2nd December

2nd December 2011, one day that I distinctly remember — minute by minute.
9 years back on this day Manasi met with the road accident. It seems like long time ago but thinking about the day still makes me cry. The pain, anger, confusion, anxiety, fear.. all these emotions still weight my heart down.
Manasi has come a long way, yes. But it has been a lot of hard work, resilience and perseverance that has gone into changing life post-accident. People who know me would have heard me say this multiple times — Manasi is going to make it big, she will change the world. Macha degi ekdam, dekhna!
I have always looked up to her and as a kid, I believed that Manasi could easily win the Miss World title because she was amazing bachpan se hi! Growing up, Manasi was this gyaani baccha of the house. She would spend summer vacations in library and consume intellectual content on TV, watching programs on Discovery, National Geographic channels, etc. I used to hate it and always questioned her choice of entertainment because I would miss out on my cartoons and fun TV shows. But the day Manasi met with the accident, it was this content from Discovery channel that helped her the most. In one of the episodes, the host had said “when you meet with an accident of any kind & are losing blood, make sure you don’t panic + control your breathing because if you panic, your heart will start beating faster, therefore more blood loss and higher risks.” Some might say its common sense, I agree. But then I met with the people who were present at the accident spot. They told me “Manasi is the bravest person we have come across in our lives, she was telling everyone what to do because people were scared. All of us present there wanted to help her but we panicked.” One of them got fever that night because of trauma of being present there and witnessing Manasi go through everything. Every person I spoke to later, told me different things but one thing that remained common in all the narrations was, how brave and clam Manasi was even in that life and death situation.

I remember how through the preparatory leave during Engineering, Manasi and myself, we would make time to discuss our future plans, companies we wanted to work in, our love lives, and how we would save and buy a house for us parents, get married.. we were young and ambitious and setting our foot in the corporate world not knowing what life had stored for us.
9 years back on this day, she met with an accident. Our lives changed; our dreams changed. Manasi had to start from scratch. From learning to balance on crutches to learning to walk on her prosthetics. I still remember the day Manasi walked again. It was one of the best moments of my life. Now I know how my parents would have felt when they saw us taking our first steps.
A lot has changed in these 9 years for us and Manasi has come a long, long way. And while she didn’t participate to fight for the “Miss World” title, she became a World Champion last year. She got featured on the TIME magazine cover, she got a one of a kind doll modelled after her and made it to BBC 100 women of 2020. While Manasi keeps adding feathers to her cap and bringing glory to the family and our country, given a chance, if I could go back in time and change one thing, it would be her accident. Everyone in my family has taken their own time to heal, to come in terms with the loss and everything associated with it. I took a long time to accept what happened with my sister and my family. Few years back, I asked Manasi how she made peace with this and she said “I feel very powerful by the serenity prayer- God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. My accident was a thing that I could never change, but how I lived after it was completely in my hands. I made sure I make my tomorrow better than yesterday.” Manasi has always led by example which has helped not just me but everyone else in my family too.