Blog # 65 Dated: 08 January 2023: Our Sister Kaki Jee Remembered Part 4

 

Namaskar

Part 4 of the narration started three days back and continues here.

Kaki Jee and Baisahib Jee were feeling much more relaxed after Sonam Jee’s marriage functions were over. For all of us middle-class and lower-middle-class people, children are responsibilities, and marrying them off is a big milestone. Kaki Jee and Baisahib Jee had fulfilled their responsibilities and this was a happy occasion. The fear she had about her own health had subsided. She would take her medicines regularly. She would take all precautions. She would perform Yoga and go for regular walks. She was feeling cheerful. She would go for scans regularly as advised by the doctors. There was a minute part inside her body that needed to be operated out. She got admitted to Apollo Hospital. The procedure was said to be a minor one. The bungling of the doctor there caused the procedure to be unsuccessful. She continued the treatment. A doctor in Max Hospital was able to remove the offensive patch. Everything appeared to be going on nicely. 

Kaki Jee started attending social functions. The precautions continued. She would not over-exert. Baisaib Jee and the children would always be helpful. But in every one of us, the fear of the recurrence of the disease in her system would always be looming. She also had this fear but being a very brave girl, she would never show us her fears.  I remember accompanying her and Baisahib Jee one summer day to AIIMS New Delhi.  She had to undergo a therapy session. Just when the doctor called her name, Baisahib Jee was not there because he had to get some hospital paperwork done. I, therefore, accompanied her. The medical person started fixing the injection adaptor on the back of her hand. When he started inserting the needles, I could not bear to see it. I almost fainted while standing. I took the support of the wall. My face turned pale. Dear Kaki Jee observed me. She asked me not to panic and leave the room. She was bearing the pain but not showing it. Just then Baisahib Jee came and I left the room. Such was her tolerance level all the time.

Time moved on. I had been living in Canada. We were always in touch on daily basis. Kaki Jee was happy, her children were progressing well. Both of them, the children along with their spouses, would bring her joy in abundance. She would prepare delicious dishes for them. In short, she would do everything to keep everyone happy. That way she herself would be happy. Shortly after, Dhruv Jee and Sonam Jee got relocated to Mumbai. Baisahib Jee had by then retired from his service in the bank. Sonam Jee was going to be a mother. Kaki Jee and Baisahib Jee also relocated to Mumbai to be of help to the young couple. A girl child was born. Kaki jee was elated. They named her Sheen. She looked exactly like Sonam Jee when she was a baby herself. I would call the new baby girl, Sweety because she is a very sweet child. Kaki Jee and Baisahib Jee would enjoy taking care of the child. My sister looked very happy when we would video chat with each other almost every day. Everyone in the big family was happy too, seeing her happy.

Meanwhile, Sheetu Jee was doing well in her professional career. She had taken up a job in Gurugram. Then after about a year’s stay in Gurugram, Sheetu Jee took a new job and moved back to Mumbai.  Kaki Jee and Baisahib Jee were in the thick of “Grahasthi”. There was however one regret in her. She was worried that Sheetu Jee was delaying the process of getting a child. God obliged and a lovely child was born to her. The child was named Anika. To me, she appeared very smart and so I nicknamed her Smarty. Kaki Jee was over the moon, seeing her two grandchildren before her eyes. The children would enjoy her company too. When Kaki Jee was not around, and anyone would ask them where their Nani Jee was, they would always say – in the hospital. I hope that when the children grow up and are able to read, they will look up at these blogs of mine and understand what a great person their Nani was.

In due course, Dhruv jee got a transfer to Bangalore and he along with Sonam Jee and Sheen Jee moved to Bangalore at the beginning of summer in 2022. Kaki Jee and Baisahib Jee had also plans to move with them to offer them assistance in managing Sheen Jee.

Just before Kaki Jee and Baisahib Jee were to shift to Bangalore, there was a Handoo family marriage in Jammu. Everyone except Kaki Jee and Aditya Jee went to Jammu to attend the marriage functions. While everyone was busy at Jammu, the same evening, Kaki Jee felt a weakness and some perspiration. Aditya jee called a doctor at home who suggested that she should visit the hospital for a detailed checkup and some tests in light of her medical history. She went to the hospital the next day. The tests were done and the results cast a gloom all around. The tests were not good. When I heard the update in Toronto, I lost all energy in my limbs. This happened with each and every member of our big family. We could do nothing except pray to God for a miracle. Everyone in Mumbai did everything to help her. Bhai sahib Jee would be on his feet 24 hours a day, every day for full six months, ever ready to take her to the hospital, consult a doctor, go in for tests, and everything else, to help her fight and try to conquer the disease.  Everyone chipped in. Monthly procedures where drugs, what the doctors said were wonder drugs, were injected in her. She was getting better. We all thought that our prayers were being answered and she would be healthy and normal again. 

All of us brothers and the entire big family continued to be restless and worried. I arrived from Toronto and immediately on arrival in Delhi, went to Mumbai to be with her and the family. She looked very weak. It was a shock for me but I did not shed a drop of tears from my eyes in her presence. (She could not bear to see any one of us be in pain.) I would tell her that she would be fine. I was there with her for two weeks and I saw a remarkable improvement in her. On my first day in Mumbai, I observed her being helped to go to the washroom a short distance away. And after I had been there with them for a week, she surprised me that day when she walked to my room, situated across the living room from her room, all by herself. I was startled and got up to help her. I asked her why she had come. She replied that she wanted to see that I was comfortable and also to show me that she was getting better to take care of herself.

This concludes Part 4 of the events involving our sister and the family. Part 5 will be sent tomorrow.