9:55 PM
Vinod Tripathi
its a story in the backdrop of recent Mumbai blast at 6:53 pm in dadar, where a person dies.this is the last page of his life.......
7:30 am
A lazy morning in Mumbai, sunlight is filtering through the curtains and on the bed, I am lazily thinking about priorities of my day. I have office at 9, meet with international clients at 11, prepare for tomorrows presentation till 4, then have meeting with boss at 6, hummff that’s it for the day!!! No, no I forgot one thing I have to go to car machanic for wheel alignment as well but before 7 pm at any cost.
Well, after getting all the days business set in my mind, I dug my face again in the pillow and fell asleep only when a screaming sound made entry over my ear drums “aaj to Bandar-Bandariya ki shaadi ho rahi hai”(today monkey couple are marrying eachother)…..it was my little kido “Saniya” whom we all call Sana.
She jumped over my belly and said,”papa, dekho na bahar kitna acha lag raha hai, barish aur dhoop sath sath”. I grazed out of window and found a drizzle amidst bright sunshine, coincidence, but a lovely one. I took Sana in my lap and told her, keep looking outside, you may find Rainbow very soon on the horizon.
Then I rushed to the bathroom for…do I need to tell you this? Anyways I am almost done with the pre-office preparation which includes my breakfast which is at the mercy of my wife, Shona as I call her.
8:45 am
Finally I am ready for office, Shona gave me a mundane hug and as usual again remineded me to keep myself away from my assistant who is naturally more pretty, fresh and energetic than my wife. But something I missed, Sana didn’t come to give me a bye kiss, I called her twice but no response. Anyways, I came down stairs, it was raining outside, I threw my bag inside the car and when I was to enter the car, I heard a lovely voice,”Papa, rainbow will come na? I have been waiting for long but its not there”.
Ohh pretty gal, she was still drolling on the window and as per my words, she was waiting for rainbow.
I said,” it will come beta, very soon it will”. “Ok, then I will wait here only,”she replied.
The last thing I saw her hands outside window trying to catch rain drops.
12:45 pm
I am done with client meeting, it all went well even boss looked happy today. I went to mess straight away to have lunch as I knew its gonna be a packed day after the lunch. I took cheese-Burger along with coke and covered a table. I don’t know why it happens with me all the time when I am about to eat my favourite cheese-burger my fone rings, so it is ringing, so be it. I kept ringing and finally I took the hard step of taking the call. Ohh, goodness, it was Shona on the other side,”where have you been Vinod? A sharp, hard voice zarred my ear drums. Look your daughter has created hell back home, talk to her. I said hello sana, how are you child? I was greeted with a weeping sound,”papa, you are a liar!! You said, rainbow will come, but it hasn’t yet. I am fed up looking at the sky. You are a liar!!
It will come beta, believe me, today is a special day, whatever papa says, it’ll happen for sure, believe me. And if it doesnot, I will bring you a choco, ok? I tried to persuade her. My little girl was happy with my bait, she said fine if Rainbow doesn’t appears then I need fruit ‘n’ nuts else bring milk cakes!!! Ok, papa now I am going again to the window, I don’t wana miss rainbow today.
05:30 pm
I am all set to present the report to the boss and went inside the cabin, the bald-head (boss) has immersed his head into the laptop screen, looked like sleeping but he was conscious I believe. Well, discussion started about the business and other future plans for expenses in the office. Suddenly he said, how is Sana? What about her quest with life. I was taken aback by sudden change in the topic, well she is fine, doing well but as far as quest is concerned, she is much more than her mom. I don’t know why am I telling boss all this but I wanted to tell about todays’ rainbow quest. I told him all about rainbow stuff happening since morning. He looked at my face and asked, do you believe rainbow will come?
I looked at the sky, it was dark with clouds, well it’s difficult indeed but hopefully we will get to see one today.
6:30 pm
I went to my cabin and called the peon, Ram lal can, ek chai Lana! But Ram lal said pantry wale ghar chale gaye sir, aap kaho to neeche se le aaun. I said, ok le aao! Acha suno, rehne do, mai khud hi jaake pee leta hoon.
I went to a tapri, as we call it in mumbai, and asked for a special cutting, Ismail a 7 year old kid handed over a glass, aur kuch laun kya sahab? I said, nahi. I looked at his face, he must be of the same age as Sana is. I was amazed, my daughter is busy in her quest with life and this little kid is busy with hardships of life.
6:50 pm
I am done with the tea, handed over money and turned back. Suddenly something came in my mind, Ismail tune kabi indradhanush dekha hai kya? Ha dekha na sahab, mast lagta hai. Acha batao kitne rang hote hai, I enquired. Ab kitna hoega sahab, char paanch to hoga hi but apan ko kya, apan to ek hi rang jaanta hai, golden brown, chai wala rang. And with this answer, he smiled innocently, and everybody there had a laugh.
I looked at the sky, it was a mixture of reddish tint of sunlight which was indication that sun is getting into the Arabian Sea now.
The red colour was there, only red….but no rainbow in the sky!!!!
06:53 pm
My ears went deaf, my eyes could hardly sea things, my body acted as if it was a log of wood……I felt the earth stopped rotating, world stood still….
I tried to gather all my energy to open my eyes, so as to see what happened, I saw Ismail on ground, bleeding from his head, half of the skull looked torn apart. Still unconscious, I wanted to yell, cry for help but my system was put on mute mode. Everything, looked so chaotic, people running around, smoke coming out of fried bodies, blood spilling out of limbs as we find with BMC pipelines.
Suddenly a huge cry came out of my mouth out of pain. My unconscious body came into wide awake. I could see a rod into my chest, blood spilling out of it. Another metal piece in my belly. What the heck is all this, I was there for tea only not for all this. Help, help, I am dying , plz help…………………
But nobody was there, a shear chaos, a no mans land. I knew, this is it………
07:30 pm
I don’t know what is happening but I could see some faces, some lights on my head. May be I am in hospital. May be, these faces are doctors, may be lights belong to operation theatre. May be I will come alive.
My eyes are dying, I could barely see anything now…………..may be I am dying!!! After everything went calm around me, it felt like freezing cold in the room.
“Papa, look, look at the horizon, it’s a rainbow there”, I tried my best to open my eyes, yes there was a rainbow, far on the horizon. “Papa you said na, it will come look it has, you are not liar, you are best papa in the world”.
I wanted to tell her,”I can see the rainbow, but its not 7 coloured but one” the RED……..
Suddenly, found a shacky activity over my chest, may be they are giving me electrical shocks to regain my breath. I could hear little murmer among the docs, many masked faces over my head. And when they left, it was a big Light above my head just like the one in operation theatre.
08:00 pm
Just like when you close your eyes in sunlight and you find different unstructured images in the sky and it ends into bright light fading in the eye.
Same way, it ended for me with only exception, I could see two little hands coming out window to catch rain drops…..and a voice………Rainbow will come na, Papa!!!
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