Tight Slap

The effect of heavy doses of caffeine and steam bath for three continuous days to keep me awake was fading away and I was unable to overcome my sleeplessness anymore. Also, there existed a strong headache that didn't let me sleep peacefully. Enduring every bit of a heavy headache I got ready to drive again. Racing against my will, I was driving forcibly towards an unknown destination on a Saturday at midnight as if I wanted to get away from someone or something forever.

After about half an hour, I stopped by a medical store and parked my bike near the steps. I could barely look around to see what was happening. With a blurry vision full of drowsiness, I went up to the counter and asked for ibuprofen (an over-the-counter generic medicine for headache). The chemist was a young skinny guy. He was shorter in height, would have been an undergrad student possibly. He was wearing a white apron and seemed to be super busy with a prescription in his hand. He was all alone and searching medicines for a group of 4-5 students who were waiting before me. I asked for tablets again and kept waiting for another 2 minutes. Another 2-3 minutes passed. He was still busy and might not have noticed me till then. My patience was badly playing a test match for the last three days and I intentionally wanted to lose this time. I yelled at him and asked him to give me that headache tablet.

Everyone around me gazed at me with a mild shock. The chemist looked at me for the first time and raised his eyebrows. "What do you want sir???" He asked me. I was furious and with that reply, my patience lost the test match, I could feel the blood boiling inside me. I slammed both my hands hard on his counter. I had no idea what I was doing. I was just troubled by my headache and all I wanted was to sleep peacefully but my insomnia wasn't allowing me at all.

One of those customers pulled me back as in the next 4-5 seconds the chemist came outside with a worried face, he was about to fold his hand when I held him back and slapped his face. One tight slap baffled him as he slipped, lost his balance and his head hit the steel rod around the counter. Two men behind him supported him and helped him stand again. These types of unusual violent actions from my side happen once in a while in public places.

That slap was just the beginning of my long-awaited street fight. Well, to be precise, it was a fight after a long time since a scuffle in 9th grade at my school. I was completely unaware of what was going to happen next and didn't worry about the consequences of my actions then. That chemist would have felt humiliated at his own shop, raging a war inside him against me, wanting to hit me badly but to my surprise, he stepped back and went inside the shop. 

There was a small hidden gate between the shelves. He opened it and went inside it. After a few minutes, he came back with a bandage around his forehead. I was about to leave that place and was near my bike when the chemist shouted from behind, "Take your medicines brother".

I was in a state of numbness. All my anger suddenly melted like a piece of cheese on a hot pan. I could neither turn back to face him nor move ahead towards my bike and run away from that situation. This time he came outside and stood by my side. I was facing 90 degrees from him. He gently put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Brother forgive me it was my mistake. Take this medicine and take care of yourself". 

I looked at him lightly and then rolled my eyes. I was unable to face that sudden change of emotion. The hottest star in space "Wolf-Rayet" had suddenly changed into the "Brown Dwarf" - the coldest star in the universe. This sort of change in a person can not only affect his own environment but can also start the transformation engine inside people around. Half my headache was gone.

I couldn't speak anything. Something inside me asked me to smile and hug that little sage standing right in front of me. I folded my hands instead, thanked him and took a deep breath. He kept the medicine in my hands, smiled again and went back. I took my bike and started my journey back to my home. On my way back I kept thinking about him. I had so many questions inside me. Different parts of my brain started conversing with each other. 

"Why and how did he stopped the fight in-between"? "Shall I go back and seek apology once again"? I thought I had forgotten to say sorry to such a noble person who helped me even after getting slapped in public by me.

Wait, I had forgotten something else. I didn't pay for those medicines that he gave me. What a stupid guy I was. I decided to go back. I couldn't think for a second and kept speeding on the national highway without worrying about anything in the world. Going back to the shop and giving him those medicines was my first and foremost priority.

I was on the extreme left of the highway and in order to go back, I had to take a U-turn from the next opening on the divider that was about 20 meters ahead on the right. I took a steep turn towards the right in order to reach the u-turning point. I suddenly saw and heard a lot in a second. A loud horn of an auto-rickshaw, a screaming driver, a heavy headlight nearing towards my right eye and then came a loud bump on my bike. I literally felt weightlessness for few seconds. I was in the middle of the air and about to fall in the middle of a national highway. As my body hit hard on the ground, I started fainting slowly. I was numb again, just the way I was in front of the little sage a while ago. In that state of light unconsciousness, my mind was not thinking.

"Sometimes you are burning so much in your remorse that you don't care about yourself at all. There is a stubbornness in your heart and mind to just apologize and reverse the feelings as soon as possible. That stubbornness sometimes causes a big loss to you. Karma definitely comes back uninvited and hits you. As in my case, I was completely unconcerned about anything, and there I faced life's tight slap"