Chapter 2 - Admission

The next morning, papa and I reached the hospital, a little early then 8:00am. I was accompanied by my husband. Reaching early, still the hospital compound was abuzz with 100 people. I took token and waited for my name to be called out. My token number was 63.  After that i decided to grab some breakfast. My husband got juice for all three of us. We started waiting and about 12:15, papa’s name was called out.  I reached there deposited money and papa was given Id card. This id card had to be brought every time we visited the hospital( i still have the id card). I became relaxed, now papa will be admitted. But the wait was not over yet. We had to wait for a room. 

I told papa, let us have lunch and come back. We went to the cafeteria. I asked papa what he would like to eat. He said,”idli”, since i was not in much of a mood to eat. I also ordered idli for myself. Not knowing that it would be our food for the next 10months.  My father loved food. He was an excellent cook. Whatever he made, he put his heart and soul in it.  Whenever me and my younger brother would visit our parents. He would ask my mother to make delicacies, he loved. We all would joke, its you papa, who wants to eat and telling mom to cook for us. 

Around, 530pm, papa was allotted a room. I checked the room. I didn’t like it. So we had to wait for another 30minutes for another room. Finally around 7pm, papa was on his bed. I called my mother. Soup arrived at 8pm. My mother reached around 9pm. I went downstairs, saw my little daughter in my mother’s lap. I picked her up and kissed. I handed over the passes to my mother. And around 930pm, I left.

On 8thNovember 2012, papa was finally admitted to the hospital. I was happy, because now i had hope. Hope that papa will walk free someday and we all will celebrate. It was not even a year, when papa left us. 

I still remember the times, when all of us would sit and enjoy tea ( papa made excellent masala tea, and mom would always crib about the spicy tea). Have jalebis, made by papa and discuss some or the other topic. Those days are gone. Days when we all  would sit( papa will never be there) and enjoy.

Life is not same without you papa!

We all miss you a lot, If only we could bring you back and still enjoy being together. Love you forever!