As the thoughts become blurred and unreal, this narrative is entering a new stage of fabrication and fiction....not that they are not real anymore but where reality lies and where my own perception of things start is unknowable.....
This is the power of myth and myth is not unreal - myth is the collective mind that is always present and driving to a certain preordained mind set. We had all entered that stage of hope and ready to pull dad out of the realms of uncertainty. Mini didi wanted to know really bad, Baba Virji was confronting it quietly, Mickey Virji busied himself in providing structure to the chaos. Next day would bring a realization of inevitability - interestingly, the day of freedom for the country.
The news was not good on the 25th afternoon, so much so that the doctor present ordered a second set of CT scans (posted). This was ordered because of the situation or the pressure from Dr. Bansi is unknowable, but in any case, dad was taken downstairs and we all followed him diligently. The CT scans looked fine, at least that's what the doctor at that time thought. Lunch followed....
By the time evening came around we were all looking for second opinions as we second guessed what the doctors were doing. Again, not that we did not trust the doctors - we had some of the best - but we had a different kind of a problem. We were from the family of doctors and had enough resources at our disposal to ask for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th opinion. Next morning we requested copies of documents so we could take them to all over Delhi.
Vohra, my friend from school, was by my side most of the time; so were Mannu's friends - it was a good feeling having friends, apart from family, by our side. Dr. Bansi wanted copies of the cat scans - Bunny Virji had a good resolution digital camera, Amrit had a good sense of photography and I had a good sense to watch the whole drama unfold....these scans would be sent to three people that night - Dr. Bansi in Chicago, Pawanjeet Maamaji in Jullundur (who never received it) and one of the Neurosurgeon friends of Sameer/Nippun (sons of Chowdhary uncle) who was somewhere in the US.
I did not have the strength to do all the scanning so Amrit/Mannu/Sonu took charge - everybody was coming together to do their bit and redefined their relationship with the person that I called dad. I only saw that person from one angle but he meant different things to different people.
Sat Uncle called me two or so days back, reflecting on his/my loss. He had been trying to reach me in Delhi without results and had already talked to Michelle. He was at a loss of words but was encouraged by my upbeat reflection on things. He is planning to put some photos/videos together of dad/mom when they had visited him in California in 1994. Dad had some good friends, to the point that I feel that mom was jealous of his friendships as she felt that he neglected his own family to accommodate friends.
Amrit and I went to Bunny Virji's house that night to download the CT scans and email to all. Off course we had dinner (yummy) there - I forgot Mannu had not had dinner and he was still waiting at the hospital as we were supposed to stay another night there. Well, skipping dinner could only help him....
By the time we reached hospital it was quite late. We again stayed late talking, but more of playing with the computer and Mannu putting songs in his new toy - the ipod. The discussions that night are blurred, but then this whole account was supposed to be blurred and imaginative.
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