Random Musings

The 12th floor ICU where my mother spent 15 days, after her heart attack on Feb 14, 2004, had a waiting area, and from the windows of which, we could see down on the street below. The most prominent structure visible below, was the Liberty Cinema, and as we all waited there for hours on, day after day, I could not but wonder about the relevance of the film that was playing there at that time, “Kal Ho Na Ho”. Until the day that she was discharged and we came home, as I watched the posters on that theatre, I had the lurking fear, “Kal Ho Na Ho..”.

Mom did battle out that predicament that faced her, and she is home recovering well, touch wood.

But as I review the complete course of events as they transpired, I have to believe that God wanted her to live on, very certainly. There were so many incidents where the timing went in her favour.

Starting from the time that the problem happened.. it was early in the morning, like around 6 am or so. We were all at home and could rush to her side. And then take her to the hospital. There was so much relevance to the quick treatment that she got, that one cannot underestimate the importance of having been there and having got her to the hospital so quickly.

At that hospital, she was put on some drugs, and then the cardiologist advised that nothing more could be done for now, except wait and watch, and he started to leave, and headed for his car. Just then, the nurse from the ICU went running after him, and caught him, almost as he was about to sit in his car. He rushed up to realise that there had been a cardiac failure. He was able to revive her quickly, but if he had left, it would not have been possible for anyone else who was present there, to do what he did. She could have been revived with anaesthetic process later on, but if time had gone by in doing so, it would have damaged her brain by that time. The timing was just too perfect.

After her angioplasty, she was in the ICU for few days. Once they felt confident, she was moved out of the ICU and into a room in the hospital. She was due to be discharged in a day or two thereafter. The concerned cardiologist, in whom she had developed complete faith, was to go out of the country for a couple of weeks, but a week later. Just at that time, a problem was identified, that of accumulation of liquid in her lungs. She was moved back to the ICU and put on special treatment. She came out of that problem in the next 3-4 days, and then after 1-2 days, she was able to leave the hospital and return home.

The timing factor? Well, she could have reached home and then developed the problem. It would have been disastrous to rush back to the hospital!

The problem could have happened after the cardiologist had already left for going abroad. Getting to a new doctor with a complication would have also caused tremendous stress to all of us, and most of all, to my mother. In fact, the complication came and went, in the presence and under the guidance of the cardiologist whom she had complete faith in!

Indeed, while I worried about whether ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’, God willed that ‘Kal Zaroor Ho.. ‘

I write about the disturbing moment of time, when my mom suffered a heart attack, on the morning on Feb 14, 2004. We did not realise it when it happened, and we took her quickly to the hospital across the road from our home, where after an ECG, the cardiologist gave us the shocking news.. that she had suffered a massive myocardiac infrac (I still can’t spell it right) or simply put, a big heart attack. He also informed that it was going to be a critical 48 hours from there on.

It was the first time that I was in a situation like this. Superstitious to feel that I should not talk about this, I had not mentioned to anyone else, but I did think in my own mind, that at the age of 40, I had been so lucky to have never spent a night in hospital for any reason, since I was discharged from the hospital at the time of my birth. But now this hit us.. My father broke down, and he sat there clutching his head in his hand, not speaking a word, and not moving. As hindsight can now reveal, there were so many decisions to be made in the course of that day, and later for the next several days. And I would have been absolutely ill-equipped to make those without the help that I got from my dear friends.

And all it took was a single phone call..

I called up my friend, Dr. Sunil Keswani first, who was on his morning walk, luckily with my other friend, Dr. Mahesh Jotwani. When he heard me out, he simply said that he is coming down. And they both were at the hospital in a few minutes. Dr. Anand Parihar and Dr. Anil Bradoo came a little later. Dr. Tejal Wagh brought snacks and juice for us after some time, and Prajakti and Vimmi gave comfort in ensuring that we did not have to worry about the kids. Vineet came down soon after.

With so many close friends around, offering the best of help, guidance and suggestions, a load was off my mind. I knew that if I asked their opinions and then took whatever decisions that had to be taken, those decisions would be the best in the circumstances. Beyond that, it was obviously going to be a question of destiny and fate.

These friends were there till late at night when we moved my mother to the Bombay Hospital. They visited the hospital several times, they talked to the cardiologist and comforted all of us in the family, by confirming that the cardiologist was on the right track.

How would it have been without their help? Without their technical support as doctors, without their moral support? I consider myself so lucky to have such great friends who care so much. No great words of thanks were shared, no major feeling of obligations. It came from their hearts, and it was absolutely touching and heartwarming. And all it needed was a single phone call…

I have wondered for a long time, about the extent of change that one experiences in a single lifetime these days. I presume the pace of change was slower in earlier times, and from the time of your birth till you died, things would change, but not drastically.

I thought about this, in context of my grandmother, when she was still alive few years back.

Like I realise that when she was born in a small town in Gujarat many years back, during those days, they still moved from place to place in a bullock cart (people in villages in India still do that).

But over time, in her life, she travelled by trains, and then by cars, and finally by aeroplanes. Imagine, in a single life, going from bullock cart to aeroplanes..

And now lets think of our own lives. And I will look at an even smaller time frame than from birth till death.

In 1985 when I was in the US as a student, I used to write these long letters to my family, letters which I would then stuff into envelopes, put a stamp, and send to India. Letters that would take a week to 10 days, perhaps, to reach my folks. And a reply would come after another 10-15 days. One that you would eagerly wait for. And now with email, if you write to someone and she does not reply in a few hours, you wonder why she is taking so much time!

Or think about television. Something that we take for granted now. It was probably the early 70s when it came to Mumbai. I still remember the very first day when it was launched, and since my Mama took an agency for EC TV, we had the previlege to view TV that very first day. We were all sitting on the terrace of his building, where the big antenna was set up, and which was adjusted number of times, to get it just right. And then we saw television with “The Count of Monte Cristo” and his fencing skills! Of course it was black and white tv. For many years, TV was s single channel, few hours a day, B&W experience. We had to remember that on Thursday 8 pm, there was Chhaya Geet, with Indian film songs for 30 minutes, and we would be watching TV that time. Or on Friday nights, Tabassum would be interviewing a film star on her Phool Khile Hai Gulshan Gulshan. For the rest of the programming was stuff like Aamchi Mati Aamchi Manasa, Santakukdi, Kilbil, Batmya, and stuff like that. And oh year, there was the Apan Yanna Pahilat Ka? Of course, there were the high points like watching the first day, first session of the test match at Brabourne Stadium, in 1972-73 India-England series, and watching Abid Ali remove two English wickets, I think, in the first over itself. We all thought this performance was thanks to the television being there! Of course, later we were drubbed by Tony Greig and his antics, and so much for the TV and whatever.

Well, but I digress..

We were talking about how TV was..

And then suddenly everything changed. In a matter of a few short years, it would seem..

More channels came, color came, live tv from different corners of the country, 24 hours tv, cable tv…

And here we have 100+ channels to choose from, one competing with the other for our attention. And where TV was a once or twice a week, 30 minutes at a time option, now, it is ubiquitous. We have to resist temptation to switch it on, and do other things.

And it appears that more change is in the offing. Broadband, Direct to Home, etc. etc. And all that in our lifetime..

Its a breathtakingly fast changing time period that we live in…

As I was driving to work yesterday, I saw this amazing car, a Sera, which seemed to have glass almost all over it. There was just this bit of metal, at the door and below, but otherwise, all over, it seemed as it there was only glass. A massive windshield and back glass and windows, all of which seemed to go right to the top of the car and meet there. It was quite interesting. And due to that construction, I could see all of the inside, the dashboard, the seats and everything.

And that led me thinking about how cars, and especially its glass structure has changed in India, over the years.

I remember the Fiat (old Fiat.. that is Premier Padmini types) and Ambassador cars, where the windshield glass was high up, and just enough to see the road ahead. And I remember how short persons had to almost tiptoe as they were driving, so as to be able to see out of that glass. And if you were standing on the road, and such a car went by, you would barely see the person inside, and nothing more.

And then sometime in the 1980s, my Mama got a Toyota Corolla. The period was very different from now, so a foreign car was a true rarity on the roads of Bombay (yeah, it wasn’t Mumbai then!). And besides other things, the one fact that was really striking was this huge front glass. When you were inside it appeared as if the whole world outside was suddenly visible to you. And when we were driving in it on one of the early days, and I was sitting on the back seat, and we passed this girl who stayed on the same street as I did. And I was so sure that she saw me, inspite of my being on the backseat (and I wanted so badly to impress her thus!!), thanks only to the big glass in the front (P.S. Her reaction to me did not change – she still ignored me, so either it did not impress her to see me in that car, or she really did not see me yet!).

Now of course, we have even the simple Santro with this huge front glass, giving extremely good visibility.

Interesting changes in the way cars have been built, and this is one change that really helps the driver.

Like I am also so impressed with that little foot support that they have in the Hyundai cars, next to the clutch pad. While we can easily take it for granted, but you realise that its still not there in many cars, and here is a small change that shows that Hyundai really thought about the driver. When your foot is off the clutch, like it is most times, the foot can rest easily on this support. Its neat.. thanks Hyundai.

They have not figured a real solution to the left foot going off to sleep in an automatic car, have they? With nothing to do, it just sits there, while the right one does all the hard work going back and forth between the brake and the accelerator. Can they find an answer to this problem?

Prompted by my younger brother, I have finally hit the blog button, and here I am, putting up my first post.

Not knowing what my topics will be each time, I have named the blog “Random Musings”, which in other words, gives me the right to go anywhere I please.

Like how glad I am that they have Tusshar Kapoor in the lead role in the Gaayab. I understand that its a film about an invisible man, and our man, Tusshar plays that lead role. The less we see him on screen the better..!

And I would believe that he gets his acting skills as a heritage from his father, Jeetendra. The father could not act and neither can the son.

I cannot forget the master film reviewer, Khalid Mohammed’s comment about Jeetendra in one of his reviews, where he said, “Jeetendra delivers dialogues like a postman delivers letters”!!

Having said what I said about their acting talents, I must take my hats off to their business acumen. What a great success they have with Balaji Telefilms. Whether we like it or not, their serials have got people glued to the idiot box. Ekta Kapoor has figured out what today’s market needs and she is delivering it unfailingly, one serial after another. These are not the times when a Hum Log or a Buniyad, or even a Ramayana or a Mahabharat would work. I guess the market today wants the KKusums and the Kyunkis, and she delivers them! Unilke the erstwhile predecessors (Hum Log, Buniyad, etc.), Ekta fights in a much more competitive world, where viewers have choice of 85 channels, and at least 4 other channels where similar programming can be found. And yet she notches up the top TRPs, week after week..

So much for now.. not in my wildest dreams would I have believed that my first blog would be about Jeetendra and his family members.. 🙂

Watch out for more.. !