Family Short Story – The Race of LiFE
Photo credit: dhester from morguefile.com
Mumbai, the city of dreams.
Pune, the upcoming city of dreams.
Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the bridge between the two cities of dreams for many young minds from across India. It’s true that Infrastructure has brought people & cities closer to one another as commuting has become much faster now. At the same time Technology is increasing the gap between relations, more so with the ever innovative Social Media which boasts of the likes of Facebook & Twitter. It hasn’t even spared the not-so-long-ago Luxury, only afforded by the rich, the mobile, which has now become the most common & essential commodity. Technology has become the most important part of our lives as we are majorly dependant on the Internet rather than our Instincts.
Philip was one such guy who considered himself a big tech geek and a cool racer who loved to drive fast cars in the fast lanes. Having lost both his parents in a car crash when he was just 9, he was raised by his uncle Havells who himself was a car designer. Technology was the only thing that charged him up. Most adults wouldn’t even remember what they had for breakfast in the morning, leave alone what happened to them at the tender age of 9. But Philip was different. Call it a Boon or a Curse but he remembered each and everything of every single day of his life. His memory was so sharp that even visiting several psychologists for curing his so called Disorder, none were able to diagnose the cause of such a thing. It was a first for every doctor as they had never come across such a case in their entire medical careers. Some even called it a ‘God’s Gift’! But Philip didn’t let it bother him and just carried on with his life, parts of which were traumatized.
One such morning he had got out of his bed he heard a Beep on his mobile phone. The message read, “Good morning. The race day has been scheduled for the 20th of this month on the Mumbai – Pune Expressway”.
He got excited as well as nervous on learning about the route of the race. This was the highway where he had lost his parents 12 years back in a major chain accident that claimed the lives of all the people in those cars engaged. Everything was reduced to ashes then. He couldn’t believe his luck that he was supposed to race on the same road where hell was unleashed more than a decade back. Nonetheless, he was determined to race, as if to prove a point.
The race day was here. He took blessings from his uncle and left behind a note which he asked him to open not until tomorrow. Havells smelt something fishy, but still knowing that Philip was still a young adult, he didn’t doubt his intentions much.
The race began with the 30 drivers that had reached there with their NOS strong, high Horse powered race cars. Just 20 minutes into the race and Philip was leading the pack by a huge margin. His car was powered by a 4.0 litre petrol engine, 200bhp, 300PS @9500rpm & 350nm torque.
As he was racing ahead, he was about 7kms from the place of the dreaded tragedy and all his worst memories started coming back to him. He remembered each and everything he faced that day. He remembered seeing the ashes of the burnt vehicles and the stink of the fire hit his brains. Suddenly he started to feel dizzy as the events crowded his mind. Struck by nausea his vision started to blur. He could barely see the road to his right. Still he kept on driving until he reached the spot where his parents had died. Driving at a speed of over 350kmph, his hands shivered a bit, his foot hardened on the gas pedal and the shivering hands tilted the steering wheel to the right near the divider as he lost total control of his car. His hands loosened on the steering wheel as he lost total control of the car and the car went crashing into the divider spinning several times over the road like a roller coaster until it came to a halt at exactly the same place where his parents were pronounced dead.
He was thrown out of the car from the front due to the broken windshield. Blood flowing like a stream through his body, he tried opening his eyes. The broken glass of the windshield had blurred his vision even more and he could barely see anything. As his body was losing his soul, he knew he was counting his last few breaths. He looked up in the sky and said his last words “I am coming mom & dad”………
As the news was broken to Havells, his uncle, his grief knew no bounds, no words to speak, he was left dumb as his last piece of hope of love had died. Just then he remembered the letter Philip had left with him. He tore open the envelope from the side and found a small piece of paper in it. There was nothing written on it. It just had a hand drawn picture of Philip lying in the arms of his mom with his dad sitting beside.
“Rest in Peace my child”…. He said.
__END__
