Monsoon
is almost on us in these parts and one can almost smell it. It has the power to
give a strange sense of happiness and euphoria to even the most despondent of
souls….but my case was different.
Standing
on the ramparts of the old fort overlooking the upper lake I was thinking about
the events which had unfolded in the last two and a half months. My accident,
my loss of memory, my faster than normal
healing and the strange sense of strength in my sinews every day while going
for my early morning jogs. I had put on a lot of muscular weight in the last 15
days since I started my workouts which was not normal for me as I was always
been the slim kinds.
It
was just a fortnight and the number of pushups had already gone upto fifty and
that too without much sweat and the 200 the abdominal crunches were ridiculously easy. IN a nutshell it
was as if things were put on a fast track physically for me…….not that I was
not enjoying it but I was surprised.
The
memory has come back partially so I must add. I still cant remember the details
of the accident which happened but I have stopped pondering over it now in my
attempt to accept it. This time of the year when the first of the rains hit the
city not many venture out to the fort because of the suddenness in the change
of weather and the blustery winds of the first monsoons rains. Today was
nothing different with not a soul around but I liked being here…strangely
always me feel at home closer to nature. I could see the clouds building up and
the rains approaching and it was common knowledge the rains are at their worst
at this end of the fort overlooking the lake. Yet I stayed on almost wanting to
taste the ferocity of nature all alone.
The wind picked up…slowly started to blow lustily……
almost pushing me off balance as I tried to stand up and stretch out my arms to
enjoy the whole scene with the lake below all sprawled out as magnificent
mattress ready to embrace the droplets from heaven. It was then the first
thundering struck……..and I shivered! This hadn’t happened before to me…..it was
the normal lightning which I had seen so many times in the 25 years that I have
lived and seen many rains and thunderstorms but yet it made me shiver…. in a
very strange way.
No!………
I was not shivering out of fear it was as if the thundering reverberated inside
of me alongwith the thundering of the heavens. At first I dint take notice…but
by the third or the fourth peal of thunder I was pretty sure that this wasn’t
normal. I got up and the first reaction
was to run and I ran…………ran as fast as I could for some shelter and away from
the thundering. I found a lurch in an old cavern of the fort as the wind got
even stronger and stood in its shelter ..still shivering with each thundering.
While
peeping out of the shelter from the elements I could feel a strange itching
sense in my finger tips. The itching went up everytime I shivered. It was as
though the shivering ended in my fingertips. I didn’t think anything was wrong
when during the last shiver I managed to catch a glipse of my finger tips. I
didn’t believe what I saw……….I could see live sparking charge on all my five
finger tips in both hands. “HELL! What now…..?” All that I could think and say
was “O! shit! O! shit” …. Don’t even know how many times I must have repeated
it.
IT
was as though my fingers were sparking electricity…and the itching had gone
down considerably……the sparking was just responding to the weather. “I have to
get out of here before I go up in smoke!” was what came to my mind as I ran out
of the fort to my Enfield, hid my still sparking fingers in my biking gloves.
Thank goodness the machine responded to my first kick and away I went searching
the safe confines of my house and my room where I could think this through or
probably even ask………… to talk about it!
To
be continued!