Goodbye?

[Guest guest]

" Yaar, Maya Band ka Band baj gaya. "

" Don't joke! " Pradeep pokes me in the stomach. " Colo-rectal carcinoma is as

serious as it gets. "

Yeah! I remember Maya as the over weight girl of our class. She always

joined in the jokes and the fun, and was ever smiling. The darnedest things

happen to the darnedest people.

I grope in my shirt pocket and pull out the chit. I peer at the scrawl, " It

is Block No D1, Room No.5. " We ask our way around the white tiled hospital.

A young, helpful nurse points out the correct way. In passing, I wish I were

at least 20 years younger. I wistfully look away.

" You remember how she was always in a dilemma about how to spell her

surname? " Pradeep tries to make conversation. " Yes! I do remember. Her

surname was Bund as in the 'und' part of underground. But the Punjabis

always mispronounced it as Boond, as in posterior part of our anatomy. What

an irony that it is the very part that is involved now. So she preferred

Band, where it got mispronounced as that instrumental mélange of Shaadi

baraat. "

We see the clearly labeled Room No. 5 / 6. There is no one on one bed.

However the other bed is occupied by a haggard old lady of around 80 years.

I decide to ask her about Maya.

" Excuse me! Do you know where Dr. Maya is? "

The old lady lifts her tired rheumy eyes and says tremulously, " Aarey

Kishore! Don't you recognize me? "

There are no words to describe how I feel. I feel at once shocked,

flabbergasted, dumbfounded and ashamed. What a goof up I have done! What

will Maya think of me? Of herself? But the one emotion, which dominates

everything, is fear. Is this how we all will end? As withered bags of skin

and bones?

" Maya?!!! " That one word compresses all my astonishment and sympathy.

" Yeah! I know that I have changed. Is that Pradeep with you? He also has

lost a lot of hair. You have remained the same. "

" It's genetic, I suppose. But never mind me. Since when have you been here? "

She is a bit breathless. Her voice comes in short gasps. " I have been here

for five long months! They have done such extensive operations, and now this

Chemotherapy is draining me. "

Pradeep is so shocked by her appearance that he launches into a big time

bloomer. " First Deepak Phuljhaley of our batch died. But he died of heart

attack! Then there was Neelam Soft. She had Ovarian Carcinoma! "

I nudge Pradeep and glare at him, moving my eyebrows up and down. Pradeep

suddenly catches my hint and lamely ends it with, " However, these Colo

rectal carcinomas have good prognosis. " Then he lapses into silence biting

his tongue.

Suddenly Maya's husband enters. We immediately hand him the various eatables

and drinks that we have brought with us. He says regretfully, " Thanks for

getting all these things, but she just does not eat anything. "

Pradeep and I immediately launch into how nutrition is very important in

Cancer patients. Anything to avoid the question of prognosis. Maya weakly

waves her hand, " 11 of the 14 removed lymph nodes have tested positive. "

That is the trouble with being a doctor. You no longer believe in magic. You

no longer believe in miracles. But Maya bravely continues, " Some specialists

do say that with proper chemotherapy and radio therapy, recovery is good in

some cases. "

We nod our heads in unison. What else can we do? We also do not believe in

magic or miracles. But we need to believe.

Maya takes a wheezy breath and continues, " But I have no regrets. I had a

good practice, a moderately sized hospital. I made quite a name in

Ahmednagar. I married off my daughter also. I have only one regret. I could

not attend the silver jubilee reunion of our batch. I could have met

everybody then! "

That reminded me. " All of MGIMS has sent good wishes to you. " I reel off

the names.

She wrinkles her brow and sinks deeper into the pillow, " I know Dr. OP Gupta

Sir, of course. And I know Parvin Ansari. But who are these others? "

" Well, one pair of them is Dr. Harinath's son and daughter in law. Another

is Desikan madam's daughter. You remember her? "

" Yes! Vaguely. But who are these Kalantri and Das and Kamath and Archana and

Kamra and Mina and Sharmila and others? "

" Well, believe it or not, Maya, they are all part of your family. You may

not know them but now they know you. And they can feel your pain and they

are all praying for you. "

Maya tiredly closes her eyes. She is so debilitated that no moisture came

out. But she blinks open her eyes again and says, " Please thank them on my

behalf. "

" I shall, Maya, but no one thanks family members. "

Conversation flags for a while. Then Maya's husband gets out a huge volume

of case papers for us to read. I remember how I had refused to read 'War

and Peace' in my childhood because I had a principle that I would only read

books that I could lift. This sheaf is much larger.

Mercifully, the nurse enters then with her dressing trolley. Maya cringes

at her sight. " That give me spasmodic pains when they clean and flush my

Ileostomy bag. "

Pradeep and I get up thankfully. We can no longer bear to see the ruins of

our cheerful, ever smiling colleague. I decide there and then to instruct

all my relatives not to do anything heroic in case I get something similar.

We turn around and look at the skeleton wrapped in skin called Maya.

" Goodbye Maya! " Is there a question there? We walk out with our eyes firmly

glued to the toes of our shoes. This time around, I ignore the young nurse

that we had passed on our way in.

Kishore Shah 1974