“What’s your name?” “Where do you study””Can you tell us what happened?”
I could hear all these questions echoing in my mind. And suddenly i felt that excruciating pain on my face. I tried to open my eyes and move my body but I couldn’t. All I could do was cry from the pain as someone rubbed a cotton all over my face. And with that pain, in an instant, it went all black again and I became unconscious.
I woke up from the noise of the Ambulance siren. For a few minutes, my brain couldn’t process what was happening. I couldn’t remember who I was. I couldn’t remember anything. I just sat there. Then after a while when I came back to my senses, I could see my mother lying in front of me covered in blood. My heart started pounding. I saw my sister sitting beside me. Her eyes open but she didn’t move a bit. She was just sitting there in a total shock. We were in an ambulance that was moving in a high speed on the Highway.
I panicked. My heart rate increased. I had no idea what happened and How we ended up in an ambulance. I had no idea where my father was. I felt numbness on my lips and when I touched them there was blood all over my fingers. It was clear that we had an accident. I was scared to death and I wanted to cry so loud and just break down. My mind started stressing on how all of this happened but it was all blank. I had no memory at all of the incident. I saw my phone ringing. It was my best friend from my college. I answered it immediately. She asked if I was alright and what was going on. She told me she received a call from someone that I met with an accident. I broke into tears. “Nothing is fine. I don’t know what happened. We are in an ambulance.” She told me to calm down and that everything will be fine.
I was in a situation where nothing was fine but I still don’t know how I calmed myself down. I convinced myself that everything will be fine. We all will be fine but right now I need to be calm and strong not just because that was the only option left but for my family. All the way to the hospital I held my sister’s hand and saw my mother. That made me strong. I felt a rush of energy inside me. I wanted them to recover.
I stepped down from the ambulance. They took us inside the hospital. My mom kept asking “where is my husband” “Is he fine”. They told her that he was fine and they took her away for medical emergency. After a while they brought my father. He was crying and asking “Where is my wife” Is she fine””How are my daughters”. I saw them and cried. I couldn’t see my parents in that condition. Who can? I broke down again. I could see all of my father’s friends/colleagues and our relatives were there.
Then I was taken to the Emergency room to put stitches on my lips, my forehead and behind my ear. I couldn’t feel any pain this time. I was more worried about my family. I was discharged that night. Someone took me to the guest house of the company that My father worked for.
My whole body was in pain. I couldn’t move my legs. I couldn’t move my hands. I somehow managed to lay down on bed. I couldn’t sleep. I was just staring at the fan and the ceiling. I just kept thinking about my family. Then I remembered my family came to pick me up from college for Diwali holidays. We were on our way to home. I remember we were talking and laughing. That day from the morning there was this unsettling feeling inside me. Like something is not right. These are the intuitions that I feel when something bad is going to happen.
Next morning I saw myself in the mirror. My lower lip was stitched and had swollen covered with blood stains. I couldn’t recognize my face because of that. But that was the least to worry about when my whole family was in the hospital and I didn’t know how they were doing. I went to the hospital. My mother had fractured bones in her right hand so they needed to operate and fit a rod. She had other injuries as well and had stitches on her face starting just near the left eye. My father also had a fracture in the leg apart from other injuries. My sister was in the other building for a CT Scan of the brain as she went into a shock. But they were all out of danger. I was satisfied with that. These scars will heal with time. But at that moment it is the most difficult thing to go through-watch your loved ones in pain and feeling helpless as you can do nothing.
I stayed there till night and when I came back my sister was sitting in the room. I was so happy to see her. She was fine. I hugged her. We talked for hours that night. Standing in the balcony we watched the other children enjoying fireworks as Diwali was near. Of course, the thought came in our mind that we would be doing the same if this wouldn’t have happened and we would have been together. But it’s all fate.
Next day as I was getting ready I noticed one finger of my right hand was completely black. And I couldn’t use it as I had severe pain. There were other pains in my body that I didn’t notice this before util now. I went to the hospital and got X-ray done after consulting doctor. He told me there was a bone misplaced and that it required a minor operation. They would insert a small rod to re-locate the bone.
As soon as I heard Operation, I said No. I was afraid. They told me to think about it otherwise I won’t be able to use that finger again. That night I thought about it. If I can gather enough courage and go through this minor operation, it would be all fine. And if I don’t get the operation done, I would end up with a black finger that I cannot use for the rest of my life.
Of course, I decided to get the operation done as there was no point going otherwise. So by 12 pm I was in the Operation Theater. A nurse came and inserted a long injection into my finger 6 times!! I could feel the needle, the first 3 times, going through my skin into my vein causing unbearable pain. After a while, it was numb and I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. My finger had swollen as if it was about to burst.I was lying in the operation theater when the Doctors came. They were very friendly and started a conversation with me to distract me. It took about half an hour to complete the operation.
For the next week we went to the hospital daily, sat beside our parents and talked and made them laugh. They were soon discharged. This accident made me realize how our life can change within minutes and how much limited our time is here. It definitely made me stronger. These words may seem meaningless as we read them everywhere but they seem so meaningful when we go through such experience.
It is important that we enjoy life and not let our struggles and pain take away our happiness, spirit to fight, live and dream and make us depressed as in the end you will find a way and everything will be fine. You just need to find your strength from the inside and let yourself believe that you are strong and this cannot break you. There will be scars in your journey because we are all human, be it a scar from a heartbreak, a scar from an accident, a scar from a failure, or a scar from someone who has hurt you. But these scars are important to take us to the place where we belong, to make us the person we are capable of being and more importantly to give us the experience of our lives.
Have faith in God. He will be always there to save you from the bad and help you grow as a person. He has a plan for you. Wear that scar like a warrior. Let it remind you how strong you are. And remember everything happens for a reason, we just realize it later.
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