Mortal Life And A Priceless Friendship!

Sameer looked at his mobile phone to figure out what the time was. It was 3:00 AM, cursing his lost sleep he got out of his bed and walked into his kitchen for a glass of water. After quenching his thirst, he tried to get back to sleep. But sleep was hard to come; he kept tossing around in bed.

Finally deciding to check if he could find something interesting to read, he switched on his laptop. As the laptop was powering on he felt the pain for the first time that night. It was like an agonising pinch in his chest close to where biologically his heart should be.  He drank some more water hoping that it would help. 

The pain slowly started spreading across his left chest and he could feel it spreading through his back. He started to get a bit petrified about what was happening. He tried searching for a pain relief balm in his shelf. He found one and started vigorously rubbing it across his chest as his left hand felt heavy and he slumped into his chair.

Sameer was a lonely soul and stayed alone in the city of dreams, Mumbai. Having moved to Mumbai like many others in the hope that someday he would too make a place for himself amongst the many who immigrate to this city, few for better jobs and few for much famed bollywood. Sameer was not here to become a movie star. He too was having his own silly aspirations and passions. He was busy trying to prove his worth in this world. His passion was writing and he spent all his free time when not at office blogging away to glory hoping someday some unknown yet powerful person would recognize his talent. Much like the characters in the fictions he penned.

Sameer screamed out a loud cry as he felt the pain now becoming uncontrollable. He was perplexed and shaken. He knew very few people in this city baring a handful of friends who stayed far off; he had no one else he could call out for help. His hands searched for his mobile phone in desperation for help. The first person he thought off was his mom, his parent lived in Bangalore a 1000 KM away. The instincts call them psychological, biological or whatsoever made him remember of no one else but his mother. It was now almost 4:00 AM almost an hour since the agony had began.

As soon as he heard a feminine voice on the other end, all he could manage to say was, “Amma I’m in pain!” He spoke to her for a while trying tell her about his suffering. She started to cry midway through their conversation as she tried to console him. He then cursed himself for troubling his mom at this hour but he had no clue about whom to call. She said she will call up one of their far off relatives who also stayed in the same vicinity as him. She told him to try calling one of his old friends Arjun, who also happened to be in Mumbai.

Arjun was Sameer’s classmate in college. They used be great friends during their younger days in college. But with time they had grown apart. Arjun was now well settled software engineer, married, had a house of his own and led a much stable life. Unlike Sameer who was still struggling and chasing his wild dreams which had not materialised. He would soon be 30 and was yet to find his place in this world. Marriage was not in question as he had resigned himself to singleton after he failed miserably in love, not once but twice.

He hadn’t spoken to Arjun for a long time. Sameer felt it wouldn’t look nice if he was to hang out too much with Arjun, as he might be seen as someone taking undue advantage of his friend, who pretty well off now. But at this precise moment he couldn’t think of all those inequalities and his brains were hardly working. He struggled to find Arjun’s number in the contact list and clicked on the green button,

Arjun’s number appeared on the calling screen. It was 4:10 AM, as soon as his call was picked all he could manage to say was, “Please help me, I need to go to a hospital. I’m having a chest pain.” Arjun quickly asked for the precise address of the place where Sameer resided. The voices around where getting feeble for Sameer to hear. He did hear Arjun saying “Hang on dude, I will be there soon, just hang on!”

It was 7:45 AM Sameer regained his conscious. Through hazy eyes he saw couple of men and women in white over coats hovering around his bed. A quick look around, it was a scene out of many a Robin Cook’s medical fictions he had read. He was lying on a hospital bed, a few wires attached to his body connected to a monitor which kept beeping with every breath he took. He felt a sudden pinch on his arms; it was the poke of the injection which the nurse had just administered. He heard one of the doctors saying, guess the patient is now gaining conscious. Sameer tried to get up and the doctor next to him said, “Please lie down, don’t strain yourself.” And then he heard the doctor saying, “You are lucky, you got here on time.” All that Sameer could manage to mutter was, “I’m lucky to have found a true friend in my silly life....” He could see Arjun standing by the door winking at him with a smile.

-       VJ Says Cheers and Peace!