Joel thought he would never be home again. He stood on the 17th floor of his plush condominium staring down into the street below. Traffic had reduced to half its usual flow. The virus had forced Dubai and the rest of the world to slow down. Joel paced restlessly and flopped down on the sofa. He looked around at the beautifully decorated room that had been his home for the last two years.
Life had been so good. The job offer was irresistible. He knew it would give him the chance to taste life like he had always wanted. So, despite objections from Amma he had accepted it. He needed to be away from that small neighbourhood where he had been born and where Amma wanted him to spend the rest of his life. Joel wanted more than what that little hamlet could give him. He wanted to see the world.
As a tour curator his job had been to design holidays for people. Joel was a natural in his work. His passion and love for his job helped him rise fast in his organization. As part of his perquisites, Joel enjoyed lavishly paid holidays to different parts of the World. He would send home his pictures from his travels to Amma. Joel wanted her to see what he has done for himself. He wanted her to be proud of him. However, all she would ask in her stoic calm voice was “When are you coming home?”
Amma had never come to visit him. Joel had insisted she come once and had promised she would never want to go back. But Amma had desisted. She had always feigned she was busy. It was not that she lied. Joel belonged to a large landholding family. After his father’s demise, it was Amma who had taken up the reigns of managing the property, looking after the workers and their family living on the property as well as bringing him up , all by herself. Joel was proud of his mother and he hoped she would be proud of him too.
So, when he had told her of the job offer in Dubai, he had hoped she would be happy. Rather she looked disappointed.
“Why do you want to leave all of this?” she had asked.
“Amma, this is a dream offer and besides, I don’t want to end my life in a cubbyhole. I want to see the world. Don’t you understand?”
“But isn’t this your world?” she had said looking surprised
“No it’s not” Joel had said looking at her “It’s yours Amma.”
Amma had stood looking at him stunned. She had not said anything more. Joel realized he had hurt his mother. He had tried to apologise several times trying to reason with her, trying to make her understand his point. Amma had simply smiled.
On the day of his travel, she had handed him a silver crucifix hanging on a string of pearls.
“This belonged to your grandfather. Keep it” She said with a heavy voice.
Joel was not religious. He did not like keeping signs of his faith on himself. His look must have displayed his emotions.
Knowing him Amma had said “You don’t have to wear it. Just keep it with you. Just for me.”
Joel did not argue anymore. He touched her feet and hugged her to say goodbye. As his car sped out of their long tree-lined driveway, Amma stood watching. Standing beneath the tiled roof of their wide portico beneath the shade of the tall voluminous coconut trees, Amma looked small, old and lonely. For the first time Joel felt a pang of guilt stab his heart. He wondered if he was doing the right thing?
However, his days in Dubai had erased that doubt from his mind quite soon. As he got entrenched in hectic schedules at work, after-work parties and long sun-drenched vacations, his high heady days hardly had any space to think of the quaint village back home . Other than the weekly phone calls when Amma would fill him in with the matters of their village, which he could no longer relate to, Joel believed he had finally managed to cut the umbilical chord with his place of birth. He had managed to shake out the remnants of a Sambar eating small town boy from his persona and had emerged as truly a world citizen.
However, that was till the virus decided to take things in its hand. The Pandemic broke out abruptly and brought the World to its knees. Tourism and hospitality industry were the first to be impacted. Countries began closing its doors to tourists. Flights got cancelled. People were forced to confine themselves behind masks and closed doors.
Joel’s organization began suffering losses. In order to keep themselves afloat, they tried introducing several innovations in their services. As a result of these, many people who were no longer needed were being retrenched. Those were the days of trepidation and anxiety when everyone would wait to be told to leave. Finally, in a short video call, the HR announced the name of 30 employees who were no longer required and Joel’s name was in that list.
Joel sighed as he got up to switch on the television. It had been two months since he was out of job. The organization was good enough to pay them one-month’s salary. However, since last month he was on is own. Living in Dubai without a job and without hopes of getting another one was unimaginable. He was contemplating moving out of the plush apartment as he would not be able to afford it any longer. Probably, moving into a cheaper hotel temporarily would make more sense now. Then depending on how things shape up, he could decide later.
The news reporter in her chic suit and fancy hairstyle was reporting the numbers of those infected with the virus.
Joel smirked “Lucky you. You still get to keep your job.”
He had started walking towards the kitchen to make himself some tea when he stopped. The lady was mentioning something about India. He spun around to listen more intently.
“The Government of India has announced a ‘Vande Bharat mission’ as an endeavour to facilitate the migration of citizens who wish to return home. Citizens located in countries around the world owing to work, travel or other reasons and wish to travel back may get in touch with the Indian Embassies in the respective countries for more details.”
Joel closed his eyes with relief. The tree-lined pathway, the coconut trees above the sprawling portico and the small middle-aged woman standing beneath it looking at him with wistful eyes flashed into his memory. He realized in a moment the past two years were just an illusion. The reality of his existence lay in those eyes and the way they looked at him. It was the only place he could call home.
“I am coming back to our world Amma” he whispered.
Joel looked out of the aircraft window. It was pitch dark outside but he could see the lights on the wings blinking as the flight prepared for landing the second time. The cabin was filled with people, who like him, were anxious to reach home. The cabin crew were running around answering their questions patiently and helping them to remain calm.
The rain lashed across the window and lightning flashed, cutting across the sky like a silver knife. Joel put his hands in his trouser pocket to keep them from trembling. He felt something cold and metallic scratch his palm as he did so. It was the silver crucifix, his mother had given him when he had left home. He had forgotten all about it and wondered how it remained in his trouser pocket all these years. For some strange reason unknown to him, Joel wrapped the pearl string around his fingers and clutched the crucifix in his hands.
Captain Pavan Kamble pursed his lips as he listened to the Go-around instructions from the air-traffic control room. He applied full power to the engine and adjusted the climb altitude and airspeed. He raised the landing gear and entered the traffic pattern as he prepared for another circuit. The weather was indeed horrible. He could hardly see the runway and knew it would be risky to try landing now.
Kamble looked at his co-pilot Akhilesh who looked equally concerned. He checked the fuel tank and knew that he had enough to take the aircraft to a diversion airport for safer landing. However, it irked him to think that his years of flying practice would come under the scanner, if he failed to land successfully.
He, Captain Pavan Kamble had never failed. How could he admit to failure now? He shook his head as he decided stubbornly, he would try to land no matter how many more circuits he needed to make.
Akhilesh looked at Kamble. He had flown with him enough number of times to understand his moods. If he decided on something there was little anybody could do to deter him. However, he also knew Kamble was the best and he had made several successful landings on this runway earlier. He just hoped this time too he knew what he was doing.
On the third attempt, Kamble got a clearance for landing. The rains had slowed down to a drizzle and the tail wind was sufficient to help him land. He requested for another runway that would give him the required altitude to land. He pressed the button to lower the landing gear and prepared for landing. The aircraft touched the ground with a loud thud and sped ahead. Kamble pulled the brake lever and realized with shock, that they were not holding properly. The rain had made the runway slippery.
Sweat formed on his forehead and his hands felt clammy for the first time in his 30 years of flying experience as he saw the aircraft close in on the edge of the runway. Just before the aircraft collapsed into the deep gorge beneath, he shut off the engine for the last time in his life.
Joel felt the jolt as the plane touched the ground. It shuddered as it sped through the runway. People panicked. Mothers clutched their children close to their chest as they howled in fright. He heard people chanting prayers to summon their Gods to help them reach home safely. His fingers closed more tightly over his crucifix. As the shuddering reached a deafening crescendo, Joel closed his eyes. The last thing he remembered, before being swallowed into an endless pit of darkness, was his mother’s wistful eyes that followed his car as he waved goodbye to her.
Kumaram looked up as a thunderous sound broke through the sound of the pounding rains. He had just returned home after a rescue mission for the flood affected victims of a neighbouring village. He rushed outside to notice others had come out of their houses too. They were pointing towards the airport that was located at a distance of 3 km from their village. He rushed over to see what was the matter. Soon flashing lights and the frantic shouts of rescue workers indicated to him that a crash had taken place.
Kumaram was among the rescue team that was deputed to help the CISF and the airport officials to save the crash victims. Luckily the aircraft had not caught fire. That simplified their work . Several lay injured writhing in pain and trauma. Some of them were so severe that it was difficult to recognize the maligned bodies. The dead were removed on stretchers. The impact had split the aircraft in two parts. Kumaram rushed around his mouth and nose wrapped in a cotton scarf to ward off the stench of raw blood and exposed flesh. He sifted through the bodies helping the injured to reach a safer place and remove the dead.
He was standing on the edge of the cliff when he noticed a glimmer in the darkness. It sparkled as the light from the ambulance vans shone on it. Kumaram moved closer to notice it was a crucifix and was dangling from a tree by a thread. He traced up the thread and realized it was tied to a human hand. Kumaram stepped back stunned for a moment then inched closer and felt the pulse on the wrist. He could feel the throb of life.
The person was alive!
Turning around, Kumaram hollered at the others from the rescue team. Together, they carefully pulled down the listless body. He was alive no doubt but was badly injured. The impact of the crash had obviously thrown him out of the aircraft. Luckily he had landed on the tree and did not disappear into the gorge beneath. In the darkness, it would have been difficult to locate him if the crucifix had not indicated his location.
As they laid him on the ground waiting for the stretcher to carry him over to the ambulance, Kumaram heard him mumble something. He moved closer to the injured man’s mouth to make out what he was saying.
Joel’s voice came out in slow labored tones as he whispered “Amma I am home”.
The silver crucifix, the stoic watchguard of a mother’s faith, was still dangling from his fingers, glistening in the pouring rain.
Goosebumps!!