A Sudden Shock

The date was April 10, 2014 and the time was around 6:30 in the evening. I had just come back home from my college. Seeing my neighbors play Volleyball, I joined them without changing my uniform. Few games later my spectacles got broke. I went to my dad and asked if he could fix the broken arm. He immediately took out the glue from the drawer and asked me to hold the spectacles while he applied the glue on the broken arm. I left them unworn and let the glue do its magic. In the meantime, I changed, relaxed a bit and had some snacks. After some rest, I continued with my exam preparation as they were approaching. Few hours later, I took a look over the wall clock in my room. It showed 8:30 p.m. which meant it was dinner time. I immediately moved to the lobby for the dinner. Like a usual night, my mother was making chappati as I was having my dinner. Once I was done with my dinner, I asked mother ‘Why don’t you have your dinner?’ She replied ‘I’m waiting for your father’ and got busy with watching her daily soaps on T.V.

An hour later, she asks me to call father for dinner and as per her instruction, I called the number. Opposite to my expectations, some random guy picks up the phone and asks me to head over to the District Hospital. I was totally blank. Thousand thoughts rushed in my mind as I heard him. I asked my mother to give me some money and without informing her about what I have listened over the phone call, I immediately rushed to the place. On my way to the hospital while riding my bike as fast as I could, horrible thoughts were scaring me.

I arrived at the hospital and started interrogating about my father but no one looked helpful. I felt like kicking those people hard. Considering the situation, I calmed myself down and asked again about my father. Finally a doctor told me about him and said he is in mortuary. My heart sank listening those words of the doctor. I felt ground beneath my feet slipping. I felt I was falling into an endless rift. Putting myself together, I insisted the doctor on showing me the dead body to assure myself. One of the ward boy escorts me to the mortuary, opens the door, takes out the body and shows me the face. I was totally baffled as I saw his face. He didn’t have much blood on his face, just a drop of coagulated blood dripping from his nose. By now, my brain had accepted the truth but the heart was barely ready to accept it. I wasn’t able to figure out exactly how he died. There was dirt on his trousers which suggested that someone may have hit him from the back. Whatever would have been the reason, I moved on to some important issues to address. I asked the ward boy to close the door as I was still trying to digest the fact that I have lost my father.

Retreating from the mortuary, I asked the ward boy about the process of how to take the dead body home from the custody of the hospital. Since the body was found by police, the case became a little bit complicated and in these cases, postmortem is mandatory. The ward boy told me to come next morning with the policemen and take the dead body away. For the time being, I was in complete state of shock. Suddenly I came across one of my neighbors’ son accompanied with his friend. I was in dilemma about informing my mother about the death. The first person I called after hearing such shocking news was my sister, who was at that time in Delhi. I told her about the mishappening and then the series of phone calls continued till I informed the most important relatives. That night is certainly to be the worst night of my life.

On my way back home from the hospital, the neighbors’ son showed me the place where it all happened. I asked him to pull over. While looking at the spot of the accident, I saw a big patch of spilled blood. It seemed like someone crushed his head or something. Then we arrived at the residence and I was prepared about the part where people cry after someone’s demise but I tried to make myself strong and not to weep in front of my mother. As I entered the house I saw my mother saying ‘You didn’t bring your father along with you’. It was the second time in a night I was blank and ran out of words. I let her cry and went to the kitchen as even I couldn’t stop myself from losing it at that time. Wiping my tears off, I asked her if she has taken the dinner. The answer was obvious. No wife would like to eat or drink anything after hearing such bad news. But I fed her as she had to take medicines and had to be strong for the rest of her life. Neighbors around the colony were in the house trying to console my mother but she kept on crying loud.

In an hour or two, my maternal uncles along with their family came over at my place. Suddenly, I got worried about my attendance in the college so I rang up the class representative and asked him to write an application mentioning the mishappening happened with me and my absence from the college for the next four days. The guy assured me of getting the work done and also informed of his arrival with some other batch mates. The guys live at a place where there is no accessibility to conveyance, not at least in the middle of night but still they made it. I feel blessed to have friends like these who supported me in tough times. They not only supported me by their physical presence but also helped in the cremation of the dead body.

I did the cremation of the dead body the next day. Since I’m a hindu, I had to take all the remains after the whole body was burnt to ashes. For that, I and some other male family members went early morning to the graveyard and picked up the remains for mixing them in a flowing holy river. So we drove to a nearby place named ‘Kachla’ which is an hour away from my residence. By 1 pm, we were all back and started preparing for the 'Shuddhi Havan' which is a mandatory ceremony after a person’s demise. After the havan was over, we started serving people with food which was being prepared on the terrace. People started coming and were served instantly. Finally the day ends and I prayed for his soul to find peace.

Today it has been over 5 months and a half and it feels like yesterday. Still the flashes of those 4 days (April 10 – April 14) keep spinning in my head. I don’t know how tough it is going to be without him but one thing is for sure that life without him is not going to be the same. PAPA, YOU WILL BE MISSED.