Raju G. Mendez
Hope! People of Kerala has not forgotten the alarming incident that astonished us all , especially the residents of Thiruvananthapuram where the the heritage of Medical College is more loudly proclaimed.
One fine Saturday morning, Mr.Raveendran at his late fifties, a resident of Ulloor, set out optimistically, seeking the best treatment for his acute backpain. On reaching, as he had to avail X-ray for further examination and after getting it done he took a lift to reach for the doctor in the emergency department. A few seconds after he was inside the lift,to his dismay it got stuck in the middle between two floors. Raveendran first taking it an usual thing, tried ringing the alarm button frequently but in vain. The irony is that he was rescued from the the lift only after two days and nights of endless sufferings,on the third day morning by 10.30.Have you ever thought of the excruciating mental and physical pains he endured through this harrowing session of more than 48 hours,a punishment given by the hospital authorities?
Daring to getting into his shoes, just imagine,we were locked inside our home itself with all our facilities and comforts , as we all had experienced the trauma of it during Corona period!. However, the weird situation situation Raveendran had to undergo, deprived of everything except a little dark space inside the malfunctioning lift,with no ventilation,fan or light.
It should have been a long haul for him , as he himself had described his agony , in a tone fraught with terror.
First, he yelled at the top of his pitch , shouting for help, then he called the helpline numbers written in the lift and again rang the alarm. After a while of all these exercises, he dissappointingly realised that it was already Saturday evening and there was little chance for anyone responding to his cries for help until when the sun rises on monday.
He had to urinate, he had to loo, he had to do all ‘chores’ in a corner. The worn and weary Raveendran couldn’t even close his eyes for sleep to get a temporary relief from the agony, challenging the inner turbulence that interrupted his sleep.
When thirsty he licked his own lips, when hungry he tried to deviate his thought..!He kept pressing the bell botton intermittently in anger and frustration.
In the mean time, his family including his wife Sreelekha, and two sons, worried about his disappearance for two days consecutively smelt something fishy.
Frantically,his wife rushed to the police station and lodged a complaint of man missing by Sunday. The intensive search for him, by the police, not aware of his plight inside the lift, reached nowhere.
What first came to his survival in the lift chamber is some air that continued to waft in, bringing in an incessant supply of oxygen. The most heartening thing is,even after all this,Raveendran,the resilient man did not give up hope.Instead he recited the poems written by his wife,to regain composure.
Ultimately,a couple of days later,as a silver lining at the end of the tunnel,there came some hospital employees to mend the crippled elevator, and to their surprise,they saw a man totally collapsed,lying inside it.Thus he was rescued,though with some physical ailments and mental trauma.The most ridiculous thing is that, on the subsequent day itself,followed by this incident,three other persons,one a lady doctor, also had to face the same situation,in the same hospital but in another disabled elevator. Luckily,their plight lasted for only 15 minutes altogether.
Whom are we supposed to find fault with? The Government or the Administration wing or the people who voted for the elected ones?
Raveendran is also a local CPI leader and employee at the legislator’s hostel in the immediate vicinity at Ulloor,Thiruvananthapuram.
The highest form of punishment in the world is dreadful silence and the most elegant revenge against it is to ignore it and be at peace with oneself. Raveendran wished to make peace with himself ,writing a ‘death note’ despairingly almost assured of his end inside the lift,hypothetically thought to himself, ‘a tomb in disguise’.
