Remembering Anitha.

The Nairs(Captain GR and Anitha) were our neighbours, years back, at the Katari Bagh. The Captain was blessed with the green thumb and he'd a lovely garden all around his house in which he never tired spending hours everyday. Anitha was an active member of the Navy Wives' Welfare Association and spearheaded a lot of its welfare programmes. Her infectious laughter and enthusiastic chatter gave a bubbly outlook to the space encompassed by 18(our's) and 19(their's), Katari Bagh. And she took it upon herself, as her right, to look after Lekha and me.

It was this idyllic setting that we'd to leave behind when we shifted to Delhi in Jun 2000. And soon after, tragedy struck the Nairs when Anitha was diagnosed with a malignant lump in her breast. Despite medical management, the deterioration was swift and she continued her slide towards the inevitable. It's gonna be eight years, in a couple of days, when Anitha had bid adieu to this world and moved behind the mist of time! She's, incidentally, one amongst the departed souls for whom I say a small prayer everyday.

Today, Captain Nair had dropped in to catch up from where we'd left last. I'd always wanted to know about Anitha's last days and he was only too willing to oblige me on that score. Anitha spread happiness to her fellow patients, chatted with the doctors and the nurses and was a livewire to the visitors during the 30 days that she spent at the hospital before slipping into a coma, never to recover. She'd displayed indomitable courage and was a source of hope for the others despite the fact that she had the gravest disease of them all!

As he came to the end of the narration, we found that our eyes were moist and I had the satisfaction of having shared his very personal grief.

Anitha, you shall continue to live deep within till my very end. I humbly bow in prayer for your eternal peace.