Wednesday, July 26, 2017

A painful life of just 45 days?

I'd complained to the 'direct-to-home' service agency about our dish television that was misbehaving for the past few days. There was something that was wrong with the reception and I'd pinpointed it to some loose connections on the dish itself, thanks to the fairly extensive monsoon winds that we'd experienced. Joshi, after confirming our presence in the house, arrived by a quarter past 3 and had begun trouble shooting without much ado.

Now, what happened next was invariably one of those false starters that I've frequently faced on similar occasions and today was no different.. The system about which I'd lodged the complaint began functioning properly, without glitches. He connected up a gauge and showed me that all the parameters of the system was absolutely normal and I deliberately ignored his look which seemed to say, "Sir, why are you wasting my time? I suggest that you better be tech savvy". Probably scared by the dirtiest looks that I gave the system, its problem started getting to be visible, a while later, much to my relief!

Joshi realised the problem and had gone up on the  terrace to tackle it and it was nothing but a problem of loose contacts. After rectifying the error, he was on his way out to his next assignment when Lekha had got a piping hot cup of tea for him and it was over that cup of tea that he broke down and shared his anguish with me. Last September, he and his wife were blessed with a daughter and they were quite happy about the arrival of a baby girl and that too, after two boys. But the baby was born with multiple medical problems and since her mother was a nurse, the delivery had taken place at the same hospital where she worked. Within a few days, the hospital had recommended the shifting of the mother and the baby to a bigger and better equipped hospital at Thrissur. After 25 days of agony, the baby and her mother were shifted to yet a bigger hospital at Kochi.

It was there that the doctor had taken them into confidence and told them the following:-

     (a) The child had a multiple array of medical problems like a hole in the heart to a cleft upper lip
           to many other minor irritants.
     (b) The heart's problem needed an early resolution but the success was assured at a paltry 28%
           after surgery.
     (c)  Blood was being drawn from the baby from day 1 for various tests and the poor thing was
           undergoing a lot of pain which it was unable to convey either to its parents or to the medical
           people due to its infancy.

The baby passed into the mist of time on day 45! What was the purpose of its birth? To undergo pain for just 45 days and to return to the creator? Or was it its last birth prior to attaining the universal soul - God - and the suffering was its unfinished share of agonies from its past birth?

I could make out that Joshi was yet to get out of the trauma and he says that his wife was in a worse condition and she has become a total vegetarian, that's not helping her health. He's going to Kannur to try his luck at the 16 to 42 yrs' recruitment rally, next week and had cleared many of his doubts on the subject with me. Probably, this is the safety valve that he's seeking for himself after the massive tragedy! God, please look after him and trouble him no further!! He has had more than his share of agony in this life!!!



Tailpiece.

He remembered my mom who was having her siesta in the ground floor bedroom while he'd come to work, last time. I realised that he was yet another person who was floored by her charm....I saw him with folded hands before my mom's photograph on the mantelpiece....... And for no particular reason, I felt happy.
  

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