Memories of the Kuwait War~Chapter 6~ Mission: Thomas

It was at least half an hour to 45 minutes past the accident, when Amma has solved the mystery of the missing man. They would have taken Thomas uncle to the hospital, but which hospital?! How to find him?! We were all hoping he was still alive. Aunty and the son were in India, and Thomas uncle had no other members of family around. Acha was feeling very guilty of not having been observant and Amma's non-stop blaming didn’t help either. “Let me go find him”, he said, suddenly standing up, “The clinic is nearby, maybe they went there. If not there, then they would have taken him to Farwaniya hospital. Let me go check”. Farwaniya hospital was the nearest trauma care centre and it was more possible that Acha could find Thomas uncle there and not in the clinic, which was a smaller set-up. He hardly had any lunch, just swallowed few mouthfuls that Amma hurriedly shoved down his throat, and bolted out the door.

There weren’t mobile phones back then. The only way to find out what was happening on the other side of anticipation, was more anticipation with or without patience. So Amma waited impatiently for Acha to come back with news that Thomas uncle was ok.

We had some family in Kuwait, as in, people from the same old huge and widespread family “banyan” tree, but the closest family member around was my mother’s brother-in-law, her elder sister’s husband. My aunt had gone to India that summer with my cousins, so my uncle (we call him Thampi pappa) was all alone. Thampi pappa had a car, and we didn’t, as my father had an eye condition that posed a risk for driving. If we wanted to go anywhere, it was usually taxis, rides with friends or Thampi pappa’s car. 

Thampi pappa lived in Khaitan, which is on the other side of Farwaniya (and we were on this side of Farwaniya). Amma quickly called Thampi pappa over the phone. She updated him on everything that happened that day, and he was to go to Farwaniya hospital and look for Acha and Thomas uncle. Long story short, they found Thomas uncle there. Thank God, he was still alive!! His face was terribly disfigured and swollen with the impact of the crash. He was still unconscious and had multiple fractures. His face was the most affected. He had a fractured jaw, and had lost a good number of his teeth. Thankfully there was no spinal cord injury. If I remember right, he had a broken leg and arm too. 

The next few days it was my father, who was Thomas uncle's bystander throughout the day. He couldn’t stay back at night with a wife and 3 children alone at home. Thampi pappa used to be Acha’s transporter. The two of them together arranged with the embassy to send Thomas uncle to India as soon as he was stable. He made it to the ‘sick’ list and soon his turn to leave had come. By this time, he was able to sit up in bed and stand with support for few seconds. To think of it, Thomas uncle was so worried that he might have to go last and maybe not be able to go at all. He got his chance, but it didn’t have to come to this so he could go home earlier.

In the meantime, Acha was arranging for all of us to leave as well. For this, one has to form a group, (or join a group) of 5 to 10 families or so, coming up to a total of around 35 to 40 people. Once this number is reached, we are assigned a bus that would take us through the desert all the way to Jordan where we could board a plane to India. As soon as he got this information, he contacted some of his friends and acquaintances so we could all go together. Unfortunately all of them had joined some other groups, leaving us with no group to join. We were 6 people, including Thampi pappa. Finally, Acha decided to make a group. He started contacting people and added them till we made it to the mark. Now the task was to get this list approved and a bus allotted with the date of travel.

~priya~