red ice

"It's a diffusive injury to the brain".

"Doctor, could you be more specific?"

"Look, in plain words, your brother has had a minor concussion. There's a blood clot. We've to take a CT scan and then decide whether or not to operate on him".

"Is it..is it serious?"

"It is."

******

The blood oozes out of his left ear. We've run out of cotton. The nurse hands out another wad, with a casual wave of her hand.

The smell of antiseptic, mixed with the iron smell of deep dark blood can send waves of nausea through even the most stoic of digestive systems.

We wait. 2, 3, 4... hours.

The effect of the pain-killer's beginning to wear off. The groans have begun.

Outside, an ambulance screeches to a halt and then, like a scene straight out of ER, paramedics wheel in another accident victim.

Time stands still in a casualty ward. Because everybody hopes that in that momentarily suspended strand of time, we might see recovery. Some recover. For some, time remains still. Just like the victims.

All that mind thinks at this time: thus far, and no more.

For the mechanics of the human workshop, shop opens mostly at night.

******

Here and now...

Close to three and a half months is a pretty long time to be away from blogging, and I think this has been my longest period away from mine. Well, I don't wanna go into the nitty-gritties of why I was off it; it doesn't matter anyways. I've missed you guys helluva lot (no kidding). I guess I've been even trying to visit a few of you in this time. But well...

I know blogdom is a pretty amoebic world, where nothing ever really stays constant, be it emotions, thoughts, opinions or plain interest. But that said, I must also say that somewhere deep down, when I visited you guys, despite not having penned anything the last 3 months, I did feel a sense of security, a warmth that said 'hey, these guys are around, and it's still fun being here'. So, that's motivation enough to join in...whenever. It's like falling out of a steady stream of people walking and then one fine day you come back to the road and fall back in. No eyebrows raised, no questions. A pat or two on the back perhaps. A smile.

It feels good to be back.