Tremor

TREMOR, 2nd Episode

Sometimes in two thousand nine, Vikku was on the way back home from his office. Meanwhile, he had joined an office though that didn't fetch him a satisfactory pay-cheque post month. However, after a recession had ensued globally, he joined the job without any explicit grudge. By the by, he got off the train and walked fast just across the railway tracks. His head stooped towards the ground. His mind was dipped into innumarable thoughts and future plans. His eyes were dreamy as he had been seated by the window in the train. The nip in the air, late November, he could feel well and he started suffering from a slight headache that tweaked the right side of his forehead. His hand spontaneously touched his forehead to see if he got a fever. His legs staggered after the day long hardship. He was a marketing executive and working for an Advertisement Agency that was a small enterprise under the proprietorship of a man who had earlier been unknown to him. While moving quickly, his legs trembled and suddenly, he viewed the flash of a yellow light and a large bang of sound that penetrated his ears. It was a passenger train that had already been on its motion after a halt in a station. Vikku was very near the tracks and he was about to fall down as he was absent minded. Absentmindedness was his innate nature. No sooner had the horn banged and alerted him than someone, an invisible pulled him towards the opposite direction. He fell down and collapsed immediately. He remained there for a while. Then he opened his eyes and clearly felt the jolts that had felled him. Who saved him from being run over by a train? Who it might be? Again, Vikku went on walking and reached his house. His mother opened the gate.

In the mean time, they had changed their residence. They had promoted their house to a promoter who had begun the construction of an apartment. First, the ancestral house was demolished and all the bricks, rods lay here and there. Afterwards, on an auspicious day, the soil was dug and a structure was made for a quick start of work. Now, they lived on a rent nearby.

Vikku entered his room and put off his dresses. He rinsed his face with lot of water. He kept the incident secret and decided that he would never disclose to his mother that there had been a close shave to his life that day. He had his dinner and soon restored to bed. He inculcated on who might have saved him. Must it be his father's soul or someone else? Soon he fell asleep.

One month had passed. One day, his mother fell seriously ill. In the morning, when Vikku was getting ready to leave for his office, he saw his mother rush to the washroom. She vomited. Vikku got worried. What would he do? Should he desist from leaving for office? He said to his mother, "What happened, ma"? She couldn't reply properly. She only spoke delirium and said, "No". Vikku left hesitating.

At night, he came home though he had called at the afternoon from his mobile to know how his mother was. She held the receiver and only groaned and gasped. After Vikku had reached, he found his uncle who then lived in another apartment. A doctor was called in. He checked Vikku's mother thoroughly and declared that she had suffered from a cerebral-stroke that had started in the morning. Only immediate hospitalization might save her. She got hospitalized the same night. Vikku again became alone. He didn't remain unperturbed when he heard his mother suffering from a serious cerebral stroke, the next morning after all sorts of medical tests of her. For the next few days, there was a complete jittery and Vikku had to visit the hospital daily to bring food to his mother. The doctor had suggested only home-cooked food ought to be given to her.

Everyday at night, completely all alone by himself, Vikku stared at the ceiling with complete bewilderment pondering on the matter that if his mother didn't survive till the end, what he would do alone. He closed his eyes and tears rolled down his cheeks. He sobbed and prayed to god and his father's photo saying, "Please don't take her to you, paa". The day, his mother got discharged from the hospital, just a couple of days before, he was in the passenger train returning from his day long hectic schedule. The train started rolling from the deserted platform at 11-30 p.m. and the compartment was fully vacant. Only one chickpea seller appeared for a while, glanced at Vikku through the corner of his eye and jumped out of the compartment realising that the passenger wouldn't be his immediate customer. As the train developed speed, Vikku noticed a thin person supposed to be a male completely wrapped up in a cheap but long hanging shawl that only revealed his forehead. It was a cold December night and Vikku tried hard to look at his face but his way of sitting and the shawl wrapping and covering his face didn't allow. Vikku kept his head on the support of his palms from his lap. As the train whizzed and whisled loudly just before it's arrival on a platform, the electricity within the compartment was gone. Now, he was sitting in complete darkness. Chilly wind sneaking through the cracks of the windows made him feel cold. He pulled the zip of his leather jacket till his throat. Just before the platform of the railway station, he was supposed to get off on, the power supply in the compartment was back. He had already been near the door of the train. He bent towards the seats on which the strange man was sitting gruesomely. The man was looking at him. His shawl covering the face kept aside and got his eyes and nose completely revealed to Vikku. The man nodded his head positively saying as if, "Don't worry, nothing will happen to your mother". It was his father's face. Within one year and three months again he appeared. Vikku thought, he would go running and request his father's spook saying, "What do you need of me, pa"? Please tell and order me". But he couldn't. The station had already arrived and he was not in a situation to ask the soul of departed father as the train would roll out of the station and he would remain in the train. He ramped out of the compartment and started walking as fast as he could. He got home safe and sound.