Wrapped in a White Cloth...

The whole place just blew up into a ball of fire...From this side of the creek, all I could do was to see them with my eyes wide open and missing every other beat of my heart...I just couldn't imagine that I was really witnessing a violent blast in my own neighborhood...I knew, any survivors was a hopeless thought...just could pray that there was nobody inside that warehouse...it was already 6 O' Clock in the evening and was naturally past office working hours...God, please, please please...let not any family be grieved by this mishap...

On my next instinct, and my years of training on first aid, brought in an urge to reach the accident site ASAP. I just hoped, IF I could be of any help...maybe the authorities would like some helping hands like mine...I rushed... How did I reach there, I don't know...but in a minute, I was there...I could see the charred remainings of a "warehouse"...practically nothing remained...the police, the water tanks, para medics, public etc was all around...I could see many people pushing against some police to find their way into this scene...I could see lots of new reporters...WHAT SHOULD I DO..WHAT WILL I DO...I just stood there...awe struck with the scene happening in front of me...

Suddenly one policeman approached me...He asked me, "Maa'm, could you please come with me. We might need some help from ladies."...I wondered, what sort of help...still as if in a trance, I walked behind him...My legs were shivering as I approached the entrance of the "once warehouse"...as I walked, I looked ahead..into the boundary of the burnt down remainings... I was shocked...I couldn't belive my eyes...among all those ashes was a cloth liner...still staying on air with its ends tied to the nails on the walls of the building...How come this didn't burn off...before I could finish my thoughts, something else just struck my heart...I saw hundreds of white clothes cleanly hanging on the clothe liners...not even one had caught fire...and with an ache in my heart, I realised those white clothes were those of babies...The white dresses that we make a baby wear at the hospitals on birth...I WAS SHATTERED... What I thought was a warehouse, was not one...It was a Baby Care Clinic...

Nothing crossed my senses...I just couldnt move...my heart started pumping blood into my brain in such a pressure, that I felt, I might collapse...with fear, my eyes looked all around the area....for what...I can't even say...But then I saw...many volunteers coming out of the place with something wrapped in their hands...It didn't take much time for me to realise, they were dead bodies...the burnt bodies of babies...not one or two...but hundreds...I wanted to run off from there...but I couldn't move...my legs were stuck to the ground...I cried... I screamed...I called out for help...I wanted to be out of that place...then and there...but none came to help...I just saw every single person walking past me with a baby wrapped in white clothe...all of them had tears in their eyes...but none spoke to me..none offered me a help...I couldn't bare to see the horrible scene in front of me anymore...My whole body was shaking...I closed my eyes and started pleading for help..I yelled and yelled...at the top of my voice...

Suddenly I felt somebody pulling me...I opened my eyes...I heard my mom's voice..."Wake up...you are already for the class"...I felt blank...What was that...Is this a dream...or what I saw earlier was a dream...with much relief, I confirmed it was a nightmare...just a nightmare...

JUST a NIGHTMARE...???? No...it wasn't JUST a nightmare for me...Because the pain in my heart persisted even after I woke from my sleep...my heart pumped hard for days...the feeling of the "something bad" ate my days...I couldn't think sense for days..the baby wrapped in white clothe came in front of my eyes for days bringing out tears in my eyes and making my heart beat faster than before...I had lost my peace of mind...I was suffering...just because of a nightmare... I wondered...HOW LONG WILL I GO FORWARD WITH THIS PAIN...I had no answer then...

But the pain had to stop one day...and it did...it was heart breaking, but still it cleared all the conufions in my mind...It answered all the worries given by that nightmare...The thought is still a pain...But still...I realised, Maybe the nightmare was an instinct...a sign...a sign preparing me for the future...

You must be wondering now..."what was that future...what did that nightmare prepare me for..." It prepared me to face a tragedy...to bear a pain..."The Pain of Death"...

Days after this dream...one day...I witnessed...

"My uncle carrying his newborn baby, who died on the second day of birth, to the grave...and the beautiful boy was all wrapped in a white cloth...."