Chapter 1
Kamala clutched tightly, the dark pebble , in her closed fist. She felt the scaffolding give way under her foot and she heard the screams of terrified workers falling from different heights as the entire scaffolding at the construction site collapsed. A steel girder supporting the scaffolding had worked loose causing all joints to come apart. Forty odd workers fell, mostly women , standing at different heights of the structure to carry steel baskets of pre mixed concrete to be poured for the terrace roof of 5 story building under construction. Kamala was standing on a wide wooden board when she fell. Somehow she kept her hold on the board, squatting on it like a surfer riding the waves. The board and she were dropping from a great height. She enjoyed the thrill of the freefall and was amazed how skilfully she had balanced and kept looking at the rushing floor. When she was a clear six feet from the ground, she separated herself from the board and jumped with both feet together and immediately on contact with ground she rolled over her head and felt the board drop on her back driving all the wind out of her chest. She smiled and closed her eyes, still clutching the pebble.
She was lost to the world for the next half hour or so. She came to her senses when a pair of municipal workers grabbed her hands and feet to lift her to be transferred to a waiting ambulance. She opened her eyes and signalled to them that she was alright. The workers left her to attend to other injured people. Kamala opened her fist and looked at the shining black stone. She put the stone to her eyes and forehead with a strange devotion and mumbled a word of thanks, ,”Thank you, Krishna. You have done it again.”
She looked around her. It was chaos all over the place. Many of her friends were badly hurt. Ambulances were moving about lifting people and removing them to hospital. The young engineer, though dazed by the disaster, remained calm and resourceful, guiding the rescue work. Kamala moved slowly testing her limbs and stood up gingerly. When she could stand up without help, she was relieved and a smile lit up her brown unlined face. She hastened to help her friends.
It was a nasty accident , first one at this site. They had put up wooden board walkway over the scaffolding , in a zigzag pattern to help the workers climb from floor to floor, carrying concrete to be poured over for casting the roof. Kamala and her friends had climbed up these heights with out trouble.it was tough but it was safe, till now. At 40 + kamala did not have much choice . She was stuck to this job. These days the daily wages were decent. Government had built nice flats for construction workers and she had a decent place to live and sleep.
A doctor came over to look at her. Already people had begun to talk about her miraculous escape. The doctor looked kind and soft. He held her hand, looked into her eyes and spoke, “they say, you floated down like a feather. You look alright for a person who has dropped 50 meters , without getting her legs smashed .I see no sign of shock, you are not shaken up. How did you manage it?” His question was sincere.
Kamala smiled, “Yes, I could control my fall. Krishna told me what to do. He always tells me what to do.”
Who is this Krishna?
Kamal showed him the black pebble. ”Krishna is inside this pebble.’
A STONE?
“Yes, a stone .Not ordinary one. This one is special.”
How is it special?
“you will not understand.”
Try me.
“leave it. I can not explain it. He is there alright and He helps. He helps all those around me.”
The doctor was staring at her. She was asking him;
‘Look , tell me how did you come here so soon after the accident. It never happens in most accident sites. But to day, you are all here, you , the ambulances, the nurses the whole lot .how?
Do you know how?” She asked the doctor.
I do not know .please tell me
It is because, my Krishna here called you up.’
The doctor would not believe this.
He asked softly, ’ madame, if your Krishna is so concerned, why did he cause the accident in the first place?.’
Kamala ‘s eyes flashed in a strange show of anger, ’My Krishna did not cause the accident.’ She wanted to go on but remained silent
“Go on madame, you were going to tell us some thing”. The doctor was prodding her.
Your Krishna was not able to stop the accident. He saved you and let others suffer. Your Krishna is unfair, biased. Not a good god , is He?. You were just plain lucky.
The doctor was enjoying her discomfiture.
Kamala looked straight into his eyes and said softly, ”Have you heard about karma. We all have to go through such things because of karma, so my good doctor, be good to every one and may be Krishna too would be good to you.”
She stood up and walked away without even looking at the effect her words had on the doctor.
Doctor stared at the ground. Slowly he packed his bag and walked towards the engineer who was waiting for him.
Engineer took him by hand and said with emotion, ”thank you, Doctor ,for coming in so promptly on our call. The ambulances have carried 10 workers to the hospital for further examination and treatment. Your nurses have done a fantastic job. Tell me, sir, are you always so ready? I am really amazed’
Doctor was modest, “ to be honest, I am also surprised.. It just happened that we were ready at that point when your call came through. There is one worker in your gang who had a ready answer to that question.”
What was that?
She said it was all her Krishna’s doing. I am a Christian and tempted to agree with her. Anyway, please tighten up your scaffolding. Krishna may sleep on his job and you may not be so lucky every time.
Engineer smiled, and said, ”I will definitely attend to that. So, you talked to kamala and came under her spell. She is a strange woman but a good one at that.”
Doctor returned to his hospital. Before leaving the accident site, he looked around for kamala. She was not any where in sight.. He drove away. His mind was full of questions about Kamala, Krishna and the black pebble.