Moments

It will be difficult, if not impossible, to single out one moment  as most favourite. Life does not work like that. Human memory has a capacity to store innumerable moments, which on retrieval,  can produce varied emotions – amusement, astonishment, revelation, serendipity and even disgust. The last one may not strictly fall within the realm of favourable, yet can still be educational. Again it depends on how it is perceived. But any incident which adds to learning can definitely be categorised as favourable.

The last few months have been a prolonged period of suffering and continues to be so.  My stay in the hospital at regular intervals (on an average after every two months) to undergo two major surgeries, has been a part of an arduous journey, which I  believe, was preordained. I had to undertake it in my orbit of life, the necessity of which, I am sure,  will be revealed sometime in due course.

I was entitled to a twin sharing room, as per my office’s  Post Retirement Medical Scheme. Sharing rooms in the hospital can be bothersome because your roommate may not have the same sensibilities as yours.

Prior to the surgery I shared a room with a middle aged woman ailing from Jaundice.  Her day started late  when her son came to be with her. A family of shopkeepers their morning started midday and ended past midnight – an absolute contra to mine. Having all along  been fed the efficacies of early to bed and early to rise  since almost infancy, any routine other than that was quite a disruptive revelation.

However, from the robust discussions on the other side,  easily filtering through the flimsy partition in between, I in spite of least interest, became privy to intimate family matters e.g. the lady did not quite see eye to eye with her husband,  her jewellery was under mortgage which her son proposed to get back soon, her daughter longed to go back to her kid who was missing her immensely and such other. I would not say I relished these tid bits – an auditory barrage which I could have done without. However, to be honest, it did provide some distraction in my condition of utter distress and despair.

Post surgery, I was in a stupor for many days, partially because of the medications and mostly because of the physical discomfort and pain. It was a big sunny twin bedded room which I came to occupy. The other bed was at first occupied by a child who insisted on watching the TV with raised volume. The mother was even louder who made it a point to admonish the son at the drop of a hat. The father added to the cacophony with his continuous haggle with the Billing Desk.

In between my sister had to request them to keep their voices low which was taken as an affront by both the parents. It was quite a relief when the boy got discharged.

My sigh of relief soon turned into horror as the patient who came to share the room next started hurling abuses interspersed with gasps and howls. Even in that haze I was appalled by the magnitude of his anguish. He cried uncontrollably like a child! A bunch of rather uncouth men attending on him, the  nurses administering painkillers, the physicians checking on him failed to relieve him of his acute misery. At this juncture, my sister got me shifted to another room as I was quite shaken by the entire spectacle.

The room was window less, much smaller and of course on sharing basis but nevertheless had an air of cheerfulness. The nurses’ station was also close at hand and the length of a corridor separated it from the earlier one from where the shrieks and shouts of my erstwhile neighbour could still be distantly heard but not so much as to bear down on me.

Soon another inmate joined – a retired daroga (Head of a Police Station) who made it a point to throw his weight around, refused to listen to the nurses and staff, insisted on leaving the hospital without the doctor’s permission as  according to him he was absolutely fit and fine. It was only before the attending physician that he would suddenly go mute. A great source of entertainment, at the expense of a flustered nursing staff, he made me smile with his antics.

I know all the moments  revisited are not exactly enjoyable. Nonetheless these have left an imprint on me – some by their disruption , some by their novelty and some by their gimmickry.

I am yet again to be admitted very soon and do not know what lies in store. Whatever be, if  it happens to leave a mark on me,  will surely evolve into another post. Amidst all the uncertainties , it’s this that I am very sure of.

Pic from Pixel