Chapter 1
Okay, I want you to imagine this, A young man of around 24-25 wearing a new white dirty shirt, covered in sweat and clothes all messed up, covered in black dust and burned from certain places.
So how did this happened? Let’s start from the beginning, the very beginning.
So I born on.. wait for not this beginning, right. Start from the beginning of the day.
So early in the morning I woke up, took bath, breakfast, shirt, pants, tie, shoes- wait I forgot the socks, shoes out- socks, shoes. Put my laptop- in which I had prepared a presentation for today’s meeting, in the bag and went outside.
I looked at my watch- 7:30 I was in time. But as I was about to turn left and go to the bus stop, I saw something unusual or rather scary in front of me.
My neighbor Mr. and Mrs. Singh, two old couples- who did not like me much, their house was on fire not the quarrel one like literally on fire.
I rushed toward their house. I tried to look inside but I couldn’t see anything because of the smoke. I went to the backyard and there I found Mrs. Singh fell unconscious.
I rushed toward her, gave her support and put them on the chair which was far from the burning house. I tried to wake her up by sprinkling some water on her but it didn’t work. I called ambulance and fire brigade.
Then I remembered about today’s meeting. I couldn’t leave Mrs. Singh alone like this. But I was also afraid because my boss was always angry and him giving me leave was impossible but I still call him.
*Tring, Tring* *Tring, Tring* *Tring, Tring*
" Hello”, Boss answered in his usual heavy and terrifying voice.
“Boss it’s me, Ravi”, I sad with 50% fear and 50% nervousness.
“I know it’s you.“,again the same cold voice, “what it is? Are you going to be late? You better not-”
“No Boss it’s not that”, I interrupted his usual cold talk.
And now with 80% fear and 20% nervousness
“Today I won’t be able to attend the meeting”
“What?“, he said in anger, “You do know that you are going to present the presentation today”
“Yes, I know that but I can’t come to the office today”, I said.
“Why you better have a good excuse”, he said.
And I explained to him the whole situation.
“Is the condition of the old lady is very bad?” He said in a surprisingly calm tone.
“Yes, she is unconscious and Mr. Singh is still in the house so I don’t know about his condition”, I answered quickly
“Okay, I understand the situation so you stay there”
“Sir, but what about the presentation”
“Email it, I will say Raj to do it”
“Yes sir”, I said in a very satisfied tone.
Now the matter with the boss was solved but there was a bigger problem in front of an unconscious old lady and an old who was somewhere inside the burning house and fire brigade and ambulance hadn’t reached yet.
After some time I looked at the watch it had been 15 min since I called the fire brigade and ambulance but none hadn’t reached yet.
As I was thinking all this I saw Mrs. Singh trying to open her eyes.
I rushed toward her.
“What happened”, she said as she was trying to grasp the situation around, but then she saw the burning house and her face turned all pale.
“Raman!“, She cried and tried to run to the burning house but she was still a little dizzy and weak and thus fell back on the chair.
“Auntie, you shouldn’t try to get up, you are still weak and dizzy”
“But Raman, my husband is still inside all those flames”, she said while trying to get up again.
“You should rest for a bit”, I said while putting her back on the chair, “I had already called the fire brigade, they should be here any minute”
She sat back on the chair but she was constantly staring at the burning house.
After some minutes, both fire brigade and the ambulance were nowhere to found.
I was worrying more about uncle’s condition, he had been in that smoke for a very long time.
“Beta”, auntie said in a very breaking voice “Hadn’t the fire brigade here yet”
“No”, I said
“Beta, I know Raman never talked to you properly and never liked you and maybe it would be same”, she said while making a very serious face
Well, what she said was certainly the truth, the old man never like liked, because he was a very big patriot and I was someone who had studied abroad and according to him I was mocking the education of my own country. But it was never the same for me, I always respected him because of his patriotism spacially.
“But beta”, she continued “this is something only you can do right now, please I beg you, save my husband from those flames”, she said while joining her hand whom I separated and said, “You don’t have to do this, I will definitely save him”
And without any second thought I went to the window of the living, where according to auntie, the old man was supposed to be.
As I reached the window, and about to went in, I thought what if I hadn’t noticed the fire and had gone directly to meeting, maybe right now I would have been giving the presentation and would be living this day like any other normal day but then I wouldn’t have been able to help my only neighbors or not had been able to witness the soft side of me every time, cold Boss.
As I was thinking of all these off-topic things, I reached the window. I tried to look in, there was fire everywhere I could, I hop in.
“Uncle, uncle”, I shout while looking for in all this smoke.
“I..*cough* am here *cough*” he shouted in a very light and painful voice.
I followed the voice and I found him on the corner of the living room all surrounded by fire. Near there was a vase, I spilled water in it in the fire to make a pathway and I used that to get uncle out of there, and then I took him to the window and somehow he made it out and I followed him.
By then both fire brigade and ambulance had arrived. The fire brigade extinguished the fire, and an ambulance took Mr. and Mrs. Singh to the hospital. As they taking them to the ambulance by stretcher Mr. Singh grabbed my hand and said, “Thank You” and they took him to the hospital.
I was covered in sweat and black dust, my clothes were burnt and I stood there still thinking. “Thank you”, just two words with eight letter, a commonly used words by everyone to show that they grateful for what you did through words, and I had heard this don’t know how many times but still when Mr. Singh said that there was something inside who was happy, it was like everything I did today was worth it.
