Miracle at YMCA!

Before I move out of the YMCA home, there is one incident I have to share with you all – Susi’s (my little sis’) illness. My childhood stories are incomplete without narrating this episode in my life. I do not remember how old she was when she became really sick and I had to check with Daddy. He tells me that she was 6 months old and before I share the adult version of the story, let me share a 4-year old’s perspective.

Like I mentioned in my earlier blog, ammamma was there when Susi was born and after Mummy got a hang of handling two kids and an infant, simultaneously, she moved to take care of some other daughter’s need. As far as I can recollect, ammamma’s only mission in life was to get her eight daughters married and take care of their childbirths and growing up children, while tatagaru was having a blast elsewhere. One more thing I have to talk about was how my little sister got named after Suseela pinni. Just before Susi was born, pinni died during childbirth! Mummy and Susi pinni were very close, they were more friends than sisters. Both of them were classmates, even though Mummy was two years older than her. They even got married at the same time, with about 2-3 days gap. (Daddy almost misled me on this one, when I have called him to verify the facts. He very confidently told me that Pinni got married almost a year after they have been married. Good that I called a cousin of mine who remembers all the weddings in the family as a child to confirm this info). Pinni was married to her cousin, much against the family wishes, while Mummy got married to the “boy” the family decided.

While Mummy had a happy married life (Oh! She did face harassment with her in-laws, but Daddy was always there for her), Pinni’s married life was a tragedy. The family stories are replete with mental and emotional torture by her husband. She was very unhappy during her pregnancy, and always used to talk about not surviving the childbirth. There was also talk about domestic violence, but there is not much evidence to support it. She gave birth to a girl child at Niloufer Hospital, Hyderabad, and had to undergo blood transfusion. Apparently, she was given the wrong blood group, which resulted in her death and the family was devastated. What followed was nothing short of drama – a battle for custody of the child. Mummy’s side of the family volunteered to take care of her. Mummy wrote a letter pleading Pinni’s husband saying that she wanted to adopt her. Navi Pinni said she would remain unmarried and dedicate her life to bringing up the child. Sakuntala ammakayi and Prabha ammakayi also begged him to leave the child with the family, I was told. He was adamant and did not let go of her; and what is more, he severed all ties with the family. He remarried within a year and had a large brood of children. Years later, when I was a teen ager, we heard that she was in a place very close to where we were and begged Daddy to take us to her. Mummy refused to come, while the three of us travelled with Daddy, when he went on a day-long official trip to the village she was living with her parents. Vani was her name and she was about 9-10 years old! Daddy dropped us off at the door step and went away to tend to his official business, while it was left to the three of us to introduce who we are and why we came. We spent the whole day with her, waited until Pinni’s husband came home, surprised him and then Daddy came to pick us up. When we returned, we were subjected to the third degree interrogation by Mummy. She grilled us with so many questions that we got vexed and told her that it would have been better, if she came along with us!

Alright, let us come to the main track, to the reason I started writing this episode! Given the fact that Mummy loved her younger sister so much and that my little sister was born after Pinni’s death, she was named Suseela, after Pinni. But we always called her Susi at home and she hated the full form of her name – Suseela. When the time for her school admission came in Kakinada, she insisted that her name be entered as Susi Chekka in the school records and till date, she goes by that name.

Coming back to the day, she fell sick, I recollect my parents rushing to the hospital, leaving Bobby and me, in the care of 16-year old Shankar Babai and the watchman’s family. Apparently, Daddy came home, after we were put to bed and left promptly, after picking up overnight stuff for Mummy and himself. When we woke up the next day, we were told that our little sister was very sick and telegrams were dispatched to the family members in various parts of the world. In my usual stubborn way, I demanded that I be taken to the hospital to see Mummy and Susi. Before the demand became a full-blown tantrum, Daddy came home and one look at his face told me that this is one time I better be quiet.

Daddy was the kind of person who would treat a child as an adult and this becomes very evident when I see him with his grandchildren. He sat me down and told me that Susi has to be in the hospital for a long time and that I cannot visit her inside the hospital. He, however, assured me that we will be taken to the hospital and have to wait outside in the lawn, while Mummy can see us. Once we got ready, we were taken the hospital, as promised, where we met Mummy briefly and then bundled back home. Before we left for home, Daddy instructed Shankar babai to go to the station next day, to receive Shankuntala ammakayi arriving from Vijayanagaram. I was to be taken to the station to identify her and an office peon would accompany us.

So, off we went to the station the next day, to receive ammakayi and I was so pleased to see her that I clung to her like a baby monkey does to its mother. And remained attached to her until we reached home and Bobby dislodged me to cling to her. Ammakayi’s arrival to support my parents through this traumatic time meant we got to see more of Mummy at home. Moreover, we had a loving adult to take care of us, while my parents were away at the hospital taking care of my baby sister.

After 10 days, when Susi was brought home, it was celebration time. One thing I noticed about her was that her round behind and her plump arms were all bandaged. Every morning, the doors of my parents’ bedroom were closed for changing her “bandages” and we could hear her painful wails coming from behind the closed doors. I was curious as the cat and demanded to know what was happening with my little sister. It was time for my Daddy to explain what actually used to happen behind the closed doors. He told me that Susi was given many injections at the hospital – about 16 a day – that resulted in abscess formation on her bums and arms. The abscess needs to be cleaned every day and since it was an unbecoming sight for children like us, it needs to be done behind the close doors.

Mummy was a dramatic story teller, especially, when it comes to real life incidents (Was there any doubt that this talent runs in the family?). Any visitor who would come to our home, any relative who would be kind enough to enquire how Susi is doing now, would be subjected to a gripping, edge of the seat kind of thriller by Mummy. And this was how it went…

My playmate (the watchman’s daughter) was trusted with the responsibility of watching over Susi when Mummy was in kitchen. One day while, Mummy was in kitchen, Susi rolled over and fell off the bed, but the little girl quietly placed her back on the bed, afraid of consequences for not keeping a keen eye on the baby. During feed time, Mummy noticed a slight bulge on her head and questioned the girl, who admitted that Susi rolled off the bed. By now, Susi’s reflexes have become slow and sluggish and her eyes were all defocused. She was rushed to the family physician Dr. Patnaik, who realized that something was seriously wrong with the child. She had asked my parents to take Susi to the pediatrics’ hospital in Cuttack, “Sishu Bhavan”, where she was attended by a young intern (kurra doctor, said Mummy), who made all kinds of discouraging noises and hopeless gestures. She was admitted into the hospital, without actually being told what was wrong with her. Sometime in the evening, a senior doctor, Dr. Sangram Kesari Behari, walked in for his regular rounds and examined Susi. Upon examination, he asked the nurse to shift Susi into intensive care and took Daddy aside for a discussion.

It was then my parents were informed that Susi was suffering from a meningeal inflammation with some kind of unpronounceable type of fever. In a nut shell, there is accumulation of pus between the meningeal membranes, on a particular part of the brain. The consequences of this fever, while are not life-threatening, it may result in permanent damage to the brain part where the pus had formed. This will result in effecting the organ that the part of the brain controls, and in rare cases, mental retardation could also be seen. He prescribed the standard protocol of medicines and said he would do the best he could under the circumstances. Daddy asked him to give a synopsis of the diagnosis and the treatment protocol, so that he can cable Meera Khan peddananagaru in The Netherlands, to get his opinion. Peddanangaru was a medical doctor and opted to move into the field of research, to pursue his scientific aspirations. He became well known in the field of Genetics and then Cancer Molecular Biology. Dr. Behara obliged Daddy with what he had asked for and Daddy promptly sent a cable to Holland. Fortunately, peddananagaru was at an International Medical conference at Amsterdam at that time and happened to consult renowned pediatricians, who were present there. As a result, Daddy received a cable from peddananagaru, informing him that this is the standard treatment across the world and we just have to hope and pray for the best.

As part of the treatment, Susi would not only be given injections – 16 a day – she is also required to go through lumbar puncture daily. The way Mummy described the puncture was as follows: the doctors would bend Susi, until her head would touch her feet and then with a needle that is as thick as you can imagine, her spine would be punctured. Then they would withdraw the plunger in the syringe, so that the pus accumulating in the brain would be drained out.

Mummy would also tell anyone, how wonderfully playful Susi used to be in the hospital, always smiling, gurgling and seemed to be very active. However, the minute she used to see someone in white uniform appear beside her bedside, her playfulness would turn into terror! She just hated them doctors and their syringes! And these continued for quite sometime in her life and I strongly suspect it still does. When she was doing her graduation studies, she fell off the scooty and had to be taken for a tetanus shot and the responsibility fell on me. The minute the doctor took the syringe for administering the injection, she started crying and shouting and managed to embarrass me thoroughly!

And then Mummy would continue with her story of how all those injections caused abscess formation on her hips and arms, how they had perform minor surgery to drain the abscess. She would then proceed to hold Susi in her lap face down and slide her diaper off her rounded bottom, to expose the scars on her hips. Taking a cue from Mummy, I would also repeat the same story to my friends and playmates. The story would inevitably end with Susi’s behind being exposed to the listeners. This “exposure” continued until the day of Susi’s admission into the nursery school at Kakinada. And to the best of my knowledge, that was the last time that Susi’s behind got exposed to the world. For after that humiliating experience, Susi put her foot down and did not allow Mummy or me to ever take her pants off.

Susi was under Dr. Behara’s medical supervision for 6 months to come, being observed for any kind of after effects and developmental delays. Thankfully, she grew into a perfectly healthy and normal woman! When I have asked Daddy to refresh my memory on this incident, he ended the account with a blessing to Dr. Behara and Dr. Subbarao, two doctors who saved the lives of two children in my family, with a gap of 27 years in between. Dr. Behara saved Susi in 1969 and Dr. Subbarao saved Saaransh (my younger son) in 1996. Hmmm… 69 and 96, isn’t that strange? Never though of this coincidence before! What’s more strange is that both the doctors left this country, in 6-8 months, after making a difference to our lives. Dr. Behara left for Australia and Dr. Subbarao left for Middle East!

Shakuntala ammakayi stayed with us until Susi was brought home and recovered sufficiently. It was decided that to help Mummy concentrate on Susi, without the hassle of Bobby hanging to her pallau and keeping me away from trouble, we would both be bundled off to Vijayanagaram, along with ammakayi. The adventurous me loved the idea, especially so, because I get to be with my favorite cousins – Sirakka (Sirusha) and Rashakka (Rashida). Bobby did not like it at all, since this would mean he would be away from Mummy. However, he was equally fond of ammakayi and with a promise that Mummy would come to fetch us as soon as possible; we boarded the train with ammakayi.

I do not much remember the train journey, but vividly recollect the time I had in Vijayanagaram. Shakuntala ammakayi was married to Dharmaiah peddananagaru and they have four daughters – Nalini, Jamuna, Sirusha and Rashida. Nalini akka and Jamun akka were too grown up for me to play with them. In any case, I was terrified of Nalini akka, as she used to be very strict with us. Jamun akka was a goof ball, with all kinds of funny retorts and comic stories up her sleeve. She and Mummy were a great combination, with them bringing down the house with their jokes. The youngest of them all, Rashakka, was 6 six years older to me and I would tag her wherever she would go. She was the tomboy of the family. She rode a bike, went to the bazaar to fetch vegetables, ran errands and all that. The kind of outdoor person I was, I loved riding on her bike and imitate her doing all kinds of boyish stuff. What I also recollect from the visit to Vijayanagaram was that I was taken to their school and was displayed to all as their little cousin from Cuttack. The amount of attention I got from their classmates and teachers was firmly etched in my mind. I preened like a peacock, when I got an invitation to attend their annual day function, where both Sirakka and Rashakka were performing. I was so looking forward to go to their school, along with Rashakka, but for some reason, she refused to take me. I guess, she had to go early to the school or something like that and she did not want a pest like me hanging around. So, it was ever so sweet and demure Sirakka, who took me to their annual day function, sat with me and brought me back home.

This family has a very special place in our lives, for as far as I can remember, theirs was the place we spent most of our summer vacations. Ammakayi took ammamma’s place, when ammamma passed away. It was great fun to be at ammakayi’s place, as she would pamper us – Bobby mostly, since he was the only ‘boy’ among six girls! I used to wait for peddananagaru to come from office and talk to him about movies and nonsense. I had the freedom to run wild and not bother about being disciplined and put to sleep during the afternoons, whether or not I liked it. I could play in the yard as much as I want, as long as I come home to have my meals on time. By the way, this was one part, where no one had to remind me or force me.

While I ran wild, Bobby would hang around ammakayi asking her a million questions about this and that and every thing underneath the sun. The bliss continued until the day Mummy came down to Vijayanagaram to fetch us back home and she told us we will be moving away from YMCA home. Daddy’s office had shifted to a busy commercial locality. There was no provision for residential accommodation there, and hence we are to shift to a different house, close to the new office. This was also when I was told that it is time for me to start school!