Egads! Its getting on to 6 months since I wrote my last blog. Now I have gone and ruined my resolution to blog regularly. Aargh! I dont really have any valid excuse for this erratic behaviour, except that I have been lazy, preoccupied, travelling, busy - not necessarily in that order.
As usual, I have hit a big block in my head, when I try to figure out what I should write about. I have often tried to bookmark an interesting or significant moment and thought to myself " this is something I should write about", but those bookmarks have faded away over time. So as I sit and twiddle my thumbs and hem and haw a line I read in April Hoeller's recent blog comes to mind. "Write about what should not be forgotten."
I shall try to use that as a mantra from now on.
The last 6 months have had their memorable moments. Not really earth shaking, but remarkable in some way or the other.
There was the 'man proposes and God disposes' moment, as my carefully planned trip to escort my ageing parents (Daddy is 89 and Ma is 79!) for their once-every-two-years visit with my sister in USA, went awry one early May morning. My daughter who was to accompany them half way, called to say my dad had a fall and hurt his foot and his head too!!!
After many an anxious moment, frantic phone calls and much hand wringing in Doha , while they went from doctor to hospital in faraway Kolkata, I was relieved to hear that he had a hairline fracture on the ankle bone! The hip and other big bones were intact. The head wound was just a flesh wound and was nothing to worry about. He was lucid and out of any danger. Unfortunately, it still put a spanner in the works and a plaster cast on his foot!
So off I went to Kolkata instead of Washington, fighting off dismay and despondence. I spent a very hot and humid month there, trying to help out and just being there as my father 's pain and trauma eased, his disappointment faded somewhat and his mobility returned gradually with the help of a 'walker' first and the elbow crutch later. I watched with awe as my mother picked up the threads and restarted their daily routine as they had wound down their establishment in anticipation of the USA trip. She rose early every morning and attended to endless chores through the day, at her age. There was the house cleaning, tea and breakfast to fix, the morning Puja, the clothes to be washed and put out to sun dry on the balcony and brought in as they dry, the lunch to be cooked, the ironing, the groceries to be bought, the calls to be made to friends and family to keep everyone in the loop, the neighbours to be met .....the list goes on and on. This may seem mundane, but those who live in India will appreciate how much of a chore all this works out to be without help. I salute the spirit of my parents and their ability to manage to live independently despite their advancing years.
By the end of the month, the plaster was removed from my father's foot, and I returned to Doha albeit with a niggling feeling about their increasing vulnerability and much gratitude for their neighbours, friends and family who have been rallying around them. My sister and I live far away and it is they, who my parents go to first when they need help. Thank you.
As usual, I have hit a big block in my head, when I try to figure out what I should write about. I have often tried to bookmark an interesting or significant moment and thought to myself " this is something I should write about", but those bookmarks have faded away over time. So as I sit and twiddle my thumbs and hem and haw a line I read in April Hoeller's recent blog comes to mind. "Write about what should not be forgotten."
I shall try to use that as a mantra from now on.
The last 6 months have had their memorable moments. Not really earth shaking, but remarkable in some way or the other.
There was the 'man proposes and God disposes' moment, as my carefully planned trip to escort my ageing parents (Daddy is 89 and Ma is 79!) for their once-every-two-years visit with my sister in USA, went awry one early May morning. My daughter who was to accompany them half way, called to say my dad had a fall and hurt his foot and his head too!!!
After many an anxious moment, frantic phone calls and much hand wringing in Doha , while they went from doctor to hospital in faraway Kolkata, I was relieved to hear that he had a hairline fracture on the ankle bone! The hip and other big bones were intact. The head wound was just a flesh wound and was nothing to worry about. He was lucid and out of any danger. Unfortunately, it still put a spanner in the works and a plaster cast on his foot!
So off I went to Kolkata instead of Washington, fighting off dismay and despondence. I spent a very hot and humid month there, trying to help out and just being there as my father 's pain and trauma eased, his disappointment faded somewhat and his mobility returned gradually with the help of a 'walker' first and the elbow crutch later. I watched with awe as my mother picked up the threads and restarted their daily routine as they had wound down their establishment in anticipation of the USA trip. She rose early every morning and attended to endless chores through the day, at her age. There was the house cleaning, tea and breakfast to fix, the morning Puja, the clothes to be washed and put out to sun dry on the balcony and brought in as they dry, the lunch to be cooked, the ironing, the groceries to be bought, the calls to be made to friends and family to keep everyone in the loop, the neighbours to be met .....the list goes on and on. This may seem mundane, but those who live in India will appreciate how much of a chore all this works out to be without help. I salute the spirit of my parents and their ability to manage to live independently despite their advancing years.By the end of the month, the plaster was removed from my father's foot, and I returned to Doha albeit with a niggling feeling about their increasing vulnerability and much gratitude for their neighbours, friends and family who have been rallying around them. My sister and I live far away and it is they, who my parents go to first when they need help. Thank you.
 |
| Lush foliage of the mango tree rich with bird life outside my parents' balcony in Kolkata |
No comments:
Post a Comment