"The broken Cartilage"

 Another day and another story. This one too dates back to one of the days in my summer holidays as a kid. You readers might be wondering as to why all the stories go back exactly to when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. I think it was fate that decided that this kid would rather have a naughty childhood than a silent one! 

file photo 

Source: Google

Beginning with this experience/encounter, like mentioned earlier, it was summer and I went to my granny's house for a family get together. Most of my holidays would be spent in my granny's house with my brother and my sister. The road leading to the house was full of peers of the same age. It was an army of kids and chaos prevailed until sunset. I was the youngest of the lot hence, they kept me out of all the games as I didn't understand how to play. I would run back to the house weeping and my aunt would bring me back to the kids and order them to include me in the game. I had only two good friends, Rohan and Rakshith. All the others were elderly and I envied them because they didn't include me in their games.

At one such family gathering, my brother and I took out our ball and bat and called upon Rohan and Rakshith and started playing cricket. My mom and aunt called us in after a while but we insisted on one more game. Little did I know that this game would turn out to be gruesome! 

We were 4 and decided that one guy will bat first, so through a toss of bat. Rohan became the first batsmen to play and Rakshith decided to bowl. My brother said he'd field and me being the last one who got to choose roles, chose wicket keeping as it was the only thing left and easy too. As we played in a street that had a dead end, it meant I didn't have to run very far to fetch the ball if I missed catching it. Thinking of this, I stood right behind Rohan misjudging the distance. Rakshith started bowling and fast forward to the fourth ball when something out of the blue occured.

It was a slightly high pitched ball that came to the shoulder level of Rohan. Assuming that he wouldn't attempt that ball, I stood up to catch if it came by. Little did I know that it was a blunder that would send shocks to the entire street. Rohan pulled his bat back to smash the ball but it was already late. He had turned a lot and ended up thumping my face. Bam! A loud thud and I stood there like nothing happened for two seconds and then I dropped on to the ground. The three of  them came and gathered around me. No complications as yet, but all began questioning me if I was fine. I said "I'm ok" and stood up. Rakshith ran up for the next ball but my brother screams "blood!" and ran inside the house. I didn't realise what had happened. I felt my T-shirt becoming wet. I touched my nostril to realise that I was bleeding. My nose was spilling a stream of blood and it rapidly spread all over my T-shirt. By now everyone in the house came running to me. Everything happened at the speed of 5X. I couldn't hear anything. They lifted me and took me inside and then lay me down on a sofa and started patting my head with water, thinking it was body heat until my brother said it was a cricket injury. That is when they understood the fatality and took me to the clinic nearby. The doctor cleaned my nose, shoved cotton infused in medicine up my nostrils and ordered me that I shouldn't remove it for another day. He told my dad, "the cartilage is broken" to which everyone in the room panicked. But the doctor said we shouldn't worry much as it shall repair itself in a few days but we had to be extra careful for the upcoming week. We went home and I slept. I remember getting up at night looking at myself in the mirror and laughing at my nose because it looked hideous! Even to this day, the same spot on my nose remains sensitive and the story, nostalgic.

The memories of that day still horrifies some of my cousins who witnessed it.