Grateful

It was a usual day for her until her phone rang. It was the Coordinator Sir from her daughter’s school, “Please pick up your child today, because of riots, buses will not ply today. Children will be safe here, until you arrive, but please try to come soon, as situation may get worse.”

She immediately called up her husband to tell about the phone call from school. But before she could say anything, he started saying “I was about to call you. Riots broke out. People are throwing rocks on our office building, police is firing tear gas to them and we are asked not to leave office premises, as situation is worse outside. You don’t go out anywhere, stay in.”

She realized he was already in trouble and decided not to tell him anything.

She headed towards school, was driving slowly, and consciously keeping an eye all the sides of road. And suddenly, a big stone banged on her car, she had to stop the car immediately and run away to hide herself along the roadside shops.

Within a few minutes, a mass of people gathered there and started venting out their anger on her car. She watched this all happened in front of her eyes, but couldn’t get courage to go near it, even when the mass moved away.

She tried to book OLA/UBER, but no one was ready to drive that day. She waited for some auto rikshaw, but not even a single one was found. Her heart skipped a beat, when she heard the loud noise of mob coming near. She ran fast to hide herself again behind a shop.

What would she do now, her mind was not working. How could she reach the school, which was at least five miles away from her, she found no other option than to walk back home.

On her way back home, several news headlines were flashing across her mind, if the kids are safe in school any more. She had that feeling of hollowness in her, like all the blood had drained out of her. With heavy heart, she kept walking. On reaching home, she took out her two-wheeler and started riding to the school. She was scared, but she went on. Her heart was pounding for her little girl. She wanted to be with here as soon as possible, so as to avoid any mishappening.

On the way, she found her car brutally broken, but she ignored it and sped up. She was stumbled upon seeing the view in front of her eyes. The mass was beating a man mercilessly, seemed like he was coming back from office. She got worried for her husband. He didn’t call her, it indicated, the situation was not clear there.

Terror engulfed her but she kept riding, she had to turn her bike many times, to change the route, when she heard any noise of mob coming over.

Suddenly, she saw light in the sky. Shortly after that, a violet thunderstorm broke and it started to rain. She was perplexed, if God was helping her or troubling her more. It was difficult for her to ride her bike in rain. But because of rain, mob might not do any more brutal act.

But the stubborn rain had decided not to stop that day. The rain was almost blinding her. She blinked rapidly to make her vision clear. And to her dismay, her bike got skid, and fell on her knee. She never expected any help from anyone, rather she preferred, not to see any person that time. Somehow, she managed to stand on her own. But now, her bike would not get start. She kept trying with injured knee, terrible pain, deep worry, streams of tears and all her effort didn’t go in vain, it started eventually.

Drenched in rain and fear, she reached school, only to know, that the school gate was locked. She was shattered. With shaking hands, she called up the coordinator, he said, “Please come to the guard room near gate. I locked the gate for safety reasons.”

She ran towards the guard’s room, still some unknown worries in her mind. Seeing her little girl happily enjoying her sandwich and playing with Principal ma’am, she broke into tears. Like a mirage, all her troubles faded away and her senses came back to her. She found that everyone else had left school, but the Coordinator Sir and the Principal Ma’am didn’t leave to safeguard her child.

She was not able to put in words, how grateful she was for them.