Twenty Seconds into a new life…
Someone aptly said, “Pain is temporary, quitting is forever.” There are 2 types of people in this world- one who know that pain is inevitable, and life cannot be always jubilant; and the other- who know that pain is inevitable but, it has its own purpose of making us better every time we experience it. Consider it pure joy, my friends, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know, testing of your faith develops perseverance.
25th June 2018, the day which transformed me, changing my category from the first type to the second. Today, I’ll not be talking about an inspirational story of some Mr.X in some country to give you a lesson for this beautiful day, rather I will be narrating my story, the story which breathed life into me, which made me realize what life is and the story which made me aware of that very thin, blurred line between life and death.
“ It was 11:50 p.m. My flight just landed and I, along with my friend, went to Belt No.7 to collect our luggage. My friend departed, and I was left to serve myself for a few hours before the sunrise.
The 45 days I spent in Poland as a Global Exchange Volunteer, educating the youth and making them aware of the appalling societal problems, drastically changed my vision towards life. After all, volunteering, in itself, is a form of introspection that’s truly mesmerizing and fulfilling.
Still, homecoming is a different feeling, of its own sort. The sentiment of meeting my people after such a long time, that emotion of seeing those faces again, that is inexpressible; a beguiling, heartwarming smile can only do justice to it.
After waiting for nearly 3 hours at the airport, I decided to take a taxi to the bus stop to catch my bus. For anyone in India, without a personal vehicle of their own, a taxi is always a better option, even better than autorickshaws ( maybe because of privacy, comfort and most importantly price ;) ). Unfortunately, the phone’s battery betrayed me. For a few moments, amidst the choked terminal, my mind became lull; for the bus was in an hour and I was still at the airport waiting for someone to offer me help.
Finally, I booked a private, not-so-good taxi to not waste any time further. Travelling over 11 hours in flight, my body craved for sleep, but somehow I tried to resist the temptation before I reach the bus.
But as they say, “A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it”, I fell asleep in the car, without me even knowing about it( Obviously!). And there was it !!!
“ अरे! कांच तोड़ो, कार के दरवाजे जाम हैं | ( Hey break the glass, the doors are jammed)”, screamed a man in trembling voice. Meanwhile, I was trying to breathe in.
Breathe in??
How simple it seems, right, the act of breathing? But when you wake up in a shock, agitated and astounded, from sleep with your head banged on the dashboard and chest oriented in a particular posture, as if all your ribs are stiffed and entangled within each other, then breathing is not as simple it seems to be. Yes, it was an accident; a very dreadful one. All my efforts trying opening the jammed doors were futile.
Any attempt of me trying to inhale a speck of the highly valuable air was futile; the excruciating pain didn’t allow me to do so. Life was ending. Everything was leaving behind. A flashback of memories started playing in my mind. It was turning dark, and I knew it’s my time now. Those blissful experiences I had been a part of during my 18 years on this planet, began to pass in front of my eyes one after the another, like a series of screenshots, with every memory bringing in tears of joy and agony in my eyes.
Well, when you are the victim of this kind of an eye-opener, traumatic impact, things happen in a fraction of second, but for the victim, it’s hours. The impact didn’t even last for 15 seconds and suddenly, to my amazement, the glass broke, with the tiny pieces of glass hurling over my face( luckily nothing entered my eye). The man, recognizing that I cannot breathe, suddenly started pushing my chest repeatedly. I was completely aware of everything happening around me but didn’t have any hope left to enter “life” again.
God has created this world, and without his approval, as they say, not even a leaf can flutter. He had different plans for me. Suddenly, the barrier which prevented me to breathe started to ease off. Air gushed into my lungs, with every organ coming to life again. Although painful, my efforts to inhale life started paying off and the hope to live again strengthened my efforts.
Here I was, gasping short breaths of the new gift bestowed on me by the almighty. I couldn’t breathe completely, but those short gasps of air were equivalent to the elixir of life for me, at that moment.
The Police came and I, along with the driver and the other passenger was taken to a nearby Government Hospital, where we were treated further.”
It’s been almost 10 days now. Pain is still there, but the wounds are healing. Life is normal now. Back to college life, I still feel terrified and shocked by the mere thought of experiencing that phase of 20 seconds between life and death, a phase which has transformed me completely. Each time you think everything is going good, there’s life again, pushing you back at the starting line, making you realize there’s much more to it. But why is life so mean? Is it all destined? Or does all this happens for some meaningful purpose? I’ll leave this to you to answer.
As of now, I just want to conclude by saying,
“What happened to you is your destiny, what will happen to you is your choice. It doesn’t matter how you die but what matters is how you live. Every second life has something new for you, something unexplored. So why not keep on exploring? Because, the real question is not whether life exists after death, but are you alive before death?”
Next Post is coming soon. Till then, “Explore the real you.”
