The Light!
In a poignant story set against the backdrop of a serene river and the fascinating light from the afternoon sun in 1997, two inseparable friends, Bhola Sharma and Udai Rai, face a tragic accident that leaves Udai haunted by guilt and grief.
The river looked heavenly in the light of the afternoon sun and it looked perfect; the sky greeted the two teenagers, who had bunked school and were enjoying their rebellion and friendship, born as old as when they met in the kindergarten.
They splashed into the water, and both boys were at their happiest selves.
The year was 1997. They were a notorious pair, any teacher’s nightmare, but were like one soul in two different bodies.
Bhola Sharma and Udai Rai were simply inseparable. So much so that their respective families had also bonded and were as thick as one family.
Having eaten no breakfast, they felt hungry and so they gobbled up the whatever their mothers had packed for them in their steel tiffin that boxes. They had warmed themselves lying on the bank of the Rey Khola, but having eaten they again dived into the river.
Udai was diving underwater in the refracted light; he was quite a good swimmer and had been swimming since he was six years old.
His best buddy, Bhola was just learning how to swim, and who could be a better coach than one’s best friend.
Udai came back to the surface and found himself alone.
He shouted for Bhola, but he was nowhere to be found.
He swam everywhere and still couldn’t find his friend. Panic clutched him by the throat and breathless, he ran back home.
At Ranipool Police Station, there was a huge crowd collected to find the missing boy.
However, Bhola never surfaced again.
The guilt of that day kept Udai nibbling and niggling Udai alive all his life.
He never came out of the fear and the panic that hit him when he was fifteen years old.
***
AND NOW
Dr Udai Rai was sitting in his private clinic at Development Area after four pm, and musing over that mishap that happened so many years ago, yet it still affected him.
Today, was 3 November, the day when they had gone for that fatal swim.
The day he had lost his best friend who never came back and with Bhola also died Udai’s passion for swimming.
As he was lost in his thoughts, his phone rang and he rushed out.
Hema, his wife who was expecting their first child was admitted at Manipal all of a sudden.
She was in their bedroom when she slipped on the mat and the pain had started.
She was being rushed to the hospital by his brother and Udai made a dash downstairs towards his olive green Enfield bike.
He mounted his bike in a jiffy; Gangtok’s traffic was such that he rarely used his car and today he was thankful to have brought his bike.
He was distracted by a small kid who suddenly dashed out in front of his bike.
He never saw the oncoming car, as his mind was clouded by worries for his wife and his unborn child and the fact that it all happened today, the day he lost his confidence and felt like a murderer till date.
Even though Bhola’s parents never blamed him for the mishap, in fact they now started treating them more as their own son, they were even present when Udai got his MBBS degree in Delhi.
But all that never drove away Udai’s sense of guilt.
Suddenly he heard a crash and a pain at the back of his head.
***
Udai was back at the river bank searching for his buddy.
“Bhola, where are you?” He was shouting and crying hysterically.
Udai was cursing himself for having agreed to Bhola’s persistent requests to bunk the school and go swimming this day.
Now, here he was searching frantically everywhere, yet he didn’t know what was going on.
Udai hadn’t been that long underwater so where was his friend now!
Then suddenly, he saw a bright light near the river bank.
Bhola was looking so bright… in fact he was luminous, as if he had just swam in the river of incandescence.
He seemed so peaceful and happy.
Udai scolded him for hiding there and worrying him to hell.
Bhola appeared to say as if he was very happy and that Udai needed to let him go, for he now wanted to enter a ‘gate’
All these years, it was Udai who had kept him bound, Bhola said, but now he wanted to leave.
Udai looked at his glowing friend, held his hand and hugged him and told him to go wherever he wanted to leave.
“Udai, you too need to let go off your dark thoughts, let the light shine through you, cheer up and happy Diwali,” spoke Bhola in a mesmerising voice, and then he vanished as if he wasn’t there at all.
***
Dr Udai came back to life at the OT, much to the relief of his colleagues who had tears in their eyes thinking he had left them.
Udai did make it back and when he first took a look at his baby son, the infant took his father’s finger and held it tight, as if to reassure him that everything would be just fine.
Hema kissed him lightly on his cheek and whispered into his ears, “I decided to name him Bhola, if it’s fine with you.”
There were tears in Udai’s eyes, the only ones that now fell down not in pain but for true joy and peace.
Yes, the light had found its way back into Udai’s life.
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