A Harthal day I would never forget

“So are we opening the branch tomorrow?” I asked my colleague with a gleaming face.

“See! Irinjalakuda is a nice place. Harthal doesn’t affect much here. We can’t keep the branch closed. We will open, and if any party adherents asks us to close, we’ll!” The senior staff member, who was quite friendly with me, replied.

The gleam on my face, faded by degrees… “Okay! I hope no customer walks in tomorrow!” The malayalee inside me hoped against hope.

The next day, shutter of the branch was raised predictably. To my joy, there was no rush when compared with usual days. We colleagues, sat there chatting for an hour till the phone bell rang. Finally the party supporters have asked us to close the branch. We took the day-end reports in a hurry and brought the shutter down.

“Are you happy now?” My colleague asked sarcastically.

I could do nothing but tried controlling my smile.

I called my room-mate who worked in Mathilakam branch. He stayed with me at Kodungalloor. He too was stuck in his branch. I promised him to pick him up and go to our room, which was quite a round-about way. I had no other go. I cruised on my Scooty pep at 40 KMPH. (Yeah that is the average “Cruise” you could cruise on Scooty!). I was enjoying the slow breezy ride as there were no traffic congestions. I left Irinjalakuda town and headed towards Mathilakam. The route was deserted and I found the ride easy. I passed a factory which is famous for manufacture of cattle fodder and then there were fields on both sides of the road. Greenery and greenery!

I saw a couple coming from opposite direction and without any evident problems, the bike toppled. I went near them and helped the husband to stamp his feet. We slowly raised the bike which was over his wife, but we were unable to. We saw that her purdah has rolled into the chain and that was the reason the bike toppled without any reason. I looked around and saw a house, 100 metres away. I ran towards that house and asked house-lady to give a pair of scissors or knife. She gave me both, when I gave a gist of the situation. I ran back and handed it over to the husband. He cut the cloth and looked at me for help. I lifted the bike and she was on her legs. On seeing her, my hands and limbs started trembling. She was a few months pregnant. She was holding her back and crying. I asked that person if I should look for an auto rickshaw. He couldn’t understand the language as he was from Bengal. We both communicated in the Hindi which we knew and could use to communicate for time being. Being it a Harthal day, it was really tough for me finding an auto rickshaw. I was able to convince a driver at his home and brought him to the accident spot. By the time the lady who gave me scissors and knife was also there and asked me to go with them in that vehicle. I went with them, my hands still trembling. We reached “Marina hospital”, where these people regularly went for check-up. The Bengali guy asked me to take relief in the same vehicle which we came. We exchanged contact numbers and I asked to call me in case he needed help. He thanked me with tears in his eyes. I too, could not control my tears. He gave me a warm hug and went inside the hospital.

I never again heard from him, though I expected a call. I too was afraid to call him for the reason that I would hear a bad news. I hope and pray that everything went normal and the happy couple are playing with a 2 year old child right now….