I was out on an official tour to Mumbai and suddenly I get this call at 3 am in the morning…in that darkness of hotel room I further got psyched to see my mom’s name displayed on my cell! Zillion thoughts flashed through my mind in that fraction of second. Mom was not keeping well for past so many days, she was having very high BP and we all were insisting her so much to come and stay with any one of us. One thing which I really feel guilty about my job and career is leaving my mom all alone in that small city. Many times me and my brothers have asked my parents to shift with any of us, but they are not at all convinced about leaving everything in our hometown and coping up with a hectic lifestyle like us in metros. And for last few days I was just so restless about my family that this call at 3 am totally shook me up. Muttering prayers and gathering courage I picked up the phone, and it was my mom who said “hello”….thank god, she is fine! But something else had definitely happened, she was crying hysterically…I kept on asking her “kya hua, mumma bolo plzzzz”…and finally what she said totally shook me up…this was never expected by me even in my dreams. How could this be possible, Amitesh Bhaiya is no more!!! I couldn’t believe my ears and told there might have been some misunderstanding, but no, the news was correct and he died in a flash of seconds in a road accident that night. Police had called from the highway where his bike was hit by truck to confirm the news! Out of sheer shock and numbness, I just packed my bags and reached airport to take the next flight at 4:30 am to my hometown. I can’t describe how I managed to control my outburst throughout the flight and then the scene after that was just toooo heartbreaking and devastating! Couldn’t believe my eyes that a person who was just like us was now lying lifeless drenched in blood on the floor. Though Amitesh Bhaiya was not my own brother but he was nothing less than that. Since his own mother had died when he was hardly 10, so he had literally grown up in our house with my mom taking care of him as her own son. And then the age factor, he was just 1 year elder to me, so he was not only my closest cousin but one of my closest friends as well.
I have experienced few deaths earlier also in my family but they were all of elderly people who died after some sort of illness…not that those were less painful but this sudden death of somebody so close and almost my age is one of the worst and most painful experiences life could have given me. I had never imagined that death can be so brutal, so callous and life can be so short. We all are running after some or other thing, career, money, physical luxuries, happiness, success etc…but anything and everything can just come to an end in a fraction of second by this superpower known as death. And then you keep on thinking, “wish I could have spoken last night to this person” or “wish I could have done this for him” or “wish, I can see this person again in life”…but you can’t as the person has gone forever now! You are left with only those sweet moments of togetherness and beautiful memories to reminisce for your whole life…After this accident, all I want to do is spend as much time as possible with my loved ones as you never know when someone will go away! Loss of my friend can never be fulfilled by anything in life and I will miss him forever now. But I believe that death can only end a life and never a relationship! He will be in my memories & thoughts eternally.
