It was
02.25PM. Tirupathi was simmering with rising Mid-Sunday heat. Up in the hills,
the queue was very long and had to contend with both the scorching summer and
very little space. But the weekend crowd was undeterred. Inspite of all the struggles,
they were determined and jostled for any available space. Few exhausted people
had to get off the queue, cursing their timing and crowd. Some even smeared
Lord Venkateshwara for all their troubles.
Down the
hills, in a hotel room which offered wide panorama of the hills, the Lord
Balaji temple and the Railway station which is adjacent to the hotel, Ram was
not worried about his ruined chances of worshipping the deity the previous day.
He was in a deep slumber. It was Lord Venkateshwara’s wish that he had to wake
up and check time. He never wore a watch. He always had his mobile, handy to
show him the right time. He opened his eyes lazily; pressed a button in his
mobile to check time and he was suddenly bolted out of the blue. He realized
that he had overslept and on the verge of missing his 02.30PM bus. Thankfully
for him, he had completed packing before he dozed off. Acting swiftly, he
collected his baggage, took the keys, locked and ran out of the room without
double checking his things.
It was a
long passageway. He did not have enough time and patience to wait for the
elevator. He cannot afford waiting for it. Without thinking twice, he reached
the steps and started jumping off them. He had to check-out from the hotel and
collect the refund for advance payment. It was Venkateshwara again that
fortunately for him, many were still not prepared to leave the town without
visiting His Abode leaving the check-out counter empty. He was sweating
profusely, threw the keys at the cashier and was pleading harder with the
cashier to process him out quickly. Cashier was kind and experienced enough to quickly
find his papers and asked him to simply sign them. Ram checked the time. It showed
02.27PM. He quickly signed declaring his acknowledgement receiving the refund
and before the cashier could give out the refund, he was already out of the
hotel.
Before he
could get to an auto stand, various thoughts ran through his mind. He was
calculating the various possible ways to reach the bus station faster. He knew
that, it would just take 3 minutes if he can pay more and coax the auto driver
to keep the accelerator backwards. It was not difficult for him to get one such
driver. The driver was more than willing for this adventure. The adventure ride
had started. The driver jumped few traffic signals and the by lanes were
quickly sped past. Ram checked the time. It showed 02.30PM. Ram’s heart was
pounding at him. Panic started to grip. He did not know what to do and was
completely at the mercy of an unknown auto driver who was paid to violate the
traffic rules and in the process, endanger few human lives. He feverishly
tapped the driver’s shoulders and mouthed few words which he could barely
listen. The driver was annoyed but decided not to take notice of him. It was
best for him to ignore Ram’s appeals.
The driver
was right. The bus station was in sight in no time. It got Ram excited. He took
one hundred buck and forced it into the driver’s shirt pockets. Before the auto
came to a halt, he jumped out of it. The auto driver had started counting the
payment and when he had a look at Ram, he was running faster in the station.
Ram did not know the platform number and there were too many people roaming around,
yet too less to be enquired. His mind was in such confusion. He saw everything
and nothing. He wandered aimlessly and his mind was blank. He tried to gain
composure and had a look at time, hoping that that would be the last time he
would see it that way. It showed 02:35PM. He was praying harder that, the bus
would be waiting for him. He looked around. After few frantic searches, he
finally spotted his bus some 50 meters away. It was moving slowly as if hoping
of finding a missing passenger.
He was
consumed by hysteria. He did not see anyone coming behind, did not see anyone
walking aside. He did not bother to bring down anyone who stood in his way.
Fellow passers-by wore an amused look at him and they did not understand what
this fuss was all about. He did not hear them use cuss words at him. He saw
only one thing. His bus to Bangalore. His excitement was so much that he
assumed all things that stood in his way are poor living things and can be
easily pushed or kicked away and he mistook a hard rock stone to a black dog
and ran into it. His left knee made a strong impact with the rock and that was
good enough to bring him down. His head swiveled around and hit another stone
near-by. Now the impact was much more, sending alarm signals to every part of
the brain. He shouted in agony.
He was
bolted from within as his Rapid Eye Movement was stopped abruptly. He sprang up
from his bed and looked around. He was in a confused state. His baggage was
still at the same place before he dozed off. Everything in his hotel room was
at the same place as he last saw. His head and leg were safe but his eyes were
burning. He was still trying to come to terms with reality. He checked his
time. It showed 02.25PM.
******
