The Ten Seconds Miracle

Tick tock tock says the clock...the nursery rhyme has a lesson for everyone, so is a sand clock with its slim waist and sand moving softly from one chamber to another, though appears so insignificant gives us a serious subtle lesson about the ephemeral time. Often one hears “ just give me a second, wait a second ...” if a ‘Second’ is equal to a thousand milliseconds and has the power to make anyone pause, ten seconds in terms of milliseconds is a very big time. 

The blue coloured bus started with an old engine carried its group of ten passengers from the senior citizens home for an outing to a famous pilgrim site .All of them were in their seventies.

Each carried a satchel with few clothes , a medicine or two and little money for the trip. It was still early morning. The lazy sunbeams were trying to pour through the dirty window panes. The Home had found a philanthropist who decided to sponsor the trip. It was the first time these people got a chance to go out. Though they were initially excited like kindergarten kids but once inside the bus there was this eerie silence with all of them lost in their own web of thoughts. They hardly looked at each other. 

 Savita bai, the lady on the first seat in her crumpled sari , with her silver locks covering most of her face remembered her last trip.

“Ma please sit on this seat. Be comfortable. The train stops here only for ten seconds. I will fetch something to eat for the way. Thank you for signing the property papers. My wife was after them for quite sometime. I will now take you home and your daughter in law would look after you just like  her own mother”, saying he got down the train. Ten seconds appeared a millennium for the mother . She kept looking out of the window at the crowded platform. Slowly the train started to move and in ten seconds picked up the speed leaving her alone and helpless. Later a Good Samaritan helped the illiterate old lady to find a place in the old age home.

Mr. Micheal was a bald headed and fair complexioned Septuagenarian.  This made one wonder where his head begin or the forehead ended. He retired from the police department and lived a happy life with Rosy, his wife, a companion of more than thirty years. One day while Rosy was serving the breakfast suddenly she collapsed and within ten seconds, Michael’s life took such a U turn that the helpless old man ended in the senior’s home since he had no one to take care of him.

The two sisters Kamala and koyal ,spinsters , retired as teachers had great plans to lead their life with their only niece whom they doted and spent most of their earnings on her. But unfortunately the niece and her husband were totally indifferent to the plight of the old ladies. ‘Listen oldies, I will give you ten seconds to leave this place and if you taken an extra second, you will experience the devil in me”, pointing a menacing finger, threatened the husband of their niece. Both the ladies were visibly shaken. The younger sister Koyal who was always conscious of her looks didn’t like the word ‘oldies’. She wanted to protest but the elder one gestured her to be quite. They were glad they left the place in ten thousand milliseconds hardly taking anything with them.

Mr. Peter, Mr. Crab and Mr. Nick , all the three were good friends from the same church in their village. Being bachelors and none to care for them decided to look for a senior citizens home and started going through classifieds. Mr. Peter the smartest among them zeroed out the name of their senior home in ten seconds. They wound up their coffin business and left the village for good.

Mr and Mrs.Balan worked abroad and came back to their motherland with a dream of enjoying the best of food, tradition and culture along with their two sons. First few years was all fine but then the boys felt the desi culture was not for them and one morning in ten seconds they announced their decision and left in a weeks time. Too old to take care of themselves, the Balans shifted to the senior home.

Our tenth passenger, Mr. Bose saw his wife hugging the neighbour for full ten seconds in her excitement of winning the raffle ticket in the community centre. That was enough for the suspicious Bose to abandon his wife at seventy and move to the senior home.

The bus now slowly started moving through the thick green jungle road. The beautiful wild flowers triggered Savita bai to hum a favourite tune and contagiously it caught others. All of them started singing all the popular songs with abandon care. The driver and conductor patiently bore the cacophony. 

It was mid afternoon, the bus stopped under the shade of a huge tree. The conductor brought the packed lunch hamper. The ladies as if by instinct picked up the packs and distributed to the men first and then sat to eat. Everyone relished the lunch and looked for water camper to quench their thirst. 

“Oh no! We forgot the water camper in our excitement”, announced Savita bai. Mrs. Balan felt the food struck in her wind pipe and hiccups caught her up like a drunken vagabond. 

“ patience please! There is a stream a little distance away. It would hardly take ten seconds to go and fetch water”, said the conductor. 

All the men decided to go too. The women also decided to join the men. Like Boy Scouts and girl guides, they followed the bus conductor. The path had a lot of sand and gravel. There was every chance of slipping. So all of them caught each other’s hand and inched their way to the rivulet. The conductor who was thinking he was immortal, ever young and strong ,didn’t bother to look at the chain of the old people following him with utmost care and sincerity.

The stream with its crystal clear water was moving with the pride of a youngster moving over the rocks and pebbles. The entire group was excited. The water was not deep. Forgetting their thirst and age , they started playing in the water. The young conductor filled the jerry can which he brought with him. Like a drill teacher he was instructing them to be careful and not to go far but remain near the bank. 

The loud laughter, spraying water on each other hardly gave the indication of the cruel ten seconds responsible for changing the life of these old people. Suddenly there was a splash and Savita bai was the first to notice the young conductor fall in the stream and the water volume suddenly increased downstream sweeping him down like a dry stick. He was desperately trying to hold on to the rocks but his palms slipped on the mossy rocks. 

All he had was ten seconds to save himself or he would fall in the waterfall a little ahead. The ten passengers formed a human chain moving along the flow with Mr,Bose leading. 

“ Hold my hand”, he shouted at the young fellow was already gasping for breath. He immediately caught the old gnarled hand in desperation. Immediately the human chain of weak bodies but strong hearts pulled each other as if playing tug of war. Only ten seconds and the young fellow would be swallowed by the cruel waterfall. 

Just when the last millisecond was about to end , all of them fell on the bank along with Mr.Bose and the conductor clinging to his chest like a baby monkey holding to his mother. In ten seconds everyone regained their breath, turning their smiling faces at each other looked at the embarrassed face of the young hero whose eyes reflected gratitude for the miracle ten seconds’ bravery of the veterans..