I was determined to write a blog post today, not because
the day was eventful but because this is my favorite festival. The festal mood,
the delicious sweets and the loud and colorful fireworks each one contributing
significantly to the merriment. Diwali last year so much fun, when all of us
pooled in money and celebrated it together at Anand Shankar’s house. Thanks to
Guru for the idea, every bit of it was enjoyable, the highlight being Srinath
who got hit on his head by a rocket.
I knew this year’s edition had nothing in store like last
years. Exams around the corner, so much to study got everyone occupied. The
morning was the usual, spent sleeping due to lack of sleep last night. I
expected to make it a fun-filled evening when my brother said he is going for a
movie with my cousin. Oh god, bro and cousin both gone would leave me all alone
with elders. With nothing else to do, I made plans with my uncle to burst
everything I bought on his roof. (How unfortunate I could get, Diwali with a 45
yr old uncle: D)
I climbed the 4 floors to reach the terrace and guess what,
their entire flat was present there, 6-8 kids, 2 chicks, some 5 elders. Now it
was time to have a ball. Each of us took turns to fire, and when we were almost
done suddenly I saw the neighbor’s roof burning.
‘Fire!’, I yelled running to the parapet to have a better
look.
Everyone stopped and came to see. I quickly picked up my
phone and dialed the emergency number which works even without a sim card in
phone. It started ringing. I was glad that I could inform them first. The call
was picked.
‘Airtel vaadikkaialar sevai ungalai vara verkkaradhu’ was
the answer. Oh shit, I had dialed 121 instead of 112. I redialed the correct
number, number busy was the answer. Kept trying some 5-6 times. Finally I could
hear it ring.
‘Fire’, I shouted. ‘Mandaveli bus stand pakathle’
‘Street peru sir?’
‘Street pearu enna’, I yelled. The lady next to me got shit
scared and she started saying Trustpuram… she had forgotten which lane exactly.
I said the same on phone adding opposite to Indian Bank as
the landmark. The person there noted it down and put the phone down.
Now what? By now people from the third floor had started
pouring water with a pipe that hardly reached the next building. I thought of
doing the same with buckets. Quickly I engaged the kids to help me do it. I
don’t know what gave me so much energy; I kept running continuously for 20 mins
till the firemen arrived. When I started doing it, this 50ish man comes to me
and says ‘no use pa, perusa yeriyardhu’. I simply ignored him. Every time I ran
to fetch water, I would see some 3 elders standing and having a look at the
fire, like its some source of entertainment for them.
‘thalinga thalinga’ I would yell every time and poured in
as much water possible fully stretching myself outside the parapet.
As soon as the fire engine came, some elders were like
‘podhum, fire engine vandhachu’. Without caring for what they said, we continued
to pour as much as we could. Even after the firemen came, they had to plan on
how they could go about reaching the top. By the time they started work the fire
had burned down most of the wood present on their roof. And finally after
everything got over this old man walked up to me and exclaimed ‘good work son!’.
I wasn’t in a mood to thank him at all. I was very pissed at the amount of
indifference shown by other people. It was a time of emergency and no one was
all that keen on helping us. This was the least we could do from our side.
I climbed down the stairs to get back home. On the first
floor saw two aunties, one was telling the other ‘Pona varshamey avenge kitta
sonnom’. What an important conversation it was at that point of time.
Riding back home, I was thinking of the day when in PSBB
firemen came to teach us fire fighting at times of emergency. At that point of
time I thought a situation of fire is never going to happen all my life. Now it
did. I still remember the captain of the team asking us to clap hands once he
was done. We thought it was for him, after all he had taken great pains to teach
us, but once we were done he said ‘one day you might do fire fighting and save
lives, this is the appreciation for something you would do in future’. He also
said that in the past 23 years he had taken just one day off for his brothers
wedding. It’s not only the military who sacrifice their lives for us, even the
one in you neighborhood does. Now I am a proud man, I have already been
appreciated for my work long back. All I write this for is to request people not
to show indifference and do the least they could to do in times of emergency.
Little drops of water makes the mighty ocean, a small thing you do might
significantly improve the situation.
