Monday, August 23, 2010

Fifteen Helpless Minutes


As usual, It was a tiring day I was too relieved to get down at my stop. On walking down a few steps I noticed a gathering of 20 to 30 people. I expected it to be a street play or some vendor selling his items at a discount. On getting closer I could see a few feet hurrying and many unhappy faces. My curiosity grew and I decided to have a look.

I squeezed myself through human boulders and somehow managed to reach the center of the action. Oh! My God. What I saw was too terrifying; there lay a young guy with his life fluid oozing all around. A shiver ran down my spine. In a moment all my excitement had turned to shock and fear. I somehow gathered some courage and asked the one beside me, “How did this happen? Has the ambulance been called?”

He turned towards me and said “It was an accident; we had called the ambulance almost half an hour ago”. He was in no mood to elaborate nor was I ready to listen.

I looked down to see the young fellow vomiting blood, which ran down his cheeks and onto the road. No one dared to touch him (perhaps, afraid of the long arms of our law). One person took pity and poured water to his mouth, he made sure that he did not to touch him. Accidently I looked into the eyes of the wounded person only to see tears and a desperate cry for help.

I was pulled back to the world when a strong arm pulled me back to make way for the late ambulance. They took some more time in analyzing him and covering his wounds, later they put him on a stretcher. As if we shared a bond his head tilted towards to me as if he wanted to convey some message to all. And he was then taken in the ambulance..

After two hours, I got to know that he was no more. On hearing this, tears rolled down my cheeks. Though he was a total stranger, I felt a lot of pain. Had the ambulance reached on time, had they been more professional, it might have been that things would have been different for the young guy.

Till today, I am looking for answers for those tears..