A fortnight back, I'd written about a friend of mine who'd called on us during his annual tryst to the temple town. One of the information that he'd handed over, then, was a mutual friend's contact number with a word of caution.
That friend of our's had recently undergone a major surgery on account of intestinal cancer in Bombay and was under the care of the hospital even now. The reserved character that he was had become more aloof, only spoke with a very few and attended his cellphone accordingly. His wife, the sole attendant, screened the incoming calls to reduce his agony. Their only daughter, married in February this year along with her husband, is in the mile-high city of Atlanta, US.
During his heydays, my friend(I shall maintain his personality so for the sake of confidentiality) used to be a compulsive introvert and it was a Herculean effort to draw him out of his shell. I think I can almost recount the number of times that I've seen him laughing without inhibitions. But, all the same, he's a great guy who goes out of his way to help the needy and would fight his way through even if his adversary was miles senior to him, for a worthy cause. Consequently, he'd lost out on the professional front and his gag was, "Look I'm out of the rat race because you see, I wasn't cut out to be one!"
According to hearsay, he'd taken the news of his ailment badly but my friend was insistent that a pep talk from me would lighten him up. I was hesitant and the very fact that it took a fortnight on my part to establish contact showed my hopeless inadequacy in this regard. This evening, I'd chided myself saying that enough was enough and made that call. And boy, I'm glad that I did it. Conversation flowed freely and it was he who'd broached the topic about his illness. He sounded philosophical and attributed its trigger to be our conversation. Our lengthy exchange ended with his words, "Rajeev, I knew that you'd contact me at some point of time. Usually, I make it to the temple town at least once a year and this time, I look forward to being with you".
And it's simply nice to hear that.
Tailpiece.
A weekend that sped past at breakneck speed thanks to the presence of my younger sister and family, who've fetched up from Bangalore on vacation. It's nice catching up with them!
That friend of our's had recently undergone a major surgery on account of intestinal cancer in Bombay and was under the care of the hospital even now. The reserved character that he was had become more aloof, only spoke with a very few and attended his cellphone accordingly. His wife, the sole attendant, screened the incoming calls to reduce his agony. Their only daughter, married in February this year along with her husband, is in the mile-high city of Atlanta, US.
During his heydays, my friend(I shall maintain his personality so for the sake of confidentiality) used to be a compulsive introvert and it was a Herculean effort to draw him out of his shell. I think I can almost recount the number of times that I've seen him laughing without inhibitions. But, all the same, he's a great guy who goes out of his way to help the needy and would fight his way through even if his adversary was miles senior to him, for a worthy cause. Consequently, he'd lost out on the professional front and his gag was, "Look I'm out of the rat race because you see, I wasn't cut out to be one!"
According to hearsay, he'd taken the news of his ailment badly but my friend was insistent that a pep talk from me would lighten him up. I was hesitant and the very fact that it took a fortnight on my part to establish contact showed my hopeless inadequacy in this regard. This evening, I'd chided myself saying that enough was enough and made that call. And boy, I'm glad that I did it. Conversation flowed freely and it was he who'd broached the topic about his illness. He sounded philosophical and attributed its trigger to be our conversation. Our lengthy exchange ended with his words, "Rajeev, I knew that you'd contact me at some point of time. Usually, I make it to the temple town at least once a year and this time, I look forward to being with you".
And it's simply nice to hear that.
Tailpiece.
A weekend that sped past at breakneck speed thanks to the presence of my younger sister and family, who've fetched up from Bangalore on vacation. It's nice catching up with them!
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