What's her mistake ? - 45

We sat in front of Nammu Aunty. After the oncologist left in a hurry, his assistant shifted Nammu Aunty to a ward. On the insistence of Dammu we got a special room for Nammu Aunty.

Nammu Aunty had opened her eyes and trying to speak. But she could not speak. She started making signs for everything. We had difficulty in even understanding her signals because she had become very feeble. She was not able to even lift her hands.

Dammu was putting a brave face. She was full of tears when she was outside Nammu Aunty’s room. The moment she came to see Nammu Aunty she tried to be cheerful.

“Hey, when will you speak? I am eager to hear your voice. The oncologist says you will get back your voice and this is only a temporary setback” said Dammu.

Nammu Aunty just smiled.

Dammu had brought a book with her. I saw the title. The Vedanta Treatise. “I want to read you some passages out of this” she said and turned a few pages and started reading.

“Human beings undergo what is called Janmas or births. Their atma or soul leaves the old body like a used cloth and get into a new body which can be compared to a new cloth. When we take new birth, we carry what is called the Vaasana or the trait. This decides our behavior in our next birth. When we take birth, our Karma follows us. There are three types of Karmas. Praarabdha, Aagami and Sanchita” Dammu stopped as Nammu Aunty was trying to say something with her hands.

“What?” she asked and since she could not understand what she was trying to say she continued reading. “The praarabdha karma is like sprouted seeds. This is something we have to eat. No choice for us. If we start to do good deeds and stop harming others, the Aagami Karma which is about to sprout will get burnt into ashes. If we continue to do good deeds and keep God in our mind always the Sanchita karma which is storage of our previous karmas gets totally destroyed. Then we can be sure of a berth at the heavenly abode of the Lord without any more re births. We have...” she stopped when she felt Nammu Aunty’s feeble hand touching her hand.

“What?” Dammu asked.

“Dammu, I think she wants you to be jovial as usual. She doesn’t want heavy stuff from you!” I said and I could see a faint smile on Nammu Aunty’s face.

Dammu brought her laptop.”I don’t know the title because it was given to me from someone” she said looking at the nameless DVD.

On Nammu Aunty’s insistence Dammu played the movie. To her dismay it turned out to be the Hindi Movie ‘Anand’ where the hero knows that he has blood cancer, but he will be looking at life positively. The movie made us smile, but I could see both Nammu Aunty and Dammu had tears rolling down their cheeks. The irony of the movie was that the name was Anand, but there was an undercurrent of sadness. Almost similar to the two cancer patients in the room.

We were silent for most of the balance of the time that day.

The silence was shattered when Dammu got a call. Dammu spoke with her in a grim tone and looked at me and said, “Please be with Nammu. I have to go. The call was from my lawyer. He says I have to go and sign some papers.”

She told Nammu Aunty. She just nodded.

After Dammu left I was sitting next to Nammu Aunty and reading a book. Nammu Aunty looked peaceful.

Then I got a call from the lawyer’s office. The voice said that he is the assistant of the lawyer and I was required to go there urgently.

When I told I have to look after Nammu Aunty, the voice said, “You tell the oncologist’s assistant to take care of Nammu till we come back” .

I saw Nammu Aunty peacefully sleeping. I went to the assistant and told him to take care of Nammu Aunty.

He smiled and nodded.

I do not know why, I suddenly had a doubt on him. But I was not able to pinpoint the feeling.

I traveled a long distance to get to the lawyer’s office. When I reached Dammu was just leaving. She was surprised to see me. When we enquired about the call, it turned out to be hoax. Suspecting a foul play we called the Oncological Center. We did not get a proper reply. So we rushed back to the Center and to Nammu Aunty’s room.

To our horror, Nammu Aunty’s bed was empty. All her things were missing.