It Happened This Evening…

This is Aaryan’s routine since more than 30 days now… He gets up late around 9.30-10 am, (a luxury for him and we let him have his way for this one!), has his breakfast, and then goes for a winter camp (VocaBOOM), returns home by 2 pm. I come back from our office which is just 70 meters away, to warm his lunch. He then calls his 2 friends from the apartment building to play games on PS2/PSP or Tablet or play Monopoly, their current favorite.

I come back by 5 pm and then he goes out to play…

Today was no different. I came back at 5 and rang the bell and there was no response. I dialed the home land-line and that too received the same treatment. Now, this panicked me a bit, and wondered about all possible reasons!!

I multi-tasked, rang the bell continuously, banged the door simultaneously and shouted, “Nanna, Nanna…” (We call him Nannu or Nanna at home!) And all these coordinated noises evoked no response from inside.

I called up KG and he rushed home immediately. In the mean time, I called Mom of Aaryan’s friend and asked about the kids. She said her son is playing out in the park. I rushed to the park and Aaryan is nowhere to be seen. With panting and panic-stricken voice I asked his friend about Aaryan. He informs, “Aaryan is at home”. I rushed back home and in the mean time, all the people from our floor and one above had gathered outside the door. Everybody tried to help, somebody shouting Aaryan, somebody repeating “Nannu”, the next door neighbors dialed our intercom phone from their place, another one was dialing our residence number. And the result… no sound from inside.

KG, then thought of trying from the balcony, (we are on the first floor) and he came back in few minutes with no results.

With each passing second, the panic, the fear, the weird and negative thoughts just kept on increasing, till KG gave a big push to the door and we all rushed inside…

… to see him sleeping with TV running on a decent volume.

We woke him up gently and he woke up just like any other day, oblivious to the mini heart attacks, panic attacks, the anxiety pangs that we experienced a few looooooong minutes ago.

I sat with a thud while the tears of relief glided down my face!

A few words of reprimand along with hugs and the child had this “Oh Gawd, what’s this hullabaloo” looks!

The Aftermath: The doorbell could not tolerate the onslaught and burnt itself. The door refuses to close and looks this way…
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Have you had this kind of a scary and anxiety filled experience??

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