Everything’s so quiet, so eerie. Nobody’s stirring. Wait, I can hear someone moaning. I can see people around me moving a little bit. Hey, where am I? Why am I lying down on my back? Was I alone or was there someone with me? Last thing I remember, I was inside a train. But what’s this? This is not train! This has no roof at all! And where are the berths?
All I can see is a mess of twisted metal and equally twisted and grotesque people around me. I can’t make out why there is shattered glass and metal shards everywhere. The air is full of acrid smells of burning fabric and flesh. Oh God! I am having a terrible pain in the back of my head.
May be I should get up and see what has happened, I need something to hold to get up. My right hand! Where’s my right hand? I blink my eyes and stare again. There is absolutely no right hand. It’s impossible. It was there until some time ago, I swear! I do not feel the pain; I am numb out of shock. May I should look around for my hand. It must be lying somewhere here. May be I can get it stitched back. Stop! I shake my head. The loss of blood is making me dizzy. I can’t think clearly. I look myself and around me more closely now. I am drenched with blood, and so are the people surrounding me. It’s getting dark, and they are trying to find their way out in the dim light of the fire burning at the far end of the coach. They are equally dazed and shocked.
Nobody knows what has happened. An old man is crying out his wife’s name, but she isn’t replying. A young lady is searching for her lost child. Look at her! She has gone crazy. The child is there in her arms, lifeless. But she refuses to acknowledge the fact and keeps looking out for the child that was alive some moments ago.
I turn my head away. But the gory pictures follow me everywhere. Here’s a boy of 10, trying to extract his father’s body lying underneath a heap of twisted steel. He is pulling his dad’s leg with all his might, when suddenly the legs come out from the heap. But they have no body attached to them. The body is still lying buried deep down, the soul departed long ago. The boy gives out a blood-curdling scream and faints.
I force myself to drag ahead with the help of the remaining hand and legs shrouded by glass. Suddenly I stop once more to look at a body lying ahead. I think I know this woman. I try hard to remember where had I seen her. My head is reeling, and the memory is becoming foggy. Like the flash of a lightning, it strikes me that she is my wife. I married her only yesterday. Hey sweetheart, wake up! We are on the way to honeymoon! I shake her with my left hand. She must be quite tired after all the marriage ceremonies to sleep like that. Wake up, dear! We shall go out, and everything will be normal again. Nothing bad ever happens to us, right? My wife is not responding. Somebody wake her! I must get out, I tell myself. This coach is haunted. Whatever happened can’t be real. People can’t die in such a gruesome way. This is all a nightmare. I will just go out of this coach and it will all end. I start dragging myself towards the door. The door is coming nearer and nearer. My vision is getting blurred, my body is getting weaker. A burning sensation is clawing at my throat. I can’t think anymore. I must be….I……..I……
Friday, July 10, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Don’t We All!
During my spare time, it is my favorite activity to search the web for inspiring stories. Many of the stories are not the work of fiction, but have seen the day as a result of heart rending experiences of the concerned individuals. Many a time these stories also act as an eye-opener. The other day one such story caught my attention.
One person was waiting for his wife to finish her shopping. He was tenderly wiping his big, shining sports car with a cloth. A man in ragged clothes came there and said, “Beautiful car!” The man was flattered. But at the same time, he also felt very superior to that other man. He kept on wiping his car. The person in the ragged clothes sat there on a stone watching the man and his car. The man with the car expected the other man to ask for alms. Nothing of the sort happened. After a while, the man with car asked the other one, “Do you need any help?” The man in the ragged clothes replied, “Don’t we all?!”
What an answer! Most of us think ourselves very superior by virtue of our birth, social standing, riches and many more such things. We also take pride in the fact that we do not seek help of anyone. People very proudly boast that they are self-made. Is it entirely true? Self-made or otherwise we all seek help continuously from someone or other. Our survival depends on so many factors beyond our control. Knowingly or unknowingly, we seek and get help from infinite number of animate objects. In my childhood I was told one story. A little boy is asked to run errands for his mother. He submits a bill for doing that work. His mother just smiles and gives him one chit of paper.
On that piece of paper, various items are written like, feeding the boy, washing his clothes, nursing him through illness and many more such duties performed by the mother. For all the items the fee charged is nothing and at the end, the mother had written- “repaid with love!” The problem of the modern era is translating everything in terms of material objects. Help is also looked from the angle of money. But, there is certain type of help which can never be translated into matter. We walk on a road. The road is the culmination of hard work and toil of many workers whose sweat got translated into a smooth and shining street. It is a truth that they got paid for that, but is the price of their sweat only a few bucks? What about the shadow we get under a tree? The tree is planted by someone who expected nothing in exchange of that gesture. Are we not seeking help from that tree to enjoy the cool and soothing atmosphere? Our ancestors had realized this aspect very well. That is why we have so many festivals which are a sort of thanksgiving to many beings in the nature. It is a different matter that we have modified these festivals to suit our lifestyles and forgotten the real meaning behind it. The festival of Holi is a typical example of this. The festival which was meant for eradicating the bad things, burning the useless items is in turn used for creation of many evil customs. The above stories made me think about many such things and then I realized one thing- The most needed help by a human being is that which makes him or her realize her inner self. The most important aspect in the whole process is realization of the help received by us. The biggest help in our lives, each breath breathed by the courtesy of the Almighty!!
One person was waiting for his wife to finish her shopping. He was tenderly wiping his big, shining sports car with a cloth. A man in ragged clothes came there and said, “Beautiful car!” The man was flattered. But at the same time, he also felt very superior to that other man. He kept on wiping his car. The person in the ragged clothes sat there on a stone watching the man and his car. The man with the car expected the other man to ask for alms. Nothing of the sort happened. After a while, the man with car asked the other one, “Do you need any help?” The man in the ragged clothes replied, “Don’t we all?!”
What an answer! Most of us think ourselves very superior by virtue of our birth, social standing, riches and many more such things. We also take pride in the fact that we do not seek help of anyone. People very proudly boast that they are self-made. Is it entirely true? Self-made or otherwise we all seek help continuously from someone or other. Our survival depends on so many factors beyond our control. Knowingly or unknowingly, we seek and get help from infinite number of animate objects. In my childhood I was told one story. A little boy is asked to run errands for his mother. He submits a bill for doing that work. His mother just smiles and gives him one chit of paper.
On that piece of paper, various items are written like, feeding the boy, washing his clothes, nursing him through illness and many more such duties performed by the mother. For all the items the fee charged is nothing and at the end, the mother had written- “repaid with love!” The problem of the modern era is translating everything in terms of material objects. Help is also looked from the angle of money. But, there is certain type of help which can never be translated into matter. We walk on a road. The road is the culmination of hard work and toil of many workers whose sweat got translated into a smooth and shining street. It is a truth that they got paid for that, but is the price of their sweat only a few bucks? What about the shadow we get under a tree? The tree is planted by someone who expected nothing in exchange of that gesture. Are we not seeking help from that tree to enjoy the cool and soothing atmosphere? Our ancestors had realized this aspect very well. That is why we have so many festivals which are a sort of thanksgiving to many beings in the nature. It is a different matter that we have modified these festivals to suit our lifestyles and forgotten the real meaning behind it. The festival of Holi is a typical example of this. The festival which was meant for eradicating the bad things, burning the useless items is in turn used for creation of many evil customs. The above stories made me think about many such things and then I realized one thing- The most needed help by a human being is that which makes him or her realize her inner self. The most important aspect in the whole process is realization of the help received by us. The biggest help in our lives, each breath breathed by the courtesy of the Almighty!!
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