-Brian Mendonça
We had a visit to make. The visit was intended for a
long time but it did not happen until the holiday, when we were free. We made our way down the narrow lane towards
the house.
This was not an ordinary visit. It was the first time
we were going to visit the family. Our moods were sombre considering the
gravity of the situation.
There are so many people we rely on to do our daily
work. The house work, until recently, was being done by the lady were going to
see. Ever since we shifted into our new place she stood by us, understanding
the nature of her chores and performing them to the best of her ability.
I often wondered about her life and how smilingly she
used to interact with all of us – specially my young son Dwayne. In fact, when
she used to finish her work around 5 p.m. Dwayne would race up to her with his
cycle, so she could accompany him in the lift to the ground floor. He felt secure
with her around. In our new dwellings she was a familiar face
in unknown surroundings.
And now we were reaching out to her to see her after a
hiatus.
It was in the days before Christmas that Queenie rang
her up to ask if she could come over and give us a hand with the sweets. What
she said stunned us all. She had lost her eldest son, her pride and joy in a
bike accident on 19th December.
He was coming back from the flag hoisting in college.
CCTV footage, which she shared with us, showed how the tempo and the auto
rickshaw came into view. Then the scooter was seen coming in too fast from the
rear, trying to insinuate itself between the two and to get ahead. The gap
narrowed for a fraction.
The back of the tempo hit him and he fell violently on
the ground. He was hit on the side of his head. It was all over in seconds. He
was not wearing a helmet. The time was around 11 a.m.
Meanwhile, his mother was going about her daily jobs. She
received a call to come to the police station. She was told there had been an
accident. After signing papers in the station she was requested to go to GMC.
She did so after some relatives joined her. In her simple way she always
thought that her son must have sustained an injury and all would be okay in
time.
She had brought him up herself in their one-room house
and seen him grow into a man. Her husband, we heard, was with another woman.
They had been living apart for the last 10 years.
She finally came to know her son was no more in the
latter part of the day. The body was given back to her. But the gold chain he
wore was missing. 26th January 2019 would have been his 20th
birthday.
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