someone turned me around to cut the umbilical cord that had wrapped itself around my neck , squeezing my throat and choking my breath , and my eyes fell on the green wall of the hospital and the clock and the second hand , and i saw once again the second hand ticking , one more second , one more second , one more second , and that triggered something in me and the memories rushed back in a great cyclic link between life and death and existence and non-existence and then re-birth .