The Longest 3 hours.

The day had finally come.

“Good Luck !”, I told him and hurried to the hall allocated to me.

He and I had been last bench buddies for all the coaching sessions for the entrance test to one of the prestigious colleges in India. We’d had our best times and worst. That’s immaterial. Let it rest. For later.

He quietly entered the hall, after leaving his books, cell phone outside and was just about to enter the hall, the invigilator said, “I suggest, you be on time young man. There is no next time for this qualifying examination, so I am letting you in “.

After displaying his ID card, the invigilator looks at him. “When was this taken? In your sixth standard?” he laughed and he could hear some hushed smiles around the room. He didn’t want to see.

“Come on. It’s me anyway.” All that he could find was this picture, that was already stuck on his school Id Card, which he carefully tore, taken about 2 years ago!

He muttered to himself, “What a jerk”! He refused not to look anywhere, anyone. The seat allocated to him was fifth from the front, right next to the window, facing the open farms. “What luck! Fresh Breeze for the next three hours, he told himself “.

“Quiet please! I want no sort of disturbance or noise in the hall for the next three hours. You start when this clock [pointing to the age old clock on the wall, above the green board] strikes 9:30 AM and you will stop when this clock strikes 12:30. Am I clear?” needless to say, the invigilator’s voice echoed around the hall.

He looked around. Boys and Girls, of varying sizes of head [ apparently, that is what you get to notice in top entrance exams like this one ], big, small, stepped, round, almost oval, oval, square, Mars attacks ‘ alien ‘ shaped, cute, injured with band aid. A hall of 61 people. Counting that big jerk, who head resembled more or less like the braying animal!

He closed his eyes in solemn prayer for about 30 seconds. He literally folded his hands and kissed the 2 fingers of his right hand, before he opened his NATRAJ geometry box [gifted to him in 1994 by his dad].

Question papers were quickly distributed at 09:25. The invigilator smiled as he walked past him and gave that little smile, which can never be assumed for whatever it must mean!

He opened the box that was filled with 3 pens, 3 pencils, 1 sharpener, 1 eraser, 1 ruler measuring 15 cms and the picture of his favorite God in the middle of the box, slightly torn and discolored due to ravages of time. But, there was something inside it too. A single strand of peacock feather with a few rice grains, his luck symbol, which he had been preserving since his pre-school days, believing it will grow someday.

He dropped his lucky Blue colored pen. Oh my God! BAD OMEN!!

He prayed again and opened the question paper. He eyes scanned through the entire question paper. He could not believe his eyes. He turned paranoid. He felt like that small kid in the movie ‘ Taare Zameen Par ‘. He believed now, that he suffered from a very rare but common disease…………. DYSLEXIA!

His hands failed to cooperate; his heart beat could now be heard loud enough that he felt people were staring at him.

He thumped hard on the bench and that reverberated like a sinusoidal wave of indestructible noise across the room that, everyone in the room felt, there was an earthquake.

One small fellow, in the extreme right corner of the room was literally holding the bench, papers and his geometry box so tight, lest they fall off.

The invigilator walked towards him. “Is everything alright, young man?”. He was now saying in a very soft tone. Our guy liked him now. How sympathetic this person is. Why did I ever call him a JERK? The Invigilator put his hands around his shoulder, comforting him. He knew something!

The Invigilator then walked away, to his chair and sat there meditating.

Now, he was looking at the question paper in total disbelief. Not because he didn’t not know the subject, but because he had appeared for the wrong paper! It was to be Chemistry today; it turned out to be Physics. The other paper was nearly 15 days away !

He hated Physics. He for once, felt that the earth had stopped moving for a second.

He dropped his pen and started thinking. He opened his box again, scurried through the box and took time to choose a pencil [ blue, green and red ]. He looked at the clock. It smiled and said , 9:47 AM. He chose the blue color pencil and placed his hands on the answer sheet, unconsciously pressing it so hard that the sharpened end of the pencil freed itself from the wooden part! “S%#$!!! “, he said. Loud, that it could be heard.

The girl sitting next to him, made a small movement. But, she resumed immediately. Damn, she knows the questions.. More than the questions, she knows the answers too! He cursed himself.

He pulled the sharpener out of his box and slowly started sharpening. Crrrrrr…crrrrr..crrrrrr.. The lead was sharp. He felt it, by piercing it in the cheek. Ouch, it hurt! Yeah…. It is sharp now!

He sat with his eyes toggling between the question and the answer paper. He slowly now drew a symbol on top of the paper, which is a sacred symbol for a good start. Pulled out his ruler and starting drawing margins. First page done. Then second page, then the third…. When he completed all the pages he looked up again. 10:01 AM.

May be the clock’s running too slow, he thought. He got up and asked the invigilator “Sir, Is that clock running? “. The entire hall was now looking at him, some with sheer accord while some others exasperated. The invigilator raised his head and told him, “Young Man! I see you have a left hand and that has something glowing like a wrist watch! , not working eh? “.

He sank. Dumb. How Dumb. How could he ever forget that he had a wrist watch? He looked at it. 10:02 AM. How, can it be that two isolated things, a clock and a watch, not run at the same time? Weird, he thought!

He reclined and lifted the question paper with both his hands. The paper had something very familiar about it. The paper looked as though it wasn’t printed in English! There must be a mistake; there surely must be a mistake. They must have distributed the wrong question paper!

He slyly chirped into the paper of the girl sitting next to him. PHYSICS. It read. She stunningly turned and hid her answer sheet. He pulled back and smiled. Huh? Girl, I wasn’t looking at you answer paper! How could he tell her that ? Then did a similar thing with the person sitting in front, PHYSICS. Huh, there surely is some mistake!

Gone. Now all gone. He looked at the clock. 10:35 AM.

He sat there sharpening and re-sharpening all the pencils. Crrrr.. Crrrr.. Crrr…. The size of each pencil was now less than half of what it had been, before he entered the hall!

He grew confident. Wow! That’s all what he needed now. He opened the question sheet again. Read and re-read the question. He had found a way out.

His left hand now shifted towards the answer sheet. He struck off the “ 1) “ that he had written earlier and marked “ Qns 1 “ this time. That’s something he needed. More confidence. He underlined it three times with his RED ball point pen, REYNOLDS, the world’s most preferred pen!

He started writing the first question from the question paper. He repeated this until all the questions were written neat and proper in the answer sheet. He properly underlined each question. In the end, felt a lot relaxed and happy. His heard beamed with pride. Yes, he had done it.

He now looked around. Some scratching their head, someone in front of him, was erasing the paper so badly, that it had made a black mark and it looked as though, he could see the bench below the paper ! “Ah, that is why you should buy NATRAJ PLASTO Eraser! It leaves no mark, when you erase”, he smiled to himself!

His eyes slowly wandered across the room, he suddenly felt a quick rush of breeze. He turned, the Window! It was open. For the first time in his life, he saw Nature, in its own natural and wild form.

Greenery, all around. Farms, Fields, Trees, Grasses, Cows. God is great, God is such a wonderful architect, and God is amazing. He declared. He visualized Jim Carrey standing on top of the Empire State building, screaming, “I am Bruce Almighty! My Will be done! “

He could see a small bicycle that was speeding across the nearby field. Kulfi Ice cream. How much he loved it. Ding. Ding. Ding. A faint sound of the bell, from the bicycle. His eyes followed until it reached the end of the window frame. Then….. It was gone!

He looked up again at the clock. 11: 32 AM.

He now focused on the candidates inside the hall. First bench, all guys. What a waste! Second bench. 2 Boys and 1 Girl. No. Third Bench. 3 Boys again. Hei, he is wearing a Black T shirt. Wow! What arms man ….. Is that a snake? A TATTOO. Amazing. How did he do that? Did it not pain? He concentrated and focused. Two snakes and a dragon. Amazingly carved in the left arm. “ I will get one done, when I leave this hall”, he decided.

Clock. 11: 43 AM.

The guy sitting far right corner, wearing a ‘ Hari Om’ T-Shirt, looked tattered and the guy had a very normal look. What a weird combination. Leather Chappels, Man. Complete disaster. What a bad taste for clothes! Girls prefer ONLY such guys, GOD knows why. Pretty looking girls with guys, who are a disaster. Hmmm…. [NOM]

He then finally found what he was looking for. The Angel. The girl of his dreams. She was in perfect robes. Everything about her was neat and perfect. PERFECT. He was admiring the way, she was holding the pencil and the way she was gnawing it between her lips. She thought for a second; then again back on paper, then in deep thoughts, again on paper. Such a heavenly sight. The way she put aside the flock of hair, he having rested his cheek over his harm, almost fell off now. Studious, SHE must be, he thought.

“Oh man, what am I doing?” He looked at the clock. 12:23 PM.

He began his countdown 120…119….118…117...116……. 5….4….3….2….1. “Young men, drop your pens please.. Ladies, I know you have already kept your word! “. The invigilator smiled. When the invigilator reached his seat, he was still staring at her. Then it happened, she looked back and smiled at him as if she knew that he was always doing that. A Woman’s instinct. That perhaps was the most heavenly moment of his life.

The invigilator now standing in front of him, blocking the view. He inclined hurriedly, insentience. He quickly realizing his stupidity let out a hangdog smile and handed over the answer sheet.

He ran towards the entrance, grabbed his bag and walked behind the Angel. “Beast behind the Beauty”, he roared within.

She turned around. “Hi!” she said. His felt surprised at the unexpected feat and whispered “Hi “! They walked….

She asked “So how was the paper? You have a big head; you must have done it well!! “

He said, “Oh yeah, I really struggled with the questions 2, 7, 15, and 21 “Otherwise, the paper was okay…., “he tried to act normal but still down to earth.

“Oh! Good for you, you brainy head, I could do only part of it. I wish you get through. Good then… Good Luck, see you around….. !!! “, and she left………

There he was…. Letting an Angel walk away… and he hadn’t come out of the first sigh, first love honeymoon.

Damn! I didn’t even get her email Id or her cell phone number. He cursed himself.

Little did he know that, she had really struggled and managed to write the question paper and all the questions, once more than him.

TWICE!

PAIN

Nothing gets more exciting, thrilling and fearsome than to remain on the other side of the door of the Operation theatre, with the RED BULB on.
You guessed it right, she was expecting a baby and he was expecting news.

37 Minutes ago…..

9:16 am.............THEN

With all the pain in her, he could see her biting her lips and he was holding her head, consoling her, telling her it’s going to be alright. He said it, but he wasn’t sure himself. He was scared. Very scared. Will she make it out of this? Will I see her again? Or will this be the last time ?

But he had to pretend strong, the usual way. Men’s worst fears are veiled by the pretense called courage. That’s the man’s strength and weakness.

The six feet stretcher kept streaming through that entire passage 3 metres wide. Patients, people, survivors, dead, injured all around him.

He seriously wouldn’t have expected it to happen today. The gynoec told him it was two days to go. How could she be wrong ? Blood oozing from his wife’s lips. Wipe it now? He didn’t know. These are the moments the brain fails to co-operate with the rest of the body. You know it, but can’t do anything.

She had clutched his hands too tight. He felt a heavy pain. He told himself, not worse then what she is going through.

He felt my fingers going numb. His legs kept moving in the direction of the operation theatre, His hands numb, His brain weaker, Eyes worried. But all these, his face would just not show. He kept smiling at her. It will be okay. It will be alright. He kept telling her. He repeated that again to himself.

She was looking at him. He didn’t know what was going through her mind. She continued. Was he supposed to ask her something? Does she want to say something? The noise that she let out was deafening for him.

“We are standing near the Niagara waterfalls now; the noise is so big that, even if hundred thousand motors were running, you still can’t hear them near this Waterfall… Now… Ladies, will you please be quiet so we can hear the lovely sound of the waterfall? “ ………..

His mind was racing….. A Man’s mind. Even if it is going through all pain, it still wouldn’t impede recollecting a very bad joke, from some old digest.

The white linen wrap over her was slipping; he had to hold the end of the stretcher so tight along with the bed sheet that it doesn’t slip.

His eyes quickly fell on the pretty nurse who was walking across the corridor with a tray full of strangely colored bottles. Fabulous she was. She is. She resembled his favorite actor. He remembered the day, he lied to his wife, going out with his buddies for her movie, reached around 2:00 AM in the morning, told his wife, “ Hectic day, sorry sweets…., Did you have your dinner ? “

He firmly moved his eyes off her, as she crossed the short path through the side of the flexi door to exit. He looked at the door again. She’s gone.

He could notice the drop of tears running in succession from the left corner of her eye. Her face was terrified; he could smell and sense horror. He wanted to wipe her tears, but just couldn’t. She held his right hand firm and tight. Won’t somebody help her? He looked around.

Careless attendants were walking, talking and listening to cricket scores over the small transistor radio. The attendant squealed, “S#$*! Sachin, again out on 99 ! “ , Run out !!!

He was cursing Sachin now, “How could he get so careless when he is just a run away from 1oo? “. Such haste. Who’s gonna come next? Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Pathan ? Sehwag is no use anyway…

The sound from the transistor faded now. He was staring at his sweetheart, she was still moaning. Now, he could see more blood from her lips.. Oozing. Someone, please wipe them off … His heart kept sinking. He quickly kissed her on her forehead; he didn’t know why he did that. But, he did it. She could hardly smile; she let out, a very weak and dry smile even in that terrible pain.

As he was struggling to wipe her tears, he could see one nurse piercing a needle through a hand. The syringe she withdrew now was filled with something that appeared like……. BLOOD. He saw blood trickling down the hands of the lady lying on the bed. He was about to fall, faint. He quickly withdrew consciousness.

It seemed Maroon in color, why do they call it Red Blood, then? Strange. Human mind is so fanatical. It still can afford to think ill logic in distress hours !

They were now near the door. The attendant from inside the room, made a screeching noise and opened the door. A small mouse, escaped through the door. He shockingly jumped up in the air. God, are they gonna take her inside THIS room? What was the rat running away from? Is there a CAT inside the room too? Even with seconds in his hand, before she was gone inside that room, he was searching for the cat inside.

The room inside was nauseating. Medicines, Bottles, Blood, Forceps, Scissors, Oxygen pipes and things he never saw before… Masked human beings! Does he know them? Who should he blame and curse tomorrow, if something happened today? He could hardly see them.

Yeah, I see, he told himself. One stout nurse, one slim one with a scissor in her hand, one attendant with a tray, one tall person, average height, green mask ! Ha! That’s enough! He consoled himself.

They now pushed him out of the room… “Sir, you must go now, please wait outside “, he tried to fight with them. She was now raising her head slowly and waving for him to come. The green masked person beckoned him to step closer. He ran towards the stretcher. She held his hand and he was close to her now.

He could hear her whisper. He thought he heard her say, “Don’t leave me”! What should he say now? “You stupid lady, you are the one who is in trouble, don’t you realize? “ or ……. He didn’t think any further, he kissed her again. He didn’t think at all. He didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. He had to leave. The attender now held his hand and he was out of the room.

He was pushed out. “ Hei, buddy, I am her husband !!!! “ he shouted. He shrugged. Doors closed. He could see a picture of a child hanging on the wall… one note was written on it… “ Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” !!!!!!

9:53 am .............NOW
Seconds seemed like years.

RED BULB did not glow anymore. GREEN. He was impatient. The nurse came out and she led him inside.

What’s that pink stuff inside the white cloth next to his wife? What is it? He was restless. It moved. He was scared. He was very scared. His Wife now smiled at him.

He stepped inch on inch. He was now right next to the bed. There in the bed was the prettiest woman he had ever seen in his life and there ever could be. He never felt and saw her so beautiful. Ever. She seemed so, now.
Her left hand, gently moved over the white linen that was next to her. Nothing on this earth would have made him more heavenly than this moment. He grabbed the towel, it felt heavier now.

He saw now, crystal … IT’s a GIRL !




What exactly happened between 9:16 and 9:53 AM?

Anything that you might want to read, will either turn out to be a spoiler or an exaggeration. I am either mean or I suffer from inabilities in not being able to express the true emotions of a Father, whose heart beats for his loving wife and kid, and that of a Mother, whose feelings I cannot express.

I AM SORRY.

The heat from yesterday

Funny, Funnier, Funniest

For those of you who experienced the heat of yesterday’s debacle over the, over discussed sensitive issue. He wouldn’t forgive himself for carrying that all over his head until his bed.

Nightmares! ;)

Lightning.

He got into the bus last evening (time and route number immaterial here) and found only two seats available in the entire bus. The last 6 seater and a middle 3 seater. Dang !

Ladies! Women! Girls!

He had to choose between the two.
1) Two ladies in the 6th or 7th row of the bus. One occupying the window seat and the other the corner seat.
2) A guy on one side and a girl on the other side in the last row, supplemented with a free roller coaster jump ride on every bump in Hosur Road.

For option (2), you never know. By the time you get off the bus, you are already cramped like a MUMMY in some Egyptian exploration site !

The six Seater with SIX people is a total risk that you can afford. Specially, even if one healthy person ( please do not consider this offensive) sits there, God help you.

Also, he wasn’t willing to have a juice mixer run in his intestine for the ultimate mixing of the sandwich and the fresh Juice he had devoured minutes back.
Too early for output processing… Butterflies ? Snakes… Man. There were Vipers in his stomach!

He walked quietly ( did he have an option ? ) and just when he was about to request the lady to move inside, she said, “ please “ and wanted him to sit between the two. The lady sitting next to the window, lets out one lightening smile ( Oh my God ! She has read the posts in BB! )

Double trouble.

His Mind started racing badly. What should he do now ? Should he tell her ? Should he take the seat ? Should he take the other seat ? If he did, how will it look ? If he did not, how will it get ? Should he tell her politely ? Should he not tell her at all and just wave his hand to get her to occupy the middle seat ?

Hmmm. Difficult. Very difficult ( He recollected the scene when Harry Potter wanted to be in Griffindor, but he was fit for being in Slytherin ! )

Needless to say, he chose option 1.

He sat between them, and the next 45 – 60 minutes of his life, was thorny.

They usually say, “How long a minute is, depends on which side of the bathroom you are in”!

For the first time, he felt, it was true..He told himself, “IT WAS TRUE AFTER ALL!”

He recollected his dad tell him when he was a kid, “ It is good to watch Tom and Jerry blowing their heads off; It is actually difficult being one of them in that Cartoon” ! True, very true.

To his panic, due to the evening showers, the bus moved slow.. he could see it, the ANT that he saw near E-City junction was overtaking the bus now ! He could recognize it.

He kept whispering and praying to himself. “Dear God, if I get off this bus, without any trouble, I will break 10 coconuts! “

Suddenly, he felt it, a snake crawling over him. Something touched his hand. He froze. A chill ran down his spine. A drop of sweat ran over his temple [recollect here, the scene from Mission Impossible]

He slowly moved, lest it might gnaw him.

The string of the ID Card ! Whew………………….. !!!

He was feeling very sleepy. Every time he felt his eyes drooping, he wished he had an alarm set to make him sit tight. MUMMY’s Position. A long day at work and no time to relax. His Gray matter warned him, “Keep your eyes open, Keep it Open” !

Alas! He dozed off for 5 minutes and woke up with a start. God.. God… God !!!

ID CARD! Oh my God. Should I take it off now? Or Should I put it inside my shirt pocket?

He cursed that idiot who caused all this trouble. “Why me? , He whimpered to himself “ !

He just cautiously turned to see the girl sitting to the left of him. She was sleeping. Calm. Peace. A complete peaceful sleep. Or was she really sleeping? He didn’t know.

His bus stop. Ok, now what?

Should he wake her up ? But how ? Or should he wait until she gets off the bus ? He slowly moved and she looked at him. He gave a dry smile and told her, “ My stop”.

That perhaps was the craziest moment of his life, he thought. He knew. He felt like a Jackass!

He ran, ran and ran. Got down.

He breathed once and he felt maybe it was the first time after 65 minutes of mummified posture that he did.

Fresh air.

At last.
Sd/
Yuva