Sheena

Bangalore is burning hot and the best place to sleep is the bare floor. All these years I never did do that. But this time, yes, I have no choice. The bedspread or the bed sheet just ‘burns’ my body. So, I was sleeping and the mobile started ringing out of the blue.

Mobile ringing at this unearthly hour? The mind immediately suspects some sad news awaiting at the other end of the receiver.

Yes, it was my wife’s cousin saying that Mr. Srinivas is no more. You know? We were actually waiting for that news from almost 6 weeks. Because the doctor had written him off about that time.

But still… when the actual news of his death reached me, I felt bad. How is this possible?

Well, this is called the attachment of the heart… isn’t it?

Srinivas or Sheena as he was known in the relatives’ circle was a great person. I came to know him the day Usha came to our home when we were supposed to ‘see’ each other, to see whether we would decide to ‘see’ each other for a lifetime.

Yeah, he was there the day of my Vadhu/Vara pareekshe. The custom in India where the ‘boy’ and the ‘girl’ decide to just see each other for an hour or two and decide whether to become ‘bridegroom and bride’.

We said yes to each other that day and the marriage got fixed and we got married within the next 2 and ½ months.

She had so many relatives. It took me three years to recognise all of them by their correct names!

Sheena was with me when my engagement took place on 12/12/86 and then he was with me while I was supposed to buy a suit for my wedding reception.

He was in the bust to Mysore (where my wedding took place) on 1/2/87, the previous day to my wedding.

Usha became my wife. The relatives kept coming our home and we kept going to her/my relatives’ homes for lunch, dinner etc.,

Sheena was always very loving. He treated me with the same affection whenever we met in these 25 years and a few months.

A helping hand he was, when my cousin wanted to go the US of A, he was short of funds (Well, not short actually, he never had any funds!).  We approached Sheena and he willingly transferred his money (a big chunk at that) to my cousin’s account. My cousin got his visa and flew to the US of A. As of now, he is still there since 1993.

Sheena did not charge any interest for that help.

His house was like a choultry. His relatives from his native place used to come for some or the other work to Bangalore and made his house a centre.  They sometimes have stayed for months. Sheena never bothered. All he wanted was to help them.

This helping nature was very rarely seen in people.

Poor man, he was attacked by the crab. He developed tongue cancer. He suffered for some time. Then the cancerous growth was removed. He seemed fine.

But the crab was very cruel. It came back. This time it made him become very weak.

Sheena had a boisterous, booming voice. Even the greeting when I used to meet him was VERY loud. When my son raised his voice, we used to say ‘Why are you shouting like Sheena?’

The voice which was his trade mark became silent. He could not speak. Ever since August 2011, he was unable to speak. He was barely whispering. The medicines were brought from the US of A, at a very high price (really high). The injections were very very painful and he used to have excruciating pain.

The pain became horrible. It was almost like everyone started praying for his death, since it was very painful to see his pain.

His son, who was not ready to get married at all, consented to get married. The marriage took place last month. Sheena was looking radiant with his tubes hanging from his mouth. It was almost since two months that he was being fed liquids through the tube in his nose.

He insisted and stayed in the marriage hall and greeted everyone with a smile in his eyes. He was signalling everyone that they should have their food.

He was hospitalised 2 days ago since he was writhing with too much pain. His wife Vijaya  and daughter Rani were with him the previous night. I believe he was signalling about the time. He wanted to know what the time was. When the daughter asked why, he showed 4 fingers and pointed his hand upwards. He drank some rice porridge at 2.30 am and insisted that his daughter should give him few spoons of water 2 times after that.

At 4 am, he just turned to a side and heaved a deep sigh of relief and that was that.

Sheena was declared dead.

I have read puranas which talk about life after death. We go on having new births as long as we have our Prarabdha karma which is a sprouted seed. There is Aagami which is about the get sprouted and sanchita which is a bag of seeds – our karmas.

Probably the Lord decided like this – This man has done only Punya karma throughout his life. May be I should give him some extra pain. That would be the punishments for his other births’ karmas. Once he undergoes this torture, he would be like the gold coming out pure from the fire.

May his soul rest in peace.  Dear God, please keep him in a good place. Let him ‘live’ peacefully forever.