Back to where it began

Have you talked to the doctor who held you in her arms before any other human being did?

It was December 2019 and COVID-19 had not yet begun its ugly streak in India. My mother, 68, was admitted to the JIPMER hospital in Puducherry for chronic kidney disease; the same hospital where she worked as a nurse for more than three decades until her retirement in 2010. She was making good progress. We even celebrated Christmas in the ward. Unfortunately, the very next day, she breathed her last.

On her last day, she was chatting with friends and family when her heart stopped. During her last days in the hospital, she would discuss a range of topics from things to people. And of the persons she mentioned during her last couple of days, Dr. Rajalakshmi was one.

My mother’s acquaintance with her began in the late 1970s. During her nursing education at the CSI Hospital, Erode, my mother was tutored by Dr. Rajalakshmi who was a young obstetrician. Post-marriage, my mother moved to Puducherry. But as was customary for young married women to be at their mother’s place for childbirth, my mother returned to Erode. Dr. Rajalakshmi, who was doing her private practice in her clinic, was the one to conduct the delivery and I was born. Later, whenever my mother spoke about my birth, she fondly remembered Dr. Rajalakshmi telling her in a friendly way, “Hey, it’s a boy for you.” While I never gave much thought about it, my mother’s death caused me to view it differently.