Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Suddenly, One Day.



At the Pragati Maidan Metro Station, two people waited.. One was a young woman not more than twenty, dressed in black like most of the people her age. Every once in a while she looked up from her iPhone, craned her neck a little bit, looked around, and went back to fiddling with the device.The other was a middle aged man, grim looking, with silver rimmed spectacles. The two of them sat next to each other, unspeaking, comfortable with the silence – waiting for their Metro to arrive.


Rajesh sighed impatiently and leaned back onto his chair. He glanced at his daughter, Akhila, who was still tapping the screen of her phone and occasionally smirking. He shook his head and sighed again. What is it that Akhila found so fascinating about the Metro? It was just a train, except it was silver in colour and looked a little more fancy. They could have taken the car – but Akhila had insisted that they use the Metro. The young people were more concerned about the environment these days.Rajesh looked around a little more. Damned train.

The Metro came whooshing into the platform and suddenly the idle crowd came to life. People stood up, straightening their newspapers, clothes, hair. Women checked their reflections in the mirror. Men started gulping down the last sips of their coffee. Children started jumping up and down and clapped their hands with joy. Teenagers said their “Catcha later, dude. Gotta go.”

Akhila looked up from her iPhone and put it away, and stood, her eyes gleaming with ill concealed anticipation. Rajesh also silently rose, and followed his daughter to the train. They stepped inside and sat down, and within a few minutes, the massive vehicle rumbled to life and whooshed out of the station.

Not many people had got in and the compartment was relatively empty. Rajesh looked at Akhila again, and saw that her phone was nowhere in sight, and she had pressed her lips together, like she did whenever things became awkward. He wondered if she was expecting him to make conversation. Rajesh winced internally. He was horrible at small talk.

“How is college these days?” He heard himself say.

“Good.” She replied, looking slightly relieved.

Rajesh nodded. Now what? “You don’t go with your friends these days?”

Akhila shook her head. “No. They have gone to Ladakh.”

“From your college, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Papa.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

“Because of my asthma problem. The doctor didn’t clear me.”

“Oh.”

Awkward silence.

Akhila tapped her phone a little more, set it down and stared at a boy in front of her. Then she tapped her phone a little bit more. What was this tapping business? Rajesh wondered. He surreptitiously leaned in to see.

Akhila was on FaceBook  (big surprise) ‘updating her status’. He leaned in a little more, and read.

Sitting in the metro. Hot guy sitting in front of me! :D :D

 Rajesh chuckled quietly, and cleared his throat. Akhila looked up quickly and touched her hair uncomfortably.

The train stopped at Rohini East. Rajesh looked at his wristwatch and realized that the Metro was behind schedule. Passengers shuffled in, some shuffled out but the compartment still remained fairly empty. The Metro started again.

They passed buildings, and cars and more buildings. From the window, he could see two drivers engaged in a fight about their collided cars. He saw a small boy rolling  a tyre around with a stick. He saw a massive lorry carrying sugarcanes to somewhere. An old woman buying carrots from a roadside vendor. Two men leering at a girl crossing the road. Then they passed more buildings, and more cars. Then he looked away, bored. He tried to think of something else to do.He missed driving his car. Damn Akhila's concern for the world.

 Rajesh looked out of the window again, watching the buildings and shops whiz past him. They were now on a bridge, and suddenly the Metro gained speed. Outside the window, everything was a blur. Rajesh frowned, and heard mumble. She looked outside, and said: “It's moving too fast.”

By this time, other people had also realized the change in speed and were looking out of the window, a little tensed.

 There was a loud thud and the compartment shook violently, throwing people off their seats. Akhila squealed. Rajesh put a protective arm around her and held her tightly as the train shook.
People were screaming, crying, some desperately looking for the emergency exit. Someone had hit their head and was bleeding profusely, and a small child probably had broken her arm. People were rushing towards the tail of the compartment, hoping that the train would stop. Some were swearing, others were praying. It was utter chaos.

Rajesh looked at Akhila, had held her even tighter, and closed his eyes. He prayed to God, hoping that Akhila would get out of this unharmed, and that his wife and son would remain safe and happy their entire life. He prayed for this mess to stop. And he prayed to God to save his life. That was his last clear thought.

He heard the massive noise.He heard the screams, the ear piercing screech that only colliding metals can create He heard the cries . And then he heard the silence.All the noise of screaming people, crashing glass, screeching metal stopped suddenly stopped. As if everything was alright with the world again.

Rajesh opened his eyes. He couldn’t see anything. His vision was blurred. He tried to remember where he was. His jaw hurt, as did his chest. He had lost all feeling in his lower half. He could feel blood trickling down his face. He tried to shout for help, but nothing came out. Then he felt something. Rather someone. He rolled his eyes to the left, and found Akhila, bleeding. Then he remembered. He was in a train that had crashed. Gathering all his strength, he called her.

“Akhila?” A whisper came out, to which he got no response.

“Akhila, beta? Can you hear me?” He spoke louder.

Yet no reply.

Tears welled up in his eyes, and silently rolled down his cheeks, mixing with the blood. He prayed again, to keep Akhila safe. To let her be alive and unscathed. Then he closed his eyes, and let the blackness overcome him.

" Put pressure on that wound. Sister, please get me 100 mg of Thiamine, 1 mg of Folic acid, I amp MVI and 3 grams magnesium sulphate. Fast!”

“Yes sir.”

“His pulse is low, I need you to keep the defribillator ready. Now check his…”

Rajesh tried to hear more, but he was feeling dizzy, and already the voice had started growing more distant. He couldn’t remember where he was. His body had lost all feeling, except for the faint awareness of the fact that he was hurting. It was too much of an effort to think, he just went back to sleep.


“Rajesh?” A voice from a tunnel came. It seemed familiar “Rajesh? Can you hear me?”

“Papa, please wake up.” Another voice came from the tunnel. It was closer. “Papa.” The voice became a whisper, then he heard someone cry.

“Don’t cry, Ma. He’ll be fine.”

“Yes. Yes, he’ll be fine.” The first voice said.

Rajesh felt like he had suddenly resurfaced from a pool. He opened his, but the light blinded him.

“Rajesh! You’re awake.” He heard his wife speak to him. His wife. He opened his eyes and saw her, smiling through her tears. “Arun! Call the doctor, fast!”

“Yes, Ma.” Arun hurried away.

“Akhila?” Rajesh managed to say.

Sarala held his hand tightly and tried to calm him down. "Shh, you rest now. Don't worry."

"But Akhila?"

"Sarala held on to his hand tightly and smiled, trying to reassure him, "Everything's fine. The doctor's just coming."

Rajesh blew out a sigh of relief. He looked at his wife. She was smiling at him, clinging on to his hand like a lifeline. Rajesh stared at her, completely transfixed by a tear drop that seeped out of the corner of her eye, slowly. 

The month of March was hectic. My daughter Ishita appeared for her class X board exams. It was a stressful time for all of us, may be I'll blog about it later. This was a story Ishita wrote for her school magazine. I copied it blatantly, with her permission of course. Hope you enjoy it.

66 comments:

Smita said...

Your daughter wrote it??

A Very well written piece I must say!!! She has got it from you am sure :)

So exams thru, what is she doing these days? Enjoying the vaccation?

I remember what a gala time I had after 10th exams!!! :D

Onkar said...

beautifully written story

Bikram said...

OH MY GOD.. Hats off to your daughter I need lessons from her ..

Such a good story sad but alls wells that ends well.. But i have a question How is Akhila doing ... where is she

Bikram's

Anonymous said...

Great story- held my attention from start to finish!

Gayathri said...

It goes without saying - coming from a 15yr old - it was fabulous!!

Unknown said...

Wow...Amazing work by your daughter...:)

L KRUPAA said...

interesting story, well written.

dr.antony said...

Well written.Give her good wishes from my side.

Sandhya said...

She has proven that she is your daughter, Aparna! The dialogues are so natural...their feelings...nice!

P said...

wow! a budding author indeed :)

Kavi said...

She wrote this all !?! This well !?! Phew ! Whale done to her !

Fantastic !

Pri said...

a story filled with emotions...lovely writing!!

like mother ike daughter, i'd say :)

G S Pillai said...

Long time Aparna.
I had noticed how well your daughter writes by her story about a kidnapping that you had posted a while ago. I can also see how proud you are. I am happy for you both.

Haddock said...

Really gripping......but like Bikram said, How is Akhila?

Sandhya said...

Shubho nabo barsho, to you and your family, Aparna! God bless you all!

Rama Ananth said...

Beautiful story, that too coming from a very young person. My best wishes are with her.
How proud she must be making you feel.

Anonymous said...

I am glad I visited your page. I read couple of your posts.

I love the way you write...

The one about the old man was really touching..

Deepa said...

Very well written story. If she wrote it for her Boards, then I'm sure she'll get very good marks!! :) Do tell her that this story reminded of a story connected with the Rajdhani mishap that took place a few years ago. Similar father-daughter duo. Unfortunately the daughter perish in the train accident. The father, a doctor by profession, put aside his personal grief and went about attending to the other injured people. Talk about tragedy bring out the best in us.

Anonymous said...

So so well written... Enjoy!! :-)

Uma said...

WOW..excellently written...kept me riveted till the end..kudos to your daughter! If Akhila is not OK, I dont want to hear about it..

Zeba said...

Woah. WOAH. So let's give credit to the genes shall we? :)

Good to be back and reading you blog after so long. I shall now go back and try to catch up.

Oh and how have you been doing?

Blunt Edges said...

That's really great work there by Ishita, and the line about the FB update was very natural. That's the kinda update I see a lot of people posting.

I hope the exams went well :)

Varsha said...

wow, written by a 15 yr old girl...brilliant. And Akhila?!

गौतम राजऋषि said...

came back after a long long interval....its so good to see you carrying on with same zest and that awesome flair of yours.....

envy you!!!!

Renu said...

very well written!!

Umang Jain said...

awesome one..!

Nupur said...

I liked it ..claps for her!

congratulations to Ishita once again for passing with flying colours :)

The Classic Honeymooners said...

Hi...amazing story. Ishita is an adept story-teller, i must say. How about her boards results?

Almostpundit said...

What an easy style of story telling!

Almostpundit said...

Tears welled up while I read...

Scribblers Inc said...

Tell your daughter that she has great talent. She ought to take this more seriously, that is if she is already not taking it. Reminded me of the stories I used to submit for my school magazine. :)

Great blog.
wishes,
Scribblers Inc.

anupama said...

Dear Aparna,
Hearty Congrats to your daughter who wrote such a wonderful story.
It's simply beautiful....
She has abright future as a writer!
Sasneham,
Anu

G S Pillai said...

why not writing these days aparna?

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Zeba said...

Wow. You haven't updated in AGES!! Where art thou, pretty lady?

Roshni said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Roshni said...

Hi Aparna! Was hoping to catch up but I see that you too are AWOL! Hope you all are doing great!

Roshni

Unknown said...

Wow. For a sixteen year old to write this is fantastic! Impressive. :)

kirti said...

hi aparna,
how have you been? please post something about what has been keeping you busy.
wishing you all the best. take care.

kala said...

I wonder that ur daughter wrote it such a beautiful narrated story just loved ittttt :)

Bibi Mohanan said...

I have tagged you dear..

Sonia said...

Wow well written:)

Arooj said...

we allleave home without even giving a single thought to the fact that every regular casual day is full of unexpected and unwanted happenings.
may God bless us

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Neel said...

Hi didi,

Am sure you are enjoying the wedding right now, but just to let you know that its been more than a year that you blogged last...

-Rintu

Smita said...

Are you Alive?

Ire said...

Why have you stopped writing? Please update!

Khyati Jain said...

NICE ONE!!!!!

Divya said...

My first time here :) Just read your daughter's story - it is amazing - esp. for someone who just got done with her 10th exams!

Hope to keep visiting :)

Jerly said...

deep thought for 10th, especially how she visioned utter silence after chaos; and the ending was powerful too! amazing

Oman said...

i love the story :)

Shashank said...

very well written.. it was very engaging

JD said...

okk.. that was really nice..

Aparna Mishra said...

Very beautifully written.

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