20) Surviving Trauma

As the car turned right of the busy GST road at Meenambakkam, we entered a spotlessly clean winding pathway lined on both sides with trimmed, green plants shining bright against the summer sun. The tall poles for the night lights were interspaced with translite boxes carrying advertisements suffused the eyes in every direction. I thought that the airport guys were becoming far too commercial and greedy even the pillars at the portico were draped in flex prints shouting advertisement messages.

On disembarking, I quickly dumped a baggage and suitcase on the trolley and extricated the air ticket – a crumpled computer printout from the wallet - as the security demanded at the entrance. Just near the flight announcement board, I saw a woman struggling to push her trolley after the wheels had got stuck on the side of the pole. I could see that her mobility was restricted to a single hand for the other seemed non-existent. She was dressed in a salwar and covered herself with a chunni to fill up space of a missing limb.

I helped her extricate it from the base of the announcement pole and she was profusely thankful. I was idling waiting for the flight to be announced and proceed to security; I spotted this woman at the end of the sofa and warmed in for a chat. She had a kind of a welcoming face with a perpetual Hema Malini grin.

We introduced ourselves and learnt that we were on the same flight. She inquired about my work and later narrated her tragic tale,’ I am a film institute graduate from Pune and a professional photographer having done over a dozen documentaries and two feature films. Last year while shooting for a Bollywood movie, I fell from a 40 feet crane. I woke up in a hospital after two days coma only to find that they had amputated my right arm. I was only 26 then.”

“It was very tough to come to grips when you realize that you will always lag behind a normal person in mobility. Now, I can never hold a camera like before or be half as effective. It was real hell for I lost my career as lost”.

“I locked myself in the house for months on end hoping and praying that I should not wake up in the morning!!! Slowly time forces you out of your lethargy and suicidal streak as I started to evaluate my career options. Photography is physically demanding and cannot accommodate a missing right hand,” she giggled. “I have a few friends in this industry and on their encouragement did a course on editing and now starting afresh in this line”.

“I am going to Mumbai to meet a film director regarding an opening and I am terribly nervous,” she beamed.

I weakly muttered, “For one so young, you have done splendidly. I am sure you will make it”.

The flight took off and I had the dreaded middle seat with one bloke snoring besides the window and another on the aisle seat reading newspapers and turning pages as if a karate expert. I thought of this courageous lady and hoped that she was in the adjacent seat.

As we came to collect the cabin baggage, I saw her and immediately pulled a trolley so as to be next to her. Helping herself and lugging the trolleys, I found her a cab not before exchanging our numbers.

That was a start of a good friendship as we spoke over the phone and exchanged e-mails. I asked her out on dates and felt so captivated by her charm that it not long before I proposed. Luckily, she accepted and is now the mother of my 2 kids.

I am so proud of my wife. My entire household has taken to her as my mother would often say, “Fate handed lemons to her but she knew how to make lemonade”.