English Literature – Juvenile Fiction ☆ The Tide of will – Part-19 ☆ Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury ☆

Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury

Brief Introduction

• Birth – January 18, 1955
• Education – MBBS (IMS/BHU)
• Publications – 4 books (2 in Hindi, 1 each in English and Bengali) and two are yet to come.
• Translations – Books and articles are translated in English, Odiya, Marathi and Gujarati.
• Awards – CBT awarded stories and novel, “Kamaleshwar Smriti Katha Award (2013, 2017 and 2019)” by Kathabimb.
• Honour – “Hindi Sevi Samman” by Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Wardha (December 2016). 

☆ Juvenile Fiction ☆ The Tide of will – Part-19 ☆ Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury ☆

The Lost Medal

The mother of the child was thunder struck. She couldn’t even make a cry for help. Next she started hitting her chest and yelled, ‘O Krishna! O deva! Help. Please save my son. He’s drowning.’

The baby in her lap started crying too.

A pandemonium broke out on the deck. Everyone was shrieking in terror, ‘Nobody is here who can save the child?’

A passenger shouted to a fisherman on a dinghy, ‘Look, a boy is drowning there. Go and save him, please.’

By the time two of the dinghies rushed in that direction the child was gone away from them in the unruly waves.

Narayanan murmured to himself, ‘Oh god! What’s this you’ve done today to us?’

Suddenly there was a sound. A thud. Again a splash of water. Narayana turned with a start to find Gayatri was no more standing on his side.

‘Look, that girl is swimming. There, there. Can’t you see?’

‘Oh, just behind the waves.’

‘But she herself is a child. Will she be able to save him?’

‘A child she is. But such a daring girl.’

In the prevailing chaos Narayanan felt a bit dizzy in his head. He gripped the fence with both of his hands. ‘Yes, there is my kuchumol. Oh, the courage of an eagle in the bosom a sparrow!’

By the time Gayatri reached the spot the boy was already sinking. Gayatri was swimming crazily. Yes, what were Mr. Kumaran’s instructions for fast swimming? With the face down, stretched arms going up and down through the water. She was not able to flap her right leg properly. Actually it was struck by an oar when she dived from the deck. It was paining and bleeding too. Still Gayatri didn’t care for this. The only thing in her mind was how quickly she could reach the spot and save the hapless boy. All the worries for competition were washed off from her mind.

‘Bravo, she has arrived. Yes, there she is.’

Pulling her own hairs, the mother started yelling, ‘But where is my son? He’s no more visible.’

‘Oh, deva! Has he drowned already?’ A gentleman said nervously.

Only a few bubbles were seen on the spot.

Was Narayanan going to fall? A tremor of anxiety ran through his body. Oh, his fingers were aching from his tight grip on the railing.

Gayatri had arrived at the place. But was she doomed to be a failure? Where was the child? She took an immediate decision. She took a deep breath, filled her chest with air and plunged deep into the water. She was going down and down. All around her there was only green water and nothing else. Oh, she felt as if her chest was on the brink of bursting. It was crying for fresh oxygen. No, she couldn’t continue her journey downwards. She failed. Just to take a second breath she had to come up over the surface. Again she filled both of her lungs. The air, the oxygen, the nectar of life!

‘Could you? Could you reach that boy?’ People from the deck asked eagerly.

Just a few feet away again those bubbles appeared in the foams.

The mother seemed to have gone stark raving mad. She was crying and beating her chest. The other child was yelling and another woman tried to pacify him.

As the earth trembles before an earthquake Narayanan’s heart was throbbing wildly, ‘Couldn’t she? Oh, couldn’t she save that unfortunate boy?’

Deep down in the water Gayatri had reached again in that green walled space. Suddenly a little hand touched her body. She kicked her legs back and sprang to catch hold of that hand. Next she was rising up and up. There was light at the end of the green waters.

As if the whole world yelled in joyful excitement, ‘She has done it. She’s coming with the boy.’

Holding the boy with one hand and pushing him Gayatri was swimming towards the shore. Those fishermen rushed to pick up the boy and Gayatri in their dinghy.

Carrying their bags in both his hands when Narayanan got down from the launch a crowd was already collected around Gayatri and that boy. Gayatri was not able to breathe properly. She had drunk lots of water. Narayanan was alarmed to see the bleeding wound on her leg. That boy too had swallowed much of water. Her mother was continuously moaning.

‘We must take them to the hospital.’ said a man. Two more persons came forward to help. Two autos were called. Narayanan went inside one of them with his kuchumol. Those two men sat in the other with that lady and his sons. Narayanan, buried under all his worries couldn’t even think of asking, ‘Gayatri, how did you have this wound?’

The doctors were alarmed to see the child. Water had entered his lungs. He was gasping occasionally. Immediately oxygen was started. Along with necessary injections and all. His mother was seated on a bench nearby. His achcha had been informed and any time he would reach soon.

The wound on Gayatri’s leg was bandaged. Although she too had swallowed a lot of water she was out of danger. She was lying on another bed.

Misfortunes come sometime without giving any premonition. Narayanan looked at his wristwatch. It was past nine in the morning. Gayatri was supposed to be present there at the Veluthampi Stadium at eight o’clock sharp. He thought he must intimate Kuamaran about all these mishaps. Certainly he must be worried a lot. He went out of the ward and took out his mobile from his pocket.

As Kuamaran was waiting for them he became much worried. When they didn’t turn up even after the stipulated time, he went mad. His condition was just like the captain of a cricket team who finds his spinner of proven ability is absent because of some serious injury and the opposite team is catching up with runs without fall of a wicket. He was confident that Gayatri was his winning card. He had so much confidence on the girl. And he had laboured so much for her development. Gradually he got enraged with his beloved teacher, ‘Oh, why on earth they are not serious? He must be sick or something. So many times, I had asked him to come with me. What can I do now? Oh, where are they?’

When his phone rang in his pocket, like a dog searching its buried bone, he took it out, ‘Yes sir, what happened? Where is Gayatri? What are you saying? She is in hospital? Which one? Oh! Yes I can reach there, once the competition items are over.’

Whatever happens to a man the time never stops. It flies by. The earth continues with its revolution around its own axis. The departure bell for the day was ringing in the horizon. It was again the time for the birds to return to their nests chirping. Before setting in the west the sun was bidding a red coloured goodbye to all. The windowpanes of the hospital were tinged with this hue. Face of Gayatri was luminous with her satisfaction as a result of the feat she could achieve. That boy was now much better.

And then ……..

Running through the corridor of the hospital Kumaran rushed into the ward. He was breathless and sweating. He didn’t stop for a breath but said outright to Narayanan, ‘What a treachery of the fate, sir! How all this happened?’

Narayanan was quite sympathetic to this unfortunate trainer of his kuchumol. He stood there silently patting on Kumaran’s shoulder. He couldn’t utter a single word of consolation.

‘The moment I was relieved I rushed to come here. Where is that boy who was drowning?’

Narayanan waved his hand towards his bed. Kumaran just looked at the boy but didn’t go near. He was quite heart broken. He was pretty sure that Gayatri was going to win at least two golds. With his head down on his hand he sank into a chair. He said bitterly, ‘All gone waste. Our labours of so many months and years – all our efforts are but wasted.’

‘No. Don’t say that, young man.’ Narayanan said boldly. There was no sign of remorse on his face, ‘Not a second of the time that you and Gayatri have put to achieve all this has been wasted. Not a fraction of your hard labour is lost.’

‘Sir, I’m quite confident that Gayatri could’ve won two golds in hundred and two hundred metres. Two golds at least, besides the silver in other items.’

‘Kumaran, are you worrying for simple gold medals only? My kuchumol has won much more precious medal than your gold, you know?’

‘What do you mean, sir?’ Kumaran was very much perplexed.

‘Yes, don’t you know that she has won a medal made of pearls?’

‘Medal of pearls! What does that mean, sir? I fail to comprehend.’ Kumaran was now a bit annoyed.

‘Look at the eyes of the mother of that boy. Look.’ Narayanan turned his eyes in that direction.

Kumaran went near his bed and saw the boy was slowly opening his eyes, ‘Amme! Amme, oh!’

A tremor hovered on the mother’s lips. Her eyes welled up with the tears of joy. A tear dropped on her cheek. And it was shining brightly in the sun light through the pane…..

Just like a piece of some precious pearl from a rare oyster, lying on the bed of some deep sea.

He turned towards his disciple and found Gayatri all smiles.

The old appupan touched lightly the head of his kuchumol and said, ‘My dear Kumaran, probably I too can give you a lesson as far as the world of sports is concerned. The excellence in sports is not all about winning a medal only but one must try to win the heart of the people. It’s a real sportsmanship. And I think my Gayatri knows it far better than anybody.’

Kumaran looked at his former headmaster of school days. The room was illuminated by the rays from the setting sun. He felt as if the sun conveyed its salute of admiration to the old man and his granddaughter. Silently he nodded his head.

☆☆☆☆☆

© Dr. Amitabh Shanker Roy Choudhury

C0ntact: Care Dr. Alok Kumar Mukherjee, 104/93, Vijay Path, Mansarovar, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302020