Living on the Edge

During my college days in Coimbatore, I used to stay at the college hostel situated inside the college campus, and it was my practice to visit my home in Ernakulam every weekend. I would start from Coimbatore every Friday evening, and would return to the hostel by Monday morning. That Monday morning I boarded the Coimbatore super-fast from Ernakulam at 12.15 a.m, and arrived Ukkadam at around 5 in the morning. There was no proper plying of buses in the area where the hostel was situated, and I sat at the waiting shed in the bus stand, contemplating the thought of bunking my class next Friday so that I would be able to spend an extra day at home!

As I was waiting for the bus, I noticed another man sitting at the corner of the shed. A small plastic bag which he had been carrying fell off to the ground and I picked it up for him.

"Thank you," he said. I gave a slight nod of my head coupled with a smile, and suddenly realized that he was blind and couldn't see my response.

"That's okay," I said, converting my response into words. He said he too was waiting for bus no.3D, and I gathered that he is on his way to 'Kovai pudur.'

"What do you do?" he asked me.

"I am an engineering student at VLB," I said.

"What's your branch?"

"IT," I replied.

"Oh! So you belong to the group of people who are about to change the face of the nation. The country is advancing rapidly and everything is getting computerized," and he went on bit further, adding to my surprise how could a blind man be so knowledgeable on the technical advancements.

"Technology is evolving day by day," I said.

Just then the bus arrived and as we got up from the bench on the waiting shed, I noticed he had trouble in walking as well. I helped him board the bus which was almost empty, and he continued the conversation.

"You people have to put up with lot of pressure, isn't it? I guess the workload and deadlines would be trying your nerves a great deal!..The IT people are doing a great service building the country despite having to face such mental torture."

The bus reached Kovai pudur and we got down. I offered to assist him reach his place. By this time I was really getting curious to know more about him.

"What do you do for a living?" I asked finally, unable to withstand my curiosity.

"I was with the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at peak 4870 in Kargil. I had to leave the army after I lost my eyes and a leg." There was a brief silence as his words had stymied my speech.

Just then we turned a corner and he asked me if we had reached 'T.K.M. Complex.' "Thank You," he said, "It was nice meeting you. Wish you all the best with your studies." I found myself unequal to the pressure of the conversation, and was totally at a loss.

And later on in the day, the H.O.D was scolding our class as none of us had submitted the project-draft satisfactorily:

"You guys can't even submit a draft on time, I wonder how you are going to cope up with the work pressure in the future. Seems you haven't the idea how challenging your job is gonna be!"


-Balu