Yellow Everyone!

Summer has hit us hard early this year and its nearly unbearable! Mumbai’s temperature has hit crazy 41 degree Celsius already which is insane from Mumbai’s usual standards.

Today, I will be sharing a very simple yet extra-ordinary incident I encountered yesterday. I decided to go shopping early in the morning and took a Rickshaw as the Mall was nearly 15 Kms away from my house. The Rickshaw driver’s right hand had an elbow support and a bone sticking out at an awkward angle. I suppressed my curiosity and started the journey. Neither of us spoke as he did not need any direction guidance until almost the last 5 minutes wherein his Rickshaw broke down. He told me it was probably due to certain loose connection in the wiring and got down to fix it! Nearly half a minute later he started the Rickshaw again and we were off to my destination. We had hardly made it to yet another 100 meters when his Rickshaw came to a halt after few minor jerks. He apologized and got down to fix the wiring. It took him nearly a minute to fix the loose wiring this time  and another two to start the rickshaw again (I had started to panic a bit since I was running late and we were in the middle of an alternate traffic free route instead of the usual one).

Finally, as my destination grew closer and he drove the Rickshaw skillfully, I sighed in relief and inquired about his hand for my curiosity got better of me.  He told me he met with a major accident some time back. Thinking he meant a major road accident I asked again, “how did it happen”? He did not appear to have any further major injuries apart from the weird bone sticking out of his elbow (No scratches/ visible marks indicating towards a rough accident). I had expected something like a head- on road collision or an overturned Rickshaw. To my astonishment, he informed me that he used to fix CCTV cameras and other electronic items for a living. So, one day unluckily he got electrocuted by a high voltage carrying wire while fixing this particularly complex CCTV camera and ended up in coma for almost TWO MONTHS!

He told me flatly that his wife of nearly two years left him and his kids as she was afraid that she may have to work for feeding the family. He underwent two major operations out of which the second one was successful but expensive. He kept his head high and decided to raise the kids on his own. He was still healing from the entire incident and driving Rickshaw instead of begging to keep up with the difficult economical times. I searched his hardened face for a trace of emotion, negative or positive, but found none expect sheer determination. Through his solid face I could see the reflection of a man who had undergone a life changing experience and clutching on to the endearing time he had managed to steal, he made sure that he tries to get the best out of it.

I wish I could have used some presence of mind and clicked a Snap to share his brave face here! After all, Its not every day that we meet someone who met death face to face, defeated it and still believed in living his life honestly and bravely.

Regards,

Pinjil!

P.S: I knew this person was not looking for any sympathy/ pity for I had to probe him into telling me his miraculous story.

 

2 Comments

  1. This one just gave me goosebumps.

    • I know, I felt the same.. 🙂

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