“Code blue!! Code
blue!! Get the Crash cart immediately, the patient on bed 13 is coding” yelled
the doe-eyed doctor giving chest compressions to the patient. The nurses rushed
into ICU with the Crash cart, doctor picks up the AED and yells charge 200!! and
tries to resuscitate the patient. The patient isn't responding, doctor yells
charge 300!! and tries again, still the screen shows a flat line with no sign
of patient's vitals. The doctor is about to call for it and suddenly Vihaan
wakes up from his dream screaming Nooo!!. He's broke out in cold sweat, trying
to gasp his breath and takes a few moments to even up himself. After a while,
the 19year old, tall, slender, raven-haired Vihaan with fair round face and
green eyes like new, fresh baby leaves that just have begun to bloom in the spring,
finds himself in a public park with dead silence. He's been sleep deprived for
days which demanded a nap and he had it in the park under a tree. He gets up,
finds a near-by concrete long high-backed bench and rests on it. Despite the
fluster of traffic and the dust from the streets thereabout, the park is quiet
and pure, thanks to its wideness and vegetation. There are many pathways around
it shut off from traffic by space with colorful flowers and lush green grass.
These plants are in order and clipped well. The colossal trees shield the park
against the torrid heat of the sun, covering most of the park with cool shade.
He glances at his watch, it's quarter to 5 in the evening and gradually people
start flooding in the park. Children start riding their bicycles, adults begin
their marathon walk, chit chatting with each other, a horde of people gathered
for laughter yoga and some people accompanied themselves with their pets.
Vihaan who prefers to be alone these days, decides to leave the park but was
clutched by the hooded eyes of a man filled with shear intensity, heading
towards him. He is 6-foot tall with athletic body, buzz cut hair, dusky square
face with gunslinger beard and mustache, advancing towards Vihaan with an unusual
freaky gait. He takes his seat beside Vihaan, plugs in earphones and plays his
track with arms crossed and legs stretched. His presence subjugates Vihaan.
Vihaan's mobile rings, it's the nurse and he picks up the call. The nurse
informs him that his dad had another cardiac arrest, this made his blood run
cold and then the nurse apprises him that they somehow managed to resuscitate
his dad. He hangs up the call with eyes welled up with tears of choking grief.
His chin trembling, chewing on his lower lip, he bleeds the salt of his soul as
it pours from his eyes. The man beside, notices Vihaan weeping, unplugs his
earphones and just stares at him without uttering a word. Vihaan wiping his
cheeks every few seconds discovers the man beside, staring at him with no
expression. Vihaan tries to ignore him but his expressionless mean-spirited
stare annoys him and he lashes out at the man "stop that hard-hearted
look!! My life is in chaos and things are jumping from frying pan into
fire". Still the man being indifferent stares at him callously. Vihaan
gets exasperated, makes a move, uttering "stone-hearted people" to
which the man replies “life isn't a bed of roses boy". Vihaan stops,
infuriated and bellows "shut the fuck up" and says "what do you
know about me, my life is flooded with problems and I’m drowning every second.
Things are aggravating on and on, leaving no hope for me to recover", Vihaan
continues and lets out all his pain in anger saying “My dad is bedridden with
illness, had cardiac arrest twice and resuscitated with great difficulty. I'm
unable to sleep as I’m horrified with frequent nightmares regarding my dad's
cardiac arrest". The man hangs on every word of Vihaan patiently, glances
at his own left leg then looks at Vihaan and says "There are people on
this planet who are abandoned into dark isolation with unimaginable grief but
boy you're lucky, your dad is still alive" and ends by saying "you
gotta grow a spine". Vihaan isn't expecting such a callous reply which
enraged him and fumes at him yelling "stop that crap!! what do you mean by
grow a spine, it's easy to say such absurd things but only the person
experiencing the situation knows the pain" and bleats " My book has
been rejected by 15 publishers saying i lack imagination and creativity, my family
in regard to our financial status says publishing a book and becoming a writer
isn't my cup of tea", and whines " may be they're right, becoming a
writer isn't my cup of tea and it would be better I stop trying further and
follow my mom's advice to major in computer science in the next fall and take
up a software job". The man scoffs at his decision and says " look at
there!!" ,pointing a grey-shaded Pomeranian dog with short legs and
upright ears, clutched with a reddish brown collar belt fastened to a tree
trunk with its master beside, " that dog is strangled with a collar belt
restricting it's movement within a limited perimeter. There are many things in
this world which hold you back like that collar belt hindering your progress,
you gotta figure out them and shatter the impeding clutches to procure what you
desire", in the meantime, the dog's pet-parent unaware of their
conversation unfastens the belt from the tree and holds it to take his dog for
a walk, looking at this the man adds " And if you fail to do so, someone
else will take over your life and you'll be enslaved to them settling for
mediocrity". The man's words seems sensible and rational to Vihaan but his
anger over him couldn't get away with those words, and carps " do you know
how it feels to be bullied by your fellow mates! They add insult to injury,
exacerbating my situation" to which the man replies with a single
statement saying" Boy, evil requires the sanction of the victim"
which bruises Vihaan's ego and he walks out from the park without looking back, heading home in
vexation. On his way to home, even though his mind accepts the man's words to
be coherent and sagacious but in the fit of anger he chastises him as an
asinine person. Vihaan reaches home, takes a cup of coffee to get rid of that
man's words and rests on the couch. After sometime, he takes a glance at the
newspaper in which he finds the photograph of the man he met in the park. He
gets perplexed, takes the paper in hand and looks at the photograph to make
sure what he has seen. It's the photograph of the same person whom Vihaan met
in the park, titled with a headline “Differently abled mounts Mt.Everest".
This amazes Vihaan and he continues to read the article and learns that the man
had lost his entire family in a tragic road accident and only he managed to
survive with a pernicious injury to his left leg and taken to a near-by
hospital in a village with no proper facilities. His leg was amputated
devoid of anesthesia in order to inhibit the infection. Later he was in a state
of grief-stricken depression for about a year. Then the man decided to extrude
his timidity and mounts the lofty Mt.Everest. After reading that he recalls the
man's unusual freaky gait and his glance at his left leg in the middle of their
conversation, then Vihaan regrets for his abrasive behavior with that man. All
his anger quickly turns into deep respect for the man and Vihaan admires the
man's audacious courage. He then finds a sentence with bold letters in the
article said by the man in his interview “MOUNT YOUR BARRICADES WITH INDOMITABLE COURAGE", this electrifies him, erects hair on his forearms and he extols him, saying “What a stout-hearted guy!!".
