BLOOD ND BRAIN

Have you seen blood and brain tissue with your own eyes? I do not mean in movies or pictures. Many of us have seen these in movies or pictures. It can be gory. It is worse if you happen to see these in real.

            I was in the primary school; in standard 4 if I am not mistaken when I had the opportunity to witness such a scene. My friends and I would always walk along the railway track instead of the road that ran parallel to it.

            There were actually two reasons why we did that. One was to avoid the traffic on the road and the students who travelled by bus. They would shout and throw stuff at us from the bus. They disliked us and until today, I cannot understand them. The second reason was that by walking on the wooden beams or slippers along the railway track, our paces were faster as our steps were bigger. Hence we took a shorter time to reach the school or to reach home.

            On that fateful evening after school, we saw a big crowd of people on the railway track. We were curious as to the commotion there. Being curious as most kid were, we walked faster and faster and gathered with the crowd. We pushed and squeezed to the front of the crowd. In front of us were the body parts lying on the side of the railway track.

            We were put off by two other things. There was a lot of blood and bits and pieces of white tissue scattered on the track. The smell was strong and penetrated every cell of our noses. We immediately pinched our noses and ran away. We were choked and at the same time we shivered due to the gory and frightening sight. We heard from the bystanders that the white tissue was brain tissue.

            The stench lingered on our clothes. As we ran we practically vomited and belched whatever was in our guts. We were gasping for air, wheezing and breathing with great difficulty. At a distance we walked and whispered with difficulty and discussed the scene.

            The villagers from around came to know of the incident and the death of the little girl became the topic of discussion for a long time. Apparently, she was playing on the railway tracks. She slipped and fell on the tracks. The train could not stop in time and the huge iron wheels rolled over her and smashed her head. The body parts were thrown all over the tracks. Her brain tissue being white was thrown all over the track together with blood.

            That night I had a frightful nightmare. I cried my heart out and to this day the sight of blood would take me back to 1966 when I was in Standard 4.