Bapa's Cataract Operation

The last week saw me and Shveta in Delhi. Bapa had his cataract operation on the 12th - at Dr Ajwani's Hospital on Berasia Road. Dr Ajay Goenka and Shukla Uncle were there, besides me and Shveta. Bapa kept talking about death - how uncertain life is, etc (I really thank God Ma was not around), his classic quote of the day was "Just when I was wishing to see less and less, I would be made to see things more 'clearly', with a new lens!". Bah! Bapa is just 56. A lot of people start a new innings in their lives at that age. Col Nambiar started off the Leela Hotel chain at that age, my father-in-law came down to Bhopal at that age, etc. Anyways, we travelled by Indica that morning and reached the Indore Travels office on Hamidia Road. Bapa came in about 10-15 mins there, picking us up as we all went to Berasia Road. When we reached Berasia Road, we found Dr Goenka and Shukla Uncle there (the room was no. 6)...there, as we talked Bapa started off with how delicate our body organs are - and were joined by Shukla uncle and Dr Goenka who went into the technical details (Aquasumer, cornea, etc were the most important keywords here)...then the talk about death (that I mentioned earlier in this blog). Dr Ajwani also joined the team, with his wife (a jovial, plump sindhi lady who works as his assistant)
The operation lasted about an hour - the real thing took only 20 mins while the rest was preparation - cleaning up and readying the instruments and giving the anaesthesia. Bapa came out of the OT with a bandage on one eye - (I forgot to add one thing - during the operation, Ma and Putun called just to say how pissed off they were for having been informed just a day before that Bapa would be going for his operation to Bhopal. We also came down on Bapa - telling him never to do such a thing since a surgical operation is a surgical operation). Dr Shukla, I suppose is a chain smoker these days - during the operation, he went out twice to smoke. During the operation, I generally inquired about Meetu and Vaibhav - Meetu is working with Airtel these days, stationed at Indore. Dr Shukla said he is contemplating about moving to Indore, as a director/faculty of Aurobindo Medical Institute there. The only thing that is stopping him is his aversion to relocation. But then, his son is there and he doesn't have much to do at Bhopal in any case.
We then moved back to the IAS Officer's guest house at Char Imli where Bapa was to take rest. He kept telling everyone, with his typical child like enthusiasm and innocence, that he looks like Gen Moshe Dayan of Israeli army:). However, the sedatives did the trick and he dosed off. Shveta went to her parents place while I stayed on. In the evening, Prof Biswas, Madhuree nani and Bonnie came with some food for them. Shveta also joined with her parents. In the evening, we had also gone to Dr Ajwani's place - what a palatial place they've got at Arera Colony. A great Labrador and 2 hijas the size of trunk a piece!! By 8-8.30, I dropped Shveta at the Bhopal station as she had to go to Delhi and then we moved, at Qayyum miyan's request, to Noor-Us-Sabah. What had to ensue thereafter, was obvious. Bapa had his santula and bland dishes prepared by the Biswases while I hogged on mughlai cuisines, all through till Monday.
Sunday morning saw both of us go to Dr Ajwani's place for cleaning up the bandage etc. He was already under medication the night before and the morning had him take a painkiller (which he had with a bowlful of corn-flakes). All through the journey, he was feeling quite restless and thirsty. The moment the bandage was removed, he was sweating profusely and shaking. We immediately had a BP taken and the BP was an astonishing 150/105!! Oh I forgot to add- we had the usual lackeys Neeraj Pandey, Saraswat and Verma babu waiting for us at Ajwanis' place. Dr Ajwani himself was off to Katni that day. All the more reason for all of us to be terrified. Bapa was made to lie down there and we all (Ms Ajwani, Neeraj, Saraswat and Verma) rushed to Mukesh Bhargav's place which is a stone's throw away. Mukesh Bhargav came and checked to find the BP come down to 138/84 and maintained that this was because of vasovegic (or some similar sounding word) shock, which is a routine thing. We then went to MB's clinic to get an ECG and it came normal. We then went to Mr Sancheti's place, and then to Surana's place (trust Bapa to do that - in 99.99% cases, the patient would take rest after an operation - not Bapa). I left Bapa at Surana's place and came back to the hotel where I had some good food. The evening saw Shveta's parents and Prof Biswas and co. come again. That day, after Bapa's returning from Surana's, we removed the bandage and put the 5 eye-drops, as per the medical prescription. Bapa has been since wearing Neeraj Pandey's hand-me-down shades.
Monday morning saw us at Dr Ajwanis' place for breakfast.From there he went to Dr Goenka's place, from where he went to OP Rawat's place for lunch!!! Thank God Ma was not around - he could manage to roam around so freely only because I was around and I cannot boss over him! I went back to the hotel where I was to have my lunch and then leave by Shatabdi for Delhi. Bapa must have met all his lackeys that day since he left by 7PM....But hats off to Bonnie - she came to Noor Us Sabah on Monday after I left to take care of Bapa.