“One moment please”, she said.
She took out a little framed photograph from her pocket and stared at it.
Her eyes grew misty and she felt a lump in her throat. Time seemed to stand still for a while.
The photograph showed a young girl climbing a steep slope. She was midway. Above her was a steeper inward incline and below her was a deceptively calm sea dotted with jagged rocks. One step gone awry, one foothold slipped, a little fraying of the rope and she would have plunged down and gone..for eternity.
It was her own photograph, clicked five years ago. Life had taken a complete turn since then.
In the next 30 seconds, her whole life flashed in front of her.
Born in a simple middle class family as the youngest of four girls, she was always labelled as “weird”. While her sisters were what society would term as “appropriately feminine”, she had a penchant for climbing walls and trees along with the boys of her neighbourhood. Her mother always wondered aloud as to who would marry such a tomboy.
But being the youngest, she was also the darling of the family. She participated in all trekking and mountaineering expeditions organised by her school and college. While her sisters settled down in life after completing a basic education, she post graduated and went on to get a well paying job. And much to the relief of her mother, she got married into a broad minded, supportive family.
By now, she was the member of a local mountaineering club and had been on numerous expeditions throughout the country. Though she had successfully scaled several small peaks, her ambition was to capture Mount Everest. But God had different plans.
It was two years ago. A typical night from a Bollywood climax scene. Pitch dark, no moon, no street lights thanks to load shedding, heavy rain, thunder, lightning. She was returning home from office, late after attending a meeting, in a colleague’s vehicle. And then that huge truck came suddenly in front of them, seemingly from nowhere…..
She woke up in hospital, swathed in bandages and with every close family member standing around her. Soon after, they slowly broke the news to her that her right leg had to be amputated in order to save her life. Her dreams of conquering Mount Everest tumbled downhill and shattered to pieces.
The next few weeks saw a horde of friends, colleagues and relatives visiting her, with most of them, particularly old aunties and uncles, taking great pains to expressly write off her mountaineering career. Though it was obvious, every such reminder would nevertheless hurt her afresh, till her family turned protective and curtailed the visits.
Eventually, she was brought home. A couple of months later, her family got her fitted with a prosthetic leg. Now she could at least walk. They then sent her for counselling, which attuned her to the reality of her present life and reduced her depression and tears.
She kept staring at the photograph, of a past gone by.
She had photographs of her reaching the summit of so many mountain peaks, but she had always cherished this one the most, where she was not atop a peak. Because here, she was executing one of her most challenging and dangerous climbs. She always carried it with her, even after the accident.
“Sheena”, the voice behind her jolted her back to the present, “what are you doing, just when you…….”
“Oh yes”, she replied, putting the frame back into her pocket. She swallowed and cleared her throat. Fighting back the tears that threatened to well up, she looked ahead with a determined gaze and tightened her grip on the rope.
Ten minutes later, with a prosthetic leg and accompanied by four teammates, Sheena was standing atop Mount Everest.
God’s plans were indeed different.
Note:
This story was entered by me in an office competition, where you are given a picture (the one you see here) and you have to write a story on it.
I came home, reproduced the story and edited it, before publishing it on Momspresso on 24.10.2018. It was the first time I published something.
Here’s the link to the story on Momspresso:
https://www.momspresso.com/parenting/from-archie/article/destiny-challenged?utm_source=AD_Generic_Share&utm_medium=Share_Android
