The window to life…
The NICU is located on the eighth floor of the hospital. The waiting room, outside the NICU has a large window which overlooks the Ahmedabad city. Its not really a pretty sight, but when you have to spend hours on end in that waiting room, nothing else to do, staring out of that window seems to be a great option.
After the 8:30 a.m. round of the doctor, with nothing else to do, there I was standing @ the window, staring into the city.
Spread before me was the city that gave this grief to my dad.
Frankly, Ahmedabad is a city which has all my relatives who are an integral part of our lives. They have given us moments of joy, peace and grief - just like relatives are supposed to do. But @ the end of it all, I can still count on them as we are always there for each other.
However, the city, has given nothing but grief to us. Right from business which dad started to the partnerships that he held here. Nothing worked for him. Just nothing.
And I don’t know why. Cause he always wanted to settle down here.
Infact, just on Saturday evening, probably 12 hours before this happened, mummy and daddy had gone out for a evening walk. He told mummy that very soon he would settle down here. Take a farm house, equip with state of the art technological and electronic equipment so that he is well connected with his Mumbai office and spend the rest of his days surrounded by his relatives and friends.
Today, when I see him laying on the bed, surrounded by high tech ventillator and life monitoring systems, wired and tubed in different parts of his body, surrounded by his relatives, I am sure, this is not the picture he had in mind.
Coming back to the window.
Among the bunglows and apartments, were a few trees scattered amongst the concerete jungle. The kite flying festival had concluded some 20-30 days back and there were kites tangled in the branches, pipes and wires. Few were in good condition but most of them were in tatters. With every blow of wind, the kites fluttered, stuck by a string which could break any moment.
But there they were, clinging on that one thread with all their strength, fighting against the forces of nature for that one more moment of life on the tree…