Sometimes the distance between Safety and Tragedy is God

There are safety measures, layers and layers of them, and then as each one of them fall off in a heap, like diaphanous sheer curtains, like that door lock that only needs a sharp saw to cut, the windows with glass panes - but with no grill - in a high rise, like that expired life-saving drug neatly packaged... all disasters waiting to happen... and then there is God. This is a story about how safety becomes a sham, how our reflexes, the ones that save us from injury and attack, can let us down... How the safest place in the world, our home, has a 'danger zone'! The one place which fosters family's health and happiness... "The kitchen"

It was one of those abnormal-to-the-core Sundays, the kind that weekends can turn into, sometimes. In the guise of making weekend fun, we end up having regulation outings. Rita had her periods that day. She was not totally in her best self. Her daughter however had a reason to go to Cubbon Park, a sprawling park at the heart of Bangalore, with 1.2 kilometre of greenery, equipped with a Bal Bhawan, a Band Stand, City central Library and a tennis club, organic fruit and vegetable vendors too. It is twenty kilometres from Rita’s home. And they had to go early in the morning, 6 a.m. possibly. And if not, as soon as it was possible. Her daughters playmates were going there early that morning, to have fun and play. It was a sudden plan made by Rita's friends, moms of her daughter's friends! They planned to go on this three family outing to Cubbon Park, six adults and five kids and one silent adolescent, just to get some fresh air, some real nature and physical activity for all.

The Morning Rita was the first to wake up. Despite the fact that they slept very late, after watching a movie on TV the previous night. She wanted her daughter to sleep longer, it builds immunity! Weekends are when her daughter can sleep late and make up for all the lost sleep during the week. But Rita knew that if today the little one missed her outing with friends, she would not hear the end of it. So she made sure they left home for Cubbon Park, in time. And it was not a mistake as Rita feared initially, her daughter was thrilled to see her friends in the park, and what seemed to be the making of a cold, catarrh and a few missed school days, actually disappeared. Affability also builds immunity!

The cool breeze of the park did not do much good to Rita though. She now had abdominal pain and felt weak. She sat with her friends on a cement bench, and chatted, she was sure she would be fine. Her friend's husbands felt that the ladies were doing just the opposite of what they had gone there to do, and prompted them to get some action, but they were quite comfortably chatting and they ignored all suggestions of moving from the place. 

After a round of Badminton, and a round of Frisbee, some running across the expansive undulating green and dog patting at the dog park, everyone went for a South Indian breakfast. An experience with good food and bad service, that they were all glad ended, all-be-it quite late. They reached home by 12:30 p.m. It was too late to begin cooking lunch, still Rita took a catnap on the sofa, to recover from the exertion, before cooking the late lunch. After lunch, there was extensive art homework of her daughter's that kept both Rita and her daughter busy, the whole afternoon. She enjoyed it, none-the-less she would have loved to sleep and just be lazing that day, with the weakness and continual abdominal pain, she felt she badly needed the break.

By seven in the evening, Rita was sure all she needed was to sleep. Asking her husband to hold the post in the kitchen, she took an early refuge to bed. And she slept for good ten hours. She woke up at 5 a.m. next morning, to pack lunch for her daughter, and to pack her daughter to school, just as she did every weekday. As she stepped down from her bedroom on first floor, to the kitchen in the lower floor, she switched on the staircase light. There was smell of LPG gas in the drawing room, where the stairs landed. The open kitchen looked as safe and silent in the darkness as ever. She thought to herself, "Not again Rita, remember this is just an obsession. You have always been proven wrong in your suspicion. Cool down, just check, and clear your doubt."

She switched on the kitchen light, not thinking enough, still groggy from sleep, now the gas smell was stronger. She had changed the cylinder just a day ago. She wondered if the cylinder had a faulty washer, it had happened before. The utility, where the cylinder was kept seemed to have no LPG smell. The cylinder looked perfectly normal, no hissing sound of leakage there. She went back to the kitchen and again the same strong smell of gas. She went to check the burner knobs of her cooking range. The moment she touched the third knob, a chill ran through her, it was left on, with gas leaking the whole night. She turned it off.

Her reflexes were not in check, early in the morning with piles of thoughts in her mind, what to pack for lunch, what to make for the breakfast, now I need to wait... till the gas dissipates... She was instantly upset with her husband for being careless and putting the family in danger! She opened the fridge... Oooh the fridge is left off all night... everything will spoil, the milk, the curd, the food...  It is customary in her house to switch off the fridge, when there is power cut. The back-up power does not support the fridge. Without thinking, she switched on the fridge. This was the third switch that day. She ran and opened all windows and balcony doors one by one, when she entered the dark playroom, she switched on the lights in that room too.  She knew she should not, it’s been played and replayed in public interest messages on TV and Radio and even on youtube. What was she thinking! In that moment she had no control over her reflexes. 

One gas leak and four light switches. God may have been kind to her. Rita's family was saved.

She realised that, this was the faulty burner that her husband had left on, by mistake. The burner just dies down sometimes when the flame is lowered. She knew it, but her husband did not. After the initial anxiety, Rita just sat down for a few minutes to thank God for his grace, for saving her family from disaster so many times over, that could-be-fateful morning. The faulty burner and the faulty reflex! 

Rita took a mental note of all that transpired in those anxious moments...

Always turn off the cylinder knob, Rita never turned it off! 

Always check the burner knobs after cooking, Rita's husband missed that step!

Never touch the power switch when there is gas leakage, Rita missed that point by several faithful switches.

She closed her eyes, this was overwhelming, her entire family sleeping, oblivious of the silent drama that had just unfolded in the household. Her silent prayers that she keeps sending to God, had been heard that day.