Thursday, September 13, 2018
Bombay
Waiting in Holy Family Hospital on Ganesh Chaturti:
Namaste from Bombay!
You must wonder what happens to sick people on holidays! Today was a holiday in Bombay to celebrate Ganesh Chaturti--feast of the most beloved God of the Hindus--the elephant-headed Ganesh. It is a huge festival in Maharashtra. People bring wonderfully painted clay idols of Ganesh into their homes where he is pampered all week long through pujas and the distribution of traditional sweets called modaks. Most of Bombay was closed today--schools, colleges, some offices, businesses and shops.
I awoke at 6.00 am and rushed through my morning ablutions and my breakfast in order to meet my Dad at the hospital at 8.00 am so that my vigil over my brother Russel could begin. And what do you know? Just ten minutes before we could set out, torrential rain bucketed down. It thundered on the rooftops and began to flood the streets in minutes. I was lucky to find a rickshaw just a few steps from my studio and jumping into it, I reached the hospital just a little past 8.00 am.
At the hospital, I found that the Out Patients Department was closed. This meant that the hordes of people that queue and crowd the ground floor were absent. There was almost no one around--the corridors were empty and spotless and quiet. It reminded me a lot of the hospitals in Connecticut where you have these vast spaces, wide hallways, sparkling corridors, with hardly anyone passing through them.
Russel had a better, more restful night. He was cheerful and seemed almost back to his normal self when we arrived. He had been sponged and changed and had breakfasted well. He actually did a bit of reading. Fortunately for him, no one had occupied the accompanying bed during the night and until 11.00 am, we had the room to ourselves.
Dad read his newspaper and I began work on my laptop that I had carried with me. I focussed on drafting the plenary address that I have been invited to give at a conference on Translation next month in Hyderabad. Luckily for me, I had given a paper on the transliteration of literary works to other media such as films at the University of Bath in the UK, about twenty years ago. It would be very easy for me to recycle that talk by bringing it up to date with more recent publications and criticism and to bolster my arguments with new examples. I spent almost all day working on this talk with very little disturbance as Russel slept most of the time. I ended up making very good headway with it. Russel seems reconciled to the fact that he will be having surgery on Saturday at 11.100 am. With visitors no longer encouraged to see patients in hospitals, we really did not see anyone except for Jon Ken who arrived at the very end of the day.
At mid-morning, Dad started feeling uneasy. I told him to lie down on the adjoining plank bed--which he did. An hour later, he awoke and said that he felt much better. Surely the stress of this crisis is taking its toll on him. I am praying for Russel and for him--that he will have the mental and psychological strength to withstand this challenge and to know that he is in a better place because he has me to share it.
Dad ate lunch in the hospital canteen and when he got back to the ward, I left for home and ate lunch in my own studio as I now know that other than biscuits, fruit and coconut water, you cannot bring any food into the hospital. I also had the chance to take a short nap before I returned to the hospital at 4.00 pm. The two of us passed the evening with me turning to read some part of my Harlan Coben novel, Let It Go on my I Pad which I also carried to the hospital; but both Dad and I are finding it hard to focus on other activities. Occasionally we chat about current affairs or Dad asks me to read something to him in the papers which he finds too difficult to do with his failing eyesight.
In the mid-afternoon, two orthopedists, Dr. Parth and Dr. Vijay, came to see Russel to find out how he is doing. They took us aside and told us that surgery is set for Saturday and they asked us to choose between titanium plates or stainless steel plates that will be inserted into his leg to set the fractured bones. We discussed the pros and cons of each choice with them and Dad made the decision to go with titanium which is double the cost but is considered the better option. Let us hope that all will go well with the surgery and that Russel will manage okay when the time comes for him to go back home--which he is very keen to do.
Dad left the hospital at 7.00 pm while I stayed there till 8.30 pm when I had Jon Ken's company for about half an hour. When we realized that with the Out Patients Department closed today, there would be no doctor's visits, I too decided to leave. Russell's night attendant arrived at 8.00 pm and took care of his dinner. Russel was very drowsy and slept most of the day. He seemed keen to go back to sleep right after his dinner.
Back home at 8.30, I was actually able to have a full dinner and watch another episode of the British cop drama In the Line of Duty which is terrific. I must tell Llew to watch it too in the US--so that we can both talk about it.
By 10.00 pm, I brushed and flossed my teeth and fell off to sleep. There will be one more day of waiting (tomorrow) before D-Day or S-Day (Surgery-Day) on Saturday which will be busy and stressful, no doubt.
We are praying...and with the Lord and his Blessed Mother in-charge, we are happy to leave it all in Their hands.
Until tomorrow....
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