I didn’t know you. I wouldn’t have known if you sat beside me sometime at Billoo’s or Chhedi’s. I wouldn’t have recognized you if I saw in the Insti or in the Dep – I wouldn’t even have noticed you. The only time I might have heard your name, I would have been booing at you – coz you would have been playing for LLR - against Azad.
But you were one of us. You belonged to this place, like I do. You were a person who would have spent 4-5 of the best years of your life in the god-forsaken place, just like me. You too would have bunked classes, just like me. You too would have murmured comments about Profs while sitting in class, just like me. You too would have wondered what you will do after you get out of this place, just like me. You too would have spent nights watching movies or in bhaatbaazi with friends, like I do. You too would have uttered abuses to seniors under your breath because they made you participate in events you wouldn’t have wanted to, just like me. And all this would have been sufficient to grow a bond between us if we had met at a future date.
And now you are not with us. All it took was a fall from a rickshaw to take you away from us. Everyone who knew how bad the system was and still didn’t do anything about it is a culprit – including me. I sincerely hope our reaction over the last two days will not peter out to a dead end but will continue till there really is a change in the system. Only then will I be able to redeem myself from the guilt of your untimely departure.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Accident
I think I have borrowed this idea from some detective serial but since I don't remember which one, i won't hazard a guess.
It had been a good day at office and he was returning home with a smile on his face. His wife would be waiting for him, and his kids. It was past midnight, he had gotten late today but it had been worth the effort. So, now he was enjoying the empty roads at full speed on his bike with the wind in his face.
He was crossing an empty stretch with just trees and rocks on both sides when he saw the car coming from the opposite direction. It was coming straight at him and the driver showed no sign of giving him room to maneuver himself out of the way. The vehicles collided at full speed. The last thing he remembered was a feeling of flying through the air.
It was still dark when he woke up. He was not in pain. He simply felt as if he had gone numb. He tried to open his eyes. He was successful. He tried to move his head around. He found that it was possible to a small extent. But all his attempts failed when he tried to get up. He also found that he couldn’t even cry out for help. “Seems I will have to stay this way till someone finds me. Surely someone would come looking soon-my bike would be lying somewhere nearby. And what about the driver of the car? That bastard. If I see him I will kill him with my bare hands. Just having a car doesn’t give you ownership of the road.” he thought.
He was thinking in this vein when he thought he heard voices. The voices were coming towards him. On listening carefully, he could recognize two voices – a man and a woman. He thanked God that somebody had come to save him. So he lay as he was – listening to their conversation.
Man: Are you OK? Should I get you a doctor?
Woman: No, I am fine. What about you?
Man: I have escaped injuries too. But I guess that can’t be said about my car too. It is going to burn a hole in my pocket.
Woman: What about the guy on the bike? Where is he? How come he hit us? Didn’t you see him coming?
Man (chuckling): I was too busy kissing you to look towards the road.
Woman: You should have been more cautious. What if we had been seriously injured?
Man: Oh come on! It’s just a small accident. That guy might have been knocked unconscious. We’ll find him, wake him up, put him back on his bike and then go home.
It was the woman who found him. Now that he could see her, he realized that she was a quite young. They were a young couple, probably not even married yet. The girl was crying now. She was saying, “He isn’t moving. Is he seriously injured? Is he dead? Oh God! What shall we do?”
He saw the man point a light towards him. He looked at the light. The man heaved a sigh of relief. He said,”Hey, are you OK? Look I’m sorry. It was my fault. I’ll pay for the damage to your vehicle. Do you need help getting up? Come on, I’ll help you to your bike. It is still good enough to take you home. Why don’t you get up? Why don’t you say anything? “
He could imagine the man’s expression changing when, after trying to help him get up, he couldn’t elicit a single response. The man directed the light towards his face again to check if he really was alive. Meanwhile, the girl was sitting nearby and crying quietly. “We have a problem here.” the man said.
They went out of earshot. He could still see their silhouettes against the headlights of their car out of the corner of his eyes. He saw the girl gasp when, as he imagined, the man told her that he could not move. He could see that they were arguing about something. “Perhaps they are thinking which hospital would be nearest.” he thought.
Now the argument was taking longer than necessary – the girl had started crying again. “What are they doing? Don’t they know that if they do not take me to a hospital soon I might die? And then they will have a lot of trouble on their hands.” he thought. Finally, he saw them kiss – as if the man was trying to tell the girl that he would handle everything and that everything would be all right.
The man came back alone. The girl was still standing near the car. In a flash, he understood what was going to happen and the knowledge blinded him. He didn’t know why they were doing it but he realized that he was going to die very soon and that his death would be an accident. Even the blame for the accident would lie on him. And all he could do was plead with his eyes to a face that would not even look at him.
His eyes were saying, “No, I am not greatly injured. Leave me here and go away – I won’t tell anyone anything. I’ll just say that I hit something and fell. Or better, stay here and I’ll take responsibility for the accident. I’ll even pay for the damages to your car. But please don’t do this. Please don’t kill me. Don’t be afraid of me. I will not cause the two of you any harm.” But there was no one to listen to him or look into his eyes as the man lifted a heavy stone and brought it near his head.
In the last moments of his life, his prayer to the man of being left alone turned into a different prayer addressed to God. In the last moments of his life, he prayed for an intelligent inspector.
Inspector Singh, who was the first to reach the spot of the accident, was not very intelligent but he certainly wasn’t dumb. He looked at the dead body lying in a pool of blood and the rock, with blood on it, on which the person, now dead, had hit his head – the cause of death – when he had been thrown off the bike. He looked at the young couple who had called him up saying that they had met with an accident and that someone had died.
He said, addressing the girl, “Every rock that lies on the ground has two surfaces. One that is exposed to the weather and is generally clean. The other side is the one that lies facing the ground – gathering moss and mud. Now, can you tell me, in what way was this person thrown off so that he hit his head on the unexposed surface of the rock?”
It had been a good day at office and he was returning home with a smile on his face. His wife would be waiting for him, and his kids. It was past midnight, he had gotten late today but it had been worth the effort. So, now he was enjoying the empty roads at full speed on his bike with the wind in his face.
He was crossing an empty stretch with just trees and rocks on both sides when he saw the car coming from the opposite direction. It was coming straight at him and the driver showed no sign of giving him room to maneuver himself out of the way. The vehicles collided at full speed. The last thing he remembered was a feeling of flying through the air.
It was still dark when he woke up. He was not in pain. He simply felt as if he had gone numb. He tried to open his eyes. He was successful. He tried to move his head around. He found that it was possible to a small extent. But all his attempts failed when he tried to get up. He also found that he couldn’t even cry out for help. “Seems I will have to stay this way till someone finds me. Surely someone would come looking soon-my bike would be lying somewhere nearby. And what about the driver of the car? That bastard. If I see him I will kill him with my bare hands. Just having a car doesn’t give you ownership of the road.” he thought.
He was thinking in this vein when he thought he heard voices. The voices were coming towards him. On listening carefully, he could recognize two voices – a man and a woman. He thanked God that somebody had come to save him. So he lay as he was – listening to their conversation.
Man: Are you OK? Should I get you a doctor?
Woman: No, I am fine. What about you?
Man: I have escaped injuries too. But I guess that can’t be said about my car too. It is going to burn a hole in my pocket.
Woman: What about the guy on the bike? Where is he? How come he hit us? Didn’t you see him coming?
Man (chuckling): I was too busy kissing you to look towards the road.
Woman: You should have been more cautious. What if we had been seriously injured?
Man: Oh come on! It’s just a small accident. That guy might have been knocked unconscious. We’ll find him, wake him up, put him back on his bike and then go home.
It was the woman who found him. Now that he could see her, he realized that she was a quite young. They were a young couple, probably not even married yet. The girl was crying now. She was saying, “He isn’t moving. Is he seriously injured? Is he dead? Oh God! What shall we do?”
He saw the man point a light towards him. He looked at the light. The man heaved a sigh of relief. He said,”Hey, are you OK? Look I’m sorry. It was my fault. I’ll pay for the damage to your vehicle. Do you need help getting up? Come on, I’ll help you to your bike. It is still good enough to take you home. Why don’t you get up? Why don’t you say anything? “
He could imagine the man’s expression changing when, after trying to help him get up, he couldn’t elicit a single response. The man directed the light towards his face again to check if he really was alive. Meanwhile, the girl was sitting nearby and crying quietly. “We have a problem here.” the man said.
They went out of earshot. He could still see their silhouettes against the headlights of their car out of the corner of his eyes. He saw the girl gasp when, as he imagined, the man told her that he could not move. He could see that they were arguing about something. “Perhaps they are thinking which hospital would be nearest.” he thought.
Now the argument was taking longer than necessary – the girl had started crying again. “What are they doing? Don’t they know that if they do not take me to a hospital soon I might die? And then they will have a lot of trouble on their hands.” he thought. Finally, he saw them kiss – as if the man was trying to tell the girl that he would handle everything and that everything would be all right.
The man came back alone. The girl was still standing near the car. In a flash, he understood what was going to happen and the knowledge blinded him. He didn’t know why they were doing it but he realized that he was going to die very soon and that his death would be an accident. Even the blame for the accident would lie on him. And all he could do was plead with his eyes to a face that would not even look at him.
His eyes were saying, “No, I am not greatly injured. Leave me here and go away – I won’t tell anyone anything. I’ll just say that I hit something and fell. Or better, stay here and I’ll take responsibility for the accident. I’ll even pay for the damages to your car. But please don’t do this. Please don’t kill me. Don’t be afraid of me. I will not cause the two of you any harm.” But there was no one to listen to him or look into his eyes as the man lifted a heavy stone and brought it near his head.
In the last moments of his life, his prayer to the man of being left alone turned into a different prayer addressed to God. In the last moments of his life, he prayed for an intelligent inspector.
Inspector Singh, who was the first to reach the spot of the accident, was not very intelligent but he certainly wasn’t dumb. He looked at the dead body lying in a pool of blood and the rock, with blood on it, on which the person, now dead, had hit his head – the cause of death – when he had been thrown off the bike. He looked at the young couple who had called him up saying that they had met with an accident and that someone had died.
He said, addressing the girl, “Every rock that lies on the ground has two surfaces. One that is exposed to the weather and is generally clean. The other side is the one that lies facing the ground – gathering moss and mud. Now, can you tell me, in what way was this person thrown off so that he hit his head on the unexposed surface of the rock?”
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