With her eyes still closed, Sumati reached for the alarm that buzzed of at 5 A.M., as she had set it.
She turned to awake her husband, Ramesh, but found him already up and about. Today his boss had invited all employees and their families to the inauguration of his new office. Ramesh knew he needed to be punctual to make a good impression, so they had set the alarm for 5 A.M. to ensure they could leave the house by 7 A.M. The celebration was a good hour and fifteen minutes away by car, with the auspicious ceremony scheduled at 8:30 A.M.
When Sumati savoured her tea, Ramesh emerged from his shower.
“Hurry with my tea,” he urged, glancing at the clock. “And you’d better have your bath before waking the boys. They’ll take forever to get ready.”
With a quickened pace, Sumati took her shower and then set about waking their sons—seven-year-old Prashant and four-year-old Nishant. All the while her mind was racing with the task of wearing a saree, that she was not much used to. A good fifteen minutes had been set aside for that.
“Wake up! Hurry! Dad is really anxious about being late. We need to leave by 7, and it’s already quarter to six!” she urged.
The boys barely grasped the urgency. No amount of their father’s shouting or their mother’s coaxing seemed to speed them along. They took their own sweet time, going about their morning activities without a care in the world.
By the time they finally came out, Ramesh was dressed in his Kurta pyjama.
“Listen,” he warned Sumati, “Carry their milk in a flask for the ride. The little one will take ages to finish his, and we can’t afford to be late.”
Sumati was aware that the little one would want to relieve himself soon after the intake of milk, but arguing with Ramesh when he was in this mood was futile. She hurriedly poured the milk into a flask.
The boys, dressed in their festive outfits, settled into the backseat as Ramesh turned the car key. It was nearly 7. Even with one and a half hour left for the auspicious ceremony, Ramesh still looked sceptical.
“If everyone in our city decides to stay home today, we might actually make it well before time. Let’s just pray the truck drivers aren’t out early. We’ll be crawling, if they are.”
“I need to pee!” Nishant cried, hardly ten minutes after he consumed the milk.
With no other option, they pulled over to let the little one relieve himself behind a nearby tree. As cars zoomed by, Ramesh felt all the more anxious; traffic had formed ahead as they approached the bridge.
“No more stops until we reach the venue. It is already 7.30,” Ramesh declared, but just then, there was a loud thud, and chaos erupted—right before their eyes, the Gambhira bridge crumbled, as the water below swallowed the vehicles on the bridge.