Motherly

Met Anjan on the way to hospital. He said that he would come in half-an-hour. Ma (my mother) is recovering from U.T. infection at IIT Kharagpur hospital. Osteoarthritis is there as company for quite sometime now. Knee replacement is planned at the earliest opportunity. That is when she comes over the present ailment. Both orthopedic surgeon and Ma are confident and keen to go ahead.

Anjan enters. Ma is very happy. She greets Anjan with "Kemon achho, Baba (How are you, my child)?" We laughed and took a dig at Ma. How come being a patient, she is asking the well-being of the visitor who comes to see her! Yes, Ma is stable now. As I type this at 7:30 PM from hospital cabin, waiting for the night-shift attendant Ritadi to come, Ma at my back is reading anecdotes from Ramakrishna Kathamrita aloud. And her active listener is the morning shift attendant Parbatidi.

Ma was admitted for one day in March, 2013 at Chinsurah Govt. hospital for fever and cold. Even there within one day she became very popular. She always carries positive vibration along with her and always thinks of well-being of all. Her motherly feeling extends beyond the family boundary. In fact, in my young days all my friends were at equal ease, if not more, in interacting with Ma.

Ma now is trying to teach reading and writing alphabets to Parbatidi. For want of notebook, the writing effort started on blank space of newspaper that Ma reads everyday. Happy to see this effort, the ward sister said that she would provide a notebook. Once Parbatidi's husband came to talk to her for some reason. Ma told the husband to take good care of the wife. Ma was full of pride when she narrated to me how Ritadi is raising her two daughters by earning little extra by this night shift hospital duty. Ma makes sure that both get adequate rest / sleep as they have families to look after when they go back.

In our family, it is no surprise that my daughter is closest to her. Her every arrival in hospital makes Ma forget almost all discomforts. They play ludo, gossip. Today the visiting doctor told that if her daughter is free he would bring her in the evening round to play ludo with Ma.

Feel proud and pray to be a worthy son. Feel blessed and remember my father too (Link).