A brief glimpse of parenthood...

That day I was on my way to my hometown Morigaon. I rode a bus. One young lady in her mid thirties took the seat next to me. She was accompanied by 2 kids of which one was an infant and another one was of around 3 years. Just after the bus started moving, the younger one started troubling her. In no time the little one was provided an infant feeding bottle. The mother came well prepared I suppose... He became calm, but evidently it was becoming troublesome for her to manage both the kids in the moving bus.

After some silent moments, she hesitantly asked me pointing towards the elder one,

"Can you please hold her for sometime?"

I was not in a position to say 'no'...

She said to her daughter,

"Aijani, Tumi uncle'r usarat jua"
(Aijani, go to uncle..)

It was too cute  to see the child climb onto my lap within moments even before I could say anything... :-):-)

For initial 10-15 minutes she kept me busy asking various questions... After that the real scene began, I mean, she started to fall asleep... For me, it was for the first time that I was travelling a public vehicle with a sleeping kid on my lap. I had to manipulate my arms around her to hold her properly so that her head doesn't collide with the window glasses. In one sense I was facing trouble managing her posture, but in another sense I was gradually becoming protective for the child. I had the feeling as if she was my own daughter !!!

Usually I myself fall asleep during any journey when I have to travel alone, but they day I couldn't sleep even for a moment. At the end of the journey, I felt pain on my forearm owing to constant inexperienced handling of a sleeping child for around 1½ hours.. But the pleasure was far far more than all those pains...

The child was in deep sleep on my lap even after the bus stopped.. I got off the bus still holding her... Seeing her innocent happy face, I felt like the child should never be disturbed... But I had to... Our destinations were not the same !!!

At last I woke her up, made her sit on a bench in a nearby shop, lightly pecked her both cheeks and headed towards my clinic. Her mother didn't utter even a single word, but by her gracious smile she silently conveyed me "Thank you..."

You know, though I have not become a father till now, this incident made me feel the pleasure and responsibility of being a parent. Side by side it also made me realise once again the plight of the parents in bringing up their children.

That day I helped the lady a bit, that too on her request... But provided there was no helping hand, then also she would have somehow managed the same. She is a mother, and anyway she rode the bus well prepared to face any situation for the welfare of her kids !!!

Hurt at Heart... But...

That day I was on my way to my hometown Morigaon. At the last stoppage when I got down from the vehicle, the driver approached me,

"Sir, are you Pratap Hazarika sir's elder son?

"Yes..."

"May I ask you one thing?"

I was confused what he was upto... Yet I nodded in the affirmative...

"Sir, what if somebody skips his medications for diabetes for a few days?"

"Are you the guy?"

"Yes sir..."

Without going into unnecessary details, I explained him briefly and informed that it may be even life threatening and asked him to restart the medications and then to consult his physician at the earliest.... It was also informed well that being a diabetic, by driving a vehicle while skipping his medications, he was even unknowingly playing with ours and many other's lives...

"Actually sir... I had some misunderstanding with my wife a few days back... I became too upset... I felt like nobody cares for me, so why should I care for myself ? But today she has returned... And when she came to know about my medicines, she cried  a lot blaming herself... I felt really sorry for her.. It was actually my mistake... But sir... Now I have the urge to live my life once again... "

Even though I concealed my feelings, I had a feeling of  mixed emotions...

He was definitely hurt at heart... But he was making a blunder... He was intentionally inviting sufferings for himself and the whole family... Hopefully he would not repeat the same... And now that he is happy, I too somehow felt happy for this unknown guy !!!

This guy was lucky enough in the sense that his wife returned within a few days, probably his diabetic status was not that much high and he was able to understand his mistake soon.. But not everybody would be that much lucky... Not everybody gets the scope even to repent !!!

You know... Life is never a smooth ride... During some of those stages, we even have the feelings to opt for some drastic steps... But does that help in any way? No.. Not at all... We may live our lives in our own way as we are pleased, but actually our lives are not only ours... There are so many people whose happiness is directly or indirectly related to our lives... At least we don't have the right to make them suffer... And.... the sooner we understand, the better !!!

Papa's little girl.. !!

That day at around 11 pm I went to a ward at GMCH to manage the complaints faced by a patient. As I was returning, one cute scene touched me to the core of my heart...

It was a male ward.. At that time all other patients were sleeping... In the next bed of the patient whom I examined, there was a male patient of around 40 yrs... With him on the same bed, there was a little girl, probably his daughter... It was a chilly night... All other patients were comfortably using blankets... But in this particular case, the scene was different. That man used a blanket to cover his daughter. The little one was confidently sleeping and her father was lovingly holding her even in his sleep... Evidently, for him, his daughter's comfort was his first priority... I mean, you would have surely get confused who the actual patient was... Before leaving the ward, I checked his records... He was awaiting some elective surgery...

You know, this little encounter with the primary parent-child bonding made me realise once again the huge sacrifices made by our parents in bringing us up... And in return what are their expectations? They expect nothing, but our comfort and happiness..!!

Unwelcome attitude !!!

That day my mother called me,

"Baba, yesterday Pranab (name changed) came here... I prepared bread sabji for him... It was really pleasant to notice that he ate all the items so nicely... But at the end I felt like crying... "

She paused for a moment... Probably her emotions overpowered her speech...

"What happened maa?"

She replied,

"He said... 'Baidew, basan khini bhaldore dhui thobo dei... Moi bemari manuh je...'!!!"
[Madam, please wash the utensils properly... You know... I am a diseased person !!"]

I felt really sorry for Pranab da... He is suffering from some chronic diseases for which he is undergoing treatment for last 1 year... Till few days back he was actually bed ridden... His disease is not at all contagious, I mean non infectious... Yet from his expression it became apparent that someone's intentional/unintentional activity had hurt him deeply...

As we all know, there are always some individuals who doesn't care about other's feelings and gossip about anything anywhere... If you are that much concerned about getting a disease from a patient, its well and good... Not an offence at all... Take the precautions... But at least try to act human !!! A chronic patient already suffers a lot... No need to increase it even more by your unwelcome attitude and gesture...

Hope soon we all will realize to behave as sensible as possible to an ill person... Anyway, nobody has the right to make a patient feel to be the burden of the family or the society !!!

Responsibility !!!

Today I met a boy of around 20 yrs at the blood bank.. He came to donate blood for somebody... As part of the routine procedure, when I asked him about his relationship with the patient, he paused for sometime and then replied with hesitation,

"He is my father sir..."

I was somewhat confused.. To be true, I didn't see any reason to be hesitant to divulge the fact that the young boy was indeed donating for his own father... Yet suppressing my confusion, I asked him with a smiling face,

"You are donating blood for the first time... Are you tensed?"

He replied,

"Not at all sir... Actually my father left me and my mother when I was too young to understand anything and married somebody else... He was not at all concerned about the emotional and financial turmoil we two went through... Even after having a 'living' father, my mother was forced to bring me up single handedly... Sorry sir, I can't help, but quite often I hesitate to call him my father... He shouldn't have done this to me... Now he is ill and his other kids are too young... So it's my responsibility to take care of him... Whatever happened is just the past... After all he is my father!!!"

I felt sorry for the boy to hear all these... But then after a moment I was delighted to observe the maturity shown by that boy...

You know... That father totally failed to set an example to carry on responsibility, but his son succeeded...

I hope, his father gets well soon and realize what he missed in all these years and more importantly, hope he also learns what actually responsibility stands for!!