“Mama, it is time for dada to return!” said Tisha. Tisha had been patiently waiting for her dad to get back from work.A trait that did not remotely suit her, an impatient little girl that she was. Rukmi smiled. She was reminded as to why Tisha had been frantically waiting for Ram. Ram had promised her that she would get a gift that evening. Tisha was the apple of his eye. Even Rukmi a partner in the creation of Tisha did not hold the importance that Tisha did.She smiled again; she was amused about their bonding.
Ram was famished. He checked his watch.It was 6.30 in the evening. Almost all his colleagues had left or were leaving. He was waiting for an important call from London.He could leave only after the call. Responsibilities one shouldered, to get that fat pay check, just to make sure that the family was happy and contended.He saw his watch again.It was 6:32 p.m. It seemed like an hour.He was getting restless.He wanted to get back home to his family.He felt complete there with them.The giggling Tisha, the smiling Rukmi- he could not live without them and the delay in the phone call was now frustrating him. His marriage with Rukmi was just 5yrs old and Tisha was 3 and a half years old. They had both been pretty thrilled about the pregnancy and very superstitious too. They had informed none about the pregnancy for almost five months, until Ram’s sister decided to visit them. Ten months later after much fussing and caring, their bundle of joy arrived and how. Ram wanted to be with Rukmi to be the first one to see the baby, but again he could not bear to see her in such pain.So he opted to remain outside the labour room pacing with a look of such pain as though he was the one going through the labour . Finally as the nurse brought him the wrapped bundle of joy, he could not stop the tears flowing down the cheeks, the joy he felt was indescribable. It was a sense of fulfilment. Triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing….Triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing went the phone and knocked him back into the moment. “Finally” he thought, “it is time to leave.” He walked a few blocks before taking the taxi to the station where he would board the train to get back home. It was now 6:50 p.m. He would take the 7:10 train.
“Mama, where is dada?” queried Tisha again. It was 6:55. “Ram is going to be late” Rukmi thought , “and Tisha is already getting impatient.What if he has to wait for another one of those overseas call?Oh my God!” Just then her mobile phone rang.Rukmi ran to get it. “Must be Ram to tell me he is going to be late!” she thought. Au contraire it was Radha shrieking into the phone asking her to switch on the TV and watch the NDTV news. Again she was puzzled as to why Radha had asked if Ram had returned. Radha was Ram’s sister. “Something must be wrong” she told herself in a panicky tone.The TV switched on, the NDTV news channel had a news about back to back bomb blasts in Mumbai in the Opera House,Zaveri bazaar and Dadar area. Rukmi sat down speechless.Ram had not yet returned and he was in Dadar.She immediately tried to call Ram, but the networks were jammed. She paused for a moment to calm herself down and tried to call Ram’s office line.Again it was of no use. Now is when the shock began to settle in and she broke down, crying loudly so much so that Tisha who had been seeing her favourite cartoon came rushing to her not knowing what had made her mother cry so.
“I hate Mumbai’s traffic” Ram muttered within himself “am going to miss the 7:10.” “Shit” he swore to himself. He dialled Rukmi’s number but the voice said that all networks were down.He tried the landline number of the house, and then again it was continuously busy. He was just 15 minutes away from the station.He paid off the taxi and decided to walk down. “I will reach faster.” Just then something caught his eye- a balloon seller with balloons in the shape of different animals. He remembered that he had promised Tisha a gift .He found the one he knew Tisha would love – a dolphin. It was precisely at that moment he felt the ground under his feet tremble. He felt as though there had been an earthquake and within seconds he heard people shouting “Bomb blast….Bomb blast”.
“Mama, Dada promised.” Rukmi was still sobbing and now didn’t know what she would tell Tisha.Radha had rushed to their house when Rukmi had later on called up to tell her that her efforts to trace Ram had gone in vain. “Tisha, let’s go see Shinchan” Radha suggested to Tisha “let Mama wash her face and cook dinner for you.” On Radha’s cue Rukmi washed her face and again tried to call Ram, an effort that failed again. With great struggle, she went into the kitchen to make some rotis for Tisha. Triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing…..Triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, the phone rang and by the time Rukmi could get to the phone, it stopped. She turned to return back to the kitchen, when it rang again.She immediately picked up the phone with an anxiety that the call would be the contributor of bad news, “Rukmi, I missed the 7:10 train but got back on the tracks of life with just moments to spare!”
