The panic button

I dialed my residence number again from my office, wondering why my school- going daughter, who was supposed to be home an hour ago, was not picking up the phone. With each unanswered ring, the hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach went deeper and deeper. Both the numbers went unanswered a countless number of times. I finally called the school, only to know that the van by which she travels back home everyday, has left at its usual time. The journey from school to home should not take more than 10 minutes; what had happened. Visions of unspoken fears swam before my eyes, as I dialed my neighbour’s number to find out if she had come home. I was hoping the telephones at home had suddenly decided to go out of order (Yeah I know both of them being so at the same time would be too much of a coincidence but when one is worried, one does not think logically.) I called her friend and requested her to cycle down home to find out if my daughter had reached. In the midst of all this, I kept calling home (my colleagues took turns in calling.)

Finally, on the second ring of the enth call, I heard my daughter’s voice; I was so relieved I could not talk to her, I just disconnected the phone. Relief washed over me, and I just broke down. How much one thinks of the worst possible scenario, in such situations. The argument of ‘it will not happen to me’ has never occurred to me in the worst of cases. I don’t think I was being paranoid; just being a worried mother, whose daughter had not reached home even after two hours of the expected time.

The call to the school was the one which was the culprit; I was informed that the van from the school had left on time, whereas it had waited and left only much later. My daughter had gone to the office to find out if she could make a phone call to let me know she would be late: but she was refused permission.

I guess doing so would have gone against the dictates of discipline in the school ? I don’t know. Inspite of offering to pay for the phone call, if the school authorities do not understand the difference between an urgent call and a whimsical one, then I am sure a lot many students will start carrying mobiles to school!

Whatever be the case, I am sure we have all waited in anxiety for a child to return home on time; and when they do not do so, fears of the worst kind play havoc with your imagination. In such cases, I hope the children make sure they let people know at home they are safe; and I hope authorities let them take this step, so that the children are encouraged to develop a sense of responsibility. And people at home, not just the mother, realize that the child who is supposed to reach home at a particular time has not done so, and make the required enquiries.

I guess all troubles in the world start when we stop short of making that tiny effort , take that little bit of extra trouble, to make the world a better place. Each one of us is so caught up in unnecessary nitty gritties of life, that we fail to see trouble brewing: or is it that we choose not to see ?