I was coming to office today on my bike and I saw an accident. Initially I saw traffic jam, but then when I cleared myself from it, I first saw a bike lying on the road and then when I moved forward a bit, I saw a man lying on the road, his face down, helmet next to his head, broken and stream of blood flowing from his head all the way to the other end of a 90 ft highway. For once I stood still. I am not used to seeing dead bodies. Even when I used to travel by trains, if I saw an accident (unfortunately which is almost a daily event), I would get curious to see what and how and then I would puke. It was beyond me to see these things. I always used to wonder how could people go on staring at something like this for mins together standing still as if its the eighth wonder?
Anyways, I saw this guy, dead (he had lost too much blood to be alive). My mouth started watering as I was beginning to throw up. I was on the bike while I was feeling this so somehow I had to control it. Obviously in this time we start thinking spiritually. So somehow I managed to push in my pukey sensation. Once I got a little comfortable, the firts thought that always hits me when I see something like this is.... lets say his name is Ramesh....
....usual morning.... Ramesh must had left for work.... someone in his family would had prepared tiffin (I saw it at the accident spot).... people waiting for him at work....
his mom - I hope he likes Rekha and gets married to her and gets settled soon....,
his dad - I wish he gets his incerament this time, I cant see him worried for everyone at home always....
his sister - my brother has promised me to take me to watch Fashion this saturday, I know he would not like it, but he is coming for me.... I am happy....
his boss - he is never on time, I hate this habit of his....
his collegue - he is a hardworker but stupid, he does not understand he needs to kiss ass a bit to get up, hope he understand....
his friends - this time we are gonna make him pay for the booze, everytime we cant pay for him....
He does not turn up for office. Boss is upset, collegues try to reach him but in vain. Somewhere after about 2 hours somehow police gets his home number and calls his family.
His mom answers the phone.
Cops inform her about the accident and asks someone to come for identification. In a moment, her son who she took care of right from childhood, to adolscene, to teenage, to being a man, to sharing his happy moments, his fights, his weaknesses, his vulnerabilities, his achievements, his complaints, his entire existence, every moment, flashes her mind. For sometime, its like life has left her body. She is unable to react, unable to speak, unable to understand. Its like she is paralysed. There is a storm of emotions getting build in her heart. She does not say anything.
The cop at the other end is saying hello, hello. She does not even know whether to say I am here or I am not. She is NOT willing to accept this. She for a while is thinking, maybe I am in dreams, this is not true, this cannot be true. Somehow she starts to cry....
She tells her husband to speak and she sits on the sofa unable to tell him why she just abruptly handed the phone to him. He talks to the cops. He is a man. Obviously he is expected to act more practically. But here we are talking about his son. His dream of Ramesh living a life that he was not able to live. And he gets the news that his son is dead.
He slowly breaks down. Like a building starting to shatter. He has supported everyone in his family all his life but this time he needs support. He needs to be held, he needs to be consoled, he needs to be comforted, he needs to be take care of.... however, the worst is yet to happen.... And he has already started thinking of that. Its so ironic, people who are close to you always fear of the worst happening to you....
His father has already started thinking, how will he and his wife see his son in torn clothes, who they have dressed themselves in the best clothes when he was a baby.... How will they see him in blood when even a drop of Ramesh would make them feel pain beyond words? How will they see his body, lifeless, motionless when he was their life? How will they see his "dead" body when every second of every minute of their life they wished him a "fulfilled life"????
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3 comments:
...a bike accident..so? doesn't it happen every day? whats the big deal right? its the order of life...
or is it..?? how many of us have passed by an accident without as much as a "may God bless his soul" ?? how many of us have forgotten to feel...? submerged in our deadline driven mechanical existence
in a world where...it is this that it has come to..that death is but a daily occurrence..arousing nor tear nor ink..in a world where we've become immune to the likes murder and abuse...in a world where hands barely intertwine let alone souls...here is a man who dared to feel...here is a man who dared to break connect with an unknown...here is a man who cared enough to say a prayer for strangers..here is a man...willing enough..to tell Ramesh's story...
never again would even an orphan wonder...who will cry when i die..?
.........and you still go to office on bike?
also dun stop writting..........
i wudnt blame anything but the sheer number of people in our country. we lose count and thus become immune.
but imagine a city or a town.. with about 9000 people, still living a city life, would we be different then?
I guess we all need to remember, whilst accomplishing those daily missions, that "Every person is a person".
---Its the simple things we make too hard to be simple--
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