Life Moves On……

My Dear Reha,

Conceived, planned , designed and executed so meticulously by you and Nitish that our Home is gradually turning into a Dream Home your Meethi Ma would have loved to be in.

I recall with nervousness the day, and it is not history but some two months ago, when you and I had come back in our Surya Vihar Flat as robotic machine, after a long harrowing day at the office of the Registrar where we had completed the formalities of transfer of property, only to find your Meethi Ma waiting anxiously for us in the Drawing Room…it was almost 5 pm on 17th June 2015 barely 11 days before She left us. Doctors had already given up on Her…and we knew that She might not have enough time to fulfil Her long cherished desire to live in Her own Home. Outside Her hospital room on 29th April, 2015, Dr Sanchit Wadhwa, your childhood friend and now a doctor, had arranged a meeting with Dr Jain, a junior oncologist who was in the team of doctors attending to your Meethi Ma. The meeting lasted for about ten minutes….my soul shudders even at the thought of it….it was a miracle that I could stand the whole duration, eyes fixed in one direction and ears listening to a feeble voice coming from a long distance…as if from the other planet…..the only request I somehow made was that the transition of your Meethi Ma be smooth.

It was a controlled meeting, no crying, no tears , man-to-man, no expression, total surrender. Both the doctors left us dazed and motionless and speechless. The only thing we could do was to hold each other’s hands and cry silently for an indefinite period of time at the Nursing Station. When we recovered and started moving towards your Meethi Ma’s room, we promised to keep the meeting a secret…….I had grown stronger over the last five years, you know…..

I handed over the keys and papers of Home to your Meethi Ma. Did YOU, did you ALSO notice the heavenly sparkle, as I did, on Her face while touching the keys ? This was the Home She had chosen after prolonged discussions and arguments almost every day during the last couple of months. It was Her choice. It was Her dream that came true. It was Her last gift to all of us. And as always, She had the last word.

As She was, She told me to keep both the keys and the documents in the ‘ Mandir’. Nitish. came a little later and he tried to diffuse the heavy atmosphere, thickly shadowed by uncertainties and fears, with his pranks. At his instance, we had a ‘party’ in the evening. There was a forced smile on our face….but more than that I could see your Meethi Ma as the most relieved person in the world because She knew that She had completed the most crucial. task of Her life by giving us Home we needed so badly after Her. She also knew that I could not have taken such a bold decision……all by myself.

There comes a time in your life when your age tells on you and you tend to forget what you had taught to your children all along. As you say, the role is reversed. The Teacher becomes the Taught. The Taught becomes the Teacher. You need your children to remind you that Big Boys don’t cry. You need your children to tell you that life has to move on……….

Love

Dad