A small accident

The car was speeding away from a small temple town in North Kerala.  The name of the town is a tongue twister even for a few of the native speakers.  When written in English it starts with a "P", from there it travels to a "Sh" and finally settles down in a "U" (which is not quite pronounced a "U" but more a combination of "A" and "E").  The town houses an unorthodox temple for a tribal god who has over the years been brought into the fold of Hinduism.  The temple is crowded, at most times, with people requesting their deliverance to happiness (or other's deliverance to misery).

We got out of the temple town at around dinner time.  The driver was engrossed in reciting the legends associated with the temple, its deity and the town.  Soon, the car reached a fork with the left of the fork curving away and another going straight ahead.  The driver did not notice the road to the left and continued towards the road ahead.  He did not notice the bike coming from the left either.  In a few seconds, the bike was right in front of the car.  We were jerked off our seats as the brakes were hit.  The squealing of the tyres coincided with the noise of the car hitting the bike.  The bike and the rider disappeared and the car came to a halt.

The driver gave out a "Oh my Guruvayurappa" and got out.  I sat in the car and could not force myself to get out.  I looked around and saw a few people running out of the few shops in the area and crowding around the car.  To my relief I soon saw the bike guy getting up.  He seemed to be in a reasonable shape and I could not see any obvious damage on him.  By then, a bus from behind started honking.  The driver got into the car and moved it to the side.  He was invoking Guruvayurappan's mercy non-stop.  He apologized for the inconvenience before getting out to deal with the situation.

Soon, a drunkard came by and started asking questions.  I thought this to be an appropriate time to get out and be with the group.  As I walked towards the group, I could hear a lot of talking but no shouting.  The discussion seemed reasonably calm.  I saw the bike standing besides the crowd.  It had a couple of scratches and a broken mirror.  The guy who was on the bike stood in the center of the crowd holding a wound in his hand.  In the middle of the road, food lay scattered from a torn plastic cover.  The discussion was on how unfortunate it was for the accident to have taken place but everyone seemed glad that nothing much had gone wrong.  They blamed the government for not having put up warning signs and not taking care of the lights on the road.  My heart skipped a beat when someone mentioned on how the guy in the car had directed the driver not to take a turn in the last minute and that it was not the driver's fault.  Fortunately, that comment went unnoticed. 

I walked back to the car and stood in a shade to be out of sight of any drunkard.  A few minutes later, the driver came back, got into the car and mentioned that the bike guy is being taken to a hospital to ensure he had no internal injury.  Just as he started the car a face peered in from the driver's window.  The faced apologized profusely to me for the inconvenience caused by this event.  He said I will be taken to a restaurant and while I had my dinner they would visit the hospital.  I had not expected an apology and this unexpected blow made me incoherent.  I answered with something that sounded like "eh ah no bobem".  By then a crowd had gathered in front of the car and they were all trying to determine how to fix the broken bumper.  The driver cursed and got out.  He had a brief and patient discussion with the others.  They brought in a rope, tied a bit here and a bit there.  Then they looked at the bumper and discussed some more.  Another piece of rope came out of someplace and some more tying up took place.  They then looked at their achievement with a satisfied expression on the their face.  As the driver got into the car, the drunkard came by and started questioning the driver.  Fortunately, someone from the crowd came by and took away the drunkard.  The driver now started the car but saw the way ahead blocked by some remnant of the bumper fixers.  He called out to Guruvayurappan in exasperation and backed his car.

Soon I was dropped outside a good looking restaurant in a 3-star hotel.  The driver asked me for a thousand Rupees for the hospital expenses.  My mind gave out an "Oh no!" before parting with the said amount.  All through my not-as-good-as-the-look-of-the-restaurant food, I was thinking of how much more money should I shell out.  I came out of the restaurant after paying the not-as-expensive-as-the-look-of-the-restaurant-but-still-expensive-for-the-way-the-food-tasted bill and stood on the road a bit before the car arrived.  The driver informed me that all was well and that I had to part with another 500 Rupees.  Some more "Oh no!"s went through my mind.  A little later, we were zipping through the road towards home.  From time to time, we heard scrapping noises from the front and the driver stopped to check.  Every time he came back with a no problem smile.  He continued with his amusing legends right through the journey, which by god's grace took place with no further incidents.  But the nagging thought of "1500 already but how much more" in my head made the journey seem tiresome.

When I reached home, I asked the driver about my dues.  He calculated an amount and subtracted from it the 1500 rupees I had paid for the incident.  To my mind this seemed like indecent behavior; he should have asked for more money instead of reducing it from his tariff.  I did not expect him to take the complete responsibility of everything that happened.  I thought he will hand it over to me and ask for more money.  That thought had been with me all through the journey.  Now, he was making me feel ashamed and I tried to fight my tendency to fall into it.  I took out my purse singing in mind "I shall overcome right now".  But my mind caved in just as I was taking out my money and I said "No, its alright.  I will pay the whole amount."

Child's play

Kittu was sitting on a stool in the kitchen watching his mother cook.  This was one of his favorite activities of the day.  He thought of her as an incarnation of God in converting vegetables and spices into delicious food.  Her knowledge of what needs to be done when and how amazed him.  The process seemed too complex with the cutting of vegetables, placing vessels on fire, heating of oil, spices and other ingredients falling into the hot oil, slowly the aroma picking up and finally the smell and sight of the piping hot food.  But she seemed to go through the whole process without stopping a moment to think.  He wanted to cook like her.  Kittu's mother was thrilled to see his son's interest and eagerly answered all his queries.  But she was very disappointed to observe the total lack of interest he had in consuming the food.  It took her an hour to feed a small plate of the same food that he had watched being cooked with such great interest.

One morning, when Kittu craned his neck to look at the vegetable cooking, something spluttered from within the vessel.  Kittu moved back to avoid it and in the process lost balance.  His head hit the floor and he started wailing.  His mother picked him up and saw blood flowing from the back of his head.  She ran out with the child in her arms and called out to their neighbor.  Soon, they were zipping to the neighborhood doctor in a car.  Kittu had a towel wrapped around his head.  The part of the towel covering the back of his head was drenched in blood.  Kittu was sobbing more due to panic than pain.  His mother too had tears in her eyes but said words of comfort to the child.  Soon they reached at the doctors and ran into his chamber much to the annoyance of the patients waiting outside.

The doctor had a look at the wound and let them know that it was not serious - A few stitches on the back of Kittu's head should do the job.  A few wailing minutes later, Kittu walked out of the doctor's chamber with a bandage round his head. The tear tracks glistened down his cheeks but he wore a look of pride in his eyes and a proud smile on his lips.  He looked around at the faces of waiting patients who looked at him with a mix of sympathy, amusement and annoyance.  He sat alone in the back seat of the car on the way back home.  He felt like a king with the crown of bandage on his head and did his best to make it visible to the people passing by.

Kittu was tucked into bed as soon as he got home, the TV was set to the cartoon network channel and a plate of biscuits was placed on his side.  He spent a blissful hour in this manner and then spent a ghastly hour having his lunch.  After lunch, he asked his mother if she had informed the neighbors about his accident.  When she gave an affirmation, he gave out a sigh that smelled of disappointment.  He asked her to get the mobile, call each of them and hand him over the phone to him.  Kittu only had one line to tell each of them "You know I am hurt and have not even bothered to visit me.  Shame on you".  He did not wait to hear the response.

An hour later, the neighbors filled Kittu's room.  He looked at each of them with a smile, picked up the remote and switched on the TV.  He then asked everyone to leave the room as he had to watch his favorite cartoon.