Set for Final Journey

By sanjoykumar satpathy

The real life adventureis seen through passing or fleeting or temporal moments.the author is able to behold those critical moments through his fine observations and perception and unravel the matter with engaging, subtle and lucid language, to give rise to deeper sensibility for a a delightful reading.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Apr 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482820966

Book preview

KAMALINI

The Coromandel Express train was moving at full speed to make up for the lost time of forty-five minutes, when a sudden jerk made Animesh fall from his berth in the two tier A/C Compartment. The sudden fall did not result in any major injuries to him as he was on the lower berth.

That did not take Animesh much long to realize what had happened; some of the compartment of that super fast train had plunged into a river. He could see people getting drowned from his compartment. Animesh did not panic and kept his cool, removed his socks and put the wallet in a polythene packet, which was lying on the tilted compartment floor. Passengers were shouting, ladies and children were crying. Some of them were making a vain attempt to take out their luggage as if they had reached their destination. The exit door was jammed due to the impact of the accident.

Animesh took out his brief case and looked at the horizon; it was looking dark through the tinted glass of the compartment. He pulled out a piece of steel rod from the berth with little difficulty and praised open the windows pan, knowing fully that that’s the only way he could get out. By this manner his other trapped co-passengers could also escape, since the compartment had turned turtle.

He remembered his father who had taught him how to swim when he was barely eight years old. His father an expert swimmer had told his son that it might help him in life even though Animesh was reluctant to venture in to the deep pond of his village. Two of his father’s tips flashed in his mind: First one, should never try to save someone getting drowned as it’s an expert’s job, many people get drowned if not done properly, second one, was never get panicky, otherwise one might lose steam and get drowned. When Animesh got out through the window he could see the fast flowing currents of river water down below.

The crying of children and howling of women were getting drowned in the streaming flow of that river. He had removed his shirt and was wearing only the half torn pant and his torso was bare. The polythene encased purse was ensconced in his under garment.

The most horrifying scene of his life was unfolding just a few meters away from him. A small child and a young lady were trying to save themselves when a gush of water tore away the child from her mother’s grasp. Animesh could wait no more and jumped in to the river to save the child. The last time he had a swim was with his elder brother in the Bay of Bengal off Waltair coast some ten years back. He could never imagine that he must have swum at least eighty meters against the flow of water.

The rescued child was coughing badly as she must have taken some water inside. She was laid on the wet grass surface and Animesh did a little bit of first aid after which the child started crying for her mother. She was about four to five years old and it was quite evident from her well-chiseled face that she hailed from aristocratic stock.

Now the problem was, lots of people had swum to the riverbank. There was a feeling of shame in the face of Animesh for wearing that torn under garment. Like a God sent gift a sari came floating in the water, which he could grab before some, one could. The child was crying incessantly. He had nothing with him to console the child.

The problem was whom to hand over the child. With so much of child abuse and child prostitution he had a second thought of handing over the child to any unknown or even to police. When the rescue team came it was two hours too late. The sari was wrapped on Animesh body like a dhoti and he left the scene. When he reached the dry land, could see that the road was not very far-off. There was no one to ask him what had happened and why the child was crying.

The purse was in tact. He took the help of a truck driver with National Permit label pasted on it and asked him to drop him near a market place where he could purchase a slipper and some food for the child.

To his horror he could not understand the language the child was speaking. It was not Telugu and he suspected that it must be some South Indian language.

The Sardarjee truck driver asked Animesh—why he was wearing a sari?

He became sympathetic to him after he heard about the accident. He thought Animesh wife got killed and he was carrying this young daughter all by him.

Animesh asked the driver—How far is the next town?

With his usual Sardarjee euphoric voice replied—It’s Bhubaneswar, jee.

For the first time in his life, Animesh was so happy to know that he is alive and have reached the destination, kissed the child with delight.

Sardarjee dropped them at VaniVihar chowk. Before he could thank him, he had put his foot on the accelerator and speeded off.

Animesh took an auto and reached his house at Ashok Nagar, the time was 8.30am. His wife Anupamma came running to the main gate with tears rolling down her cheeks, as she had watched the breaking news bulletin a few minutes back about the train accident in the national news TV channel.

By now the girl had slept on Animesh shoulder.

In a whispering voice she asked him Whose child is that?

He told her, Your guess is as bad or as good as mine. She was picked up from the river water near the accident site.

Anupamma asked a volley of questions, What are you going to do with her? Where are her parents? Who will take care of her? Already we have three too many??

Don’t worry we will do some thing to her so that her relatives can pick her up. was Animesh sharp reply.

Years rolled bye.

She grew up along with their two daughters and a son. No one came to pick her up. Probably her name was flashed in the list of dead passengers. With lots of social, judicial and mental agony she became the sixth member of their family. They named her ‘Kamalini’.

As Animesh was writing this piece of real life drama, looking at his diary, the nightmarish happenings of that fateful morning still flashed like a lightening in front of his eyes. Kamalini had passed her MBA after completing her engineering course from a famous College. Recently she has got her appointment letter from a multinational company and would be going by Coromandel Express shortly to join her service at Chennai. She did not remember her original mother nor did she remember what that super fast train had done to her destiny!!

That piece of sari, which saved Animesh prestige, has been kept as a souvenir. Who knows that piece of cloth might have been the last word of gratitude from Kamalini’s mother?

SET IN A STORMY NIGHT

During summer holidays, Abani and Suresh two fast friends, decided to cycle all the way