It is raining heavily followed by strong wind. Rivers are overflowing, water is flowing over the bridges making it impossible to distinguish where the bridge ends and water begins. He heard that some houses were taken away by the flood along with people in it. He can see the sea level is dangerously up, almost close to his home. Water is dripping from the thatched roof, floor is all wet. It is dangerous to stay inside, he thought. He went inside his home and wake up his mother. She is all he has.
Mahesh and his mother are fisherman folks. Now, the weather being stubborn like this he can't go out in the sea. No one dares to challenge the nature. This much he and his folks know. Because they know, as much caring and giving the nature can be, she could be awfully cruel and unforgiving. So they decided to leave the place along with others. The roads are all submerged, flooding rivers and canals carried back all sorts of wastes that we threw out earlier and dumped it back in to our homes. They boarded on a rescue boat which would take them into a refugee camp setup in a nearby school area. They heard even the refugee camp is flooded, at least his mother would be able to get food and medication there, he thought.
On their way, he saw lots of people waving to their boat. There are children and old people among them. He thought may be the boat driver hadn't noticed them. He called the driver to take them in,
"Hey, look there are people over there, we can accommodate at least some of them."
The driver shot back, "No way son, it's too dangerous. We are a bit overloaded. And there are more boats coming, don't worry they will be picked up."
Mahesh saw there are small kids and some very old people among them. He jumped into the water and swims to them.
He helped the old woman who is bedridden. She is being carried along with her bed. It was getting difficult for the family to keep the old woman above water level. He helped them carry her to the boat in his place.
He told his mom, he will see her in the camp.
He swims back to the shed near his home and saw his boat were luckily floating above water , a little late and his boat would have been under the water since it was tied to a pole. He jumped inside and started towing.
He had a strange feeling that this is his destiny, to help this stranded people. He helped them all get to a safe place. And he did that for others who were also stranded. He worked hand in hand with the rescue operators. Everyone in the refugee camp appreciated his efforts. He was looked upon as a hero.
Now the water receded. Debris of collapsed bridges and roads can be seen, as it was something out of a war movie. The scene was heartbreaking. But slowly people and the authorities worked together to rebuild their lives. Months passed, people are busy getting their shattered lives back up. The school which were turned into a refugee camp is a school again. And the road in front is busy once again. Suddenly there was a loud screech and everyone ran towards the spot. It was a hit and run. A young man was hit by a car. He was in a terrible state. He was loosing blood. But strangely none of the bystanders were ready to rescue the man and get him to hospital. They all stood there watching. Entire road was painted red by his blood. Someone called an ambulance and the it came after 10 minutes. But it was already too late. By the time they took him to hospital he was gone.
Next day the headliner in newspaper was some political party announcing their merger with another. In the third page in a small section at the end there was a piece of article which mentioned a young man who was died in an accident. It said his name is Mahesh and he was the same person who rescued many during flood. But it seemed nobody cared and no one remembered him.
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