I am afraid of praying. I am scared because I fear that God might respond in
a manner that is totally against my wish. This notion eternally lurks in my
mind because after the first and only time that I so devotionally and sincerely
prayed I was answered with the biggest tragedy of my life.
It was around 6:30 in the morning on the 2nd of September 1997, a Sunday,
and the day of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in India. I sat with my wife
Mamatha on our Kitchen Dinette sipping my morning coffee glancing at the
morning headlines on Sunday Times. Mamatha sitting across with the coffee cup
in her hand, said “Mohan, you have never carried out Ganesh Puja at home in our
nine years of marriage. Why don’t you do the Puja today? I bought a cassette
that has a full narration of each step of the ritual along with all the
chants”, she said excitedly. I glanced at her through my reading glass to see
if she was pulling my leg. After several debates about obeisance to a higher
force and failing to change me she had given up. This time she seemed serious.
I always believed that God was beyond appeasement through worship, but
Mamatha’s excited eagerness and her pleading eyes made me accede to her wishes
and carry out the puja.
I put on my holy thread, took out my Dhoti that I had stuffed in a corner in
my wardrobe and sharp at eight went to the Puja room. Mamatha had already
placed Lord Ganesha on a bed of Rice grains, adorned him with the choicest of
flowers and Gajje Vastra, (symbolic ornament made out of cotton) on the podium
in our Puja room. Mamatha brought my eyeless angel and my eldest eight-year-old
daughter Yogita holding her hand, carrying my son Rahul on her trunk with
Rachita behind. Yogita sat against the wall playing with cassette cover
listening to the chanting on the recorded Cassette while Rachita sat on next to
her and my one and half-year-old Rahul sat on my lap. I carried out the whole
Puja diligently lasting for about 45 minutes with the help of the priest in the
form of a Cassette. I was surprised at myself that I could surrender my ego and
dedicate myself so well to a ritual in spite of my impiety.
As the Puja came to the concluding part with the priest shaking the holy
metal bell continuously, Mamatha turned towards Yogita and Rachita and put
their two little palms together to form the Namaste mudra. Rahul vigorously
shook his head in refusal.
One of the thoughts while carrying out the Puja with all my heart for the
first time ever in the 39th year of my life was Yogita’s welfare. She had been
developing bouts of mild fever repeatedly over several weeks. Except for her
lack of eyesight and slight developmental delay, Yogita had been a very healthy
girl, rarely falling sick.
“I would like to run a few routine blood tests on her. Take her to Pathology
lab get these tests done” Dr.Prashanth, her Paediatrician had said the previous
day after noticing the swollen lymph nodes below her ears. Mamatha and I had
taken Yogita to the lab the same evening where they drew out her blood and had
asked me to come back the next morning, Ganesh Chaturthi day to collect the
report though it was Sunday and a festival day.
“Mona, Thanks for the Puja. What time shall we go to collect the report?”
Mamatha asked me as soon as the Puja got over.
“We leave at 10,” I said.
After finishing our delicious Modakas (Fried sweetmeat) and our breakfast,
all the five of us went in my new Ford Escort. It was a bright and beautiful
monsoon morning. I parked the car in front of the Pathology Lab with the car
blasting with Yogita’s favourite Alan Parsons Project music.
The lab was located on a bustling street, but luckily the street was empty
due to the festival. The thin and fair girl at the front desk asked me to come
back by 11:30 for the results. It was around 10:30. Yogita loved long drives
with music, and we went for a drive around the outskirts of the city and went
back to the lab at 11:30.
I went in and waited in front of the front desk since the thin, fair girl
was not to be seen. A few minutes later she came out and said “Sir, Dr.Raman
wants to talk to you. Please go inside”. I felt jittery since it was not
usual for pathologists to talk about the report to patients. I went inside the
chamber. Dr Raman was a short fair man with a countenance of scholarly
arrogance and sat looking at a report with his two hands. He asked me to take a
seat.
“Who is this girl, Yogita?” he asked me looking at me.
“She is my daughter,” I replied, and a chill ran through my spine, and my
mind went blank. “Why? Is there something wrong, Doctor?” My voice started to
crack.
“Have you come alone?” he asked.
“No, my family is waiting in the car.”
“Don’t you have any other adult with you?” he asked me, staring at the
report in his hand. He did not want to tell the results to me directly on my
face.
“I am Dr Sridhar’s brother. Why, what is the matter?”
“Oh,” he said and continued “I know him. I will call him later and give him
the results” he said. I realised immediately that something was terribly wrong.
“Please tell me Dr. Is there any issue with her?” I asked him
petrified.
He was silent for a few seconds.
“There is a huge problem with this girl,” he said, avoiding my face. “I
don’t know what to say.”
“Why, tell me, Doctor. What is it? What is wrong with her?” I was almost
choking with tears, panic and shock.
“She has a very advanced form of leukaemia. It has reached Stage Four. I
will call your brother…” His voice trailed off.
I felt as though a steel rod had hit me suddenly with full force. I froze. I
slowly got up from my chair even as Dr.Raman was telling me something. I came
out of the chamber and held on to the reception table. After a few seconds, I
left the lab without even asking for the report.
Each of the five steps at the exit felt like a step towards eternal
damnation. From across the street, I saw Yogita sitting in the backseat with
both her feet up. Rachita was seated next to Yogita. Mamatha was in the front
passenger seat with Rahul on her lap, clapping his tiny hands to the beat of
the music. The car stereo was on, and I could hear it from the lab’s entrance
where I stood watching with tears in my eyes.
I crossed the road, took the driver’s seat and fastened my seat belt. I did
not turn down the volume or say anything. After a few moments of silence,
Mamatha sensed that something was wrong. She turned to me and asked “What is
it, Mohan? Where is the report?” Mamatha then saw my tears. I had started to
cry, and Mamatha joined me without even knowing what was wrong. “Tell me, tell
me,” she screamed hysterically and switched off the music.
I told her. Mamatha started screaming, and I had no energy or strength to
calm her down.
I watched my tall, beautiful Yogita lose weight drastically as weeks passed
by. She became a shrink-wrapped skeleton within months. By the second week of
December, Yogita was passing bloodstained stools, and her constant vomiting
became unbearable to watch. She had lost more than 15 kgs. Her cheeks had sunk
entirely in, and her body looked like a long stick and her arms like tender
twigs. Her inability to express and indicate her distress amplified our grief.
It was really heart wrenchimg.
On the 19th of December at around 11:30 in the morning as Mamatha and I were
changing her sheets messy with her vomit, Yogita suddenly went into
convolutions and started to make strange noises. She was gasping for breath as
I held her in my arms, and suddenly her wheezing and breathing stopped. I
shouted out to my brother at the top of my lungs with my voice cracking up.
Sridhar came up running from his clinic downstairs and called out to the
nurses. He immediately laid her down and started CPR. He frantically tried to
resuscitate her without any response and declared her dead at 12:00 noon.
The eyeless angel of my life was
gone forever.
It is often said that the worst punishment God can give to any father is to
see his child die. How is it that on the very day that I spent more than an
hour praying to God, a nightmare of a calamity occurred in my life? Was
Yogita’s terminal illness at such a young age Cosmic retribution for my past
life Karma, or was it divine intervention to end her pain and suffering? Did
her soul choose me to father her or did my soul enrol for parenting her?
Was her brief time on this planet meant to resurrect me as an individual?
Was she fortunate in a way that she was liberated from the misery that she
would undergo in a lustful and cruel world given her incredible beauty? I have
spent over two decades seeking answers to such questions, and I am not even
near the beginning of any possible clue.
“Couldn’t see Mamatha and Mona struggling to parent her”, said a guest to
her husband eating a snack of Samosas with Yogita’s dead body still lying in
the hallway at my house awaiting a Hindu Priest. I broke down and screamed at
the top of my lungs “why does everyone feel that it is a relief? Why don’t they
understand?” It was the saddest and lowest point of my life. Yogita did not get
the respect that she deserved even after her death, and I will never forgive
the wretched ones of the world for that. It made me very angry that the society
felt that Yogit did not ‘deserve’ the sympathy as ‘normal’ children.
Such is life. It is like a moving river that slowly but surely carries away
all the things that enter it. I slowly started to forgive myself for not
remembering her. I had learnt a new language on life called someone whose child
has died’.
Today marks the 22nd death anniversary, but I am happy for her since I
believe from the bottom of my heart that there are no tears where she resides
now. But my question is still not answered to this day.
A few months after Yogita’s death, after a hectic day at work, before
retiring for the day I suddenly felt terribly guilty and angry at myself. I had
not thought about Yogita at all for a full day. “How can I forget my own child,
my angel who could not see but who gave me a new vision?” I slapped myself in
my mind.
Why did God punish Yogita for my prayer?
Yogita, when she was seven.
Mohan,
I do understand the mental status of a father seeing the death of a pretty child. No body is immortal, but we are all humans we can’t change the destiny. My interpretation is that the kind of sufferings you had undergone in bringing up such child was coming to an end and also the child get relieved of her agony. This is a karma of ours what we should accept. I feel prayer has not gone wrong . God if we trust,truely delivered the result. Time alone is the healing factor. ” Karmanye Vadhikaraste Mapaleshu Kadachane”. We only pray with sincerity the result is left to the Almighty whom we all trust in our Dharma.My appeal there is always a reason to pray continue to fit. Almighty will not let you down
With lots of love to you and Mamata.
Gopika Ramanna
The pain and agony watching the dear ones suffer and leave us is unbearable. This pain is everlasting and can be understood only by a few. Sir, life teaches lessons in so many ways and proves the existence of the super natural power
After being threatened by a Bangalore mob boss, retired Indian businessman Mohan Ranga Rao takes a vow to trek around Mount Kailash, a holy Tibetan Mountain revered by over a billion people. What starts out as merely a challenging high-altitude trek soon becomes a life-changing adventure. With a blend of humour, honesty and keen insight, Mohan journeys toward a deeper understanding of the world around him. A memoir of a road less travelled and a true story of self-discovery at 19,000 feet.
S L Ramachadra
20th December 2019 - 11:04 am ·Mohan,
I do understand the mental status of a father seeing the death of a pretty child. No body is immortal, but we are all humans we can’t change the destiny. My interpretation is that the kind of sufferings you had undergone in bringing up such child was coming to an end and also the child get relieved of her agony. This is a karma of ours what we should accept. I feel prayer has not gone wrong . God if we trust,truely delivered the result. Time alone is the healing factor. ” Karmanye Vadhikaraste Mapaleshu Kadachane”. We only pray with sincerity the result is left to the Almighty whom we all trust in our Dharma.My appeal there is always a reason to pray continue to fit. Almighty will not let you down
With lots of love to you and Mamata.
Gopika Ramanna
Mohan Ranga Rao
20th December 2019 - 11:05 am ·Thank you for your caring words Ramanna
Anonymous
21st December 2019 - 2:56 pm ·“………………”😢😢🙏🙏
Parvathi vattam
22nd December 2019 - 3:35 pm ·The pain and agony watching the dear ones suffer and leave us is unbearable. This pain is everlasting and can be understood only by a few. Sir, life teaches lessons in so many ways and proves the existence of the super natural power
Mohan Ranga Rao
22nd December 2019 - 3:49 pm ·True