Steamy Tea

Life is beautiful when you are a kid. Your only job was to study. You didn't have to worry about anything else. You didn't have to stare at the Calendar thinking of the Loan repayment day, Credit card payment etc. Such was that the only saddest part in your Life was when the weekend gets over in a blink of an eye.

Anyways, This was an incident that happened to someone close to me. This happened to someone who was pampered by his elder brother and idolized by his younger brother.

A family of Father, Mother and 3 Brothers form the plot of this story. A Happy middle class family. Father and Mother were on respected jobs. Brothers went to the same school. Elder one in 11th Std, Second one in 8th Std and the Youngest in 4th Std. The younger ones were taken care by the Eldest brother. He was their Teacher, Friend, Guardian, Cook, Role Model. Though they went to the same school, they used to come back home at different times. The younger ones came later as they had to wait for the School bus which usually picked them up only during it's Second trip. The elder one went to school by Bicycle and so he generally reached home early. After reaching home, he had the habit of cooking food for his younger siblings. So, when they came home, they need not have to play in empty stomachs. Being loved by someone so veritably, it always has its concomitant worries.

1999: The year when the World was busy trying to fix the Y2K issue. Common people were busy thinking of a possible End of the World. Even these brothers thought the same so.

In the mid of July, the Second brother fell sick. He had a fever which was quite serious and gruesome. They treated him and also sought help from all possible Gods of that time for his speedy recovery. After some days, he overcame the fever and managed to be healthy again. He was told that it's a test of God and he had to bear it. Being a small boy, he agreed to it and decided to pray to God every day for keeping him healthy.

Days passed by and the Calendar showed the date as August 3rd 1999, Tuesday.  A beautiful Sunny day. On the afternoon, the parents went to Sree Raja Rajeswari Temple at Keezharoor to offer special prayers for their Second Son. The brothers were busy on their way home. Like I said earlier, the eldest one generally reaches home first. As usual, the Younger ones reached home late and straightaway went to the dining room, but they were surprised to see that there was no food on the table. That's unusual! The elder bro always cooked food and kept it ready for them unless he was not well. But it seemed like there was no one home. Hasn't he reached home? They went to his Bicycle garage and confirmed that his bicycle was parked in the garage. So, he had reached home. But where was he?

They started looking for him. They went to kitchen and saw that there was Food already cooked and was kept open without covering it. They went to Bedroom but he was not to be seen there. Has he hidden somewhere? Was he trying to pull a prank? They went back to check all the rooms again. The room where he used to sleep was a Dim lit room that had a wardrobe and to its corner, there was a Cloth-stand to hang clothes. Being scared of not seeing him, they started crying and from that corner they heard a low groaning sound. Immediately, They pulled out that Cloth-stand and saw their elder brother lying on that corner unconsciously. 

They tried to wake him up by sprinkling water on his face. He didn't wake up. They ran out and called the neighbour for help, They came in and tried to wake him up in all possible ways but the boy wouldn't wake up. The Frantic neighbours took him to the hospital immediately as they sensed something wrong with him. The Younger ones were sobbing and clueless about what was happening around. After a few minutes, the neighbour's car came back home and the elder brother's face looked peaceful. The neighbour signalled something to somebody and he immediately went and hugged those younger ones. Those hearts were still trying to decipher on what was happening.

He was Dead! Someone said.

Life is a journey from Birth to Death, but that journey should never reach the destination in 15 years 3 months and 2 days. The younger ones didn't really know what death was. The kind of void it created by the death of such a person was too complicated for them to comprehend. The Third one looked bewildered. He went to the other one crying. He needed food. He had not eaten anything yet. The neighbour went to their kitchen and brought them the food their elder one had prepared for them but they couldn't eat. The tea was hot even then with steam coming out of the cup. They somehow drunk it and waited for the arrival of their parents. 

Someone was able to get the number of the temple and informed them about the mishap. Being regular visitors, temple authorities were able to identify the parents quickly and they instructed them to return home immediately. After a couple of hours, the parents reached home. They were informed by the temple authorities that something had happened to their son. They thought that something happened to their Second son as he was ill a few days ago. When they reached the gate of their house, they saw a huge crowd waiting for them. This sight would have given them a blood curdling moment. They ran inside sensing bereavement of their Second Son but they were inexplicable shocked to see motionless body of their Eldest Son lying down on the floor peacefully covered with white cloth. The repercussions of the death still reverberates on that family..... 

Death is inevitable. Some has it's effect that lasts only for a short time and some lasts for a very long time. However, what matters the most is not your death but the way you lived. Did you live your life when you had the chance? Was your life useful to others? Did you utilise it well? Those are the most important purposes of your Life. You never know what's going to happen next, but all you can do is live your life to the fullest, Utilize it and be useful to others. Not everyone will be able to make a Steamy Tea for you, but at least you can be grateful to those who taught you on how to make a Steamy Tea.