A Bend in the River of Life (22 page)

The news of Keka's second pregnancy was announced when the spring was in full flight. The country just celebrated the spring festival, the Festival of Colors. The trees in the parks and boulevards were aflame with the burst of Gulmohur or the Flame of the Forest, the flame colored flowers that traditionally heralded the spring. Bougainvilleas sprayed a riot of colors in their garden with the blossoming of red, indigo, pink, lilac and yellow varieties. The rose garden, next to the children's park, was not to be outdone with fifty-four varieties of Basrai roses lending beauty, color and fragrance to the lawn. The air was filled with joy and merriment. Keka's friend Iris came from Bombay to visit with her. The two friends remained in touch with each other since Keka left Bombay. But it was their first reunion.

Nothing comes to the River of Life without a span of existence. Nor do time and tide stand prisoner to man. Spring gave way to stifling summer. Camelia came dancing to the floor to bid adieu to Gulmohur. Summer brought in its wake the steamy monsoon. The Night Queen entered the scene as prima donna to breathe its enchanting fragrance to the sky. Monsoon squeezed the rain out of the friendly clouds to clear the sky for the arrival of autumn. Lotus
once again became the pleasure of the ponds full to their brims. Saurav brought extra-special delight to everyone with his baby talks and giggles. Joy and euphoria filled the air.

Keka was doing well. Her gynecologist was satisfied with her progress. Mita kept a vigil on the well-being of her daughter, her only child. Keka passed the festive days in high spirits and in a mood of expectancy for the birth of the baby in her womb. The second birthday of Saurav came on the heels of the Autumn Festivals. It was hard to believe he was already two. This year he understood that the celebrations were meant for him and him only. The most poignant moment of the occasion occurred when Saurav held the hands of his great-grandma Rajani and led her to his playroom to show her all the gifts he received. The unbounded joy of the four generations of Roy family blended together in a profound bliss that in fact is the guiding spirit of the River of Life. The joyous occasion found rightful expression through the proud laughter of Sauarav's mother Keka.

The date of Keka's labor was approaching fast. Her doctor increased the frequency of check up on her. Then check up became a daily routine in the old fashioned way. Notwithstanding all the care and precaution, the expected date of labor came and went. Then it was past due seven days. The anxiety was mounting on everyone on both sides of the family. On the tenth day after the past due date, her doctor became really worried about the baby in the womb and decided to perform surgery.

It was a Friday, about the noon time. The surgery was scheduled at three in the afternoon. Keka and Rana prepared to go to the nursing home. Rana held Saurav on his arms and the family prayed to the Creator of the River of Life for His Divine Grace for the safe delivery and the sound health of the mother and the baby. They kissed Saurav affectionately and then leaving him with the nanny, left for the nursing home. They were scheduled to pick up Mita on the way. Keka's father Sudhir would join them at the nursing home straight from his law practice at the High Court.

At about two in the afternoon, the nurse took Keka inside to complete the procedures preparatory to surgery. Mita, Sudhir and Rana kept waiting. Every minute seemed like a year. After a tormenting two and a half hour waiting, the doctor came out to say, “It was a girl.” He added, however, that they were still attending to Keka. Her bleeding could not be stopped and she was in pain. He went back to the surgery room rather in a hurry.

While the family was happy for the girl, their joy remained subdued because of their concern for Keka. Rana kept praying from the core of his heart. Little later Mita went toward the hall where the new born babies were given care. She came back in about ten minutes and said the baby girl looked gorgeous. At about six in the evening they brought Keka to her designated room. The doctor said that her bleeding was stabilized, but she was still in pain and was under heavy sedative. He told them not to disturb her right away. They decided to go home, eat their dinner and come back later in the evening.

Returning home, Rana played with Saurav a little and at the dinner table told him the story of his beautiful little sister. He became excited on hearing about his sister and began asking a flurry of questions about her. While eating dinner Rana kept responding to him to his satisfaction. After dinner he called Rajani to keep her apprised of the situation. Then bidding good night to Saurav, he left for the nursing home again. On the way he picked up Mita also.

Coming back to the nursing home, they found the doctor leaving instructions for the night with the resident doctor and the nurse on duty. Mita asked the doctor's permission to go into Keka's room. Doctor also went in with them. Keka was very drowsy, but could not really sleep because of the pain and discomfort. On seeing them she smiled a half smile. Doctor asked her how she was feeling. She said her pain was about the same and dozed off again. Doctor then requested them to go home for the night and come back in the morning when Keka would feel refreshed after a comfortable rest through the night. He added that if there was any emergency the
nurse on duty would call them.

Mita requested the nurse if they could see the baby. She guided them to a glass window. Rana saw his baby daughter through the glass pane, sleeping comfortably in her crib. It occurred to him that she looked exactly like her mother. While watching the baby, the few names that Keka and he discussed but not decided upon, went through his mind. Suddenly, the baby smiled in her sleep. The nurse said she saw her smile a number of times and added that she would be a smiling baby. Rana pondered that the most appropriate name for their daughter in the list was “Smita,” meaning, “She, who wears a perpetual smile.” Nevertheless, he wanted to wait till he could discuss the matter with Keka next morning.

On his way home, Rana dropped Mita at her residence. He could not sleep all night. Keka's suffering made his heart heavy. Many thoughts clouded his mind. Just when he dozed a little in the wee hours of the morning, the telephone that he prayed never to come did come. It was Mita. She sounded frantic. They needed to leave for the nursing home immediately. The nurse called her. Keka's condition deteriorated. The doctor was on his way to the nursing home along with the most venerable gynecologist in the town, who happened to be his classmate in the Medical College. Rana picked up Mita in a hurry and proceeded to the nursing home.

On arrival at the nursing home in a nervous haste, they saw the two doctors already attending to Keka. The specialist went through all the procedures that had been followed and said he would not do anything differently. They administered her with a new medicine, hoping it would work. In a few minutes, they came out of the room and told Mita and Rana to go in. Keka was panting and puffing. She recognized them and made an effort to say something, but failed to communicate. Mita and Rana stood at each side of the bed. Tears were trickling down Keka's eyes. Rana tried to wipe them. Keka grabbed him with her right hand and Mita with her left, perhaps in an intense effort to be relieved of her unbearable pain. Nurse quietly
called the two doctors in. Rana looked at their eyes for assurance and comfort. They tried to avoid his eyes. A few minutes more and Keka suddenly stopped panting; her grips loosened. Rana looked at her eyes. The specialist quickly stepped in and softly shut her eyes.

As the glow of the morning sun was about to pierce through the eastern horizon, another exquisite bud with the promise to be a fully blown flower dropped on the dewy grass of the cool winter morning, offering herself to the Creator of the River of Life. The audition allotted to her in this season of life was over. She was on her way to that bridge connecting this life and the next, where the Creator's judgment would be delivered to her on the subsequent destination of her soul.

The sky fell abruptly on Rana. All his hopes and dreams lay buried under the rubble of indescribable grief. Mita became hysterical losing her only child through whom she was relishing her dream. One tried to give solace to the other, but solace was conspicuous by its absence in the first shock of the tragedy. Nurse called Sudhir to come down to the nursing home with the hope that he would be able to console Mita. Sudhir came only to be overwhelmed by grief himself, for he too lost his only child.

About an hour into the mourning, the nurse requested the family to come out of the room because by law the nursing home had to complete all the prescribed procedures concerning the last remains of Keka. Before coming out of the nursing home, they all went to the glass window to catch a glimpse of Keka's hapless but smiling infant daughter, who would never know what she lost in the early hours of her arrival at this beautiful earth. Rana saw his little daughter being fed by the feeding bottle. The nurses were milling around her. It was apparent that knowing what happened to her mother, all their sympathy, love and care were focused on her. Swayed by the bereavement and love concomitantly they left the nursing home.

The first thing that Rana did on reaching home was to pick up Saurav on his arms and kiss him, for he also lost his loving mother
forever. He could not talk or stop tears falling from his eyes. Little Saurav never saw that scene before. Naturally, he was perplexed. He began kissing his dad the way everyone kissed him when he cried. Looking at Rana's tears and swollen eyes the nanny instantly realized what transpired. The chauffeur of his bank came to take him to work as usual. The nanny pulled him aside and told him what happened. Rana picked up the telephone to inform Rajani, but could not gather himself to convey the tragic news. Nanny took the receiver from his hand and communicated the message discreetly to her.

Within a couple of hours Rana's house became crowded. Friends and family rallied behind Rana and Saurav. Everyone who touched their lives was present in stunned silence. At the age of eighty-one Rajani became totally dazed. Only a week earlier she came and stayed with Keka for a few days. While giving solace to Rana and Saurav, she cried and said, “It is difficult to fathom God's judgment. He did not take me, a decrepit woman of eighty-one, but He snatched away a twenty-six year old fresh flower.” Saurav remained clung together with his dad. At that hour of grief he would not go to anyone else, he would not leave his dad alone.

Devika and Mita met on that fateful morning after a long hiatus. But unlike before, their reunion occasioned through the stream of tears. They were the only ones in that gathering of mourners who were also present at the chance encounter of Rana with Keka at Darjeeling on the Himalayas. They were the only ones who witnessed their bubbling romance growing step by step toward culmination of their marriage. Monika, Sheila and Kamala stood there in stupefied silence. Amit, Ramnath and Sudhir were shell-shocked.

Shortly, the pall bearers brought the last remains of Keka from the morgue amidst the chanting of God's glory. After the initial grieving, the women in the gathering got down to make up Keka's last remains to a gorgeous bride in an outfit that she would have been proud to see herself. When the adorning was complete, Rana was called to
formally bid goodbye to his wife. Rana took Saurav also with him for a last glimpse of his Mama.

As he was walking toward Keka's last remains, he saw in kaleidoscopic succession in his mind's eye many happy moments together, beginning with that chance encounter in Darjeeling. Coming near the body, he observed the immaculate face of his wife as he had seen her on their wedding night. He stood quietly next to his departed wife still looking fresh, tears streaming down his face like the cascading rain on the Malabar Mountains.

Saurav did not see his mother for over twenty-four hours. Seeing her suddenly from the distance while climbing down the stairs on his father's arms, he had a glimmer of hope that his Mama came back. He thought his Mama was sleeping. Rana knelt down to kiss his wife and made it easier for Saurav to kiss his mother. He kissed both the cheeks of his mother as he was accustomed to and kept looking at her for a loving response as usual. When he did not receive that familiar response, he quietly placed his head on his father's right shoulder, tears overflowing his eyes also. Probably, he felt a sense of rejection by his own Mama or perhaps he realized that something terrible happened to her. Whatever might have occurred to his tender mind no one would ever know.

There was nothing else to delay the last journey of Keka. The pall bearers were ready to lead the cortege to the crematorium. Rana did not want Saurav to see his Mama taken away forever. He slowly walked up the stairs to his playroom. Those who could not stand that tormenting scene either, the likes of Rajani, Kamala, Devika, Mita and Ramnath also followed him to the second floor. Rana then kissed Saurav and passed him on to the comforting lap of Mita and walked down the steps in deafening silence.

As the fully adorned last remains of Keka was placed carefully on the pyre, a song that Keka used to sing often to tease Rana began ringing in his ears, “At the end of the night of celebration say goodbye to me, for I am a discarded garland, abandoned and
forlorn.” The meaning of that song pierced through his heart. However, he was not sure to whom the song would apply appropriately now; to her, who was departing in the regal grandeur of a queen or to him, who was now destined to carry the solitary baggage through the rest of his life?

The priest guided Keka's father Sudhir to the funeral pyre. At the instructions of the priest and amidst his chanting of verses, Sudhir went round the pyre three times and then touched Keka's lips with the torch of fire. At the instant of the contact, the purified butter that had been sprinkled over the pyre became fuel to the fire. With the help of the strong and dry north wind of the winter, the fire spread over the entire pyre in seconds. In a few minutes, the blaze leapt over fifteen feet. In about forty minutes, the logs of the burning pyre began falling on Keka's face and all over her body one by one. In about an hour, Keka disappeared completely under the heaps of the burning logs.