Merry Musings: Providential Escape

In this monsoon season or Sawan religious festivals are much in the news and so are holy pilgrimages to the hills. In fact most of the holy shrines are located in the hills. Unfortunately, the Himalayas there are extremely fragile and prone to landslides. We have seen dreadful pictures of buildings being washed away by floods in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Pilgrims are stranded and many a time lose their lives too.

I too have been stranded there a few times, but by God’s grace, mercifully returned every time, safe and sound. However, I will share with you one story which stands out as an example of nothing but pure Divine Grace.

While driving on the road between Joshimath and Badrinath, we suddenly saw gigantic stones rolling down from the hill right before us on the bend and the driver stopped immediately. The road was rapidly filled with them and some were really huge boulders. In no time there was a big traffic jam with cars on either side. In those days, in the seventies, the hills were part of Uttar Pradesh. The roads were barely dual laned and the traffic just managed to pass.

My husband walked ahead and came in contact with an army vehicle the last vehicle, on the other side at the end of the traffic jam . They agreed to help us and reversed the one tonner . My husband took me, my aunt and cousin who were with us to safety. I still remember, we sat on drums. My husband left us close to a guest house and arranged for a jeep to take us to the guest house at Peepalkoti where once we had been stranded few years earlier too. He went away in the army vehicle to their setup to arrange for the heavy chains to pull out the car.

As we were getting out of the jeep on reaching the guest house , my aunt’s head knocked against an iron hook popping out from the ceiling of the jeep. Oh my God, there was profuse blood coming out from the top of her head! There was no proper doctor there, we were rushed to a dispensary with a pharmacist there who did first-aid and dressing. Somehow proper medication and injection was later arranged probably from the nearby district headquarters of Chamoli.

What had happened exactly at the same time was that a gigantic tree had got uprooted from the hill and was aiming for our car that was stuck there. The car would have definitely got crushed under the impact and fallen in ravines below. Then a miracle happened! The tree halted midway by a gigantic boulder which was parked on the Hill. Other stones were falling too but took a tangent direction and didn’t fall on the car. We later said my aunt took it all upon herself!

This entire operation took 3 or 4 hours. Meanwhile the Border Roads Organisation personnel had cleared up the blockages. They are very good at their tough work . After ensuring our safety, my husband had been with the army people all along. He was totally unaware of what happened to my aunt.

Then another miracle happened! As soon as the car was dragged out with the help of the chains, that huge tree which was stuck there for over a couple of hours or so, came rolling down and fell on the spot where the car had been. Is this providential escape or not ? I firmly believe when God is there to protect you, no harm can come to you.