By Sanjana Mahapatra
The bright and lively sun shined above my head, among the clouds indicating that this summer vacation is going to be pretty hot and sweaty but this thoughts did not ease the excitement I had in because this summer vacation I was going to my grandparents house for the wedding of my uncle and since it is a wedding all my cousins are too going to be present there. Just the though of meeting with everyone there and having fun had me bouncing up and down my feet with the feeling of happiness spreading like a wildfire inside my body.
I was glad to get a break from the school and homework too because being in 10th class does make you have a lot of homework. Due to the joyous state of mine I was more than ready to depart from my town to go to my grandparent's house. My mother and I had to go to my grandparents by the journey of train. We went to the railway station, waited for our train to arrive and when it did we got into the train, sat on our seats and started talking about random things.
Halfway through the journey, I felt sleepy and that is why I decided to does off for a while on the uncomfortable seat of the train. After a while, I felt my mother gently shaking me to wake me up from my sleep. I woke up, now being ready to get off the train. We didn't had much luggage so it was not a problem to get off the train and to walk out of the railway station. After getting out of the railway station we didn't had to worry about reaching my grandparent's house as it was just across the street and a few houses away from the railway station with a suitable walking distance of 5 to 10 minutes.
When we reached at the door of my grandparents house, I was tried from the day long journey but I was also on pins on and needles to meet my relatives as it has been a while since I last saw them. Just when I was thinking about this, the door flew open for me to see my grandfather standing in front of me. Just by his looks I can say that he was pleased to see me and my mother. We both greeted him by touching his feet and in return he embraced us in a welcoming hug.
Upon entering the house, I saw many faces of my relatives along with my cousins. I greeted everyone of them and they all gave me the warm hugs filled with the love and affection they have towards me. We all talked about our lives for a while before going to sleep as it was already quite late. The next few days I spent there was just filled with my laughter and happiness, we all enjoyed the functions of marriage and the marriage itself and finally came the day where I had to return from my grandparents house but even though we had our tickets to go from the train, which was supposed to travel around midnight as it was the only train available, my uncle insisted us on staying a few more days with them and even convinced us on doing so.
I was really happy about staying there for a few more days. That night, we all cousins decided to sleep on the terrace and did so. We all talked for hours before finally falling asleep. But when I was busy in my sweet little dreamland, I was suddenly startled by a loud defening crashing noise. The noise was so loud that not only me and my cousins woke up but all the people from the locality woke up too.
All of us dumbfounded, went downstairs to our parents to know what actually happened. When we reached downstairs we saw everyone in hall and everyone was just as frightened as we were, none of us actually knew what had happened but we had the look of pure horror on our faces. After my uncles made a few calls to their friends, we got to know that the loud defening crashing noise was the noise coming from the railway station as one of train passing through that station got derailed and almost all of its compartments were turned upside down.
My uncles with their friends went to the railway station to help the injured while the rest of us stayed behind in the house. While everyone else was talking about the accident, I was sitting there quietly thinking about the loss that the people had to suffer. Jut thinking about it truly saddened my heart. I decided to drink some water to shake off the negative feeling but just as I was halfway through gulping down the water, the realization hit me like a lighting strike and made me choke on the water.
Placing the glass down, I looked in the direction of the wall clock to know the time and that's when my assumption became true. I realized that it was midnight, the time when I was supposed to on board the train today to go back to my town. I went out and started running towards the railway station and when I reached inside, I witnessed the suffering of the people which made me sick in the stomach.
I watched people lying on the ground, half buried under the train compartment spitting out blood from their mouth. Some were lying on a stretcher and were being carried to the ambulance. Many were missing a limb or two and were bleeding profusely from the many wounds they had. The body parts and dead bodies were scattered around like they were nothing and the metallic smell of blood filled the atmosphere. It was a gruesome sight that I will never forget until the day I die. The scream of pain and agony made me freeze on my place and made my eyes widen with shock.
I just could not bring myself to move a muscle of my own body after looking the horror unfold before my eyes. After a while I came out of my trance and made my way to the railway office and questioned the railway staff if it was the train that I was thinking it to be and their answer made me go numb, it was indeed that train from which I was supposed to travel tonight.
Not being able to see the gruesome sight anymore, I walked away from the scene and made my way to my grandparents house. My head was hanging low and I was quite the whole time walking to the house as I was too shocked to even utter a word out of my mouth.
Upon reaching the house, I sat at the footsteps, still processing the whole thing that I just witnessed. I could not even imagine what would happen to me and my mother if we were to travel through that train today. I could only pray for the souls to rest in peace and the injured to get better but I did learn one thing that no matter what there will be some good people who will help you out in this kind of situation no matter what and that is why I took the decision at that moment to help others who are suffering and in pain no matter what, after all that's how the goodness of humanity in people will survive.
By Sanjana Mahapatra
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