# Rewind Stories :

Story 1: "Banana Skin"


I remember, when I was seven years old; I was sitting on a railway platform in a city called Parbhani, in India. I was with my mother, uncle and younger brother waiting for the train. Waiting hours for the train, we realized that the train would be late due to heavy rains in another city. We had no other option than to only wait and it really tested our patience. 

To catch the train on time, we left the house early in the morning and could not have breakfast. Our stomachs were growling with hunger, so we decided to get some snacks and munch on them. My uncle got some very tasty samosas and fruits. Busy eating snacks, I started carefully observing the surroundings at the railway station. It was a completely new learning experience for me as my mom told me about how a train runs on the track, and how steam engine pulls the train.

When my stomach was fully satisfied with the stuff I had put in it, I started playing with my younger brother. He was still eating a banana, and I was all ready to play with the peel. My uncle went to buy some magazines; my mom was busy reading newspaper. Without anyone looking at me, I snatched the banana skin from my brother’s hand and dropped it on the platform. I had always wanted to see if someone could really slip on the banana skin. This was the perfect time and of course a perfect place, to get this answer. People who were smart enough walked around it carefully. My brother and I were very eager for one unlucky person to step on it, unknowingly. We waited and waited till we saw a person carrying two heavy bags. He hadn’t noticed what was on the platform. He was slowly approaching the peel while we stared at him, and our excitement was really going up. Our wait was coming to an end it seemed, when finally the time came. He stepped on the skin, slipped hard, falling and taking all his luggage with him. He completely tumbled!! All of a sudden, people started gathering around him, helping him stand up. My brother and I were laughing our fullest, having seen our imagination turn into reality. Then my mom realized that it was me who dropped that banana skin intentionally.

The whole funny scenario completely changed into a serious situation. Without thinking anything, my mom slapped me and asked me to apologize to him. My uncle, who was a near, came running and helped him pick up his bags. The man managed to walk slowly with his heavy dented metal bags and carried on his way. My uncle picked up the banana skin and threw it into the garbage bin.

For me, the entire sequence of events took place in slow motion, up till the time my uncle gave me a slap on my other cheek. I was completely stunned, with my mouth wide open!! I had never ever thought that one banana skin would show me a different world!!

Time flew, and years later, when I myself toppled from a banana skin somewhere on Mumbai platform, I realized that the effects of even a small accident are really, very bad. My elbow deeply hurt, my favorite jeans torn, and some bad looking bruises were what I got in return. Also, God had sent an audience to laugh at me, and they were none other than my own group of friends!! This was the same scene repeated, but only with different characters!!

Thereafter, I never threw anything on the ground in a public place; especially a banana skin!!

Whenever I see a banana skin lying anywhere, my mind does a flashback, and I see the images of that ‘special person’ and that ‘special me’, falling in slow motion on the railway platform. That incident haunts me till today and reminds me of my bad behaviour.

Aah!! I wish I could rewind this scene in my life, and change it by throwing that banana skin into the garbage!! I wish I could!!