up, it was almost morning, the sun rose in the
east from the tree line, but there was still no sign
of people.
I wanted to survive, so I had to find food. I saw
a pond, a very murky one so I couldn’t drink
from it. Just as I thought I was about to starve,
I saw smoke and decided to take a look at it. I
ran wherever the smoke took me and saw many
villagers. I nervously talked to them, telling them
what had happened. For a second, it looked like
they couldn’t understand me. Then they took
me to their village and I slept there. After the
sun rose again I made up my mind and told the
villagers that I needed to go as if I stayed here,
the rescuers wouldn’t be able to find me. I said
my goodbyes and left. Continuing my walk, I
found another pond which was really clean. As
I entered the pond, the whole bed of the pond
started to become murky, it was full of fish
and shrimps. After a while, I saw 2 fishes and
4 shrimps right beside each other, and I threw
rocks at them.
After the water settled, I saw that the rock had
crushed the fishes and the shrimps. I hurried to
bark. I took a flat rock and settled it above 2 other
rocks making a sort of pan where I could cook.
I gutted the fish with a sharp rock and placed it
on the rock. Waiting for another long hour, the