I have always believed in God’s sense of Love,
Compassion, Justice, Mercy and Fairplay ……
In the other
room , my family was busy watching the last heart-wrenching scene of Ray’s
immortal ‘Aparajita’ by Bibhuti Bhusan Bandopadhyaya.
Apu
comes back home and finds his only relation on God’s earth, his mother gone. He
breaks down pitiably wailing his heart out, mourning his irreparable loss…..
I remember
my late Ma lying in the ICU in a coma. There are so many things I wanted to
tell her, so many things I could or should have shared with her. But that is
not to be, not in this life any more. Perhaps in another life, in another world
….
Right now
there is another pressing matter keeping me preoccupied – my Mejdi. These days,
she reminds me a lot of my Ma. She has been confined to bed by a cruel stroke
of Fate of late just like my Ma was. It is very painful to find her lying in
bed like the way she has been –utterly helpless and uncomplaining.
The other
day Shanku, her driver of over twenty years; Jaya, my spouse and I heard the
last pronouncement of Dr.Subrata Mondal at Rotary Netralaya at Sector-V, Salt
Lake. The doc took us back to the room for a last check- up of Mejdi’s scan
test related to the nerves in her left eye. He sounded very hopeful initially. I think there is still hope. We’ll give it
another try .. but the next moment Dr. Arpita, one of his associates,
reminded him of the RD (?). I find
the doc catching his breath in the throat.
RD! reiterates the doctor. Something
seemed ominous as he started going back and forth to a particular spot on the
monitor. Sorry, he said as he stood
up and left the room in a hurry, leaving the task of explaining the inevitable
to a junior doctor.
We got to
know the truth some time later. Mejdi, the lion-hearted daughter of
Lt.J.C.Bhattacharyya, has become blind in the left eye. She will never see the
bright-bitter world with her left eye again!
I’ll
remember what she told us on the way back to Room-111 for a long time just to show
how spirited she was even at that time:
He will take my life before He takes
my vision …..
A brave
lady, the like of whom Bengal may not see for a long time to come! I’ll
remember the view my eldest brother, Dr. Debesh Bhattacharyya, expressed to my
late brother-in-law once regarding Mejdi:
I have, during my travels round the
world, come across all sorts of women. She gets 10 out of 10 in my rating.
A lady who
was always the pride of her parents, nay, the whole family of late
J.C.Bhattacharyya. Someone, who has been a tower of strength to all her
siblings and relatives. And the most amazing thing is the way she has preferred
to keep quiet of all her acts of benevolence and fellow-feeling.
Let me cite
an example to express how she has helped people in times of need. It happened
on February 2nd of this year. Having paid a visit to my in-laws,
Jaya and I were on our way back to Sealdah for some last minute shopping. We
dropped in at one of our familiar shops. Our cylinder got exhausted the day
before and getting the refill was going to be heck of a problem as my account with the
local distributor was locked. By chance we happened to find a PKD cylinder of 4
kg with a price tag of some 1600/-. The owner agreed to sell it for not less
than 1530/- after a hard-fought bargain. Unfortunately, between my wife and me,
we could not churn out more than 1270/-, excluding the 10-rupee note I had kept
in my shirt pocket!
I was coming
out of the shop with a drooped head, when Jaya risked making an unbelievable
request to him for the cylinder with the promise of paying the rest of the
money on the next day! And surprise of surprises – the amicable owner agreed
without knowing us all that well.
We had
springs in our feet on the way back to Deblane. Back home I was literally broke
for the time being as I had to part with the last 10-rupee note for the bus fare.
The holidays were coming to an end and I had to pull strings to manage my
expenses. Feeling utterly depressed then, all I could hope for was to withdraw
whatever little money I was left with in my joint savings account with my
youngest sister, Tapasi Ghosh.
Right at
that time, like a bolt from the blue, descended my widowed sis-in-law, with the
sparkling envelope in her hand. The very sight of it brought a great relief to
my ebbing soul. It contained Rs.2500/- in hundred rupee notes. I get it every
now and then during my visits to Kolkata. I tried to make much noise about it
earlier, but this time it was nothing short of a gift from The Almighty through
what I consider to be one of His most unpretentious daughters! ( If some people
are ashamed of admitting it now, I sincerely believe, they will, in due course
of time as no one can be so very ungrateful to Him).
I am all eagerness to see if God is merciful to Mejdi and treats this great daughter of His any differently or not.
