The Bitter Truth

" Disclaimer: This plot is purely fictional, resembelance to anybody, alive or dead, is purely coincidental"

Admist deep slumber i was shaken off all of a sudden by my fellow commuter, i looked at him in shock and disbelief for being so cruel to me. Perhaps judging my expression he realised that he had acted upon a bit too hyperactively in waking me off and just to pacify things, gave me a cordial smile and said "Aapka stop aa gaya sir :-)". I looked around and saw the bus which a couple of minutes ago was zooming off as if it was the last time its running on the road, standing still waiting for me to alight as soon as possible. The passengers looking at me with a tinge of anger and the conductor standing near the door holding it open for me made me feel they had to wait for a bit longer for me to get up. To save me from more embarassment i rose up my seat, collected my huge bag from the rack above and in the process nearly tripped myself on the lap of a beautiful woman sitting on the opposite seat. More than her it was her husband who helped me in regaining my balance so that i dont fall off on her wife :o), i dont think his wife would have minded much, had i landed on her lap. I stepped down the bus, smiled at the conductor who was polite enough to reciprocate. He slammed the door as i looked, hit the bus a couple of times with his stone like tough hands and said "Chal Re" which made the Bus zoom off into thin air. I could see the messages "Please Keep Distance ; Blow Horn " fading away with the Bus.

I picked up my bag, put it on my shoulders and started walking down the road. The weather was awesome as if it had rained cats & dogs the earlier night, and with cool breeze blowing it made me feel more sleepy. My Tissot told me it was 7 A.M and i was quite happy to have made it on time, coz more often that nought these busses run late. As i headed towards my Uncle's house i thought of stopping by Uma Shankar Tea Stall, this being the famous tea stall in the area. "Kaise ho bhaiya ji" asked the person sitting on the counter. He knew me pretty well as i was a frequent visitor at his shop whenever i was in that place. "Bas theek thaak" i replied. As he handed me over the Tea, i asked "Aur kaise chal raha he sab ??". "Sab bhagwaan ki kripa he" he answered. I asked him about Uncle and Aunty to which he said "Ab kaise honge bhaiya, bilkul akele pad gaye hain, koi he bhi to nahi paas mein, ek doosre ke sahaare hain bas". I nodded my head and sipped the Tea and was off the shop in a couple of minutes. As i walk towards the house which is not pretty far off, let me give you a insight of where have i come and for what so that you dont feel alieniated with the happenings hereafter. I am here to meet my Uncle & Aunty. Uncle was a Teacher who retired last Month and aunty was the perfect Home maker. They had 3 Kids comprising 2 Sons and a Daughter all of them happily married, and as destiny would have it they all were miles away from home busy in each other's lives. Now that i have reached the House lemme get to the Present Mode.

The House stood at the end of the Road, it was an independent house with a big courtyard surrounding the entire house. It was the typical kind of old big houses one comes across in not so big towns. There was a garden of pretty decent size and inorder to get into the actual house one had to span across the garden. There was a huge mango tree at the far corner of the garden and in totality all this gave the house a perfect picture.

"Ding Dong" rang the calling bell as i pressed it, waiting for someone to come out. As i stood there i felt an eerie silence brooding over the House. A couple of years ago this house used to be a hub, hustling & bustling with People, but after the migration of my cousins, it looked as dead as a House can be. I could see the transformation of the Home to a House. First the Elder Son got married and a couple of months later went to USA for an onsite assignment as they would call it in the Software Terminology. Then it was the time for the only daughter of the house and she was married off with much grandeur & fanfare. And as the last nail on the coffin would have it, the youngest of the trio also left for UK a couple of months ago after making it to a decent university to pursue his Masters.

I heard from Mummy that after this, not everything was going fine in the lives of the Old Couple and thats the reason i made it a point to visit them during my Long Leave from work. As i was thinking about all this i heard the door open silently on my back, and as i turned around i saw my aunty standing with her welcoming smile as ever. I loved when she smiled coz she had a dimple and that looked great on her. I often used to joke her saying i would marry a girl having a dimple like my aunt's. She came closed and hugged me and i could see my Uncle following suit. I wished them both and we proceeded in. I felt, both of them had lost much weight and were looking comparatively leaner. As i reached the drawing room, i saw a big family photo hanging which was taken perhaps on the day of the daughter's wedding. The house was a huge one but it looked wrecked as if most portions of it was hardly trodded upon. The look owed its existance to a quite logical reason though, how would a 10 roomed house supposed to look when its practically inhabited by two souls. I could not belive its the same house, coz earlier it was so crowded that even such a big house looked a tad small at times, but as they say time changes everything & so did it had an effect here as well.

As i was getting acclamatised to the new environ, i saw aunty busy preparing breakfast for me and Uncle helping her with tea. They were an ideal couple in true sense with uncle always coming to the aid of aunty. It felt so good seeing both of them so much in love with each other even after 35 years of their marriage. I headed towards the restroom to refresh myself and joined them back an hour later. "Tu abhi bhi itna time toilet mein rehta he" asked my aunty seeing me back. I smiled & nodded and we all sat together on the big wooden dinning table. There were 8 chairs of which 2 were being used till date and the third one coming to action today on my arrival. We discussed about a whole lot things ranging from each others health, my job, my marriage topic which i avoided quickly, and finally an extensive discussion on their three kids and what are they upto recently. "Why don't you go to USA and stay there for a couple of months with Sanjay Bhaiya" i asked. On hearing this they looked at each other and tried to avoid the question but when i refused to buzz from that query, Uncle said "Passport keliye apply kiya he, milte hi kuch plan banega", the reply seemed logical enough. After finishing my breakfast aunty asked me to take a nap as i had travelled the whole of previous night. As i lied down thinking about beautiful girl in the bus the previous night, i heard the phone ringing in the drawing room, "Long ring he, sanjay ka hoga" said uncle and both of them literally ran towards the phone. I was taken aback seeing the excitement a phone call had generated, this showed how alone they were and how dearly they missed their kids. After both of them talked for around 15 minutes with aunty doing the majority of the talking they hung up. I was not exactly feeling sleepy so i again proceeded towards the living room. Aunty on seeing me said "Sanjay calls us once every week, he is very responsible" . She was beaming with happiness as she said this, even Uncle looked revitalised as if they just had some kinda magic potion. How less parents expect when it comes to kids showing concern for them. He had hardly done his duty by calling once a week but even that seemed to make him a perfect son in view of his parents. The day passed on with both of them not failing to mention about their kids at the slighest chance. They treated me like VVIP Guest and i felt as if they were trying to live their life which had become so monotonus a bit differently.

I was ushered with all kinds of foods and desserts and finally it was time for the afternoon nap. They both proceeded towards the bed room and i sat on the sofa in the living room flipping across the newspapers. As i was going through the backdated papers, i found a big white Envelope which read "Sanjeevani Clinic". I was shocked to see it, the reason being, this clinic has a good reputation in treating patients mainly suffering from Brain Tumour. I quickly took the reports out and it didn't take me long enough to know that Aunty has been diagnosed with "Meningioma" its a kind of tumor that arises from the Meninges (the membranes covering the brain & spinal cord) and occurs mostly in Middle-aged women. I couldn't belive what i was seeing, i was sure no one would have known about this coz in that case atleast my Mama should have told me as she tells me about each and everything that used to happen within our relatives. And moreover we were a closely knit family so there was not even a bleak chance of such news getting supressed. I breezed through the reports and with the little medical knowledge i had i knew she had surpassed the initial stages and was in a pretty precarious state. To put my thoughts to confirmation i took my uncle's car and headed straight to Sanjeevani Clinic with the reports. After an extensive discussion with the Doctor, "How many days doctor?" i asked to which he replied in a grim tone "A couple of months more". The ground slipped out of my feet on hearing this. "Does she know about this" i asked again, the doctor in response to this just nodded the head indicating that both of them infact know this. As i was descending down the stairs i just could not help my cheeks getting wet thanks to the tears which rolled down swiftly. I loved my aunty and here i was told that a couple of months more and the my Aunty was going to be reffered as "WAS" instead of "IS". I was not going to let this happen at any cost, i had a plan and so i went back to the house.

It was 6 in the evening and as i entered the house i saw both deeply engrossed in gardening. "Where had you been" asked Aunty, i said was just off for a ride. I helped them in their gardening activity, infact both of them had a common passion and that was Gardening. As we 3 reached the big mango tree, aunty said "This tree is going to bear fruit in 4 Months, i will give you lots of mangoes" suddenly after saying this they both looked at each other and then aunty said again "Even if am not there, Unlce will give you the mangoes" and she started smiling and uncle looked faded and jaded. I knew what she meant but kept quiet as i was on the lookout of the correct time. We went back inside the house and sat there for the evening tea. I felt thats the time i should be bringing the topic.

"When are your passports expected?" i asked, to which my uncle said that it would take a month or so. I was off the idea that if i would be able to send them off to USA within a short span of time, then there are chances of aunty getting expert treatment and recovering soon. But a month seemed a bit far off for my plans to materialize. I could not think about any other way to initiate the topic, so i said bluntly "Does sanjay bhaiya know about this?", "About what?" said Aunty, "About your Tumor" i replied in a stern voice. I was infact angry on them for keeping such a news under secrecy & more than aunty i felt uncle was to be blamed. They both were shocked to the core on hearing this from me, what followed thereafter was aunty trying to expain me that she was fine the Doctors have the habbit of exaagerating things. She asked me to keep it a secret as well but thats the last thing i was going to do. I said am going to talk about this with all including their Kids, to which she reacted violently. That didn't have much impact on me as i knew what i was doing was right. Even Uncle seemed to appreciate my idea of going sending them off to US & getting her treated there. I assured them of their passports arriving within a week and asked them to make up their minds at the earliest. I knew quite a lot of people from the Passport Office and was confident that some bucks would change hands the passports would be issued. The next big thing remained breaking this news to the Entire family. As expected this news came as a blow to each of the family members and a gloom descended over all the near and dear ones. A week had passed and the passports were issued well on time. I was back to my workplace but was coordinating everything. As i sat there in my office trying to get the tickets booked for Uncle & Aunty, my cell phone rang "Sanjay Bhaiya- USA" was the name flashing. I picked up the call and started talking to him about the flights, schedules and everything. After everything had been discussed he said "Are you sure its Brain Tumor" i was confused on hearing this, what did he mean when he asked me this question? I had literally read out the report to him, faxed him the same and described my discussions with the Doctor at stretch, just to make him sure it was Brain Tumor. It was not the question he asked but the way he did that made me feel real bad. He meant if i am not sure its Brain Tumor and if it can be cured in India than there's no logic in coming to USA and treating her. I was red with anger but he was about 7 years elder to me, i tried to be a normal as possible. Here his mother was going to live for a month and half more and there he was in search of Logic ? How shameful on his part, and what was this for ? Just to save a few Dollars ? I felt like am in the days when movies like Avtaar, Ghar Sansaar etc were made. I finally passed him the number of the Doctor who was treating aunty but while doing this never did i thought in my wilderness that this was going to be the mistake that would cost someone her life. I got a call about a couple of hours later from the same dollar loving son and was asked to hold on and not to go ahead with booking of tickets. I didn't want to talk to him so i hung up. But i sensed something fishy so i set off for aunty's house the next day. Mummy & Papa accompanied me this time and aunty looked worser. She had become leaner and looked really sick and frail. My Mama could not hold back her tears as its was her sister going through the pain. I enquired Uncle about Sanjay Bhaiya asking me to hold on the booking to tickets, to which he said "Sanjay had a talk to the Doctor and it was decided that she can be treated here" i knew this could happen as the doctor here took it as an ego clash when he was asked if American Doctors can treat the patient better then him. As Uncle said this, he could not hold back his tears. He knew aunty was fighting a loosing Battle and he couldn't do much about it. They had splurged all their wealth on their Kid's education, and marriage and was not exactly in a position to afford the flight tickets and all other expenses entirely of his own. And moreover when the one who should be bearing the expenses was a bit hesitant there was hardly anything uncle could have done. I felt terrible, went aside and called up Shilpa Didi, aunty's only daughter so that she could talk to Sanjay Bhaiya & try to convince her. She agreed to what i was saying but at the same time wasn't that keen on being able to convince his elder brother. I was like "What the heck is going on in this so called ideal family". I mailed the youngest of them and he replied he is gonna come after his semesters. I could sense things going terribly out of hand. I could not see my aunty dying like this. I called up Sanjay Bhaiya & said i am going to bear the flight tickets and all expenses but please let me send them as soon as possible coz with each passing day the hopes are fading. He took it as an offence and created a scene "Do you think i dont care for my parents? Who are you to decide on things? Dont show me money, i have enuf of them" were some of the questions he threw at me. I would have replied to everything had aunty not stopped me. I guess she didn't want to spoil our relation and i felt she had already given up. All these things made me feel so very tied up, i couldn't even do a bit for my aunty.

Days passed, treatment continued and i was told that she was recovering. I kept a tab on her by talking to her daily, she was indeed happy that now Sanjay is calling thrice a week instead of once, Vicky the younger one had booked his tickets and arriving in another 15 days and Shilpa's Baby is growing fat and calling her "Naani" . Mama was there with Aunty all these days.

It was a Friday morning, as i was about to start for office i got a call on my Cell "Bhaskar Uncle" was the name that flashed. Just seeing the number flashing lots of thoughts spanned across my mind and so did the smiling face of Aunty. I took the call with my hands trembling "Aunty is no more" said my Papa from the other side of the line. I had suspected the same but when it actually happened, it blanked my mind. I stood there like a lamp post and all the past times with aunty played in front of me like a movie in a 70mm Theatre. I disconnected the phone and just could not control my tears. They were in no mood to stop and gushed out as if there was not another day.

I reached there the next day, was lucky enough to see Aunty for the last time, uncle was crestfallen, he just embraced me and wept like a baby. He knew we had tried as much as we can and more than that he would have been shocked by his Kid's behaviours. The only one by the side of aunty was my mother and Shilpa Didi had joined a couple of hours back. So practically none of the Children were present when she breathed her last. "Sanjay & Vicky would be reaching here in a couple of Days" said someone. It hardly mattered to me, i didn't want to see their faces again in life.

This was a perfect example of Dollar Dreams coming trumps over Blood Ties.

As i write this i am sure there might not be many Sanjay Bhaiyas or for that instance Vickys in the world at present but there are many who are miles away from there Parents.

Building a carreer, Fullfiling your dreams, Attaining Success and all are perfectly fine untill & unless the aforesaid things are within Limits. Its our Parents whom we owe our lives to, and when it comes to them, anything and everything relating to them should be the highest priorities in our lives. Its not everyday that we are gonna have them in our lives but as long as we do, why not treat them like Kings & Queens.

Now even if at some point of time Sanjay Bhaiya wins a Nobel Prize or any other Trophy for instance, in my books he would still be the most unlucky, poorest & villianous person to have ever born.