“I’m getting late for the flight, will you mind dropping me over to the airport before you leave for your office affairs? I would like to make sure I am in time before the Australian delegates meet up at the airport.” her voice was deep, slightly unpleasant and Rajni was crying from within.
“Give me five minutes will you? The flight is still five hours from take-off; you shouldn’t be too late I guess.” Though Sunder, her husband, was calm and collective he could be lazy on a weekend day.
“I am not surprised you wouldn’t be too bothered for it. But I think I better reach on my own, I would need to start practicing on this sooner than I had imagined.” She stopped making the sofa and turned to look at him. He was stung by her words; their eyes met. The silence was killing.
It’s always bitter after a five year marriage is about to be shattered. All that was happening was not in the control of either of them, or that is what both of them assumed. Those two souls, who waited for surprise gifts and romantic letters all the time in the last seven years of their married life, were eventually preparing to end their lovely times. Last night was the night when they both screamed, shrieked, paused, pondered, stared with defying eyes and punches of belligerent words that they would never imagine they would ever say to each other. Last night was just another event, one which any other perfectly harmonical beings could have, but which a couple should never go through.
***********
“I can’t think of anybody apart from you! From the last two years it is only been you that I have thought about, it is only you whom I want all my life. Will you marry me Rajji?” It was Fourteenth February, a Valentine’s day when Sunder proposed Rajni. He had dated her only twice before he proposed her, but they knew each other for more than two years now.
The reflection of the dim colourful lights danced on the calm flowing water near the wonderful still lake of the Afrin Resort in Lonavala, a beautiful hill station in India. Her innocent yet naughty smile of affection had said it all. He carved the stunning ring in her slender fingers as she drove her hands forward in gleeful acceptance. That moment was the most relishing one for him. They danced on the solemn music with their hands together; nothing was moving. Everything around seemed to be halted – time was still and love was in the air. Sunder was lost in the gentle flailing movements of her beautiful flowing hairs. Their world was finally complete and it was visible to them both crystal clear in each others eyes. When he kissed her a good bye that day; a storm was brewing within both of them; a storm of untold happiness and sudden realization that the deepest desires of their heart were finally their own till eternity.
***********
“The airports of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and many other metropolises in India are under red alert. Security has been sounded for possible threats of other hijack incidents en-route the APAC destinations. Officials fear they may need to prepare for a 9/11 situation. The Qantas Airways Flight Q123 has confirmed the hijack of the plane and officials are discussing the matter with Australian Freight agencies.” For more updates do not go away we’ll come back after a short commercial break.
“CRASH!!” The cup of coffee slipped from Sunder’s hands without notice. He desperately looked for the remote and tried to switch over to other news channels. NDTV news read the BREAKING NEWS as “confirmed reports have finally arrived that the Qantas Airways Flight QA123 heading from the Kingsfordsmith airport Sydney to Chhatrapati Shivaji terminals Mumbai has been hijacked by unknown assailants. This happened on…” the words were lost as his ears failed to pick up any further. He was shocked beyond senses.”
Desperate impulse drove him to call his parents and tell them about the incident. Rajni was travelling in the same flight QA123, on her way back from the project work on the Australian trip.
***********
“ATTENTION!!SWOSH!!! Nobody moves from your seat! We will not harm anybody unless you act smart! All of you be aware that this plane is being directed to an unknown destination. The pilots are under our control and everyone like me doesn’t care for our lives. If anything silly is done, we will park this plane directly on hell!” Men of the size of maritime bandits all covered with black robes stood on vantage points at the doorways of the plane.
It took 10 minutes before the severity of the problem sunk into Rajni. She was sweating all over, afraid to even move her hands and wipe the sweat forming on her slender neck and palms. One of the terrorists posted right above her aisle seat was sending instructions as loudly as he possibly could, deafening any senses left in her. When silence fell, she could hear her heartbeats prominently. All eyes hovered around frightening faces of each other, everybody vary of any unknown attack that could possibly be the end of their lives. As time flew every passenger in the plane was sure that they had passed over India and they were now heading to an unknown new destination, possibly somewhere in the Gulf. Nobody knew what fate would bring for them.
Rajni turned her gaze slowly to the window of the aeroplane. She had to calm her growing nervousness. News had come that somebody from the Business Class had developed a trauma and succumbed to shock and apprehension. As she looked out, her mind switched to a scene of white cotton like clouds in the midst of which the plane flew - the plane in which all the travellers were expecting their last journey.
As a tiny tear rolled over her eyes, she saw a huge hole forming into a massive ball of cloud cover. As she blinked her eyes to see clearly, she saw Sunder running towards her trying to hold her arms and get her out of the plane. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as if in a sense of relief to believe her dream had come true. Even as they all lay crouched up on their seats, Rajni tried to chase her mind away from him; but it was only Sunder whom she could see out there, far-off in the mountains steadily coming closer to her, trying every breath of his own life to save her. He was nowhere, yet everywhere.
***********
The news had brought panic in both the countries. Envoys from both the countries were making statements to news channels and the Aviation and Army officials were busy communicating with the terrorist networks that could have allegedly done this. Relatives of all those who were travelling in the plane were out at the Mumbai terminals screaming in anguish and crying their heart out to the airport authority to do something! Human life is so precious to some human and so worthless to some others.
Sunder was at the airport within two hours from the time they first broadcasted the incident. Everybody he knew from the government officials and agencies were contacted. All he could hear was a kind assurance from the other side, while they asked him to keep his cool and stay connected. He was burning from within. Every moment he heard her call him out. He saw her calling him out while driving on the way back to the airport from the Australian counsellate office.
GPS tracking machines were tracking the planes for the good of thousands of officials from all around the world, all not knowing what is going to happen with the plane. After more than 3 hours of its journey offset from the regular flight course, everybody was concerned if the plane did carry as much extra fuel to carry a further distance. When you feel death is as close as this, any proportion of optimism cannot amount you from thinking about the worse to come. The silence inside the plane was killing, to each of them time seemed to have stopped passing by. Slowly but steadily, all aboard the flight could see the corpse of 100 more people lying around them. A miracle was necessary.
***********
“Have you guys ever tumbled yourselves into a swimming pool? Well if you haven’t had that fun, here is a chance for all of you to do so. The only difference is that my altitude dial here reads 16,000 metres above the sea and the swimming pool will have no shores from where we will all nose-dive into the ocean! So grab your life jackets, wear your oxygen masks and be ready to live the moments before your death.” The pilot smirked heavily in the most disgusting manner and laughter ensued from maniacs all around the frightened travellers.
“Its my first attempt to flying a plane down, so all the small lot of us who would still be alive, don’t worry we have rescues boats waiting not far away.” he continued roughly. Everybody was shell-shocked. Nevertheless the instructions were followed by all. Since the plane was not so crowded, all the occupants had been asked to shift over to the end of the plane near its tail, possibly to avoid them from being near to the pilots.
None of the two cockpit goons had any training in actual landing, except the Pilot Simulator software’s they had played around with. These men are born to kill or get killed. Their essence to life is different from human. The sophisticated Boeing 747 was equipped with the Instrument Flight Rules chart, but all they knew was the visual reference of the satellite pictures that they drew and copied on their map sheets. The Instrument Landing System was severely damaged while trying to overpower the actual pilots but the Visual Gliding Slope Indicator was working.
While at cruise altitude, the pilots had strewn the engines for power too much which led the turbine blades to break. Consequently three of the four engines had stopped working. The plane backup batteries were fast draining out of power supply to the hydraulics and the control systems due to the engine failure.
The failure meant they could no longer raise their height but the descent was very necessary to be a controlled one. Rajni saw from the seat that they were nearing a shore near the horizon, nobody knew where it was, but it certainly was a lonesome island. There was no need of dumping fuel to avoid fuselage tank blasts; the tanks were exhausted from the extra long journey and the plane was gliding and gathering speed on its way down.
As the plane gathered speed, it was necessary to maintain the pressure on the slats of the wings to decrease the overall camber and provide the balance lift against the drag coming from the resistance of the falling aircraft under the influence of gravity. Suddenly the flaps on the wings lost control and the lift-off using the slats was lost. The plane tilted over sharply to the left and the rudder lost control over the rotation due to increased air pressure on its disoriented side. The plane was now nose-diving into the ocean, unless…
The sudden fall caused the pilots to hurtle directly on the front pane of the planes cockpit controls and one of them scrambled over, trying to grip over anything possible. For a moment he couldn’t see any part of the plane but just the vast ocean of water right in front ready to embrace him. The glass shudder was developing cracks due to the heat generated from the friction he could clearly see the plane falling over, while he was still strung on the leg strap of the aero-guiding equipments they wore. Nothing happened for a few seconds.
The other pilot accidentally fell over the elevator control and as the plane jolted in the attempt to nose up itself, both of them held over the landing steers applying all the pressure they could on the brake pedal, to make the tilt back complete.
When the plane crashed into the water, the heightened gravitational pull, and the tilt over the normal had grazed off much of the speed and the plane travelled the last few seconds at 70 knots before hitting the water. When it hit nose down, the jolt made everybody numb. When it tunnelled into the water, it lost speed quickly and rapidly rose back to the surface nose up. The main fuselage was all exhausted and no fire break-up could damage any power circuits in the plane interior. The plane tails had burst into fire as they approached water and as they greeted it, the fire was put out on its own before it could spread.
The escape was miraculous, but few of them had disoriented themselves in the fallout. A few being unable to swim and were in panic, a few of them were desperately trying to stay afloat on the half floating plane. Many of them clung to the over-wing of the planes as the front exits and emergency get-offs were burst open. People who were scarcely half-alive from the shock and who could swim were taking on the helpless people to the uppermost part of the wings, trying to pray the plane remains afloat long enough. The shoreline was visible and so were the hopes of the innocent people. Two speed boats guiding a medium carrier liner appeared onto the scene within few minutes; the terrorists had finally done all that they could with such a huge risk element. Six people died in the total encounter and the desperately downcast air hostess was asked to confirm the news on an unknown frequency transmit from the shore. Nobody knew who the six people were but that was not important at the moment for the two governments.
Rajni was still alive, breathing heavily but her blood veins were filled with saline water from the heavy sea. She knew swimming. But nobody is trained to fight the waves of an ocean in the swimming pool lessons. Her body was choked and sore. In half an hour the news was confirmed all over the world that the terrorists had taken the help of the Somalia pirates to land the plane in water near an unknown island off the coast! Their demands were unknown and so was the state of every passenger on the plane.
***********
Three days had passed and Sunder ate scarcely. Nothing was as disturbing as the fact that reporters, government or even the police and navy had no information to give. Relatives of all those who were abducted had made their homes in the airport emergency accommodation wards. Be it a Hindu, a Muslim, a Sikh, a Christian or any other religion that the world has known; everybody was praying. Religion and its barriers are not for the common man. The common man knows only that they have the independence to live the way they can and must cause the least hindrance to all around them. Some people had their parents aboard the Australian Airliner; some had their son/daughter coming back for a vacation from their studies abroad. Some company representatives had Australian delegates arriving in the airlines. Everybody knew that six of the total one hundred and forty three passengers are no more and seventeen had been severely injured. Who were they, nobody knew.
“If there is anything in this world that I can ask for today or anytime ahead for the rest of my life; I beg you Oh Lord! I want my Rajni back!” Sunder was praying to god every moment. Nothing else was visible to him; he did not care to call up at his office and let know what was going in his mind. “Tring! Tring!” he looked at his mobile and saw the lawyer calling him up. He cut the call instinctively and a chill ran down his spine and he sank back on the chair behind him.
“I don’t know how you would ever agree for it after all that has happened. But Rajni, I cannot dream to live a single day without you. My heart still beats only for you and I can do anything but be separated from you even for a moment. I love you, I want you. I want to hug you and stay close to you all my life.” He pictured himself saying this to her, he was going to do it. “Divorce is just out of question.” He would tell this to her.
“I am sorry Sunder, life does not always give a second chance.” Rajni would say this and walk away. He woke up from the dream and saw tear drops from his eyes. A hazed figure of Rajni came right in front of him and slowly and steadily…. faded away in the murky background of the empty airport departures.
***********
It was the twelfth day now. They were trapped somewhere in the jungles of Somalia in a distant town near Merca not far from the shoreline city of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Nobody knew what would happen. The twelve days seemed like twelve years for each of them. All were stoned.
If we ever believed that silence can speak, this was the time when all the remaining alive 125 passengers would know it was true. Nobody was talking but a thousand words were spoken in the falling eyes and the dissembled movements of everybody. In a single room lay all of them, exhausted from even praying for their freedom now. And suddenly on the thirteenth day something happened. Everybody was ushered in their sorry state to an unknown set of trampers that rode them towards the shore lines. That afternoon a huge Indian ship arrived at the international borders to grab the abandoned ship wreck in which the pirates had carted all the passengers. Rajni was alive, but for her and for all of them medical attention was the prime necessity.
***********
He had not slept well for many days now, but today he was feeling fresh like a lilac. He was getting impatient like the honey bee. The ship was about to arrive and all the relatives of the released prisoners were waiting at the docks. As the ship arrived tears welled in everybody’s eyes.
When he first caught a glance of her, his heart missed a beat. She was looking out all over for somebody, while being guided by one of the Coast Guard patrolman. The medical team had shortly arrived and everybody was being directed to meet their relatives directly on the hospital wards. When she finally locked him into view the medical team practitioners dragged them all to the waiting ambulances.
The first gaze was expressionless. Both stared at each other almost in relieved disbelief that their prayers were answered. No matter of activities around could disturb their gaze over each other. When Sunder tried reaching out to her the authorities stopped him. Medication for each and every of the passengers was the most important.
The drive from the dock to the hospital was a crazy one, but Sunder could only meet her after 5:00 pm. When he could finally venture it to meet her, she was all clean and fresh, resting on the bed and looking at the ceiling blankly. As he opened the door she turned her eyes and saw him coming in. Their eyes were locked for a long time to each other. Their hands met each other and he settled next to her. She had weakened considerably, but she was next to him and that was more than important for him. He caressed her fingers and kissed her palm gently and before he knew tears welled from his eyes. Nothing was spoken and yet they both shared the grief of so many days of turmoil and separation from each other.
In a matter of a few days of separation, both of them discovered how incomplete they were without each other. This day happened to be the Fourteenth of February, a Valentine’s Day. The seventh Valentine’s day and indeed more memorable than anyone that they had spent together or would spend together all their life.
The reflection of the dim light in the hospital room fell on the glass of water next to her bed where she lay. As she was lost watching the glass, memoirs of the last few adventurous days she went through flashed by in her mind. And when Sunder re-entered the room after a brief interval of discussions with the doctor, he held the same stunning ring in front of Rajni and said, “It was exactly seven years from now that this ring was carved for the first time in your beautiful fingers. It is all yours and can never be separated from you. Can you accept the ring back and also the jerk that parcelled this one for you for a lifetime?” And once again, she smiled in gleeful acceptance. We all are jerks aren't we?
“Give me five minutes will you? The flight is still five hours from take-off; you shouldn’t be too late I guess.” Though Sunder, her husband, was calm and collective he could be lazy on a weekend day.
“I am not surprised you wouldn’t be too bothered for it. But I think I better reach on my own, I would need to start practicing on this sooner than I had imagined.” She stopped making the sofa and turned to look at him. He was stung by her words; their eyes met. The silence was killing.
It’s always bitter after a five year marriage is about to be shattered. All that was happening was not in the control of either of them, or that is what both of them assumed. Those two souls, who waited for surprise gifts and romantic letters all the time in the last seven years of their married life, were eventually preparing to end their lovely times. Last night was the night when they both screamed, shrieked, paused, pondered, stared with defying eyes and punches of belligerent words that they would never imagine they would ever say to each other. Last night was just another event, one which any other perfectly harmonical beings could have, but which a couple should never go through.
“I can’t think of anybody apart from you! From the last two years it is only been you that I have thought about, it is only you whom I want all my life. Will you marry me Rajji?” It was Fourteenth February, a Valentine’s day when Sunder proposed Rajni. He had dated her only twice before he proposed her, but they knew each other for more than two years now.
The reflection of the dim colourful lights danced on the calm flowing water near the wonderful still lake of the Afrin Resort in Lonavala, a beautiful hill station in India. Her innocent yet naughty smile of affection had said it all. He carved the stunning ring in her slender fingers as she drove her hands forward in gleeful acceptance. That moment was the most relishing one for him. They danced on the solemn music with their hands together; nothing was moving. Everything around seemed to be halted – time was still and love was in the air. Sunder was lost in the gentle flailing movements of her beautiful flowing hairs. Their world was finally complete and it was visible to them both crystal clear in each others eyes. When he kissed her a good bye that day; a storm was brewing within both of them; a storm of untold happiness and sudden realization that the deepest desires of their heart were finally their own till eternity.
“The airports of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and many other metropolises in India are under red alert. Security has been sounded for possible threats of other hijack incidents en-route the APAC destinations. Officials fear they may need to prepare for a 9/11 situation. The Qantas Airways Flight Q123 has confirmed the hijack of the plane and officials are discussing the matter with Australian Freight agencies.” For more updates do not go away we’ll come back after a short commercial break.
“CRASH!!” The cup of coffee slipped from Sunder’s hands without notice. He desperately looked for the remote and tried to switch over to other news channels. NDTV news read the BREAKING NEWS as “confirmed reports have finally arrived that the Qantas Airways Flight QA123 heading from the Kingsfordsmith airport Sydney to Chhatrapati Shivaji terminals Mumbai has been hijacked by unknown assailants. This happened on…” the words were lost as his ears failed to pick up any further. He was shocked beyond senses.”
Desperate impulse drove him to call his parents and tell them about the incident. Rajni was travelling in the same flight QA123, on her way back from the project work on the Australian trip.
“ATTENTION!!SWOSH!!! Nobody moves from your seat! We will not harm anybody unless you act smart! All of you be aware that this plane is being directed to an unknown destination. The pilots are under our control and everyone like me doesn’t care for our lives. If anything silly is done, we will park this plane directly on hell!” Men of the size of maritime bandits all covered with black robes stood on vantage points at the doorways of the plane.
It took 10 minutes before the severity of the problem sunk into Rajni. She was sweating all over, afraid to even move her hands and wipe the sweat forming on her slender neck and palms. One of the terrorists posted right above her aisle seat was sending instructions as loudly as he possibly could, deafening any senses left in her. When silence fell, she could hear her heartbeats prominently. All eyes hovered around frightening faces of each other, everybody vary of any unknown attack that could possibly be the end of their lives. As time flew every passenger in the plane was sure that they had passed over India and they were now heading to an unknown new destination, possibly somewhere in the Gulf. Nobody knew what fate would bring for them.
Rajni turned her gaze slowly to the window of the aeroplane. She had to calm her growing nervousness. News had come that somebody from the Business Class had developed a trauma and succumbed to shock and apprehension. As she looked out, her mind switched to a scene of white cotton like clouds in the midst of which the plane flew - the plane in which all the travellers were expecting their last journey.
As a tiny tear rolled over her eyes, she saw a huge hole forming into a massive ball of cloud cover. As she blinked her eyes to see clearly, she saw Sunder running towards her trying to hold her arms and get her out of the plane. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as if in a sense of relief to believe her dream had come true. Even as they all lay crouched up on their seats, Rajni tried to chase her mind away from him; but it was only Sunder whom she could see out there, far-off in the mountains steadily coming closer to her, trying every breath of his own life to save her. He was nowhere, yet everywhere.
The news had brought panic in both the countries. Envoys from both the countries were making statements to news channels and the Aviation and Army officials were busy communicating with the terrorist networks that could have allegedly done this. Relatives of all those who were travelling in the plane were out at the Mumbai terminals screaming in anguish and crying their heart out to the airport authority to do something! Human life is so precious to some human and so worthless to some others.
Sunder was at the airport within two hours from the time they first broadcasted the incident. Everybody he knew from the government officials and agencies were contacted. All he could hear was a kind assurance from the other side, while they asked him to keep his cool and stay connected. He was burning from within. Every moment he heard her call him out. He saw her calling him out while driving on the way back to the airport from the Australian counsellate office.
GPS tracking machines were tracking the planes for the good of thousands of officials from all around the world, all not knowing what is going to happen with the plane. After more than 3 hours of its journey offset from the regular flight course, everybody was concerned if the plane did carry as much extra fuel to carry a further distance. When you feel death is as close as this, any proportion of optimism cannot amount you from thinking about the worse to come. The silence inside the plane was killing, to each of them time seemed to have stopped passing by. Slowly but steadily, all aboard the flight could see the corpse of 100 more people lying around them. A miracle was necessary.
“Have you guys ever tumbled yourselves into a swimming pool? Well if you haven’t had that fun, here is a chance for all of you to do so. The only difference is that my altitude dial here reads 16,000 metres above the sea and the swimming pool will have no shores from where we will all nose-dive into the ocean! So grab your life jackets, wear your oxygen masks and be ready to live the moments before your death.” The pilot smirked heavily in the most disgusting manner and laughter ensued from maniacs all around the frightened travellers.
“Its my first attempt to flying a plane down, so all the small lot of us who would still be alive, don’t worry we have rescues boats waiting not far away.” he continued roughly. Everybody was shell-shocked. Nevertheless the instructions were followed by all. Since the plane was not so crowded, all the occupants had been asked to shift over to the end of the plane near its tail, possibly to avoid them from being near to the pilots.
None of the two cockpit goons had any training in actual landing, except the Pilot Simulator software’s they had played around with. These men are born to kill or get killed. Their essence to life is different from human. The sophisticated Boeing 747 was equipped with the Instrument Flight Rules chart, but all they knew was the visual reference of the satellite pictures that they drew and copied on their map sheets. The Instrument Landing System was severely damaged while trying to overpower the actual pilots but the Visual Gliding Slope Indicator was working.
While at cruise altitude, the pilots had strewn the engines for power too much which led the turbine blades to break. Consequently three of the four engines had stopped working. The plane backup batteries were fast draining out of power supply to the hydraulics and the control systems due to the engine failure.
The failure meant they could no longer raise their height but the descent was very necessary to be a controlled one. Rajni saw from the seat that they were nearing a shore near the horizon, nobody knew where it was, but it certainly was a lonesome island. There was no need of dumping fuel to avoid fuselage tank blasts; the tanks were exhausted from the extra long journey and the plane was gliding and gathering speed on its way down.
As the plane gathered speed, it was necessary to maintain the pressure on the slats of the wings to decrease the overall camber and provide the balance lift against the drag coming from the resistance of the falling aircraft under the influence of gravity. Suddenly the flaps on the wings lost control and the lift-off using the slats was lost. The plane tilted over sharply to the left and the rudder lost control over the rotation due to increased air pressure on its disoriented side. The plane was now nose-diving into the ocean, unless…
The sudden fall caused the pilots to hurtle directly on the front pane of the planes cockpit controls and one of them scrambled over, trying to grip over anything possible. For a moment he couldn’t see any part of the plane but just the vast ocean of water right in front ready to embrace him. The glass shudder was developing cracks due to the heat generated from the friction he could clearly see the plane falling over, while he was still strung on the leg strap of the aero-guiding equipments they wore. Nothing happened for a few seconds.
The other pilot accidentally fell over the elevator control and as the plane jolted in the attempt to nose up itself, both of them held over the landing steers applying all the pressure they could on the brake pedal, to make the tilt back complete.
When the plane crashed into the water, the heightened gravitational pull, and the tilt over the normal had grazed off much of the speed and the plane travelled the last few seconds at 70 knots before hitting the water. When it hit nose down, the jolt made everybody numb. When it tunnelled into the water, it lost speed quickly and rapidly rose back to the surface nose up. The main fuselage was all exhausted and no fire break-up could damage any power circuits in the plane interior. The plane tails had burst into fire as they approached water and as they greeted it, the fire was put out on its own before it could spread.
The escape was miraculous, but few of them had disoriented themselves in the fallout. A few being unable to swim and were in panic, a few of them were desperately trying to stay afloat on the half floating plane. Many of them clung to the over-wing of the planes as the front exits and emergency get-offs were burst open. People who were scarcely half-alive from the shock and who could swim were taking on the helpless people to the uppermost part of the wings, trying to pray the plane remains afloat long enough. The shoreline was visible and so were the hopes of the innocent people. Two speed boats guiding a medium carrier liner appeared onto the scene within few minutes; the terrorists had finally done all that they could with such a huge risk element. Six people died in the total encounter and the desperately downcast air hostess was asked to confirm the news on an unknown frequency transmit from the shore. Nobody knew who the six people were but that was not important at the moment for the two governments.
Rajni was still alive, breathing heavily but her blood veins were filled with saline water from the heavy sea. She knew swimming. But nobody is trained to fight the waves of an ocean in the swimming pool lessons. Her body was choked and sore. In half an hour the news was confirmed all over the world that the terrorists had taken the help of the Somalia pirates to land the plane in water near an unknown island off the coast! Their demands were unknown and so was the state of every passenger on the plane.
Three days had passed and Sunder ate scarcely. Nothing was as disturbing as the fact that reporters, government or even the police and navy had no information to give. Relatives of all those who were abducted had made their homes in the airport emergency accommodation wards. Be it a Hindu, a Muslim, a Sikh, a Christian or any other religion that the world has known; everybody was praying. Religion and its barriers are not for the common man. The common man knows only that they have the independence to live the way they can and must cause the least hindrance to all around them. Some people had their parents aboard the Australian Airliner; some had their son/daughter coming back for a vacation from their studies abroad. Some company representatives had Australian delegates arriving in the airlines. Everybody knew that six of the total one hundred and forty three passengers are no more and seventeen had been severely injured. Who were they, nobody knew.
“If there is anything in this world that I can ask for today or anytime ahead for the rest of my life; I beg you Oh Lord! I want my Rajni back!” Sunder was praying to god every moment. Nothing else was visible to him; he did not care to call up at his office and let know what was going in his mind. “Tring! Tring!” he looked at his mobile and saw the lawyer calling him up. He cut the call instinctively and a chill ran down his spine and he sank back on the chair behind him.
“I don’t know how you would ever agree for it after all that has happened. But Rajni, I cannot dream to live a single day without you. My heart still beats only for you and I can do anything but be separated from you even for a moment. I love you, I want you. I want to hug you and stay close to you all my life.” He pictured himself saying this to her, he was going to do it. “Divorce is just out of question.” He would tell this to her.
“I am sorry Sunder, life does not always give a second chance.” Rajni would say this and walk away. He woke up from the dream and saw tear drops from his eyes. A hazed figure of Rajni came right in front of him and slowly and steadily…. faded away in the murky background of the empty airport departures.
It was the twelfth day now. They were trapped somewhere in the jungles of Somalia in a distant town near Merca not far from the shoreline city of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Nobody knew what would happen. The twelve days seemed like twelve years for each of them. All were stoned.
If we ever believed that silence can speak, this was the time when all the remaining alive 125 passengers would know it was true. Nobody was talking but a thousand words were spoken in the falling eyes and the dissembled movements of everybody. In a single room lay all of them, exhausted from even praying for their freedom now. And suddenly on the thirteenth day something happened. Everybody was ushered in their sorry state to an unknown set of trampers that rode them towards the shore lines. That afternoon a huge Indian ship arrived at the international borders to grab the abandoned ship wreck in which the pirates had carted all the passengers. Rajni was alive, but for her and for all of them medical attention was the prime necessity.
He had not slept well for many days now, but today he was feeling fresh like a lilac. He was getting impatient like the honey bee. The ship was about to arrive and all the relatives of the released prisoners were waiting at the docks. As the ship arrived tears welled in everybody’s eyes.
When he first caught a glance of her, his heart missed a beat. She was looking out all over for somebody, while being guided by one of the Coast Guard patrolman. The medical team had shortly arrived and everybody was being directed to meet their relatives directly on the hospital wards. When she finally locked him into view the medical team practitioners dragged them all to the waiting ambulances.
The first gaze was expressionless. Both stared at each other almost in relieved disbelief that their prayers were answered. No matter of activities around could disturb their gaze over each other. When Sunder tried reaching out to her the authorities stopped him. Medication for each and every of the passengers was the most important.
The drive from the dock to the hospital was a crazy one, but Sunder could only meet her after 5:00 pm. When he could finally venture it to meet her, she was all clean and fresh, resting on the bed and looking at the ceiling blankly. As he opened the door she turned her eyes and saw him coming in. Their eyes were locked for a long time to each other. Their hands met each other and he settled next to her. She had weakened considerably, but she was next to him and that was more than important for him. He caressed her fingers and kissed her palm gently and before he knew tears welled from his eyes. Nothing was spoken and yet they both shared the grief of so many days of turmoil and separation from each other.
In a matter of a few days of separation, both of them discovered how incomplete they were without each other. This day happened to be the Fourteenth of February, a Valentine’s Day. The seventh Valentine’s day and indeed more memorable than anyone that they had spent together or would spend together all their life.
The reflection of the dim light in the hospital room fell on the glass of water next to her bed where she lay. As she was lost watching the glass, memoirs of the last few adventurous days she went through flashed by in her mind. And when Sunder re-entered the room after a brief interval of discussions with the doctor, he held the same stunning ring in front of Rajni and said, “It was exactly seven years from now that this ring was carved for the first time in your beautiful fingers. It is all yours and can never be separated from you. Can you accept the ring back and also the jerk that parcelled this one for you for a lifetime?” And once again, she smiled in gleeful acceptance. We all are jerks aren't we?
- Chirag Khara
