Dear Appa,
Five years back around this time I was about to land at Hyderabad to see you at Apollo Hospitals. A neurosurgeon had finally seen you after nearly 5 hours and had been convinced by Krishnan and Ashok to operate on you. Gopu mama had canceled his ticket and everyone was huddled in the reception of the hospital. You told me as I sat on the floor of the Delhi airport that you wanted to go …. But I ignored that because I wanted you to live.
I had spoken to you in the morning, around 930 as I was going back from Bangalore to Delhi. Remember, Krishnan was working out of Bangalore and I was here every weekend. You and Amma were to come to Delhi on the 6th so we could visit the Queen in London :):)
You had got me the snacks I wanted and then death paid a visit in the form of a cerebral haemorrhage. You had high BP and momentarily high enough for a blood vessel to haemorrhage in your brain.. And why did you choose to stand on the railing on the first floor to help that boy clean up the place ? Maybe because that way you could stay alive for the next four months and say your good byes. Anyway, you fell to the ground unconscious and didnt break a bone ! All the Yoga you did came in handy.
The sad state of the India emergency system was seen for the next 5 hours as Amma, Raju and Koka took you from one hospital to the other till Krishnan’s contacts managed to get us an audience at Apollo. There are life lessons in everyday living in India – you won’t die till your time comes and you won’t live a minute longer 🙂 cool and important lesson, so we can go about life without fear.
Anyway, you did have the surgery when the doc felt you had less than 1% chance of survival.. But you needed just 4 months and am glad the doc helped us give you that. I saw you at almost 8 pm in the ICU and cried, because you were on a ventilator. We would learn many things about the ICU, docs, nurses, infections, tracheostomy, potassium levels, some miracles, some cheats, your goodwill and how fragile and wonderful life is over the next four months that you spent in the hospital. The hardest thing was to see you go through so much pain and to keep up our spirits and believe you will make it.
No am not crying and this is not to mope around, I know that is not what you would have liked and life does move on as it should. I wanted to just let you know that last year on this day, I started my ISB exec MBA classes, yes, in the same campus that you and Amma had visited with Krishnan and I in 2006. Today, I am nearly done with the program, just another two terms to go. I also got a chance to study at Wharton and Kellogg in July – another dream fulfilled.
Appa, by the way, we went and bought our first portable Bose speaker today – I know you wanted them and never got them since they were so expensive :):) Sorry, we can’t be as thrifty as you were. The headset is also very cool, I made Amma listen to a song on them. Btw Mr. Bose died a couple of weeks back when we were in the US.
So we celebrated the day as you would have liked us to and life is good.. We can sense your handiwork many times, so I know you are around, and on the same bus as us, just unseen. So enjoy the Bose sounds and the film songs we play. I think I need help getting my temper under control … I loose it totally sometimes like on Friday. That’s your project Naanagaru – please work on it next.
Lots of love
Malu