Bhai (Brother) in River ! 21Dec21

 

Bhai (Brother) in River

Place : Zawar Mines, Udaipur. Sometime in 1996. I was in 3rd Standard and Bhai in 6th Standard. He just entered the secondary school.

Me and my brother used to go to school by walk. Our home was on a small hill. We took a shortcut on the hill that vertically connected the downhill road. Walked past my nursery school and old guest house to reach a small iron bridge that was cast on a river. After crossing the river, the next shortcut was through the railway station which directly connected the school road bypassing the Kumar Managlam football stadium. It was a good 20 minutes’ walk. We started by 7:00 am to reach before 7:30 am. We went to a small Hanuman Temple and played for a while before the assembly started by 8:00 am.

The river flew right in the middle of this mines township all the way and had 3 bridges built on it. The smallest one was the iron bridge on which we walked daily. In the rainy season, the water overflew on the road bridge which was hardly a kilometer away from the iron. One can easily see the road bridge from the iron bridge. The third one was far off and it can be called as a flyover rather than the bridge. It started from the Hospital Road end to the New Market. The Community Center was on the other side of New Market.

One fine day in the rainy season, we were returning home. Our school used to get over in the afternoon around 1:00 pm. Bhai wanted to show me his power by crossing the overflowing bridge. I was scared and stopped him many a times.

A year ago, we went to Pushkar, Ajmer. Dad instructed us to sit one pavement near the Pushkar Lake pavement. I didn’t notice when he slipped in water. A stranger saved him from drowning. He scolded Dad badly. Bhai reasoned that he thought he could swim if he just goes into water. He got choicest abuses and thrashing from Dad.

I reminded him of that incident too. He was like – Behen (Sister) that time was different. Now, Iam grown up. He gave me his books and asked to watch from the iron bridge. As soon as I went to the middle of bridge, he was no where to be seen. I saw him shouting in the river Help! Help!. A man jumped and brought him to the shore. He lost one shoe. After gaining breath, Bhai asked him for a favour  - Could you please get the other shoe. Its new one. With all the fury, he got a good one on his shoulder. All the way I had tears in my eyes and he was mildly smiling.

After reaching home, Dad used to join us for lunch. He heated the food and divided it among us on the plate. Mummy was teacher. She prepared and boxed everything for lunch. She used to come home only in the evening. Dad went back to office after having lunch.

Dad was certainly angry and as usual got his share of spanking and scolding. This time I was also not spared for being the partner in crime. Bhai was happy that this time I also got it nicely. I swore to not help him in his gallant stupid act ever.

He was very sensitive to cold. Had fever for somedays. Finally, he learnt swimming with his friends. Till this date, I couldn’t learn it. Dad hopelessly tried to teach that as well to me. But the time was never sufficient and I wasn’t learning it fast.

Someday I will 😊

 - Saranya