The Strange Pain

When the private bus stood braked on top of the 200 cc Enfield bike, all that mattered was my left leg trapped under the bike. The cleaner who did a test drive on the bus ran away. I could sense blood flowing profusely from my leg. I cried for help till my throat cracked. I tried pulling my leg but the bus proved too heavy for my might. 10 minutes of helplessness and agony passed like a year. Few people came running from a distant tea shop, one of them fortunately a driver. He got into the bus; reverse geared and the bus moved back. One from the crowd took the bike away. It was then my turn to pull back my scantily fleshed leg. I could see the white bones between the blood and flesh. The red and white combination which didn’t look beautiful.

3 years in the same bed of room number 77 in Ramakrisha Hospital, Coimbatore. 8 surgical operations, expertise of Dr.Ramdas and Dr.Raja, 216 stitches, 2 steel rods and the crutches helped me limp. The decade long saving was spent in those 3 years. On the day of discharge, I had few thousand rupees in the bank, my home maker wife to love and 2 schooling kids who did not even know that their father is handicapped now. The accident did not deter me in anyway, for I did not have a choice.

30 years hence, I felt a pain on the same leg, somewhere near the fused ankle. It wasn’t a great pain, but now I felt weak to handle it. With wife, I decide to meet the same old doctor, Dr. Raja. He now owned that hospital and as before was busy. I waited for my turn to come outside his consultation room. The queue was pretty long and he was in the operation theater. After an hour of wait, he quickly passed by me. I smiled at him, as expected he did not return it. He rushed to his room. Few minutes later, the nurse called me in. I went inside, got myself seated. I told him about the pain. He asked me to keep my leg on the side table and asked the nurse to take few photographs of my leg. Reading the surprise on my face he said, “I have a seminar next week. I was looking for some of the micro-surgeries performed by me. Your case is an instance.” I again told him about the pain. His reply was outlandish “What are your kids doing?” I relaxed on my chair; pulled back my socks and said “Both of them are married and settled. One is a software engineer and other in the hardware Industry and I am retired”. And he replied “Hmm..That explains the pain. You had this pain even before, it’s just that then you were too busy to notice. Now that you are fully settled, you have started observing yourself. No medication required. Thanks for the visit”. We shook hands and left. Now, when I feel the pain, I have a feel of achievement. A feel of being settled in life, which I was not used to -The strange sweet pain.