DEPARTURE

On 21 September, 2011, I moved to Visakhapatnam district from Hyderabad along with my household items in a van of our familiar fellow. I left Srijana, Anand and Sisir back in Hyderabad. They decided to come later.

On 25 September, 2011, Srijana found that our baby Sisir Kiran was suffering from  acute pain. He was making an odd sound with the burden of pain he had in him. Then she was staying at the abode of her maternal aunt in Hyderabad.

They first took Sisir to a specialist clinic at Chanda Nagar. He said that Sisir was uncomfortable to breathe normally. He advised Srijana and her uncle Subba Raju to take the baby to Innova Hospital itself.

When Srijana contacted the staff at Innova Hospital, they told her that specialist doctors were away from the hospital as it was a Sunday. Srijana felt helpless and worried against the disturbed state of health of Sisir in her hands.

They hired an ambulance with difficulty and rushed to Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital at Jeedimetla by 11:30. About four cardiologists assembled in the hospital considering the severe health condition of our baby and took him into ICU. They told Srijana that they could do anything if the breathing status of Sisir had improved. They observed him in ICU for about two hours but there was no improvement at all in his breathing. They advised Srijana and her uncle to take the baby to Niloufer Hospital as the last and helpless resort. They did not assure improvement in his health condition. Srijana was already down in her heart.

They admitted Sisir into Niloufer Hospital. The doctors there told Srijana to take the baby out as there were no chances of improvement in his breathing. They expressed helplessness in this regard and hinted the suffering lying ahead.

Srijana and her uncle hired an ambulance to bring the baby to our house at village Peda Gummuluru in Visakhapatnam district on my advice. My brother-in-law Vamsy and Srijana were getting ready to start in this ambulance to our house. When they were getting into this vehicle, Sisir breathed his last around 4:00 PM IST. Vamsy reached me this news.

I cried knowing that the soul of Sisir Kiran departed from this material world after playing its scheduled little role among us. Tears and pain of materialists cannot bring a departed soul back into its deserted body on this earth planet.

Srijana and Vamsy sat by the body of Sisir throughout the journey undergoing that intense pain and sense of loss. It’s agony for Srijana, as the mother of the baby. They reached our house in Peda Gummuluru by 4:00 AM IST on 26 September, 2011. My mother sat in the front yard of our house keeping Sisir in her lap and crying intensely. Our hearts were filled with the burden of pain and suffering.

I saw the face of Sisir. I was deeply hurt scanning the body of my sweetheart. There was no that radiance of beauty and attraction in his face. Lord Krishna took it away from him along with his special soul. A few of our relatives gathered around to witness this atmosphere of pain and tragedy in our home.

I wanted to keep his lifeless material body in a corner of our mango garden by hills near village Ramayyapatnam. It remains as his memory abode as long as this garden belongs to us. My youngest paternal grandfather Narayana Murthy Raju, aged about 80 years, told us that it is against our Hindu tradition.

Narayana Murthy, my father and a few male relatives of us took his material abode to the scheduled place of departures in a corner of our village by 8:30 AM IST. There were a mango tree, well, rice farms about this place. They interred his material abode as per the Hindu tradition. A journey ended abruptly!

That evening I went to that spot along with my friend Ganga Raju and shot that area and place of importance with my digital camera. What is ordinary for others is extraordinary for me because he is vital in my life of experiences and memories.

We put his belongings in a bag. I consider Sisir as a saint with great spiritual background. I believe that souls choose the places of their births and the schedules of their departures from this material world. Great souls do not stay for long in this gloomy and sinful world. They visit this land with a purpose.

Each soul, ordinary or superior, has to take birth as per its Karma. I consider Karma as a long schedule of journeys of a soul through a series of births and deaths in its path towards lifelessness or unity with the supreme soul of God.

For a great soul, births and deaths are like day and night for us. For a materialist like me, the departure of a soul from my garden of dreams and pains is an unforgettable experience and memory of tragedy. Srijana and I live it because it is our destined role. Our psychic attachment with Sisir continues forever.