Drowning Cousins

While i was a small kid, we were at our ancestral house in Thrissur, Kerala. It had rained one day and water had filled up every depression on the ground. I had learnt to walk may be a few months before. My mummy had left me in the room and got engaged in the kitchen. After sometime she wanted to check on me and came to the hall. I wasnt there. She came out of our house and started looking outside, but not a trace of me.

Anxiety was raising high for my mom, and she kept searching for me and calling out my name. Suddenly she could find a head popping out of a small pit full of water. It was a pit dug for planting palm sapling, deep enough to drown a kid of my size. She quickly ran towards me and yanked me out of the water. It was a huge sigh of relief to her to see me and alive too. I recovered without any medical intervention, and survived to tell this story because of sheer luck as she spotted me before it was too late.

The second incident of similar nature was to happen after a decade, to my cousin. His name is Sooraj, the only son of my mom's youngest sister. My cousin's house had a pond of their own, though at a distance. While my aunt was busy in her household chore, the kid had managed to reach the pond and duck into it. There was quite a commotion near the pond and my aunt rushed out fearing the worst. As she ran towards the pond where the ruckus originated, she could spot her child struggling in the water. She jumped right away and brought the kid out of danger.

Two lives were saved. Timing was the key in both the incidents, along with God's forbearance.