Memoriam

In the Toastmasters meeting today, I presented a speech from Project 2 of the Advanced Storytelling manual. The project requires the speaker to create and tell a story based on a personal experience. The speech time is required to be 6-8 minutes. I narrated a childhood incident. This and many other incidents inspire me to reminisce special moments spent with my wonderful family over the years. 

The Speech Transcript

After my parents spent several years on a foreign assignment, we finally returned to India. Since my birth, this was the first time I was going to live in my country of origin. There was a lot of anticipation. There was some apprehension too! I was starting to settle into the new environment, the new school, the new faces and the new food.

It was one sunny afternoon in February. My grandparents had just arrived to spend the next few weeks with us. Like any other kid, I was very excited to see them not to mention super energetic. My Jejema (Oriya name for grandma) had got some homemade Ras malai. For those of you who are wondering about this mysterious thing that spiked my energy levels: Ras malai literally means juicy cream. It is a very popular dessert in the Indian subcontinent. It consists of cheese balls soaked in sweet cream and flavored with cardamom: suffice to say it tastes delicious.

Going back to my story: while Jejema was trying to feed me this savory desert. I was jumping around the dining table, playing with the chairs: don’t ask me why. Suddenly, there was a loud thud. My grand mom turned her head in concern: she noticed that my facial expression changed from one of sheer joy to that of  sudden pain: this was followed by a shriek scream. The heavy antique chair had somehow tripped and fallen on my toe which was bleeding now. My mom who was in the clinic then probably heard me wailing: she rushed upstairs to see what was going on. She immediately bandaged my toe. Later both my grand mom and mom pampered me with sweet nothings. To distract me from the pain, they offered me an idea: whether I would like to consider  the thought of finishing up the rest of the dessert. I nodded in complete agreement. By the way, I continued to cry but still, that did not stop me from relishing the dessert at the same time.

Soon after, my dad came back from the clinic too. It was time for lunch. My mom showed him the injury and asked whether he thought it could be a fracture. He inspected my toe briefly and dismissed any such possibility. After we were done with lunch and dessert of course. I continued sobbing. Later I snoozed off. Meanwhile my mom noticed that my foot had swollen. This time she took a more assertive stand and urged my father to take me for an X-ray: she was increasingly getting suspicious of a fracture. And lo and behold: it was a fracture indeed, a hairline fracture to be more specific. A joke that makes the rounds till this date is that although my father was a well-known orthopedic surgeon in the state and was supposed to be an expert in the field, he misdiagnosed me that day. In fact, my mom guessed it right! Dad's argument was that in fracture cases, the patient is supposed to be in intolerable pain. But when he saw me continuing to wipe off the last semblance of the dessert, he banned any concerns he had of such a possibility. Fair enough! :)

Changing gears now: not long ago, I came across an interesting article titled "Mother, doctor, wife. The author, J. A. Hammond talks about how women physicians often play a triple role: mother, doctor, and wife and how these individuals need to strive so much harder if they wish to make each role fulfilling and wish to balance their career and personal life.
Looking back at my mom's life, I believe that my mother did a phenomenal job in all these three roles. She is my role model: I have learnt so much from her on a personal as well as professional front. And I miss her much.  

In closing, I want to leave you with a poem-a memoriam that I wrote for my mom last year. I would like to share that with you.