Raja takes a BREAK…

Since my childhood there has not been a quarter I had been with out a break. This said some might think I am someone who follows the westerner’s calendar of working for 90 days and taking a break off work for say 10 days. But that is not the break I am talking about, I am speaking of breaking bones, body parts and even breaking down physically.

Friends of mine say my biological clock decides when to take this BREAK and promptly BREAKS something down. By doing this blog I started recollecting instances of all the breaks I have had till date. Typhoid, jaundice, malaria, broken bones in hand – right and left, legs – right and left, chin – right and left, eyebrow – right and left… pretty difficult to count. So I decided to count the number of instances of break downs since I joined Ogilvy – that was roughly two and a half years ago.

Three months after I joined Ogilvy, it was a cool Sunday when I had to visit my friend’s dad at a city hospital in Chennai. I was coming back with my friend’s brother in the pillion when these two guys on a Yamaha RX100 rammed to the right of my vehicle. They in fact rammed right into my right leg. The impact broke my little toe. The impact was so severe that my little toe was left hanging in the air with little support from my leg. I had a successful surgery to put the toe back in place. When one of my good friends Shyam asked me about my regaining complete consciousness in my little toe, which the doctor had said I would not. The toe would just be a vestige henceforth. I told Shyam “I don’t need my little toe to say/show up yours”. It took 4 months to heal.

By then I was ready for my next bout. This time I played a cricket match for Ogilvy, opened the innings broke my left wrist. This time it was not a complete fracture, just a small crack said the doctor. This one would take 15 days to a month by then I had another family doctor – this time unusually it was an orthopedist. By now he had become too friendly with me to qualify as my family doctor. "An orthto for a family doctor, not bad" remarked my friends. It hardly healed when it was my next turn.

And now it was time for a complete overhaul, the total breakdown. Yes I had malaria this time and this is the second time in 2 years I had malaria. I have heard of the creative personnel in my office remarking that I am just a parasite a malarial parasite. I had to tell them all, sorry folks I am just a victim. Lots of tablets of varying sizes and colour and a month of abstinence from my favourite liquid diets got me back to normal.

I was a normal man for 5 months, people around me were very happy for me. After a long, long time I was accident free. But the happiness lasted till I sped like jet into the office one fine morning, suddenly saw one of my coworkers taking a turn. To avoid this gent I tried breaking my speed. All I could remember after this was a broken chin, which needed 6 stitches to pull back. Alas cried the whole office, Raja’s back to normal. He is back to his olden ways.

Just three months later, three days ago. I decided to slip down a stair, twist my foot and break a bone. Thank god, for a change it is my left foot now. It should take 10 days to heal. The first question my friends asked me when I reached office after this incident was, Raja what next??

When I look at myself in the mirror I am remembered of Samuel L Jackson in the movie Unbreakable…

Am I the unbreakable whom Samuel Jackson played in that movie?

God knows…