February 20th, the unforgettable day...
This day , February 20th , 2010, I had given spinal for LSCS and my wife was operating and the baby was just delivered ..my cell was ringing and before I could attend the call, it ended. ..I looked at the missed call list ...it was chandrasekar. I was shrouded in mystery. ...it was an unusual call from him at the unusual time. .he has not been in touch with me of late. ..no common interest to talk about that time ...one striking feature was he and kanagu were working in the same station ..has something happened to kanagu? no .no. not possible ..I pacified myself. .those days he was having terrible time...He had mild head injury few months back and was returning to normal...had anaesthesia related complications in two to three cases. ..he even told me that he would quit his practice in thiruppur and contemplating about moving over to Coimbatore. ..I advised him not to take any drastic decision for such trivial things. ..
I called chandru again and again. ..the line was busy..I was getting more and more perplexed. .I was waiting for his call with bated breath ..has something quirky happened to kanagu? At last I got a call from chandru. ..dei kathir ..where are you? come immediately to thiruppur GH kanagu met with a major accident. I asked him. .was he alive? how was he? He retorted..I cant say anything now. ..it was a major accident...come swiftly to GH..l guessed something fishy has happened. .he was hiding the facts. ..I told him that I was about to finish a case in kunnathur, which was only sbout 30 minutes drive to that spot, and would straight away head to the accident spot. ..
I took my car and we started towards the spot .. my wife could sense the unrest in me as I was blabbering and my hands were trembling. ..so many thoughts were clobbering my head. ..she decided it's dangerous to let me drive in that state and he requested her relative to drive us to that spot and he obliged ..
when we reached the spot, there were many people who were having a despondent look at the car. .The car was totally mangled. just then kanagu had been retrieved in a painstaking manner by breaking the windshields of the car and was scurried to thiruppur in the ambulance. ..when I asked them..the response was that he was no more. ..l was totally shattered. .. .from there we went to thiruppur GH. ..and by the time we reached there , he was shifted to mortuary. ..
I went to mortuary. .kanagu's face is still fresh in my memory. his face was totally deformed . mangled and bloated ..there might be multiple facial fractures. ..I broke down instantaneously on seeing kanagu. .there was a huge rush to see him in the mortuary as he was known to all and sundry in thiruppur GH. ..I was literally pushed to the floor by the people flocking to see him. ..
l went to casualty where I could see sivagami in the dead end corner of the room with tears overflowing. ..on seeing me she couldn't control her emotions and cried inconsolably. .what words would console her? an irreparable loss. .what words would console her? I could not utter a word. ..I let all her tears go dry. .the moment I thought she was recuperating , one more person would come and all again she would burst into tears ...we could just cast a sombre look as the events unfurled before us..
There was total chaos in the casualty. .total disbelief. ..the doctor who was one among them till the last moment was no more, came in as a rude shock. .things were looking haphazard...chandru helped in getting PM done as the inquest was received only after 5pm. .he set the things right ..a cool head in a tense situation. ..after PM, his body was taken to paramatti velur and the last rites were done late that night ....
Two persons have changed my life forever. one was my dad and the other one was kanagu. sorry if anyone feels I am exaggerating. you will come to know of it only at the fag end of the story. ..
I go right up to the first year. .As usual there were two groups. .one hostellers and the other day schoolers. ..kanagu would not fit in either group. .we, the hostellers, used to come in groups ...kanagu was a man different from others. .he would not mingle with hostellers much..he would woke up early ... waited for none...off to college in 10 minutes before we realise ..such was his alacrity those days..
I still remember vividly that a tall lanky guy strolling with the short stumpy staid through the main gate of our college when we found ourselves seated to that verandah adjacent to the lecture hall. ..that place was permanently etched in our memory. .the place where we were ragged , laughed, teased, parked, played, sighted and did all the nasty things over the two long footsteps , the central car parking area and the two seating safe havens. ..the two guys I was mentioning were karthi and our hero kanagu. ..those days he would care a jot for us and straight away head to the girls section. we were happy those days to have got a feeder to tease him. ..
Those days itself, kanagu toiled as a man possessed for studies ..he didn't join for late night chats, was a tee totaller and had excellent rapport with seniors &lecturers and was very studious and workaholic ...he was very agile and nimble footed...I wasn't
so close to him those days. . I just would have a customary smile and talk to him those early days ...ck and magesh would be able to threw more light on his UG life. ...
Our intimacy grew by leaps and bounds only after our marriages ...both of us were married off in erode. ..Our spouses were both from erode. ..got married at about the same time. .had kids at about the same time. .joined service at about the same time. .and both of us were selected for anaesthesia in the same time and we joined MMC at the same time...
I took the rented home in chennai and took my wife with me as she was doing DNB. ..kanagu joined MMC HOSTEL as sivagami was working in PHC in erode district. ..the ordeal began for him there...
Married hardly for a year , he left his wife and daughter to pursue his higher studies ..
We all read , passed MBBS,didn't have any huge ambition in the life. ..took the life in its own stride. ..but here itself kanagu was different. .As I told earlier , he worked like the man with tonnes of hope and he duly and diligently worked towards attaining that goal. ..I was a witness to it in the PG period. I appreciated his perseverance and hard work and mostly stunned by his humility. ..
. ...I used to go to his room almost daily. ..I always found him glued to his chair, deeply engrossed in his books and only occasionally to be perturbed by MMS videos shown by his UG room mates ...those days we poor service PGs had old brick and mortar cell phones while the affluent UG MMC ians would have smart fancy phones which was only compatible for videos ...that was the only recreation for kanagu those days...
I passed anaesthesia only under his aegis ...Day in and day out, I went to his room, studied under his guidance., had a sumptuous meal in the MMC canteen in his name ...he never got a penny for all his servings. ..gave company for few drinks regularly. ..those days I had a difficult time as my father had then passed away . .had repeated chest pains and kanagu would take me to surya hospital and had all cardiac workups done ..he never winced once for all his help...
He was his usual self in PG days...he had an uncanny knack of making friends and moving at ease with strangers and going to grassroot levels with the patients which made him a successful practioner, stood in good stead during his PG days also. ..
His popularity in his town was evident when he spearheaded his sister's marriage ...there was a huge crowd and we nearly got lost in the stampede like situation ...He had such a clout in his area that people thronged his sister's marriage like a cultural mela. ..but his marriage in pavizham mahal in erode was a damp squib. ..a huge hall with a very sparse crowd. ..having been a witness to the both occasions, I felt that way. ..
we both passed anaesthesia and both of us were posted in nagapatinam district. ..we had a great time with our junior siddarth in karaikal. ..there too I had severe chest pain in the midnight and kanagu took me to cardiologists and again cardiac workup was done. ..
we were called for transfer counselling ..there was only one vacancy in erode district and the next nearer was thiruppur GH. .I used to call him only as mapillai. .dei mapillai ..would you mind me joining erode district ?I don't know what was going through his mind then. ..he was senior to me in service. ..he didn't say anything. ..when his chance came, he took thiruppur GH letting me to join erode district ...It was a magnanimous thing which changed my life forever and also his. ..I have a bizarre feeling often. ..had I not yearned for erode district, and had he not opted for thiruppur., would he be saved?
I advised him to go for chennai. ..I told him that family life is more important than personal carrer. Another lingering thought scrolling through my mind ...he hardly lived with his wife for a reasonable time ...soon after his marriage, he got PG while sivagami was working in PHC. ..when he finished MD, sivagami got PG in chennai and he was posted in thiruppur. ..I told him to go to chennai and be with your wife...but he decided to stay back in thiruppur and started practising. ..Three years went in a hurry with kanagu scampering for cases and sivagami was busy with her studies. ..
those days kanagu single handedly reared his elder daughter and was a great influence on her..
Meanwhile we both started practising ...we became busy in one year's time. ..happy and content with our practice. ..had regularly talked .discussed cases snd swigged and enjoyed. .he used to frequent monthly ...I made him join erode anaesthetist association and that helped us to have regular boozing sessions...A week before that dastardly accident on February 20,2010, he came to erode for a rendezvous with friends. He seemed to have been very busy and hardly slept the previous night snd one round of vodka made him dead flat snd he slept on the table itself. ..we literally pulled him to our car and dropped him in his inlaws house. ..I talked to him the previous night of February 20th and that was my last verbal contact with kanagu. ..
Our relationship grew into next generation with gowtham and deepthi becoming classmates since 2011..they go for hindi and IIT classes together and they have an excellent rapport. ..I wish this to continue for ever and ever. .but what the future holds for us is uncertain. ..Once deepthi becomes big, the social taboos and restrictions may not allow us to go near them as frequently as we do now...come whenever situation may, I have been harping on the famous adages. ..
..Blame the situations, not the people. ..
..All good things have come to end one day. ..
In the meantime , sivagami finished the course and she got posted in kunnathur which was one hour travel from thiruppur. ..after a long and tumultuous time, with much hardship she got her postings in thiruppur GH itself...All seemed to have worked well at last for kanagu and his family..he got all his calculations correct after a long and tumultuous journey in his life...
he got his act together and set a clinic for sivagami and got the basic anaesthetic equipments for minor cases...and so as the fairytale goes...going to live happily forever, came that dastardly accident on February 20,2010. ..the most unforgettable day .....
