Gurukaku - the man of courage & dignity
Gurukaku was my friend Rana’s uncle.
Gurukaku was an average nondescript bengali personality. His type of men can be found countless all along the roads of Bengal. Dressed in dhuti and kutra, a long tail bag hanging from the shoulder and a cigarette in the mouth while cycling at leisure from the shop - That was Gurukaku . His watch repairing business was quite flourishing in those days.
He died at 63 years of age. Despite repeated warning
from docs he never quit smoking. He never took his life seriously. His wife
complains that except his son he never
took anything seriously in life. When two of the three main artery of his heart
were fully clogged and the doctor was warning death every now and then Gurukaku
was nonchalantly reading a thick book or playing his keyboard .
He said ,’Let me complete this book first , before I
lay down on the cold bed of your hospital, I may not get time again to complete
it...’
But who knows he was so right ?
Gurukaku was an avid reader of all kinds of books.
Repairing watch was a fun to him. When we were in class X , Gurukaku using his
watch parts made us a real battery operated electric motor from our books. He
showed us how a dynamo works by opening a real cycle operated dynamo. We never
found him sitting idle. He was always experimenting with one idea to another.
Once he showed us lunar crater by a home made telescope.
His son Bapi is a computer science engineer. Gurukaku
was very comfortable on the desktop computer at home. Once he showed me a C
program made by him on visual C. When I asked how, he showed me a book on
Visual C of his son. He said learning C program was quite fun.
Gurukaku’s real talent was keyboard. He could play on
any type of key board instruments effortlessly. Various clubs in the locality
used to call Gurukaku for entertaining their audience on keyboard instruments.
Despite warning from doctors Gurukaku never stopped
entertaining audiences outside until
gradually he felt very tired due to blockage of arteries.
3 years back Gurukaku had a stoke while he was home
alone . He coolly telephoned his doctor and then called the Howrah general
hospital to send the ambulance for shifting him there.
When his wife and son reached home the ambulance had
arrived for taking him to hospital. When
the doctor asked him how he was so sure it was stroke he showed at least five
thick books on heart ailments which he all had read.
He was no doubt a smart and talented person but what
surprised me most is that I never knew Gurukaku was such a brave man.
He was admitted on 3rd Jan for the much
awaited double bypass operation. On 5th he was operated. The
grafting was taken from his left leg. After 5 hours operation he was put on
ventilator but then one after another mishaps had started to happen. First in the
operation theater his heart stopped functioning, he was put on heart lung
machine then after operation the balloon pump put in his leg's artery started
malfunctioning. When it was discovered finally , the gangrene had already set
in the leg. The next was his kidney started malfunctioning due to contaminated
blood coming from the left leg.
The renal failure was imminent so the doc declared
that the leg had to be amputated to save his life. In a comatic state without
his knowledge his left leg was silently amputated. For a bypass operation such
rare complexity was never imagined by all his relatives.
He remained to be in ventilator for another 1 week. On
24th January morning his sense was returned for the first time since
5th . He immediately wanted to meet his son and boozum friend
Bibhuti before even taking the next dose of medicine. His wife and son rushed
to the Hospital . Gurukaku asked Bapi to meet him in isolation not even in the
presence of doctor , nurses or even his wife.
Next I heard it from Bapi.
Gurukaku asked Bapi to sit quite and listen to him
without interruption. What he said then was quite shocking and at the same time
shows how much dignity & courage he held for himself & others even at
that precious moment of life.
- Listen, I'm going to die soon. It may be
today or after a couple of days more. I have no grief to die now. You tried
your best, put me in the best hospital under the care of the best doctor but
even then mishaps happens and it has happened with me. Everybody has to go some
day. Me, your Mom and even you too , all will go some day and so It's time for
me now.
- The property file , your savings &
income tax files are kept in my almirah. For all the important pages I have
kept notes - who to be contacted,telephone numbers and what to be done. Just go
through them and you will understand everything.
- Don't follow any ritual after my death as I
don't believe in after-death. There is nothing after death except our body goes
back to the mother earth only.
- Take care of your mother she is very soft
and will not able to see me in this state.
- Note down passwords of my email addresses.
There are quite a few important emails in my inbox. Read them it will make you
an even stronger man.
-
- I'm going to make you the most important
request now. Bapi, don't try to take revenge of my death. Revenge will never
make you happy. It will rob peace & happiness of many people including
yourself therefore, forgive everybody.
The heavy pain was apparent on his face now. The
doctor was waiting with the medicine but Gurukaku told the nurse to send for his boozum friend
Bibhuti next.
Bibhuti uncle came out after another 6 minutes.
After that he was given pain killer and sedatives.
Towards the evening he lost his sense again which never came back and on 25th
morning at the wee morning hours Gurukaku passed away this material world.
He understood that his last was fast approaching but
he never lost his dignity and pride in such destitute. He never cried or showed
his weaknesses. In death he maintained his calm and peace all the time. Just
imagine how much courage and boldness he had to maintain such tranquility at
that point of life.
It is rightly said that our life is not measured by
the number of breaths we take but by the moments we take our breath away. These
small moments of life define our character and make us different from the rest.
People like Gurukaku cannot die so easily. He will
always remain in our heart for ever.
S. Bera
NKSTPP
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