I am on a BREAK

 

This is something that I wrote within 4-5 minutes for a Daily Prompt from a Bloggers' platform but due to some issue, could not get published there...

Prompt word for the day was BREAK...

Part 1: The Unnamed Caregiver

The first “Human of my life” that came to my mind the moment I thought about this series was someone who took care of me, without being asked to do so, during my pregnancy. Since this episode happened during my pregnancy, I wanted to share this beautiful story with several other fellow-mommies and that’s why I had posted it on another online platform that is exclusively for the Mothers – Momspresso.

Here is the link to the first part - https://www.momspresso.com/parenting/nikita/article/humans-of-my-life-part1-the-unnamed-caregiver-7iqpmo18cftg

New Series - The Humans of My Life

Life is short and unpredictable. We keep coming across life coaches who suggest we to not wait to do something in our lives but just do it. Many of us have even seen that happen.

In our everyday busy lives, we are so engrossed with our mundane jobs that we rarely get time to take a pause, appreciate little things around us that give us joy. We are surrounded by news of dangerous crimes and criminals that we just cannot see some beautiful people who might have selflessly helped us in some way. 

I, too, have several instances where I kept on thinking about calling someone and talking to them or reaching out and convey my heartfelt gratitude to them and regretting my laziness as I lost touch with these people or lost them forever.

“I will call her on this Saturday”, I thought to myself very recently, only to know that she left us forever on Friday – a day before I was thinking to call her.

“I will retire after 3 years Nikita and I am not going to miss even one single Bharatanatyam performance of my daughter”, said my ex-Manager, only that a massive cardiac-arrest took him away forever the very next morning.

I cannot undo what I have done, or rather not done. However, what I can do now is to think about and express my gratitude towards these angels and heroes of my life – The Humans of My Life.

In this series – The Humans of My Life – I am going to share the stories of several strangers who I might have met just for a day or over a period of time and they helped me in some way or the other and left a major mark on my life.

A grand funeral

“Guys. I have sad news for all of you”, said Swatee to her group.

Group - It was a group of five, nicknamed SAVAN, using the first letter of the names of each of the members in the order of their ages. Swatee, Ankur, Vipul, Anurag, and Nikki. They were cousins. Swatee, Ankur, and Anurag were real siblings while Vipul and Nikki were the children of their aunty. All of them were very close to each other and most of their summer vacations were spent together.

Everybody looked up as Swatee announced the sad news.

“What is it?”, asked Ankur

“He is no more. I just checked on him”

“Oh no. I knew something was wrong with him. He was sitting still for a long time there. God knows if he passed away when we saw him yesterday night. You guys did not let me go near him. We could have saved him somehow”, said Vipul

“Where is he now?”, asked Anurag

“Still there. In the corner of the garden. I went near him and called out his name many times. When he did not respond, I went close and nudged him. That’s when I realized that he is no more”, explained Swatee. 

“He must get a very nice burial spot and a grand funeral. Shall we inform our mothers?”, asked Vipul

“No. They won’t allow us to do the last rites. Let’s do it ourselves. How about making his grave right there at his favorite spot - the corner of the garden?”, proposed Ankur

“Won’t our mothers scold us?”, asked the youngest of all, Nikki

“Don’t worry. Now, go and get a cloth to cover him. You can find a white one in my cupboard”, instructed Swatee and Nikki took off.

Everybody got up and went outside and made sure that nobody was there. As it was mid of June, the hot weather made sure that all the adults were sitting inside. Nobody can force the kids to stay indoors though. The boys dug the grave at the corner of the garden. By that time, Nikki had already got the white cloth. All of them gave one final teary look to their friend and covered him. Ankur and Vipul picked him up and lowered him in the grave.

They all stood around it and then slowly started covering it with mud. Everyone stood in silence, tears rolling down their cheeks. To everyone’s surprise, Anurag suddenly ran inside and reappeared after some five minutes. He came near all of them, made his way closer to the grave, and planted a flag that he just made, with their friend’s name on it.

“Goodbye, my friend. Rest in peace”, said a teary-eyed Anurag

Everyone shared their memories about him and occasionally had a brief laugh thinking about the precious moments spent with the departed soul.

“He always liked this corner. Whatever the season be, however hot or cold it might be, we could always find him here”, remembered Ankur

“And he instantly became our friend, isn’t it? None of us hesitated to play with him the moment we saw him”, said Vipul

“Yes. May he rest in peace”, finally said Swatee and placed some fresh flowers near the grave

“Nikki, won’t you say anything for him?”, asked Vipul

“Ummm… I… What do I say? He was very friendly and free-spirited. Always jumping and hopping around. Do you all remember his long tongue? I freaked out when I first saw him catching that big mosquito with his tongue. I wish we could have played a little longer with him. He used to play hide & seek with us here in the garden and it was always so difficult to spot him, for his green color. I’ll miss playing with him now. 

Goodbye dear friend, Froggie”

And SAVAN bid adieu to their friend, a green frog, who they had fondly named as Froggie.

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This is what our childhood was made of. Memorable summer vacations and stories to narrate to our next generation and laugh about them. This story is part fiction and part real. The real part is that we did name our group as SAVAN and had also performed the funeral of a frog. But we were not that dramatic in those days. We still are not!