badge

Friday, January 6, 2012

Love Overcomes Fear…




Fear of snakes
Love is a very powerful tool which can conquer, fear, greed and many other such dark lurking in human beings. When the love is of mother to a child, then it has enough strength to bring about a change in a person’s life. Being a Mom of two kids I have my personal experience regarding a mother’s love and I assure you of this.
When I think about situations that have sent down a chill through my spine, there are few incidents that come to my mind all the time. They are unforgettable with passing years.
Fiery Grilled 'Sets You On Fire!' Contest



For the contest ‘Sets You On Fire’ on Indibloger, where I am supposed to describe a fiery event or situation, either real or imaginary;  I am going to share one of such events that took place more than a decade ago. 





My son Rayyan was in the nursery class of St. Joseph’s Convent, Whitefield. We stayed a little away from school. Rayyan was very enthusiastic walker and would prefer walking long distances every day. He was not one of those kids who cry to be picked up. So it was decided, that I would walk him to school and back again in the evening instead of hiring an auto rickshaw. With the money saved by not paying for the transport, he could buy himself whatever he wanted. It was not much of a distance if we took the short cut to school.
Walking to school was fun
Mud Mounds
We used walk on a path which lay near the present day Arya Lotus. Some big project was going on there, maybe it was the Arya lotus plan itself.  Loads of soil had been dumped into the plain land which lay to the right side of the path we used to walk. It all lay there in heaps, forming big mounds with depressed centers which looked like mini volcanoes. There were few kids taking this path, fortunately, all of them enjoyed the walk; watching flowers, butterflies, birds and at times even some small animals like rabbits which made our own journey fun. Off course Rayyan used to enjoy it a lot and it worked as a good exercise and relaxation for me. I was trying to cope with my daughter being diagnosed with atrophy to her brain and this was something I just needed in a day.

Walking in the rain
 One day it was raining very heavily when we were walking back home. Rayyan was in the raincoat and I held an umbrella. All the children were having tough time walking as the water kept flowing and it was almost a foot deep at places. The place where heaps of soil had been dumped was a bit low and it was full of water. There was no way a child could cross that place. It also looked a bit scary with all the muddy water flowing through the heaps. The water brought all kind of dirt and sticks with it. Going back to the main road meant a lot of distance; unluckily the rain was also getting heavier. The children were holding their bags higher up to protect their books. I closed my umbrella, and lifted Rayyan up on my hips, against his protests and started walking towards our home in hurried steps. It was quite difficult walking in the pouring rain, not knowing where I was putting my steps. Twice I stumbled on some vines but could regain my balance easily. I started walking more cautiously after that. By then the water had started breaking the mounds and the soil was spreading out. One moment I could feel a cold creeper cling to my leg, and next there were panicked shouts from behind by the group of girls who were walking behind us. I could not make out what they were saying until it dawned suddenly, sending a chill through my spine. They were saying “HAAVU, HAAVU, aunty haavu nodi” meaning ‘snakes, aunty look at the snakes’. I realized that the creeper was in fact a snake clinging to my leg.
I had my child on the hip and I could see few more small snakes floating by quite close to us. I stood still as could I not put my child down or run with the water flowing so forcefully. All I felt at the moment was a gushing concern for my son and children walking back home. My love for my son had overcome my fear. At the moment it also flashed to me that standing still was the best way to avoid snake bite. Rayyan was anxious and kept asking me what was happening. He had spotted two snakes floating in water and wanted to get away from there soon. He had no idea why his mother was standing still watching them.  I told him to be calm and wait until the path would clear up. Soon I found the snake slipping away and flowing with the water. May be a snake had made the depressed part of soil mound its nest. There must have been few baby snakes there which had floated down with the breaking of their home. There were helplessly being pulled by the flowing water. In a desperate move the snake had held on my leg. Eeewww!

Soon I realized it was clear for us to walk ahead. The girls had also stood still and were shivering with fear. May be they were non-poisonous and not so dangerous snakes, but the slithering creature never fails to strike terror in heart. I called the girls to come over as the way was now clear and they should clear that area soon enough. I could not just walk away leaving those girls shivering in the rain. One of them had lost her umbrella in the fright which had floated away in the water. I gave her my umbrella as anyway I could not use it myself. It took some cajoling on my part to make them move ahead. I kept watch to see what the water was bringing along with it. The girls were worried about me and kept asking me whether I was sure that the snakes had not bitten me. Rayyan was crying now and it took some funny quips from me to clear the mood which had become darker than the weather we were facing.

We reached home safely without any more weird happenings. Once my child was in safety of his home, I rushed to the bathroom to check out whether there were any bite marks on my legs. I realized that all the dripping liquid from body was not rain water, it contained a lot of sweat too. Fortunately, my leg was clear. If I was alone, I would have done something stupid and landed in trouble that day. It was the love of my child that had made me smart and given me a fierce strength to do the right thing to save the day. Though I was highly worried about my son, I also had some concern for the girls who looked frightened and lost. Even to this day, it sends a chilly shiver down my spine whenever I touch something cold and wet. As for Rayyan lost his fear of snakes when I had calmly explained to the children that day, that snakes usually do not bite unless they are provoked and also most of the snakes are non-poisonous. He had only seen the brave front of me and had missed out my fear. To this day he runs around clicking pictures of snakes which are abundant in our village Byndoor. Eeewwwww!!! Sharing some of his pictures here. 



This post has been written as a part of "Sets You On Fire" contest organized by KFC Fiery Grilled on Indiblogger





18 comments:

  1. you have decided to win all the contest ??
    good one :)
    good luck for the contest mam :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Uh, I'm not found of snakes either... Big hug :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG that made me shiver!! and the images and mere a thought of a kid clicking pictures of snakes would make my mom faint for real!! She runs away when there is a snake on TV . I enjoyed reading your post!!

    <3

    Jiya

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi, thanks for visiting my blog!! ::) Happy Weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Snakes!! I have my own snake encounter but that's for another day to tell!!
    That was so brave of you, the love of kids does make a mother forget about her own pains...
    All The best :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Karthik - So you find this good enough for winning. Thanks.

    Ege- Not many love them, but they are good creatures. ;)

    Shoppingaholic- Rayyan is smart is and I am sure he will be safe. He is silent and never provokes or disturbs any animal.

    DS - I am sure that if not for my son, I would have tried to run and fallen flat, face down in the muddy water LOL

    Sriram - thanks

    ReplyDelete
  7. Farida- You really bubble with creativity. And so you have come up with another different and interesting post. I wanted to ask you something similar to what Deepak already asked!! haha So you have blocked the winners place; you deserve too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the compliment Sush.. Your make me smile heartily. Honestly Indibloggers is a group of creative people, where we find amazing logs to read.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love conquers everything!! well said!!
    its so bloody true....

    One of the scariest experiences ever ....extremely scary...

    ReplyDelete
  10. oh my... that's one scary incident ... you indeed showed a great sense of judgement ... good luck for the contest :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Ewwww is right! What an experience!

    It truly is amazing what we can endure when we are protecting our children. May you never repeat anything like it. :)

    Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  12. omg same situation occured to me but in a different way.
    just wrote my entry hope u will check it out and give some feedback
    all the best for contest.:)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thank you Priya, the thought of it scares even to this day, though I have never been particularly scared of snakes.

    Rajalakshmi - The wise judgement was kind of forced and inability to do anything.

    Anita - so true. We do cross many barriers when we bring up our children.

    Sam -Will sure check out your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yes children make us go beyond what we think we are.
    Another award winning entry..Best of Luck!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Good Luck for the Contest Farida!

    No doubt you would win :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Another award winning entry Farida....all the best for the contest.

    ReplyDelete

Your Opinion Matters....

AddThis

Rayyan Lost in Laptop

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
badge