Trapped in the lift


What you feel when you are trapped in elevator of a hospital with 17 people with you?

Someone will say suffocation, someone will say anxiety and some will say fear, excitement thriller etc. I saw all this on that day. There were 17 people of different age group from 20 something to may be 60 something. We all were trapped in an elevator. The lift man had tried his best to stop over loading but I guess a couple could not bear getting separated for few minutes also, husband pulled the wife in, that made the lift over loaded. The wife was a foreigner and due to the lack of space in the lift she could freely hold her Indian husband as if she was in some foreign country. She must be missing her country for this.



There were few people like my father who were calm and composed and confident that we will get out of it soon. There was a lady who was getting agitated. Probably she was the mother of ailing daughter who was in her 20s. The look on her face said that she despised the people who were the cause of this trouble, the couple and the lift man. “Didn’t he know how many people he was supposed to take in?”



A guy in his 30s, standing near the door was trying to solve the problem by like screaming through the door, calling someone, and finally he tried to chant the magical words “Khul ja simsim.” And with this he was actually trying to open the door. And that was the moment where other people like me started giggling. And the agitated women got annoyed.
“Some people think its kind of some joke!! There is nothing to laugh about here!!” She was not just thinking all this but speaking all this, while rest of the people were calm.



Almost 15 mins we were in that 7 by 5 ft. Before any body would have fainted we got help and were rescued. Ya, rescued, that lady must have felt this.

Smile on his face, light in his eyes


We all ran to catch the train on dadar station, got in the ladies 1st class, just trying to settle in the little place that we got, and there he came smiling; with a thick plastic bag in his one hand and packets of ‘shingh’ (groundnuts) in his other hand. He came to us and gave us 3 packets of ‘shingh’, 2 Rs each.


This boy had become our routine on our way back home. Always with a smile on his face and light in his eyes. His name was Dinesh.


Once I asked him, "School jate ho?" He replied shyly, "Ha jata hu. 8 vi (8th std) mein padhta hun." He went to school in morning and in afternoon helped his father who was selling ‘bhel’ on the platform. I felt so small in front of him for yelling at my mom when she gave me a little work in kitchen!! If he saw us passing on the platform or standing in the door of the leaving train, he would call us and smile. When he was not on the platform I have missed him and searched for him. His smile was contagious, bringing smile on my face even when I was sad.


It’s been almost 4 years I have finished my graduation. He was in 10th std then.

Recently when I had been to dadar station on the same platform, I wished I could see that smile again.


Somtimes some strangers leave their impressions....

Love....unconditional

It was 2 am and she was wide awake. Her eyes were fixed on the fan. Her son had announced his wish to go abroad. She knew he will do well. She was anxious for herself, and her husband who was nearing 60.


“How can he do this to us? We have done so much for him!! I love him so much. I have given all my life after him. I thought he will be our support in our old age. He wants to leave us?” Her thoughts were running faster than the fan. When her son said he wants to go abroad, all her dreams crashed in front of her eyes. She wanted to ask her son what mistake she made that he is leaving her. She was going through the feeling of anxiety and dejection. Time had stood still for her.


She passed the night with open eyes. The morning could not bring any light for her. She got up and started working. She was in the kitchen.


“Good morning” her husband said.

She just gave a faint smile. Her eyes were telling the story of sleepless night. He was aware what was on her mind. He took her to their window and showed her a nest of sparrow that had 2 little ones. The mother sparrow was feeding the baby sparrow.

“These birds and animals take such good care of their little ones” he said.

She replied in a low voice “we also do. Haven’t we taken good care of our son?”

He said, “oh yes, we have. But I feel these birds and animals are better than us.”

She was shocked to hear that, “why you feel so?”

He replied more to himself than to her,


“They feed their babies, they protect them, teach them so that the babies can be on their own. They know that their babies will go away, they will not be there for them when they grow old and weak, when they will not be able to find their food, will not be able to protect themselves still.... they love their babies as much as we humans do, rather I feel more than we do, as we always expect something in return of our love. Their love is unconditional.”


His eyes were fixed on the sparrow.

“Can’t we love our child like this?” He said.

She looked at him and realized that he also had a sleepless night.

She returned home in evening, had a long day. “Sometimes everything seems so worthless, all my efforts seem futile”, she thought while splashing water on her face. She looked in the mirror, “I wish I could run away from everything.”


She was in a phase since past few days where nothing was happening right, nothing seemed right to her.


“Mom, I will be back in sometime”, she said, left the home and took stairs to the terrace. She opened the terrace door and went straight to the ladder of the water tank on the terrace. She climbed the ladder and was on the top of her building. She came to the edge and stood there for sometime. She took a deep breath. She knew what she was doing. She wanted peace and this was the only way for her.


She sat down and closed her eyes.


“Why life becomes so difficult sometimes? Why I have to face all this.” Her thoughts were running faster then a sunperfast train. She wanted to shut off her mind from all these thoughts. She could hardly bear it.


She opened her eyes and looked at the endless sky filled with the colours of dusk and felt something happening to her.


“The sky at this time gives a strange feeling”, she thought. “Can’t describe this feeling exactly. It’s something like emptiness along with loneliness and quietness…” She knew where her mind was going.


She looked down on the road, “when lights of the houses slips out of its windows, the road traffic moves back to home, birds return to their home too (have to imagine)….all this gives a feeling of coming back to home, coming back to self….gives a kind of loneliness…solitude…”


She looked at dimly shining stars that were complaining about the increasing pollution but still the breeze was very pleasant. She inhaled the cold breeze and felt better. “This makes me calm, realizing that it’s the final reality of life; everyone is alone in spite of being with all…how much ever I run behind everything, I have to come back to my self….”


“Even after being so involved with everyone and everything…a part of us remains untouched; alone even in the crowd of thousands…the part of self that is the witness of our acts, good or bad, right or wrong….it’s this part that talks to us when we are ready to listen to it….it always speaks the truth and shows the mirror to us…. keeps us true to ourselves, without any pretense. I drop the mask when I talk to this part…the mask that I wear like everyone else.”


“When I listen to this part of myself, a strange feeling comes….giving the effect of tranquilizer, calming all my nerves and making me ready to face the crowd of thousands.”


She sat there for quite some time. Her superfast train had come to its destination. Her mind was still, like the sky above.


When she got back to home, her mother saw her and knew she had the best conversation.