Tamarind tree-my eerie experience.

When we shifted to our own house it was in the outskirts of the town.  There were actually no houses at all surrounding my house and I was 10 years old and in class 5 when we shifted to that isolated locality.  I used to go to a school close by up to class 7.  When I entered high school, class 8, I was admitted to a very good school which was about 15 kilometers from my house and in order to reach the school I had two choices, either take two buses or go by one bus up to 11 kilometers and then walk the rest of 4 kilometers.  I used to walk about a kilometer from my house to the main road in order to reach the bus stop to take a bus to reach my school.  In those days, bus frequency was very less and if I missed one bus, I would have to wait for the next bus which would come after 30 minutes.  If that bus, for any reason did not operate that trip, then I would have no choice, but to go home and take rest and enjoy my day.

My school was functioning between 10.30 in the morning and 4.30 in the evening.  In order to reach my school on time, I would always leave my home at 8.15 in the morning and take a bus at 8.30 and this bus would take 45 minutes to one hour to travel a distance of 11 kilometer and from there, I would either walk to my school which was about 4 kilometers or take a bus if any was there.  Near my house on this main road, stood tall a tamarind tree in a corner of the road.  I never paid attention to this tree until one day when we all witnessed a horrible accident wherein a sand laden lorry went and hit this tree head-on and the driver and the cleaner of the lorry died on the spot.  Those days (this happened about 34 years ago) technology was not so advanced as now and the body of the driver and the cleaner were lying unclaimed in the lorry for 2 days after which the police came and shifted the bodies for post morterm.

It was two days after this incident, my school had arranged for a day’s excursion and the program was to leave the school in the morning and come back by evening.  Pick up point for the trip was my school and drop point was this tamarind tree as the bus was going in this route.  I enjoyed my trip and while coming back, the bus as already planned dropped me near this tamarind tree on the main road near my house.  The lorry was still lying there embracing the tree.  It was around 11 in the night and I got down from the bus, since we did not have any telephones at home (owning a telephone was a luxury in those days) my father had no idea when I would reach home, but he knew that I would be dropped close by, so he was at peace.  It was totally dark with no street lights and no human movement or vehicular movement.  The place was totally deserted and it was a new moon day, this whole situation was scary to me as I was all alone and with no light to my rescue, I adapted my vision to the situation and started walking towards my house which was about a kilometer from this place.  In order to reach my house, I would have to cross a narrow bridge and go as this was the only route.  When I was walking, I heard some foot steps behind me and felt a very strange feeling, I turned back to see who it was, but nobody was there.  I continued walking and again I heard some heavy foot steps next to me at very close quarters, but did not feel any human movement, but could hear only the foot steps.  This really scared my nerves out and I started pacing towards my house.  These foot steps were not continuous, like they would be heard just for a while and then vanish, but in different directions and with different intensities.  I realized that there was something seriously wrong and started praying God, as I was taught to pray God whenever I was in distress.  By that time, my home was closer and my father had switched on the light outside our home for some visibility.  I ran towards my home and told my father my experience who calmed me down.

After this incident, that tamarind tree was noted for its notorious actions.  Every week, there would be an accident and a death in that place.  Of that the ones that I cannot forget are that of a pregnant buffalo which was being transported to the hospital in the town from a nearby village for some reason which I don’t know and the vehicle which was transporting the buffalo met with an accident and the buffalo and its calf in the womb died on the spot.  This vehicle had a head on collision with a state run transport bus and the outcome of the collision was the instant death of those innocent lives.  Like this every week, some accident and confirmed death in these accidents were taking place.

One more accident that I will never forget is that of a man.  He was getting married in a week’s time and was going to the town for shopping.  As it was a hot summer day, he felt lazy to walk the distance of a kilometer and took a ride in one of the cars that was going towards the main road, where he wanted to be dropped.  As this car reached the spot where the tamarind tree stood, one more state run transport bus came and hit this car which was waiting for the bus to cross this junction.  The impact was so much that the car became sandwiched between the monster bus and the triangular junction which was built using boulders.  All passengers in the car including this future bridegroom died on the spot.  It became difficult for the police to extricate the bodies trapped inside the car in the absence of an advanced machine those days.  There were about 8 passengers in that ill fated car when the accident occurred and after this incident, people in the surrounding villages took this matter seriously and requested the chief priest of the temple in the locality to perform pujas to release the Ghosts from the tree and then eliminate the tree itself.  The chief priest performed lot of homas to release the spirits from their sufferings and then burnt the tamarind tree.  After all these things, there was not an accident which involved loss of life in that place.  Small accidents would happen now and then, but not like this, every week.  Many lives were lost over a period of 10 years as the tamarind tree stood there for 10 years.

That unforgettable incident of my childhood-how I survived.

It was on one of the summer holidays, I had been to my uncle’s house as usual.  That day, my cousins who were older to me by 3-4 years told me that they will show me something very exciting.  As a child, I used to fall sick often and would not have much strength as a result of my illness.  Two of my cousins told me that they would take me to a place where I can get excited and enjoy and that experience will be thrilling.  I trusted them and went with them.

My uncle’s house was closer to the main railway station in the town and two over-bridges were passing near his house.  We, as kids would always be excited to go near any one of these bridges and watch the train pass on this bridge with excitement.  On this day my cousins told me that we would walk on the railway track, which was an excitement for me too.  They told me not to let any elders in the family know what we were up to that day and I agreed with them.  It was sometime around 11 in the morning and three of us, myself and my two cousins started walking on the railway track, I was in the middle and these two were holding me on both the sides.  I had recovered from a bout of fever just then and was not feeling comfortable at all walking on those stones, but excitement and curiosity had made me go with them.  We walked quite a distance on this track and came closer to one of the bridges and this was an old type of bridge.  It was not possible to walk on the bridge since the bridge had only rails and nothing much to support from below.  If one has to continue walking on the railway track, one has to sit on one of the rails and drag oneself on the buttocks in order to cross the bridge.  I told my cousins that it was useless to continue going further on the bridge for which they convinced me to drag myself on the buttock as it would be very exciting.  I started following their advise and we had barely covered a small distance on the railway track, then we heard the railway engine blowing horn and could feel the vibration, which indicated that the train was coming somewhere close by.  At that point, my cousins who were little older to me went back very fast on the bridge and went to safety leaving me all alone on the bridge.

My position was so horrible that if I stayed on the bridge, I would surely be run over by the train that was fast approaching, if I jumped from the bridge, either I would break some part of my body or would be run over by some vehicle that would pass below the bridge at that time.  My smart cousins survived because they knew how to, where as I was not so smart and got stuck.  At this point, I started crying loudly and started warning my cousins that if at all the train killed me, I would go and tell my uncle, who loved me a lot, how these fellows killed me.  My very smart cousins got scared and rushed to my help immediately and pulled me out of the track just in time.  Had they been late by even a minute, the train would have killed me.

Whenever I recollect this incident I laugh at our foolishness.  At that time, it never stuck me that if at all I die, how would I go and complain to my uncle about my cousins and my very smart cousins also never realized the fact that having been dead, I would not be able to go and talk to my uncle-their father and get them nice beatings.

How I lost my father-the murder that was projected as an accident.

He was my inspiration, he was my life, he was my best friend.  He was everything to me.  He was orphaned at the age of 5, but did not give up, he struggled all through his life to study well and got into a well paying job and got married and raised three children.  But he was the most unfortunate soul as his wife and his son were the daemons in human form.  They both sucked his blood and never allowed anybody to know how much he suffered.

He had a good job, made some property, raised a family, got all his children educated including his son, who fell into bad ways.  His son who fell into bad vices was supported always by this wicked lady and this was the most unfortunate situation my father faced in his life.  My father had a sensitive health and had serious cardiac issues, his wife and son never wanted him to get treated because they knew that they would have to part with some of the money that he had earned and saved, which they were not interested in.

He was 68 when he had to undergo an emergency lifesaving bypass surgery for his heart condition, he survived that surgery which was not a happy news for his wife and son.  His other two children were happy that he fought death and survived.  Then his wicked wife and her cruel son hatched another plan to eliminate.  When this happened, we were all married and stayed away from him with our families and children, we never came to know any of those things that happened.  We came to know about all my father’s sufferings only after his tragic death.

They made my father do all the household work like sweeping, mopping, climbing trees and chopping the branches, fetching loads of vegetables from a market place which was 15 kms away from home after travelling by local bus.  Doctors had advised him against carrying heavy weight, but he was made to carry loads of weight in both his hands and walk at least a kilometer carrying that weight.  He was working like a slave in that house, serving his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandsons.

Within 6 months, his bypass failed and when he was taken to his cardiologist, he told us that there was complete block on one side and just one percent less on another side and with great difficulty they managed to place a stent to allow his heart to function.  This again was not a happy news for his wicked wife and son.  They were torturing him, beating him day in and day out if he failed to satisfy their needs, which he never revealed to any of us and put up with all the torture and his neighbor was a mute spectator.

Every day early in the morning, we would gossip with me, he loved to speak to me everything under the stars, and call me very early in the morning, before his wicked wife woke up.  I never realized why he was calling me so early, all I thought was because he would wake up early, he had lot of free time, so he spoke to me.  He also had told me the same thing.

On that unfortunate day, it was my marriage anniversary and he wished me early in the morning as usual and I was still in the bed as it was 3.30 a.m. that day and I was feeling lazy to get up.  I spoke to him for sometime and went back to bed, then I woke up little later.  It was around 7.15 a.m., my children were getting ready to go to their school, then I got a call, which changed my life.  On the other end was a person who identified himself as a police man who had picked up my father as he was lying on the road in a pool of blood.

First I did not believe him, because just a few hours back he had wished me and I had spoken to him also, and now I am getting a call from a stranger who is identifying himself as a cop and saying something to me which was unbelievable.  Then I asked him to connect me to my father, he tried, but my father was not in a position to speak to me.  All he had told the cop was my name and to search for my name in his cell phone and inform me about his condition.  In total disbelief, I called home to check with his wicked-witch wife to know the whereabouts of my father, and she said that he went out on his scooter to a place which was about 60 kms away from my father’s house.

This was against medical advise as the doctor had warned him against doing any such thing as riding a two wheeler or driving a car that too all alone with his failing heart.  Then I rushed to the hospital where my father was taken immediately after the supposed to be accident.  My father was sitting on one of the beds in the emergency department of the hospital, bleeding profusely from his nose, ears and mouth.  Before reaching the hospital, he had vomited lot of blood in the auto rickshaw (a three wheeler similar to a taxi) by which he was taken to the hospital.

He had a head injury, his right eye had swollen. He had suffered serious injuries to the fingers in both the hands and was bleeding profusely.  There was blood all over, probably, half of his blood had gone by then.  Since he was a heart patient, he was on many cardiac drugs including blood thinners which allowed free flow of blood through his injuries.  The moment he heard my voice, he saw me through his left eye as his right eye was swollen and closed.  He was extremely happy that I went to be with him and wanted to talk to me in that horrible condition.  He did not want anybody to know his condition.  He wanted to tell me something, had I known that he would not return to me, probably I would have asked him, but I stopped him from talking as his condition was extremely pathetic and told him that we could sit and talk for days and years together after got well.

The doctors at the ED were very casual, they were chatting with each other and exchanging jokes without even being aware of their duties towards emergency cases as my father’s.  When I went and fought with those people, then they called a neurosurgeon.  This hospital is supposed to be a reputed hospital in our city.  But there was nobody to wheel my father to the departments where certain tests were to be done to ascertain the extent of damage done to his brain as it was a head injury.  At the time of the supposed to be accident, my father was wearing a crash helmet mandated by the Government at that time.  I along with my spouse wheeled my father for the CT scan, x-ray and other departments in the absence of an attender in that reputed hospital.  When my father was taken for the CT scan of the brain, the technician gave me the rude shock for life, he told me that the survival chances for my father was bleak as there was mid line shift of the brain.  I did not believe him, my father was complaining of severe headache.  He was trying to hold his head tight with both his hands.  I don’t know how much painful it was.

His right eye had swollen and blood was oozing from his ears, nose and mouth.  I was wiping the blood, but did not know how to stop, I was praying God to save my dearest father, as I never wanted to miss him at any cost.  The reports came and the neurosurgeon was summoned after lot of fight with the doctors in the ED.  The doctor who came and saw the CT scan report, confirmed the rude shock that I had received by the technician.  My father had suffered such a serious injury to his head that his brain had shifted to a side from the mid line.  There was large amount of blood that had collected in the space between the brain and the skull, then the neurosurgeon gave me an option-to perform a surgery to release the pressure that was building up on his brain as a result of blood collection and drain the blood through an opening in his skull, the part of the skull would be kept near his stomach in a pouch.

This was something I never expected to happen to my father who was my sole strength.  He was the one who was always there to help anyone who was suffering.  Always he went out of his ways to help people in trouble and people recognized him and remembered him.  I was still hopeful that my dearest father would fight this out too and come back to me alive.  I had no choice, but to either agree for the surgery, or say no to surgery and see him suffer and die.  I was so foolish that I never realized that it was his wife and his son only who had plotted to eliminate him on the road itself on my wedding anniversary day, so that I would never celebrate my wedding anniversary and suffer all through my life.  Unfortunately, that day my father did not die, he was suffering and my younger sister was out of town.

I called his wicked wife and informed her about the supposed to be accident who in turn sent her son to the hospital.  His son came to the hospital along with his wife and children, as his habit, he mocked at my father and went back home after eating heartily at the hospital canteen, to update his partner in crime.  That time also it never dawned to my foolish brain that those were the criminals who had plotted to eliminate my father in a planned way.  The supposed to be emergency surgery was done 8 hours after the injury my father suffered on the road in this reputed hospital.  By then, probably all the damage was done.  When my father was being wheeled into the operation theater, I could see significant changes in his heart’s functioning on the monitor that was connected to him.

He was sedated long back as he was not allowing the hospital staff to shave his head of the little hair that he had so prepare him for the surgery since he was in terrible pain.  The hospital staff tied both his hands to the hospital bed to prevent him from pulling out the bandage done to his hands.  I really don’t know how much he suffered in those few hours that he was conscious.  The surgery went on for 4 hours and at the end of the surgery, the surgeon came out and announced that the surgery was a success.  I was extremely happy and confident that he would open his eyes soon and that we could talk a lot.  During that crucial time in the hospital, neither his wife nor his son made any attempts to call me for the updates on his health nor did any of them bother to come to the hospital to be with him.  I never paid attention to any of those things as I was only concerned about my father and never wanted to lose him at any cost.

I was praying God to save my father at any cost and at home my children were praying God to save their dearest grandfather.  But God had decided otherwise, He did not want my father to stay with his wicked wife and son as He knew that my father would be tortured in a different way to death if at all he survived this.  My sister rushed to the hospital after reaching my home town, it was late in the night and we sat in the corridor of the ED discussing something or the other to keep ourselves awake through the night and my son too joined us to be with us in case of any need.  By 2 a.m., we were asked to take my father for another CT scan to check the status of bleeding and this CT scan showed some control in his bleeding, which made us happy again.  But by 3 a.m. his vitals started dropping and by 4 in the morning, the staff in the ED started rushing in and out of the ED and fetching things, we were not sure for whom they were doing all these.

After 10 minutes of rushing in and out of the ED, the doctor in-charge called out our names and told us that my dearest father crossed the rainbow bridge to be with God.  It was a rude shock for us.  We could not digest that, but we had no choice.  At that time, I felt so lonely, helpless, orphaned.  He was my strength, though I was old I depended on him for almost everything.  I have been very rude to him whenever he disobeyed me, especially when it came to taking care of himself.  He would come back to me pleasing me with all possible tricks.  More than a father to me, he was my son.  His death has created a vacuum in my life which nobody can fill.  Though I have everyone around, I don’t have him.  Sometimes, I feel like shouting at God to send my father back to me because I miss him a lot, but reality is something different.

After his death we came to know many things about the way my father was beaten daily by his wicked wife and son through a neighbor who is again no more.  The cops were bribed by his wicked wife and son to convert the murder into an accident and the case was closed.