One Fine Afternoon

August 7th 2007. It was an afternoon. The sun took a break and hid itself in a cloud. The breeze was gentle and pleasant. The leaves on the plants around our house were rustling. It was like any other perfect afternoon. Nudged by these factors, my mind thought of sleep. The body quickly agreed. And I slowly slithered into the bed to catch my forty winks. As I was drifting off to sleep, I heard a knock on the door then heard my mom say, “Could you drop me off at the clinic? I need to get a new prescription for the medicines.” Frankly, I was in no mood to drive. Furthermore, my mind was already away in the dreamland and I wasn’t feeling like bringing it back to reality. I half-sleepily murmured, “Can’t you go to the doctor tomorrow?” She said, “No way.” And mind you, when my mom says, “No”, believe me, it remains a No.

I was afraid if I didn’t go, she would take an auto and go. Then, it would be like a tight slap on my face (The perfect Gandian style of revenge) So, I got up, changed into a different set of clothes and within no time we were on our way to the clinic on my bike. It was while we were driving over a small bridge that the guy driving the bike ahead of us – I don’t know what got into his head – suddenly swirled to the right. He hit my bike’s front tyre at an angle that made it wobble for sometime and then finally spin out of control. We were traveling at a fairly good speed of 45 kms. per hour and I realized at a speed like that the fall from the bike could be inevitably fatal. But I could do nothing to avert it. It was too late. We crashed. The accident instantly disentangled me from the bike and I took five full tumbles before coming to a halt. Thankfully nothing happened to me, not even a scratch!

Even while I was tumbling the only thing I was worried about was mom. “God, don’t let anything happen to her!” I got up and came rushing to her. She helped herself up but was momentarily dazed. Later, I guided her onto the pedestrian path. I could notice she was writhing in pain, I knew something terribly bad had happened. Only when I saw the long, deep gash below her right knee did I realize the full impact of it. A single glance had told me it would require nothing less than 15 to 20 stitches. I was shocked beyond words. It all seemed like a bad dream. I was hoping someone would wake me; tell me, it’s over, she’s alright. This is only a dream…But nothing of that sort happened! The seconds mindlessly dragged on, before reality dawned – All this is actually happening!

Noticing the accident, a few passers-by hailed an auto. I immediately put mom in the auto and asked the driver to take her to the nearest hospital. I went and kick-started the bike; thankfully it roared to life although it looked completely wrecked. I then, sped to the hospital. There, the doctor asked the nurse to bandage the injury and take an immediate x-ray. Fortunately, the x-ray revealed there weren’t any broken bones. So, the wound was treated as only a deep laceration which needed stitches. She received all in all 18 stitches.

When the doctor found out that mom was a diabetic; he said the healing process would take a long, long time. But fortunately she returned to good health in a short time. The injury had properly healed. We were all surprised at the recovery. Even the doctors were taken aback. They exclaimed, “It’s a miracle! We haven’t seen any old, diabetic patient heal so quickly”. Moreover, after what had happened, I never expected mom to travel with me on my bike. But she still does! The faith a mom reposes in a son is simply amazing!

It’s more than one and half year, since the accident took place. Today, it is 13th February 2009. It’s a quite afternoon. The sun is warming up the neighborhood. The breeze is cool and pleasant. The smell of freshly cut plants is wafting in the air. My mind is tricking me into sleeping. That’s when I heard my mom knock on the door and say, “Would you like to have some tea?” I quipped, “Sure, as long as you don’t ask me to drive you to some place!”