Love amid flames

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 34; the thirty-fourth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The theme for the month is "Of-Course, I'm insane"

 The fire alarm was ringing incessantly for the past 20 minutes. Then suddenly it stopped, creating an ominous silence in the Lab room. I jumped up and started banging on the heavy door, my voice had turned coarse now, but still I managed to scream for my life.

"Help, someone help me. I am stuck in the Lab room. Please help me". But there was no help coming.

I cursed my fate that had led me to the Lab room an hour back. I worked as technical assistant in VS Consulting Software and when a server issue was reported this morning, I headed towards the Lab room where all our servers were located. 40 minutes had passed by when I heard the fire alarm going off. I forced myself not to panic and follow the instructions given during the fire drill. But when I tried to open the door, I found that I could not. I turned the door knob to right, then left and then in panic I hit the door hard, but it would not relent. The door had been jammed. That’s when I started crying out for help but our Lab was located in the remote area of our office. The chances of anyone listening to my cries of help were distant. I just hoped that my friends would notice my absence and raise a cry for distress.

I sat down and started to weep, I was tired and my brain had stopped functioning, paralyzed by fear. My heart was palpitating hard and I found difficulty in breathing. My breaths were coming in short gasps. I knew that I was having a panic attack. But the worst was yet to come. 

I could smell the acrid smoke, at first a faint wisp of smell and then within few moments the entire room was filled with a black cloud of smoke, engulfing my lungs and creating an inferno of heat within the room. Just as I was about to faint, I heard a huge crash and then I gulped for air gratefully. I was able to breathe again; I was not going to die, not yet. 

When my vision cleared, I saw a guy with a thin body frame picking me up. I looked at his face and even in my dazed state I felt shocked. It was Mithun, the same guy that I and my friends had labeled as a nut case.

I first met Mithun about 6 months ago, in the canteen. I and my friends were buying lunch, when I crashed against a guy. Nothing happened to me but unfortunately, the guy’s lunch landed on his shirt and trousers.  Sambar, curds, rice and pickle made prints on his shirt that looked like a modern art drawn by a 2 year old child. 

I started apologizing profusely as I was not looking while walking and this caused the mishap. But the guy just looked on, kept staring at me. He was tall and lanky with heavy, thick rimmed glasses. His attire and demeanor gave him a nerdy look. As I was about to leave, thinking that maybe the poor guy was dumb, he spoke, “I...I...I am sorry. It was m…m…mistake”. His stammering caused collective sniggers from my friends, but somehow I felt sorry for the guy and moved on.

After that day, whenever I met him he kept staring at me, as if I was a species belonging to another planet. My friends teased me about him endlessly and although it irritated me in the beginning, I chose to ignore their comments after some time. 

One day I was alone in the lift and I met the nerdy guy. He came up to me and said, “Hi, my name is Mithun. What d…d…department do you work for?”

I replied to him in short sentences to imply that I was not interested in having a conversation with him, but as I was about to get off the lift, he added, “You are very b…b…beautiful, especially your e…e…eyes”.

I couldn’t wait to get off at my floor. Ok, this was a definite nut case, a weirdo, I thought and I made all efforts to avoid meeting with him again. I also warned my friends not to tease me with him as I was disturbed by it. I had forgotten all about him until now, when lying in his arms, it was difficult not to look into his face and eyes. 

Mithun was holding me tight in his arms and hurrying towards our office lobby room. I was losing consciousness fast, but I realized that our whole office was engulfed in flames. Once Mithun reached the lobby, he climbed onto the large window sill. We were in the 10^th floor and when I realized the intentions of Mithun’s actions, the waves of panic hit me again. He was really a nut case, a maniac.

“What are you doing? Are you insane”, I shrieked.

“O…O…Of course, I'm insane. Insane about you”, saying said so, he kissed me on lips. It was a tender, loving kiss that was silent yet spoke volumes of his love towards me. 

And then I was flying freely like a bird. I felt liberated, ecstatic. I could feel the air zipping past me. I knew that death awaited me at the end of my journey. But that’s what life is about, right? If life is a journey then the final destination is death. I was losing consciousness, but I was aware of a thunderous explosion above me. I wondered if Mithun had reached his journey’s end. 

I waited to hear the thud sound that would signal me to get off the bus called life, that my destination had arrived. But I heard none. Instead few pair of hands were holding me tenderly and lifting me. The last thought that I had before I blacked out was that I had been saved by a life net. I had not died, not yet. 

When I regained consciousness, I was lying in a hospital bed, in the burns unit. I was told that I was lucky to have escaped with only first-degree burns. I was declared fit and fine, but in a shock. My best friend, Asha, was sitting beside me holding my hand. I looked at her and questioned her in a feeble voice, “What happened to Mithun?”

Asha had her eyes downcast and I felt devastated. My worst fears were confirmed. Mithun was no more.

I closed my eyes in grief and wept silently. But when I opened my eyes, I saw Asha looking at the last bed in the burns unit. The patient lying in the bed was supported by many medical machines and it was partly cordoned off by a green curtain. I limped my way there. 

Mithun lay there in a coma. Asha informed me that Mithun had had second degree burns on his arms and face. After battling death for 24 hours he was now declared out of danger. I sat beside him and took his thin hands in mine. In the midst of my horror, amid the flames, I had found my love. 

Photo Courtesy: The 1911 Triangle Factory Fire. This story is partly inspired by the true incidents as narrated by eye witnesses of Triangle Factory Fire. Read the article here. 

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