It happened one day

Last year was a year of change for us. We moved house, welcomed our younger son into our family and I decided to quit my job to be able to devote more time to my children and enjoy motherhood. When my elder son was born I was working full time and I often found myself stretched between my newborn child and by job.  With the two of them, I felt it would be best to focus my attention on my children since they were going to be so small only once and it is now that they needed me the most. I did not want to miss out on these beautiful days. Moreover, an employee is always replaceable, a mother, probably not.
 

Currently, I am a stay-at-home mom who takes care of her kids (with support from our maid) and my husband is the other adult in the house with a demanding corporate job. When he is at home in the evenings and on weekends, he would often play with the kids and ensure I got a much needed break from by 24x7 double mommy role, which on a lot of days is strenuous enough to make any corporate job look like a dream.

 

It was a usual Saturday morning in the month of June, my husband and I were sitting at the dining table, enjoying some uninterrupted time since both the kids were peacefully sleeping, evaluating the different breakfast options we had for the day, we finally decided to have some dosas but we needed some curd to prepare the premix. I volunteered to walk down to the small store in our apartment complex to get it. It was an opportunity for me to get some fresh morning air and a short walk.

On the way to the store I noticed a langur (leaf monkey) sitting on the neem tree. He was tied to the tree with a long rope. He was probably on guard to scare away any wild monkeys that may have been visiting the locality. I thought about giving him a banana later in the day when my 3-year-old woke up, so my son could watch the langur eating a banana.

 

At the store I bought curd and just when I was about to leave I noticed that the fresh supply of fruits and vegetables had just arrived. I was tempted to buy some fresh yellow bananas for my baby who had recently started eating solids. I was buying other things while they were unloading the fresh supplies. I saw that while taking out the pack of bananas, the box opened from the bottom and the whole bunch of bananas landed on the ground.

 

I was wondering if the bananas would be damaged and if it still was a good idea to buy them, but I put my doubts to rest and asked the shopkeeper to give me a few from the side that was not damaged. I happened to get a call at that time and did not look closely at the fruits he handed over to me. I was done purchasing what I needed and walked back home.

Once I reached home I noticed that the bananas were all torn and definitely unfit for my baby’s consumption. I decided to go at once and get it replaced. My husband asked me to go later and even offered to go himself but I insisted on going myself. I again made my way to the store, noticed the langur on the neem tree and made sure I was walking a little further away from where he was, especially since I was carrying bananas.

The shopkeeper replaced the bananas and I started walking back to the house, looking forward to eating dosas, waking up my son to show him the langur. I waited to cross the area near the main exit carefully since it usually has a lot of cars passing by (and the cab drivers in Gurgaon cannot be trusted). I was looking to my right to watch out for any cars.

Once I crossed the road I looked to my left and was shocked to see the langur who had earlier been on the tree now sitting right there on the pavement, very near to where I was. I had not noticed him earlier and realized I was in a bad spot carrying his favorite food, I decided to move away, but before I could move a muscle, he leaped at me, baring his yellow teeth at me. I screamed in fear as I was sure that I was about to be bitten!

The next thing I remembered was that I was being helped to my feet. I could not open my eyes and my legs seemed to have turned to jelly. I could only hear a few voices. In a few minutes I was standing but for some reason I could not lift my head straight. My body was numb. I started mumbling my house number so that someone could call my husband, but to my surprise he was already there, supporting me to stand.

 
Someone who had seen me fall asked us to get into his car so I could be taken to the hospital. Just when I was getting into the car, I realized that the children were at home without either parent. As I started thinking about them, tears rolled down my cheeks, especially my younger son, who had been largely dependent on me throughout his existence of 7 months for nourishment, care and love.
 
He had been spending most of his waking hours either in my lap or on my left hip with my arm curled around him while I did anything around the house. He is the kind of baby that cries whenever he sees his mother putting him down or going out of the room. For some strange reason, that very morning I was talking about starting bottle feeding him to reduce his complete dependence on me.

On the way to the hospital, I heard my husband speaking to my mother about the bad cut on the back of my head. It’s only then that I felt some pain and the blood trickling down my neck, soaking the back of my t-shirt. I also got to know that I had been unconscious for a few minutes.

In the emergency room, my hubby dearest was always by my side. When the surgeon administered local anesthesia around the wound before stitching, I found it to be more painful than the spinal anesthesia given to me before both my C-sections. When the doctor asked my husband to leave the place I resisted and held his hand tightly. I was in terrible pain throughout the suturing process and cried unashamed like a small child.

Soon after, I vomited, which made the doctors doubt if I had any internal brain injuries and was promptly sent for a CT scan. I noticed how all eyes were on me when I was getting wheeled in to the scanning section, looking at the bandage around my head and the blood stained clothes. Some people waiting outside the scanning area were asking my husband about how I got injured.

 

After the scan we went back to the emergency section and were waiting for my scan report. It was a tense moment. Suddenly, my husband started telling me about the guy who was speaking to him. He had asked my husband “Sar pe chot lagi hai?” While in reality he just nodded and was in no mood to get into the details of how and when, he told me what he really wanted to say, “Nahi, bas style marne ke liye madam ne bandage bandha hai”. We both laughed about it and I simultaneously fell in love with him a little more knowing that only he could make me laugh in the worst of situations.

 

Thankfully, the reports was fine and I was allowed to go back home. Later, I thought about the whole incident, I was thankful that that I was fine, it could have been much worse. Luckily I did not get scratched or bitten by the monkey or run over by a car, thankfully my bones were not broken and because of everyone’s blessings I was not in a coma. This accident made me think about the fragility of human life, the thin line between life and death.

I looked back at the sequence of events of that Saturday morning and had even one thing been different, I would not have been hurt. Had I not chosen to go out myself, not bought the bananas, looked at the bananas before heading home or not gone back to change it again at the same time, this would have probably never happened. But, I guess it had to happen.

 

I remembered the uneasy feeling before getting into the car to go to the hospital. It’s the same feeling that you get when you have unfinished business. At one point in time I thought about how life would change for the ones who love me if something serious would have happened to me.

I strongly felt the need to fulfill my dreams, to bring up my children who are so dependent on me at this stage of their lives, felt the desire to see them as grown up men, to grow old hand in hand with my husband, to express how much I love the special people in my life.

 

Among one of my dreams is my dream to write, to be a published author and I realize time is precious, time is running out just like the way it does in an hour glass, so I have started writing and sharing my thoughts, beautiful moments from my life that make life worth living with those closest to me and with everyone else willing to read.

 

I urge you to not wait for another day before working towards realizing your dreams, do not let today pass you by, do something that you have been wanting to do for a long time, invest in yourself, do something that you love doing however small it may be, express what you want to express, tell the people you love how much you love them. Do not let the sands of time slip through cause you never know what is going to happen tomorrow and yes, please be careful around wild animals.