Custom Search

Tsunami at Noon

by J.Kaval
(Bangalore)

It was noon. The winter sun in its best vest shined over the Goodwill College campus. He parked his bike in a secured place a little away from the chirping girls under a mango tree. At two pm he has to lecture on creative journalism. He was thirty minutes early.

He walked towards the reception. He sat on the chair near the window. He looked through open door. The forecourt appeared like a simmering sea. He enjoyed the lively scene while his mind mapped out the talk. Suddenly his vision blurred. He stood up. He then felt his steps were unsteady like those of a drunkard. He began to perspire profusely. Why? Might be Blood Pressure soaring up? He got out and sauntered towards the library. He looked at the lovely lady at the reception desk.

“Madam, would you please switch on the fan? I feel warm and little giddy.”

She promptly obliged.

Under the speeding fan he stood for a while. He felt still uncomfortable. Unsteadily he moved out and swam through the silver waves towards the reception. The bell rang. Pretty young ladies rushed out from the classrooms. He saw them twittering around in the open air like butterflies. The bell rang again. The time for lecture was at hand. He sensed something serious was going on in him. Would it be the combined attack of Blood Pressure and Cholesterol? He felt that he could not lecture. His eyes searched for Prof.Anita Raj. He then saw the lovely girls floating in the air. Amazing! What? He rubbed his eyes. It was true. The whole area was orbiting around him. He saw an immaculately dressed angel nearing him.

Suddenly he felt an explosion in the pit of his stomach. It shook him from head to feet. A roller coaster roared up breaking and burning everything on its way to his chest and then to the neck. Before he could utter a word it gushed out with a series of bang and flooded the courtyard. It struck so forcefully that the butterflies drifted in the waves like dead fishes. It hit again the common verandah. The students and teachers caught unaware were instantly washed away into their classrooms. And again it hit the shores of staff room and teacher’s toilet.

“Madam, I’m so sorry for the devastation caused”

“It’s understandable, sir. Don’t worry about”

Prof. Anita held his side like a caring daughter. He leaned over the wall for a while. They shoved him into the visitor’s room for a minute’s rest. While he was carried on a wheel chair to the ambulance he saw the Goodwill angels smiling at him from above and the floor below smeared with the waste of his breakfast; and the lunch taken an hour ago mocking at him. The ambulance took him to the nearby hospital.

The paramedics laid him on the table at casualty section. A nightingale surveyed him and registered his dilapidated condition. She reported to the situation to the doctor-in-charge. He examined him. He immediately administered him an injection to arrest the toxin inside caused by the faulty food. The Glucose dripped into his body. The patient’s condition improved. He passed into a slumber.

When he opened his tired eyes smiling faces greeted him.

“What happened?”

“Sir, it’s Tsunami.” Giggled a senior student. Everybody chuckled.

“Sir, lay quietly till your son arrives to take you home. It’s food poison. No cause for worry.” Anita whispered

He closed his eyes again. He saw the Goodwill angels. He heard them singing ‘Jingle Bells.’

END