Torched

We had moved into our new house in April, 2002 and this was to be our first Diwali in our new home. 4th November, 2002 was the date. I was excited about the evening's celebration. I was not planning to burst crackers, because I had chose to pollute less, but I was busy decorating the whole house, putting up the lights. Our flat was looking very beautiful and I was busy calling everyone and wishing them Happy Diwali. Father brought us some surprises that day, a new 29 inch flat screen Sony TV and a huge microwave oven. My mother was obviously overjoyed.

My parents decided to visit my cousins who were actually in the next block itself. I had a minor tiff with my father earlier. So I sat in my room with a long face. I was alone in the house. Trying to get over my anger. Then my uncle called and coerced me into coming over, which I didn't want to because I was busy being angry. But anyway I decided to go over to their place. Me and my cousin got ourselves busy by bursting some crackers. I had been out of my room for barely 20 mins when I noticed that the lights of our place were out. Our flat was on the 9th floor and I was on the ground. The keys were there at my cousin's place on the 4th floor. So I did not stress myself to go check out the possible fuse. Then a guard ran across us shouting "yaar kiska flat hai woh?" (whose flat is that?) I inquired why he was running around, then he told me that a flat was on fire in E-Block. I did not even bother asking him which flat was it. Lights off, no one at our flat, it doesn't get easier than that to guess what was going on. E-1003 was on fire.

I made an instant dash to my cousin's place. I told my father that our house on fire and we two ran towards our flat. I took the stairs to 9th floor, father took the elevator. I reached earlier but I realized that I did not have the keys to open the door. A young neighbour was in the corridor with bleeding fists. Amit had broken all the window panes to try and find a way to get in. I thanked him and I was sorry for his hand. I measured up the situation till my father arrived from the elevator few seconds later, with the keys. By then buckets of water had lined up in front of our door.

Just as the door opened, a huge gust of smoke, hot and dark rushed out, enough to throw us off balance and leave us in tears. Since the lights were out and the smoke was dense, we could not see anything. Since I got to know the fire was not in the drawing room or the kitchen on the right, I thought of making an inroad. I creeped down to avoid the smoke and made my way into the kitchen and removed the gas cylinder from there. I came out with the cylinder safely. I thought it was not such a bad idea. Since no one could see through the smoke pales of water just being thrown around, without even affecting anything. My father was making his way to the source of the fire. It was my room. He had to come out as the smoke was too dense and air and the tiles very hot. The smoke was causing more problem than anything else. I went across the drawing room and opened all the doors and windows to let the smoke out.

The water hose was now in action. It was my father who was courageously going towards my room and spraying water there. People kept switching as it was very hot inside and the smoke was too much to handle. I finally got to see a glimpse of my room when I held the hose to throw water there. It was as if there had been a blast. There had been a blast actually. Just after I had left my room, when I was waiting for the elevator, I had heard a very loud boom, but it was Diwali. The guard had later confirmed that he saw the air conditioner of my room blast out from my window and fall to the ground. It had fell 9 floors and had landed in front of a parked Zen, apparently scratching it's front bumper. I had just manage to avoid the blast in my room, otherwise I would not have been writing this post. The fire was brought under control when the Fire Brigade did arrive. I had not received any injuries, but my father had burnt some hair. He was exhausted and very disappointed. It was our new house, first diwali, everything new in it and it had went into flames. My mother was finally brought to the seen. She was purposely kept away. She was so happy to see both of us alright. We are glad that nothing untoward had happened. I was rummaging through my room that night, I could just see a destroyed window, a destroyed bed and a lot of blackness. I was feeling bad, and then the board under my foot cracked and a 2 inch nail punctured my shoe and made nice hole in my sole. Ouch! The real painful part was pulling it out. Jesus Christ! Maybe that was an indication that things could have been worse.

The next day started with a postmortem. My room again, it was all black but there was bright sunshine coming through the new expanded window. All my clothes had become ash. All my books and notes had turned to carbon. The collection of my expensive watches had now become some black thing. All my things had been burnt. Then due to some miracle I could pull out a file from underneath the rubble that had survived. Fortunately, it was a file of all my certificates and mark-sheets. A fire that had melted the blades of all the fans in the house, that had turned walls pitch black had spared these pieces of paper. Important papers. That is the power of knowledge. We had to move to temporary flat, where we had to live like refugees for 3 months till the house got renovated. We never got to know the real cause of the fire. Someone claims to see a rocket putting the shade over our air conditioner on fire. My mom still suspects that she had placed a candle near a curtain. But it is still unclear. Who cares now. We take extra precautions now. Our house came out looking even more beautiful. It still does hurt but the bottom line is I still love Diwali. I just remember that day as 4th Nov 2002, a day that was.