Three And A Half Seconds To Ponder On Life!

I really cant explain what I really felt after reading the story ‘Three and a half seconds’ in Indu Sundaresan’s short story collection In The Convent Of Little Flowers. Was it fear, sadness, helplessness shock or mere numbness?

The story unfolds through the thoughts of Meha at the end of her life. Born in a peasant family somewhere in the western parts of India, Meha had an earlier life of family chores and fielding. She enjoyed a happy married life with her loving husband Chandar till the unseen hands of nature decided to test them.

When the rains fell, Meha and Chandar leave their village with their little son Bikaner to the unknown city Mumbai. They start up their life in the footpaths of Mumbai. Slowly Chandar gets a job as a security guard at the Agricultural bank and Meha becomes the maidservant for houses. Even in these hardships they decides to put up their son in the school. Meha and Bikaner learns the lessons together in the light of streetlights.


Slowly Meha and Chandar get adapted to the course of Mumbai life. They buy a small apartment in the sixteenth floor of a flat and begin a happy family life there. Things go fine till Bikaner joins the Agricultural Bank as a clerk. Right from the childhood Bikaner was a violent boy who never hesitated to attack the weaker ones. He gets married to his colleague and starts tormenting his parents.

The ultimate blow comes on the day that Chandar retires from his work. Bikaner accuses Chandar for his lack of promotion due to a security father. Bikaner snatches away the golden wristwatch from Chandar and beats him. The beatings continue and Meha and Chandar forced to move to the balcony for living. Then one day, Bikaner forcefully signs in the rights of the flat from Chandar and on that day the couple decide to commit suicide.

The story ends at the point when Meha helps Chandar to leap from the sixteenth floor balcony and she follows him. The only feeling that she had at that time is an intense feeling for freedom.

The beauty in this story narration is that the whole life of Meha passes through her mind in a three and a half second. This reflection of one’s own life at the deathbed is too much in connotation with the Hindu beliefs. The first half-second describes gives introduction to Meha’s life, first second is about Bikaner’s character, the second second is about Meha’s life in Mumbai and the last second is about their hardships at the hands of Bikaner.

The story gives a real glimpse on how the old parents are tormented at the hands of insensitive modern generation. As the modern generation speed after the money and status, too many traditional values, loving moments and emotional feelings are churned under their speedy wheel. This story is an eye opener for the young couples in India. Always remember that the story of a child who kept his late grandfather’s dirty feeding pots for his parents is not a story after all…