The Toxic Cloud

The year 1984 in India was not bad in terms of industry, politics, etc. The economy was mounting steadily, and people were happily working and earning. Ghulam Dastgir, an old man working in a railway station, was considered to be a prodigy, especially in December 1984. He had worked to earn for his family, but he had some other personal problems, too.

Ghulam was a drunkard and a smoker. When he was off duty, he would gamble and get drunk afterward. He always returned home by walking crookedly, and he would look so sedentary.

All Ghulam would do is leisurely walk into his room and tuck himself into bed. Graham and Gharat, Ghulam’s sons, were exposed to the idea of getting addicted after seeing Ghulam’s actions.

In Bhopal, the railway station where Ghulam worked was swarming, especially since it was holiday season. His boss thought that he wasn’t bad, but there was something missing in him.

Ghulam would finish his tasks quickly and properly. He would answer calls from different stations to notify that a train was arriving or departing. He would sit quietly in his office until evening, when he would go to a bar and come back home sozzled.

Months passed by like a flash, and December had come. Nothing had changed in Ghulam’s schedule. His boss started to think less highly of Ghulam as a result of others improving.

Then followed the disaster of Bhopal. It was the dreadful night of December 2 when the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal accidentally released more than thirty tons of a toxic gas called methyl isocyanate. The gas was a wildfire, and people choked and sank to the ground. After an hour, the toxic cloud had spread all over Bhopal. In that night itself, there were already 600,000 cases of poisoning and 2,000 deaths.

The toxic cloud was still present in the air the next day in the afternoon. Ghulam was sitting in his office finishing some pending work. All of a sudden, he noticed people fleeing, weeping, and choking. He frantically ran out of his office and realized that this wasn’t something that happened every day.

Once he stepped on the platform, he felt unusually uncomfortable. An odd sensation of disturbance alarmed him as he became aware of the toxic cloud.

“Ah, what’s that burn in my eye?” he queried to himself. “And what’s with the itching in my throat? Surely there can’t be something this bad.”

But there was indeed something wrong here. He recoiled into his office room to wonder what to do. Frantically, Ghulam started to tremble just as the phone rang.

“Hello!” screeched a voice from the other side. “If anyone can hear, flee from Bhopal as soon as you can! Poisonous fumes are leaking from the Union Carbide pesticide factory! It is producing a highly toxic gas called methyl isocyanate! Run!”

Ghulam was flabbergasted and was lost in deep thoughts. Desperately, he thought of all of the ways that he could depart Bhopal. But after searching for half an hour, he couldn’t find anything. Now only one idea flew into his mind, and that was to stop all train traffic arriving to Bhopal.

He wasn’t astounded when he hadn’t gotten any response from the station master since he had already been affected by the deadly gas.

“Oh—h,” the station master sputtered, “Th—there has been—a dis—disaster! Twenty-three of your colleagues have been infected by the toxic cloud!”

All Ghulam wanted to do now was to suspend all traffic to Bhopal. He ran to Harish Dhruve’s office. Dhruve was Ghulam’s boss, and Ghulam always needed permission from Dhruve for certain things.

As Ghulam entered the office, he found nothing but Dhruve, who was in unconsciousness, on the ground. Ghulam’s heart sank. Would he have to break rules to suspend train traffic to Bhopal? He coughed as he ran back to his office, where he called the senior stationmaster from Station Vidisha.

“Hello,” Ghulam coughed, “Mr. Shukla, I have heard that you are the senior station master of Vidisha. Suspend all departures to Bhopal right away!”

“But why, Mr. Dastagir? Anything wrong?”

“Have you not heard the news yet? There’s a calamity here in Bhopal! A toxic gas is inundating Bhopal. More than two thousand people are already dead. Suspend all traffic right away!”

“All right, sir!”

Ghulam did the exact same thing with Station Itarsi and countless other stations. Most of them didn’t know about what was happening in Bhopal. Ghulam had to break some rules just to avoid trains from entering Bhopal.

But nonetheless, there was still more to do. In fact, the Gorakhpur-Kanpur Express was standing on a platform. 1,000 passengers that were desperately waiting inside were hoping to escape the toxic cloud as soon as possible. Ghulam realized that the departure time was twenty minutes away. He had wanted the train to leave right away, so he called the head office to let them know that the train must depart as soon as possible.

Ghulam was shaking and gasping for clear air during all of his calls. He knew that it was for saving hundreds of lives, and he may even have to give up his life.

There were many trains that had their agendas changed in order to depart in time. Ghulam broke many rules, but he knew that there was no other option.

After all of the calls were done, Ghulam said to himself, “Wow, maybe everything will be fine! All of the stations have been informed, all trains have left, and trains coming here have been delayed! Looks like my job is done.”

A man in anguish was howling nearby, suffering in the thick and toxic cloud of the poisonous gas.

“Everything will be fine?” the man asked. He looked frantic and despairing. “Look at all of the people around you. Look at all of the people who have sunk to the ground. Is this fine?”

“I think medical help has been sent,” replied Ghulam. “Everything should be taken care of.”

“Who told you that? Nothing has been sent. Usually, ambulances arrive in less than half an hour. It’s been one and a half days, and no medical help has arrived. Plus, all of the workers here are either unconscious or dead. And no, nothing is fine.”

Ghulam’s knew that the gas was all over Bhopal by now. There was no way out now! He felt as if he were stuck in a pickle, and he had the choice to either endure the pain or find a way out. Ghulam brought out a bottle of alcohol and began to drink.

“What are you doing?” asked the perplexed man.

“Everything is over, so I am just drinking,” replied Ghulam.

“Aren’t you a worker here? Weren’t you the one who suspended all traffic here? Think about it. You have done this much, so can’t you do a little more just for a few hundred more lives?”

This hit Ghulam hard in the head. What was he doing? Would getting drunk really help him? Ghulam realized that it wouldn’t do anything and hurled the bottle away.

“You’re right,” Ghulam answered. “I’ll be back.”

Ghulam sprang on to his feet for the last time. He ran to every platform, and he was struggling to even see properly. His eyes and throat were burning, and his coughing was incessant.

Ghulam called for medical help, and four ambulances arrived to the scene immediately. One by one, people were loaded into the ambulance. The doctors were cognizant of the situation and wanted to do their task as quickly as possible. Ghulam had to even lift up so many people into the ambulance as well. He was already weakened by the gas, and now he felt even weaker than before.

He then ran to the other side of the station to do the exact same thing there. It was a lot of painful work for him. But after everyone was loaded, Ghulam felt gratified. He was in his office, acted like a true hero, and proved himself to be valuable. He realized that drinking alcohol didn’t help.

Now he knew exactly what to do, which was to find a way out of Bhopal. All trains had left, the ambulances had gone, and the exit would be congested as well.

While he was thinking about that, he coughed hard as he breathed more of that toxic gas, and he unconsciously collapsed to the ground.

The next thing he saw was what seemed to be a hospital. Next to him was Graham. Ghulam couldn’t even talk properly.

“Where’s Gharat?” he asked.

Graham muttered, “He got highly infected by the gas. He’s in another room.”

Ghulam told Graham everything he had perceived during the calamity, and he would later tell Gharat when he would be taken care of. Everyone in the hospital had congregated and fenced Ghulam’s bed. They were in awe as they heard the story, which would later spread to all of India.

Carl the Crocodile Clown

It was a pleasant summer afternoon at a Russian jungle. All the animals were heading to Galloping Gradients which was top of the plateau for the most amazing circus. Three merry pals who were Carl the Crocodile, Mathew the Monkey, and Gary the Giraffe were also racing there because they had never been to a circus before. They found their way into the massive red and yellow gorgeously striped circus tent. The three pals were full of excitement, especially Carl, who was the wisest of the three. They had never seen such a beautiful display before. Carl and Mathew burst inside but Gary, who was the tallest, took a small glance before he entered the ginormous tent bending carefully.

Meanwhile, Carl and Mathew eagerly took their seats. They noticed that a clown was on the stage and they were surprised to see him walking towards them. “Hello! Are you the clown of the circus?” asked Carl worriedly, for he saw that he had a red nose.

“Hello, my friend,” he greeted. “They call me Leo the Leopard, the clown who can be funny and preposterous. Unfortunately, I can’t be the clown today."

“But why?” inquired Carl. "Are you sick? I can tell with your swollen nose.”

“Yes,” replied Leo. “Someone else must spring into my shoes to be a clown, or there would be no circus.”

The audience groaned and were running out of patience. “But who will be the clown?” questioned Carl.

“Carl, you should do it!” cheered the audience and flung their hats up in the air as if they were minuscule rockets blasting into outer space. Carl felt so nervous as if he was struck with a lightning bolt. From head to toe, he was filled with stage fright. But he realized the audience was waiting and time was flying by. He knew that he needed to go on the stage and be a clown. Without sparing a moment, Carl nodded and appeared on the stage. The audience, including Mathew, Gary, and Leo, watched in amazement as the spotlight moved on Carl.

As he was heading to the middle of the stage, Carl got his foot stuck in a bucket. He shook and rattled his foot, but the bucket remained on his foot! Carl hopped and skipped in worry on his other foot as he thought the audience is watching how ridiculous he was being. He accidently bounced into a cupboard and came out with a preposterous rainbow-colored wig on his head and then ended up rolling on a ball trying hard to balance! Carl rolled two times around the stage and hit a trampoline still with the bucket on his foot! He bounced up on the trampoline managing to get rid of the ball and landed on a thin stringed beam keeping his balance!

Carl’s next mistake was walking on the beam and he managed not to fall. He reached the other side and landed on a trampoline! Then he bounced so high on the trampoline as if he had been slingshot up in the air and got his other foot tangled into a circus banner! The audience gasped as Carl came falling as his foot untangled from one banner and got stuck into another banner! The same thing transpired for eight times until he freed himself from all the ten banners. After that he got the bucket off his foot finally with a lot of effort and concentration. But then he landed on a rusty painting over an unsteady barrel. The barrel kept on rolling five times around the stage as Carl balanced his feet on the painting, trying not to fall!

Just as he jumped off the barrel and exhaled, he noticed that the barrel bumped into a bookshelf at the corner of the stage. Luckily, Carl was prepared for what was coming. The bookshelf toppled over, and all the books came falling. Carl jumped and started catching all the books as they fell one after the other in a big pile on his head. Finally, Carl stood facing the audience feeling terribly embarrassed that he could not do any circus antics to entertain the audience.

“Yahoo! Hooray for the little crocodile!” exclaimed the audience. Carl the Crocodile was surprised. He noticed Mathew and Gary cheering and laughing.

“Everyone must be laughing because I have ruined the circus,” thought Carl, feeling miserable.

“That was the best circus I have ever seen!” Leo complemented Carl. “You have a lot of balance and good skill. Will you teach me how to do it?”

“But how do you think I was good?” questioned Carl.

“The only thing that matters is how preposterous and funny you can be as a circus clown,” explained the leopard. “Your antics were humorous, and you looked so natural.”

“Oh, then I guess I must have been funny. Even though I was not trying for it. You are right that it came naturally,” grinned Carl.

Leo smiled. “I think you should be the new clown.”

For this job, he was lucky to be a crocodile. He did the wackiest things a crocodile could do. He wasn’t scared of being a clown. In fact, he was nicknamed Carl the Crocodile Clown. He made the show a big success and felt really proud of himself.