It happened in a flash of a moment - literally. Barely five feet to go to the exit, the fireball enveloped me. The heat seared through my skin and thick black smoke made it impossible to breath. Five or ten seconds more, I would have become tandoor...roasted alive. Then it occurred to one of my companions to tear open the door and I tumbled out, followed by a huge fireball, movie style, close on my heels.
Rest of the events are pretty imaginable. whisked away to first aid post and transported 200 km to the nearest hospital, twenty agonizing days to substantial recovery, the support and goodwill of my staff, friends and colleagues to my wife and the tender care by hospital staff.... I suppose a mere thank you to all of them would be never enough. I presume Santosh Gupta, Choudhary, Satya, Banu Pratap, Chandrasekhar Y Pawar, Durgaprasad, Brijesh Kumar, Devika, Brinda, Anju Kumari, VK Sharma, SV Syed, Surya Bhattacharya, Ambika, Farah Patil, and my dear Mona have become now part of my living memory. May God bless them all and grant them His liberal grace in all their life's undertakings.
Throughout those twenty days, somethings else kept playing out in my mind like a gramophone record - those few moments when I stood inside the envelope of fire. Strangely, I did not feel an iota of fear. Fully aware that the fireball has me in its grip, I was conscious of just three things: one, I may last a few more moments; two, I should not change the direction in which I was going (towards the exit) for I would get disoriented soon; three, not to look around since my eyes will burn out. Keeping both my fore arms to cover my face, I just proceeded ahead, in time to tumble out of the entrance. In fact my hands got burnt in the process of opening the cover on the entrance when one of assistants also helped to pull me out.
I kept asking myself as to how come I did not panic; how the mind remained absolutely clear and unfazed. While a score of explanations like upbringing, training, attitude, physical stamina, etc, kept popping up, the simplest of the explanations holds the fort - life gives a chance. It always and in every absurdly hopeless situation too, it gives a chance. Like Paulo Coelho says, the symbols are ever present. It is upto us to take it and move forward or ignore and be done with.
Osho in every breath says that it is being aware which is essential. Be aware. Awareness is life and not being aware is death. Life calls for an awareness of our being that is beyond mere physical senses. It is transcendental in nature. Every time there is a close call, believe that life is actually giving us a chance. Take it.
