THE ACCIDENT

    “As I opened my eyes, I saw myself lying on a bed, probably a hospital bed with a cloth covering my body. I tried hard to remember my past, or clearly, the past few moments. I absolutely do remember my past, I am Lata and I am native to Uttarakhand (DehraDun, if to be clear). Suddenly, an image appeared in the front of my eyes, image of an accident. My thoughts began to revolve about this image; finally I came to the conclusion, that I had a terrible accident while I was travelling to Rishikesh with my family accompanying me. My mind was having a debate of whether I should go out and look for my husband and children or just lie on the hospital bed. I also did not know the exact time I had been here, but yeah I felt pretty healed up. There was no pain in my body so I decided to go out.

Before opening the door, I insisted on the word ‘accident’ again and then it seemed as if the whole incident got divided into reels and the projector in my mind began to play the course of that ominous incident methodically.

 We were going to Rishikesh, where my in-laws lived. Bala, my husband was really excited for he’ll be meeting his parents after a long time, and so were my two sons, Ishan and Iresh. We were all ready, and planned to reach our destination by the evening. By the way I didn’t tell you that I have excelled in the field of driving a car. Well, I am not professional, but, I think that you have got the idea. I don’t know why my children have suspicion that I don’t know how to drive. But as much as I have judged the human psychology, ‘Humans want to prove themselves the best, and god forbid, if someone question their perfection, then the individual would strive to do anything to prove and proclaim their superiority ’. Where was I, yeah, then I forced my husband to let me drive the car. He tried to stop me because I don’t know why, but I feel that he had a creepy feeling that I should not handed the key of the car as it may be dangerous, and the presence of my children facilitated his concern. Then I began to blackmail him emotionally, and being a helpless husband, he agreed. An air of thrill and enthusiasm prevailed inside me. I took it as a driving test with my sweet Ishan and Iresh being the judge. Everything was going awesome when a truck driver overtook us. He was a nuisance in our pretty journey. As a result I became overexcited. I accepted the driver as a challenge and accelerated the car to 100km/hr. we entered the region of the bridge which connected the two cities. In order to overtake that shitty driver, I brought the car to a severe accident and we stroke against the railings of the bridge, and went somersaulting for a distance. I was feeling guilty for such a vague decision. But in the midst of that guilt, I was somewhere happy, because we didn’t fell into the river below us.

          When I remembered all this, I was not able to bundle up the courage to go and face my husband. Somehow I gathered some feeble strings of courage and went straight towards my husband, who was literally slouching on the hospital floor outside my cabin. I apologized on him and asked about Ishan and Iresh. He first seemed to ignore me and then started crying. The face made by him brought big drops of tears in my eye. It felt like my lacrimal glands had begun secreting tears in a huge amount. Then suddenly the door flew open and two horrified faces welcomed us. One of them was male and the other female, and they appeared to be a couple, an old happy, cute couple, but something had saddened them from the depth of their heart. I was staring them when I noticed my husband going to them and began to hug them. Then I noticed that they were none other than his parents. He began to explain the incidence and concluded by saying ‘it wouldn’t have happened if Lata had not insisted me on giving her the permission to ride’. His parents then began to stare me. At the next moment, from the door just behind me; the doctor arrived with a pale face, as if he is bringing sorrow news. He put off his mask and went straight to my husband, making an even more mournful face, he said that his colleagues tried very hard but were not able to save ‘one of them’. As I heard this, I was not able to control my feelings and sat on the floor with my knees in vajrasan and my face against the hospital floor. As I looked up I saw that my husband was not there. I fumbled to look for him when I saw a sight of his brownish pant with a blue colored pen, who was sort of running behind the doctor as if anxious to look something. I quickly followed them, and they went straight to a room. There was a body lying on the bed confronting me with its face covered. My heart began to pound, I was very sad, as any mother would have been, but there a feeling of little satisfaction too because I felt that one of my son’s is alive. Bala, my husband approached towards the body and with each step of his, the magnitude of my restlessness kept on increasing. He removed the shroud from the body and the sight which I saw, covered me into a cloak of shock because there was a woman lying on the bed who appeared to be a middle aged woman and that woman was none but I. 

          “Now that you have read this book,

            You can’t get rid of the ghost of look;

            You have signed a bond with me,

            And this may not break even if you like it to be;

            This is a promise that I shall retain,

            I will not leave you till you become vain;

            So better not try to throw it,

            This is a warning and I will stick to it.”