🖋My Life - A poem by Biswajit Basu

MY LIFE

By Biswajit Basu

‘Dedicated to my sister, Moon’

1

I look past the drizzle on my window at the mellowed sun

Mellowed by the decades of passing clouds of life,

And I sit today and look back at years of ups and downs,

Mostly up and rarely down, I must honestly admit.

2

But it has been a respledent, flowery and full life.

With every path therein forecharted into an indistinct passage

With slight tinges of design sometimes  thrown in. 

More in hope than any certitude of events to follow

Visible mostly in retrospect, rather during its passing

The journey has been  the life of a venerated old ship

That has toiled its life in the service of mankind

But was never spared the buffeting of vicious storms

when they came a-roaring by.

Only to sail victorious into calmer seas that always followed a rough passage

As I look back at the years that have passed,

A feeling of peace settles deep in my heart

And I know I have done in the brief flash that was my life

Playing to mankind a small but significant part.

But everything in this Universe that is born

Is destined to be consigned to flames in the end

Whether it be billions of years in the timeline of the Universe

So it is to roughly seven decades allocated to a  man

It all ends in fiery glory to a grand finale.

🔄 6 Decades, 2 Six year old girls and 1 Hula hoop

While going through Mom’s (Monisha Choudhury) old photos, I came across this little gem on her Facebook. 

^{(L-R: Anima Basu, MK Basu, Monisha Choudhury, Pronoti De, Biswajit Basu)}

“With my parents, brother and aunt. Bangalore 1959.

This house was special and beautiful . It had a solid teak round door opening into the balcony on the first floor where we are standing in a curved corner. The grill...partly visible had a silver paint and was quite unique in design. 2/1 Broungton Cross Road just off Mahatama Gandhi road was a house in then a serene suburb. On A bread nut tree across the road where Bush babies..Loris who were spotted rarely!”

Added by Biswajit Basu, May 2021:

“Our address in Bangalore was 2/1, Brunton Cross Road. It was parallel to the Mahatma Gandhi Road and between Brunton Road and Primrose Lane at right angles. There lived an old English couple in a sprawling house in front of ours and the Manekshaws. It had breadfruit, jackfruit and silk-cotton trees. The lovely forested environs is completely built up now and our house is an ad agency office!

The English gentleman treated us as Mr Wilson treats Dennis! 😃. I walked two miles to school from home.”

(There’s a little more about Brunton Cross Road neighbours in this post as recounted by Ma, just three months back)

In Mom’s inimitable style, she could recall every detail in every old photo or memory, and layer stories and stories on them. I wished I could run to her with this photo and ask her about it. The photo did spark off a story of my own. 

February is the best season here, and we spend a lot of time in the garden. One such day was February 24, 2019. We were in the garden and the children were playing with hoops. My younger daughter, Aria, wanted to learn how to hula hoop. But I had never played with it. Then, we discovered that Mom had been an avid hooper in her childhood! She was instantly roped into the hooping madness! 

She talked of hooping with different body parts, and demonstrated with her arm (the only one she could do without having to get up from the chair!) Much hilarity ensued as she tried to teach the technique to the children. 

A sunny February morning spent in fun and games. No, Aria did not get the technique of hooping down at that time. But, the next year brought the Covid 2020 lockdown. Stuck at home, she tried it again late summer. 

In August 2020, she turned 6, just as old as her Dida had been in the 1959 photograph. By October 2020, she had the technique down and was hooping away till she got tired! She even started hooping to songs. And all along, her Dida was there - to cheer her on, and watch her skill rekindle in her granddaughter.  

6 decades, two 6 year old girls and one hula hoop. 

👭Sisters Day out

By Asmita Basu (Toto):

Here is my favourite story of MM (Moon Maashi aka Dr. Monisha Choudhury) for your collection. 

I can’t remember the year exactly, it would have been 2005 or 06, with Diwali a few days away. The Metro had just started. Ma and Baba were visiting me in Delhi. There was excitement in the air as I got ready for work in the morning. ‘Moon’ was taking Ma (Atreyi Basu) out for the day. Of the many delights planned (and related repeatedly… in great detail…), a Metro ride was the main attraction!! I rolled my eyes and said ‘have fun’ before I left. I returned to Netaji Nagar late in the evening to the news of the bomb blasts in Sarojini Nagar. I was greeted by two giggling and slightly hysterical sisters. So this is how their day went—

Before boarding the metro to Darya Gunj, Ma decided to take photos, as was her wont. MM posed obligingly. All this INSIDE the Metro station. I doubt if even Metro promos have such extensive and joyous clicks. Unfortunately, the Metro officials didn’t take this ‘security breach’ too kindly. Ma’s camera was confiscated and they were marched off to the Metro office. Unfazed by her captivity, MM had long chats with the security personnel and everyone else around. They discovered that the halwai that supplied samosas to Lady Hardinge, was also favored by the Metro personnel. Much praise was heaped on the halwai and a consensus reached on the superiority of his samosas. Before letting the geriatric threats go, said samosas were ordered. They were fed, gently rebuked and made to promise that they will never take photos inside Metro stations again. You’d think that the sisters had learnt their lesson. But no. 

After getting to Daryagunj and spending happy hours shopping and gorging, MM decided to buy firecrackers for Rupesh (who was still a notun jamai, and took Diwali very seriously). So they went back to the Metro station, with a bagful of crackers… or explosives as the Metro prefers to call them. They didn’t make it past the x-ray machine. They beat a hasty retreat before being declared bona fide security threats. It was a sheepish auto ride home. And just as they settled down, the news of the Sarojini Nagar blasts broke!!

Author notes:

- Lady Hardinge Medical College - LHMC - was where she worked for over 35 years till retirement in 2018

- The Sarojini Nagar blasts occurred on 29th October, 2005 (Wikipedia), 2 days before Diwali. 

- Rupesh and I shifted to Gurgaon from Mumbai in the summer of 2005, to be closer to my parents. That was our first Diwali together in the same city. 

- Recent picture of the sisters, brother Biswajit Basu and family. Sep 22, 2020 video meeting in lockdown times. Pic Credit to Prajna Sen (Taddy Maashi) 

😞 REQUEIM FOR MY SISTER

By Biswajit Basu for Monisha Choudhury

Moon you have  relinquished your worldly status and left your friends, relatives, students and colleagues forlorn.  We, you left behind, will miss you sorely and we already realise how much.

Yours was a life of honest, steadfast and straight thinking, of keeping your focus on your objectives, of the grit of steadfast determination.  On the other side, you held the world in compassion in a profession where people tend to lose theirs.  I remember the time when you cried and cried when your patient who had been bitten by a rabid dog and who you had been desperately trying to save died.  I also remember how much you cried when you got your quota of vasectomies and tubectomies that you had to deliver to the government in those horrid Sanjay Gandhi days.  I always marvelled how you could be so prim and proper and headmistressly on one side and still retain a soft heart of pure gold on the other.

Yesterday marked the end of of our 68 year sojourn that we walked this Earth together.  I remember the day you were born and Daddy, Dadu, me and Mama had gone to visit Ma in the maternity ward.  Ma offered me a banana which was on her bedside table which I accepted and demolished it with a gusto which I  exclusively reserve for  eatables.  On the return in the car, Dadu castigated me for accepting that banana which he said was actually meant for you.  So even before you were born, I was stealing things that were yours!

And so we led our happy army childhood in big houses with big compounds and gardens which, incongruously Daddy described as 'genteel poverty'.  I remember you as a 3 year old in London with a big parakeet, as big as you, on your shoulder.  I remember we played catch me if you can in the garden and the catcher was supposed to be dirty (a guinea pig) and when caught he/she was 'guinea-ed'.  Remember our lovely vacations every summer to the hills? Then came the years of separation as we chose the trajectories to our respective careers. 

Then we saw Daddy go first after a five year ordeal with strokes.  Then came Ma's turn and she left after a short illness.  We were now suddenly orphans!

We passed our lives busy with the work in our respective professions. We got married, you to Panna and ne to Tulu.  Panna was a friend and today, a God, and I still ask him for guidance in troubled times.

Even when we were apart we always stayed in contact and sometimes met in distant cities (I remember that lunch in London when we got sozzled on wine and champagne and I prayed that you would reach your hostel back  safely)!

Today you are gone leaving us for a better world.  So be it. But I wish you would have stayed longer.  

So farewell, Moon, you will not be forgotten in this world.  You led a good and productive life.

 But all things, even our Universe, must come to an end  and  goes through different dimensions.  So have you departed our dimension forever to a better one. 

 *Au revoir*.

 That was the essence of our lives  We fought, played and cried together. 

Those were the days, dear Moon,

They have come to an end, but too soon

We'd laugh and play forever and a day

We led the lives we chose

We fought, but never to bruise

Those were the days

Yes, those were the days.

Farewell Moon.  We had a great life!

Jan 2021

🙏 Farewell Ma (Dr Monisha Choudhury)

When I first started this blog, I had no inkling Ma (Dr Monisha Choudhury) would leave us so soon. Her razor sharp recollection, memories of details and linking one situation to another, provided rich commentary to the blog posts here till now. It is impossible to believe she will no longer add her own additions to every story told. 

Rest in peace Ma 🙏😔

On Apr 21, 2021, she tested positive for covid. Starting with mild symptoms, she developed a persistent cough and weakness. Back in Dec 2014, she had fought swine flu with 3 weeks on ventilator and came back with a vengeance! Discharged in the second week of Jan, she immediately planned and executed her grandson Ashwin’s mukhe-bhaat by end of the month! Despite losing her beloved husband to cancer in Sep 2015, she persevered, becoming the President of the Indian Academy of Cytologists and presenting his rare case of cancer to an international audience in Yokohama, within months. With a history of resilience and fighting spirit, we all teetered on the edge of hope, despite her co-morbidities. 

She always said she wanted to work till her dying day, and her wish came true. Retiring from government service in Jan 2018, she immediately joined Sharda University the next month, till the Covid lockdown in 2020. 

At her LHMC Farewell dinner at BBQ Nation, Noida on Feb 10, 2018, with her farewell gift watch. 


LHMC Farewell Department photograph

After an year of lockdown, she got her first vaccine shot and joined Noida Institute of Medical Sciences in March 2021. So happy to be back in the teaching chair, she was taking vivas and correcting answer sheets as an external examiner to LHMC even on the day she was hospitalised!

(Covid Vaccine first day first dose, Mar 01, 2021/ Covishield)

(NIMS, HOD Pathology, Mar 03 2021)

She tested positive for Covid on April 21, 2021; just as the deadly second wave hit India and collapsed the health infrastructure. Despite starting with mild symptoms, she developed a persistent cough. With co-morbidities of diabetes, hypertension and renal impairment; along with past history of ventilator in swine flu, we took no chances and got her admitted at the earliest availability at Yatharth Greater Noida on Sunday April 25th, evening 7-8pm. 

She was in covid ward but was shifted to HDU on Tuesday night due to declining O2. She suffered a collapse on Tuesday early morning 3:30 by O2 falling to 50s but was able to come back to 80s on bipap. From there she rose to maintain 90-92 on bipap but could not go off high flow pressure. 

On Sunday, May 02, 2021, she collapsed in cardiac arrest at 9:33am and could not be revived. 

Within the covid weekend lockdown, her last rites were completed by me at Antim Niwas, Noida; at around 9-9:30am on May 03, 2021. 

Rupesh, my husband, was my rock and the main person doing all the real work assisted by our drivers Niranjan and Brijesh. Surabhi (my sister), her husband and son, flew in on May 02 evening to lend their shoulders. 

Throughout her hospitalisation, we had a network of many doctors who were her and Baba’s (Dr Panna Choudhury) friends and colleagues. They guided us throughout and used their own networks to help. A concerned network of family and other friends also kept regular track of her progress. (On that last fateful call from Dr Vinay at Yatharth HDU, we had Dr Ashok Dutta on line with us. He recently had seen his own son through the illness. One of Baba’s oldest friends, it was in his house that my paternal grandparents stayed when they came to discuss and fix my parents marriage in the 1970s! As recently as just before lockdown, he and Ma had also been colleagues at Sharda Hospital.)

Yet with all our combined efforts, we could not save her. She was scared and alone in the hospital and I tried to reassure her in every call. Her last call came on Saturday afternoon just when we had a major fire in the house. I stood in the neighbouring bank branch driveway and reassured her she was doing well. She was scared, upset that they hadn’t changed her clothes, and wanted to know when she would be discharged. I tried to reassure her, keep her fighting, give her hope. She ended the call on my last words ever to her, I love you. 

I’m so lost, this is the third time I’ve written and rewritten this post. So much happened in such a short time. I’m spinning like a planet without its sun, trying to take it one step at a time. Sleep eludes me. I miss you Ma 😔

(Times of India, Hindustan Times announcement on May 03, 2021)

(Last rites and cremation at Antim Niwas) 🙏

She’s all yours again Baba. May you be our guiding lights, always. 

(Wedding of Dr Panna Choudhury and Dr Monisha Choudhury neé Basu. March 06, 1978)