Die in Peace

The summer did not have a good effect ...

I dread to imagine the day when I will be bed ridden and no one to really take care from the family and particularly scenario when the suffering gets prolonged to months. I would like to die without pain - no burden on anyone, no expectations, absolutely nothing. I remember the day my grand father was hospitalised due to old age there was a deluge of family members keeping the vigil day and night. This is two generations back when the families were large.. had enough members to take care, with nuclear families in vogue the problem is and will get compounded.

I remember an incidence nearly 10 years back , one of my relatives was admitted to Tata memorial hospital for an cancer removing operation and there was this old lady of nearly 70 years in the adjacent bed - she had been already operated once for abdominal cancer a week which was not very successful. The relatives sounded helpness not knowing what to do while the doctors kept suggesting some treatment or the other and even an operation in the next week - even for a layman like me it all sounded gory.The doctors as it was obvious were taking her relatives for a ride ( most of them were young and seemed wanted to try out their hand on her ). Since they gave a glimer of hope - her folks were not able to resist one last temptation of her getting well. It was dreadful that no one was willing to give a thought to her pain and suffering.

I can hear more and more cases of folks getting bed ridden and having to undergo the trauma for a prolonged period of time. The competivtive pressures of survival takes a heavy toll on the near/dear ones both financially and on their time.

It may sound surprising to talk about such an eventuality when probably I have lots of summers to endure - but could not help realise the stark reality. Amen