A CELEBRATION OF LIFE – EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK ‘I AM JUST AN ORDINARY MAN’

A CELEBRATION OF LIFE – EXCERPT FROM MY BOOK

‘I AM JUST AN ORDINARY MAN’

Today is the 4^th July 2015. Four years have passed since that day in 2011 when I went under the surgeon’s knife and found that I did have a heart after all, but a heart that had to be put back in shape, a heart that needed plumbing to get rid of and bypass all that dirt accumulated over the years. Today I thank God (in whichever form one sees him) for having given me an opportunity to relive and realize that life is a celebration. I treat this day as a re-birthday.

I reproduce an excerpt from my book ‘I am just An Ordinary Man’ to recapture that day and which has still left many questions within me unanswered –

“It was the first time that I went for a master health checkup because I and my wife were planning to go to the United States to be with our elder daughter. Whenever I visit a doctor or enter a clinic my blood pressure always goes up. That happens even now. I prayed to God that everything should be normal. It was as if my prayers were answered the blood test reports turned out to be normal. However a small variation was noticed in the electrocardiogram. My cardiologist suggested further investigations to be carried out. So I went for an echocardiogram and a treadmill test. I again prayed to God that these should not throw up anything abnormal. But they did and I was advised to undergo an angiogram. My prayers never stopped. I got admitted to the hospital; all the while hoping that nothing serious would be detected. My prayers continued as I was wheeled into the operation theatre for the procedure. The whole process took less than an hour and as I was conscious I looked at the doctor who said that there was nothing to be alarmed about. My wife and others were outside when I was wheeled out. I was told that I would be under observation for a day in the critical care unit and then shifted to the ward. That was when I stopped praying and gave in to the course of destiny. My family was told after the angiography that I would require a heart bypass operation. My wife visited me during the half hour allowed for visits. I could read the worry on her face. Later in the night I was told by the doctor that I would have to undergo the operation as that was the only option. She also told me not to worry about it as it was now a standard procedure and that the operation would take place four days later. It was then that I stopped praying to God.

Nothing I had prayed to Him for during this entire process had happened. What I was afraid of did happen – he had brought me to the stage which I had wanted to avoid.

I remember being moved from my room and taken through the passages and corridors to the operation theatre. I remember the doctors in their green dresses getting ready to operate. All the while I did not feel the slightest concern for I had awoken to the fact that whatever we hope or pray for will ultimately happen the way they are destined. The anesthetist said that there was nothing to worry about and in a matter of minutes everything blacked out. Later on when I recollected all this, I asked myself whether this is what happens when a person dies. I find it necessary to describe all this, for I have no recollection as to what happened in the intervening period till I regained consciousness ten hours later.

Coming back to consciousness I was reborn. In the intervening period I was dead. The surgeon told my family that I was fine.

My eyes opened slowly and through my half closed eyelids I first saw a brilliant light, then I could discern some movements, some people moving up and down, until a face came close to me and said “the operation is over and you are fine”. Of course I could not move and like the umbilical cord I had tubes stuck all over. I think my wife was allowed briefly to see that all was well. I was in the intensive care unit for three days.

 I was reborn, for I re-learnt how to sit and slowly walk down to the toilet after the catheter was removed. Gradually I moved from liquid to solid food. After three days I was made to walk in the corridors and then climb the stairs. I was discharged on the seventh day after the operation. I should add that my wife became my mother in all ways. God also took seven days to create this world. Didn’t He?”

So you see, He let things happen as they should have and never interfered.