Two Minutes

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 29; the 29th Edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton. The topic for this month is 'TWO MINUTES'.

Image courtesy Google

Well this is the topic a noodle advertisement be it for Maggi or any other brand that tells us that the noodles are ready to eat in this time frame and is slurped hungrily down  .Two minutes generally seems to be a very short span of time but then it is not true as lot can happen during these 120 seconds…a life can be evolved or a person can die and there are quite a lot of instances that these 2 minutes had been detrimental to the outcome that has resulted in life or deaths… strange isn’t it !! Well it is a fact is that most people cannot hold their breath for so long underwater either a swimmer or not! My post is neither about swimming nor to do with holding your breath for 2 minutes but about incident that took place my life and has relevance to the title of the post. Here it goes and this is a true story that took place at New Delhi in 1979 August.

Way back in 1979 as a youngster who had just completed engineering exams and back home, each day was spent along with friends from the quarters by going to movies and loitering in crowded South Extension market New Delhi ogling at pretty girls. One of these days we suddenly decided to go for a movie from South Ex for a show at Chanakya Theatre starting at 6.30 pm……..worries amongst us since we had not informed our parents/guardians that we would be returning back late in the night and especially those days we had no options of mobile phones and yet we took the decision to go ahead with our plans as the movie was “10” starring Bo Derek and she looked damn sexy in two piece swim suit on the posters of this cinema. Alas little did we expect that this decision would have an profound impact on our entire lives. 

Well four of us are from the same from the Quarters as our fathers worked for the same organization and we had great fun that evening and by the time we reached back to our houses at Maharani Bagh New Delhi it was 9.30 pm and we found our guardians were worried since we were late without any information. One of our friend‘s mother was bed ridden and his house was run by his brother’s wife and that evening since he was so late he got a massive firing from his father, then his elder brother and to top it all he was told by his sister in law that he would have to forgo his dinner as she has cleared the kitchen. This friend of ours had completed his B.Sc Chemistry from Delhi University and was working in a small scale industry dealing in chemicals. The tone of his sister in law coupled with the treatment meted out to him by his brother and his wife agitated him so much that within next 2 minutes decided that he would not continue living in this world. We never took his statements seriously and tried to bolster him stating that it is usual of elders to scold us for all silly issues. Later in the night he had swallowed some chemical compound samples which he normally carries with him as samples on empty stomach with an intention of committing suicide. 

Image courtesy Google

But then after having swallowed the chemicals he had puking sensations and a fright of dying that he started banging the door of the neighbor whose wife was a doctor and as the door opened he just dropped down vomiting and at the same time sobbing that he does not want to die…….but then it was too late for the doctor to save him as the chemicals he had swallowed had traces of cyanide and he passed away in few minutes and even before we could rush to his side. A young life extinguished at the age of 24 and for what reason… for being scolded for going to see a movie and coming home late.. I mean at 9.30 pm!! Thinking back about the incident it was quite sickening and atrocious of the actions taken by our friend. Had he given a thought for 2 minutes of his decision to swallow the chemicals in anger against his bhabi and his father, maybe he would not have taken the extreme step and he would have been alive that day. Banerjee RIP.

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