When did I become a player of danger? Decades of living away from home make people great risk takers. In our unconscious there is always a fear of being lost, of becoming disabled, of being attacked etc.

This kind of fear has always been there and emerged from nomadic life. In our settled life, we tend to believe that life is cool and that it should go as it is planned. Every family plans to build a house, and leave some movable and immovable assets for their descendents but it is not always that one will be successful in fulfilling dreams.

A man who got his new job and has started planning his future may end up with an accident and leaving his family in the lurch, and that fear has been cashed on by life insurance companies.

Today’s story is a mundane story. Then why do I have to write it all. It has to be written because accidents can happen but how do we control the circumstances. In today’s multi storied buildings, we know none. If we wish, we may get to know a few.

There was a film where a man was locked inside an apartment with all kinds of security control which provided him no escape as it trapped him in his self designed security. I live in a multi storied apartment. It is open on one side towards a forest that has been cut down for building concrete structures for the metro rail. It was a hot sunny day and I was home alone. My husband had gone outstation for some work.

As a writer, we tend to forget many things that is commonplace like forgetting the milk is on the stove, the vegetables or chicken is cooking on the stove. We remember only when we smell something burning. In this hot summer after making fresh soft chapatis I thought of filling the cooler for some cool air. Then, I started calling up my friend on phone. After the fifth call I wanted to go to the toilet.

When I came out of the room, I saw the water flooding in the living room. The first thing I did was close the tap and remove the pipe. Now there was the electric box on the table. So the box is safe.

The wire connecting the main switch was touching the water and the switch was on. I had no way but to switch off the mains. The water was not electrocuted luckily. I had to stand on the water to switch off the main with my handle tip of the wiper.

After doing that I started mopping off the water from the living room. The rugs were wet. I pushed the water out into the balcony. I sweated profusely for an hour as I had switched off all electrical appliances to remove the water from the flat. It was very near to death.

If I had come to face the water a bit later the room could have been one electrocution chamber.Be it gas, electricity or water. Stay alert. Nothing is precious than your life not even time. What is making use of time by putting yourself in danger! It is okay not be so useful and multi tasking is not a necessity always.