Wednesday, November 14, 2012

A welcome and a farewell.

Today happens to be a peculiar day for me insofar as experiences go - one was that of happiness while the other was that of sorrow.

As I'd cited earlier, on taking over as the president of our residential association, I'd made it a point to make personal calls at the homes of residents to be an active participant in their times of happiness as well as sorrows. The gesture was meant to convey to everyone, in the enclave, that we all belonged to one big family and anything and everything that were to befall on anyone of us would impinge upon the rest. Moreover, any timely help that's required by the affected family - perhaps, dazed momentarily by the enormity of the occasion - could be provided by us, bystanders.

So, after my customary walk in the evening, we'd - the secretary and me - gone calling. Niting and Sneha have been blessed with a baby girl and they've decided to call her Isha. They've a son, Dhruv, who's into playschool. The little one was wide awake during the time of our arrival and she looked the happy bundle of joy for the family in every way! They now make a happy foursome - father, mother, son and daughter. Li'l Isha seems to be a happy child as she gurgled and moved her limbs rather ecstatically in the crib, while being in a world of her own.

And it was during my walk that a friend had told me about the demise of a friend's father earlier in the day. Satish's dad was all of 92 yrs, had suffered a broken thigh bone from a fall a fortnight ago and was in hospital. The recovery was steady and he was supposed to be discharged three days back, when he'd suffered a cardiac arrest and consequently, needed the assistance of a ventilator. The end came in a trifle past mid afternoon, today.

I'd the privilege of interacting with Satish's dad, quite a while back. His scholarly and literary pursuits were of a high order and he was giving the finishing touches to the 'Bhagavad Gita' written by him for comprehension of the children, before being hospitalised. Satish has promised to hand over the manuscript to a leading publisher and get the book out as early as possible. The thing that I was drawn towards the father-son duo was that they're more like friends and 'discussed anything and everything under the sun'. Satish, naturally, is heartbroken and his words did choke, quite often, as he spoke about his dad. I could only lend my ears.


Tailpiece.

(a) May only wonderful things happen to li'l Isha.
(b) My humble prayers and salute to a wonderful soul that was Satish's dad. And here's wishing that Satish    
      has the strength to tide over these difficult times.
   

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