The Skin On The Scar

Commander Badralok, from the Southern Naval Command, sipped his tea as he simultaneously packed his suitcase. His one-week old daughter was wailing incessantly in the adjacent room. He had not grabbed a wink of sleep for the past 72 hours, the exact time since he had met her. When Zoya handed him the tiny human in his arms, all he said was ‘Ahaana’, before he wept uncontrollably. That is when they decided to call her Ahaana.

Ahaana meaning dawn, after a dark night that had lasted eight years. Badralok and Zoya had lost three children, even before they were born. The last few months could best be described as sleepless for them. Another chance at life, will this baby make it? But he had to leave now for rescue operations in Kerala. The state had been inundated with monsoon rains, leaving lakhs of people stranded. As he slipped on his white uniform, he ran his left hand across the scar on his right arm. A stray dog had played havoc in his life when he was fourteen years old. Chased by the dog on his way home from school, Badralok’s cycle had hit the median and sent him flying across to the other side of the road. That was the reason for his fear of dogs, which refused to leave him until this day.

Seven hours later, Badralok was in a different world altogether. Thousands of people had found refuge on rooftops, water tanks, churches and schools holding on dearly to that thing called hope. The thought that life was giving him a chance to make a difference to so many people, so many times often gave Badralok goosebumps. There was no time to lose and the team got into action right away. Inflatable boats were loaded with life jackets and teams of two boarded them to ferry stranded people. Badralok was standing on some rocks and coordinating his team’s activities. He took the last of the inflatable boats and set assail on his mission. Just as the last member of a family he was rescuing climbed into the boat, Badralok heard a faint squeak. A small, black puppy, barely a few weeks old, was holding on to dear life and howling from a tree. Somebody had left it there, perhaps.

Suddenly, Badralok felt the scar on his arm come to life. But the skin that he wore now, it stood for something so much more than a scar of the past. Commander Badralok waddled his way through the neck deep water, and reached for the wailing pup. Holding it close to his chest, he waded back to the boat. The pup became an important member of the camp. The team named him Mel Gibson, after Braveheart. Mel Gibson refused to leave Badralok’s side and travelled all the way home with him to grow up with Ahaana.