FOREVER IN MEMORY

'We are landing soon in Chathrapathi Shivaji International Airport soon'. I heard the voice and got ready to get down from the flight. I was under deep sleep and the hangover was continuing. My connecting flight to Bangalore was after four hours and that gave me a relief. I have reached the helpdesk of Indigo flight after standing for long time in the emmigration que. 'Which is the gate for 7.00am Bangalore flight. 'Gate No. 20'. I walked towards gate no. 20 and took a seat. After few hours an middle aged man came and sat near me. I was under the influense of lack of proper sleep and did not care to look at his face. He tapped my shoulder and asked. 'Hi, Raj, Are you not the one worked in Eiko before?' 'Yes, My name is Raj and I worked with Eiko long back.' 'It is so nice to see you again, you don't remember me?' I have looked at his face with beard and spectacles. 'Oh, Nagaraj Sir,' 'How are you Raj, what are you doing now?' 'I work for an Oil & Gas company in Muscat.'

'It is so no nice to see you again, I can never forget your timely help which saved me from death.'

It was in during 80's I have joined Eiko as Draughtsman and was part of the innovative home computer design project. Mr Nagaraj was the production engineer during that time. We had a great team of engineering in the company. We used to have busy schedule and tough working atmosphere. Nagaraj used to be a very tough person with his juniors. My boss was Mr. Eric and didn't had any direct conflicts with Mr. Nagaraj. Our team was having a lot of youngsters and fun loving friends. In those days we used to have short picnics during long week ends. We arranged for a picnic to Shivanasamudra and Barrachukki water falls during the pooja holidays. We reached Barrachukki and walked towards the water falls. We had to go lot of steps down to reach a place of water where we can swim. All of us were very excited and and rushed towards water. . A group of us entered water and was enjoying the swimming for sometime. I was relaxing for a moment I saw someone coming up and going up and struggling in the water few feets away from me. I did not think anything at that moment and all of a sudden jumped near to him and went down in the water. I was trying to locate him, suddenly he caught hold of hand and pulled me down further. I found very difficult to breath and with all my force pushed his away from my body and came to top side. It was a moment of test for me. I did not hesitate and went down again in water and caught hold of his long sleeve banian and pulled him out and guided him towards shore. He sat down in the shore and started spitting water for few seconds. I looked and his face and realised it was none other than Mr. Nagaraj. 'Thank you, Raj, I can never forget you in my life.' 'Indigo is happy to announce departure of 6E 236 to Bangalore.' Nagaraj, touched shook shoulder and told. 'Come, on let us go to the flight.' 'Ok, sir, I was going through our Eike time.' 'Oh, Yes, because of you I am still alive, thank you once again.' 'Yes, sir, I was able to save you that day because I too was saved before by someone else. 'Yes, I wanted to ask you, what made prompted to save me risking your life that day.' 'Yes, sir, I too wanted to tell you, soon after that incident I changed my job and later left to abroad.' 'I think, I can hear your that part of story during our flight.'

I used to live a village called Attoor in Kerala. I was nine years old during that time. We had a big pond in our anestor home in Kerala. My mother was away for few days. She was in Bangalore. Hence I have decided to learn swimming. I have learned swimming in few days. Every year our pond used to have a cleaning process. Elder boys of our family was doing the cleaning work of the pond on that day. I was standing side of the pond steps. I was excited by the way my uncle was pulling dirt in the water. I wanted to try out my swimming knowledge and entered water at sholow area and started pulling the dirt from water. I did not know what went wrong. All of a sudden I lost my balance and I was drowing. I was not able to come out of water. One of my uncle was few feets away and he pulled me from the dirt. I went out of the water and sat on the steps of the pond and was find very difficulty to even breath. I was saved by my uncle, in turn I have saved you that day. I was knowing swimming very well since I was born and grew in a village in Kerala. We used to have pond near our ancestor house. Our main play during childhood was swimming and play hide and seek in water. Even though there were steps in the pond to go down and take bath, we used to jump from a certain height and used to do lot adventerous activities whenever we go for taking bath in the pond. As I grew our play techniques also got changed. During my holidays I used to be in my father's house few Kilometers away a place called Killimangalam. I had few cousing who was in my age. There was a river in near to their house. During rainy season the water used to heavy in that river. There was a small reservoir also in that river. We used to run few furlongs back side of the water and used to jump into the flowing water. We had to cross the other side of shore before the water reach near the resrvoir. We were successful many times. One fine day two of our cousin sister were playin near shallow water and they lost balance and went down in the water. We shouted for her and few elders and came and rescued them. All these were our childhood memories and it helped us to be bold and couragious to act fast in case of emergencies. The helping chain has continued. These two incidents remains as forever in memory.