I slowly opened my eyes and everything seemed hazy. There was excruciating pain in my legs and my palms. Everything was blurred and all my friends bent over me with worried and perplexed expressions.
They all seemed to be moving and so was I.

‘Don’t worry dear, you’ll be fine’ said Anne. She was from my hometown Shillong. She looked tensed I couldn’t understand why.

Then it hit me that I just suffered burns and am being rushed to a hospital! The first thought was ‘Why me?’!

It was a cold winter night in Gorakhpur. I was in the 6th semester of B.Tech, placements were just round the corner and I wasn’t prepared the least bit! There is no way in the world I could afford being sick, let alone be stuck in hospital with severe burns. I had just decided to start preparing for the damn placements, made a schedule and had even put all the books next to my bed! I was about to go for the kill just after dinner that fateful night but destiny had some other plans altogether!

Just before dinner, my roommate and I decided to go to our friends’ room to blow off some steam with a round of gossip as we girls always did.There was a small double rod heater in that room and I sat just next to it. Heaters were as a rule not allowed in hostels. But almost every room had one as we always needed Maggie and coffee to survive the cold. That too and also as a habit we always wanted to defy authority; doing something against “rule” always had a fascinating allure. As it happens on that particular day I was wearing a long white skirt with woolen slacks on the inside. I also had woolen socks on.

As we got chatty little did we know what was to befall? Suddenly I noticed fire in my skirt.

‘Oh damn!’ I stood up. No sooner did I stand that my entire skirt was engulfed in fire. I could see the headlines for the next day papers ‘Girl burned to death in hostel fire mishap’. I didn’t know what to do!

I looked at my roommate and even she was helpless. I used my hands to douse the fire but ended up burning them instead. There was no time. I had to do something about it. I didn’t want to die this way; not now, not ever!

I do not know from where but I suddenly got an idea and rushed out of the room, fell on the floor and started rolling from one side to the other. By then everyone had gathered around me, some shocked, some terrified while some rushed to get buckets of water; all the while everyone shouting out loud for help. Finally some of my seniors threw blankets on me and put off the fire. Some poured water while others tore away the skirt or what was remaining of it. The woolen slacks and socks were now stuck to my skin. I was burnt severely up to my thighs. ‘That’s it my life is over!’ I said to myself.

The Hostel Warden, nincompoop as he was, didn’t come along to the hospital instead I was taken by my friends and admitted there. In all this commotion and all the pain, all that I could think of is how unfair God was to throw me into this shit hole at such an important point of my life!

As days passed I grew irritable with no faith in God. I was in pain with no strength to study for the placements. I couldn’t walk properly; even on a single step blood would ooze out of my wounds.I was becoming very ill tempered.There are no words to describe how painful those days were for me. It took an entire 6 months for the wound to heal and the scars were also a constant reminder of that horrible night. I felt like a handicapped.But something happened and this tragedy fell into perspective.

When I opened my eyes in the hospital one fine day, I saw him standing next to me. He was smiling away for some reason. He tried hard to be somber but he just couldn’t!

‘I am sorry, but the joke was hilarious. How are you by the way? Nice way of taking a break from studies huh! ’ he grinned. He was the so called ‘bad boy’ of our branch, also mischievous and always up to something. Little did I know then how he would change everything!

‘Ya right why don’t you try it for a change ’I said.

Then we got talking. He was cracking one joke after the other, even tried to speak in Bengali ‘Aami tumake bhalobashi’ he said and again burst out into a cacophony of laughter.

His jokes changed the claustrophobic hospital room to a breezy hangout. He never showed me false sympathy. He took my mind off every worry and helped me relax in the most unassuming way. Perhaps because he was the only person who wasn’t judging me. In him I found a new friend. He was always in a jolly mood which was so infectious that it gradually caught on to me.

As my mood improved, I realized that things could have been worse. At least I would get better in 6 months and start all over again. Slowly I began to see all the positives and everything started to fall in place. My faith returned and I looked ahead for good things in life. I got placed in a reputed company, my wounds began healing more quickly, I was able to walk properly again. This accident also opened my eyes to my true friends whereas the doctors had said I would limp for the rest of my life! I was able to see each person for what they actually were.

6 years down the line I am still friends with him but now he is my husband too. If it wasn’t for the burns then he would have never come to the hospital to visit me. If it wasn’t for that mishap, I wouldn’t have found a friend and finally a life partner in him. When I look at the scars now, it reminds me of our first date, our first holiday together, my first placement; it reminds me of all the good things that happened to me since. So if Shakespeare said ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity’, he sure knew what he was talking about! Today I am a stern believer that everything happens for a good reason.Infact I cannot thank god enough for without the accident I would have missed out on meeting the love of my life. So trust me every adversity is just because God has something better planned for us hence Be Positive!