Evening of Life

I thought I would make a telephone call to Gopal. It had been a long time since I had talked to him. I called his number; it rang a number of times but there was no response. Two days later, I tried once again, with the same result. A week later, I attempted a third time. As no one picked up the phone this time as well, I decided to go down and meet Gopal at his residence. When I reached and rang the calling bell, Sandeep, the youngest son of Gopal, opened the front door. “Is your father at home?” I asked, soon after entering the house. He gave me a strange look. “You don’t know? Father expired two months back. We had given information about it in two leading newspapers.”  I was shocked to hear that. I had been out of station around that time and had somehow not heard about it.

Gopal’s wife walked in and joined in the conversation. They seemed to be very matter of fact about the whole thing. As the discussion progressed, Sandeep said, “Father never bothered about anything, except about his own needs. He wanted to eat and sleep well, particularly looking forward to the non-vegetarian preparations at the week end.” I was surprised to hear that. After all, he had as the sole breadwinner brought up four children. Sandeep dismissed my observation on these lines with a smile “I know dad’s friends think a hell of a lot of him. For us, he was nothing special. You should see the amount of financial and other support parents give their children. Uncle, I know you would have done a lot for your children!”

I was a little embarrassed. I could not claim to have done anything extraordinary for my two sons except provide the normal sound education. Not wanting to listen more of such talk, I hurriedly took leave. “Keep visiting uncle” called out Sandeep as I stepped on to the street. In my mind though, I kind of knew that this would be my last visit to this place, given the fact that my friend no longer lived there. As I trudged along on the street pensively, memories came flooding into my mind, of our association and the various activities that we had engaged in together over the years…. Memory of the last time I had met Gopal came rushing in like a flash.  His face had been troubled; he wanted to tell me something, but was holding himself back. I had encouraged and cajoled him to speak. Yet when Gopal completed his tale, I did not know what to say.

 Gopal had been a colleague in a previous company and had retired 8 years ago. We were meeting after a long time. He had seen many ups and downs in a working career of over 35 years. He started as a clerk, worked his way up and was a manager at the time of retirement. During this period, in the home front he focused completely on the education & wellbeing of his four children. He had the satisfaction of seeing all the four doing well, three of them boys, engineers and the girl a dentist. After retirement, he was living with one of the sons in Chennai, the others working in other parts of the country. His earning was a monthly pension under the company's pension scheme.

Gopal had shared with me about the small, little ways his son was seemingly humiliating him.... A diabetic, he needs to go for periodic checkups. Recently, his son accompanied him but soon disappeared at the hospital. The consultation fee was to be paid at the cash counter before meeting the doctor. He searched for his son, Sanjeev but he was nowhere near the counter at the reception. He later found him standing in a corner far away and had to request him to pay the fee.

When he finally met the doctor, he advised him to take three dozes of an injection to avoid kidney complications. Each of the doze would cost Rs 1500/. Sanjeev said he would cross check with other hospitals & confirm whether this procedure was absolutely necessary and whether a less expensive medicinal doze was available. He had a doubt that the doctor was suggesting unnecessary procedures. Now, one and half months had passed and still there was no sign of Sanjeev taking him for the injection. Gopal had reminded him 3 to 4 times but he didn’t seem to pay attention. Now he didn’t know what to do. His eldest son was coming from Kolkata next week. Perhaps he should tell him of his plight and seek his help...

As he was sharing with me his problems & feelings, Gopal's voice broke a number of times. “You know," he told me "This Sanjeev was an introvert, could not speak English well and lacked in self-confidence. I went and fought & cajoled a premier college in the city to accept him. I had also arranged private tuitions in the subjects he was weak. Today he has blossomed in to a very confident young man. He is earning a handsome salary in a software company. He has a wife & a little girl who is going to play school. He has no other commitments. Yet, he is reluctant to help me in times of need...."As mentioned earlier, I did not know what to tell Gopal or how to console him... I mumbled something like "It is sad. Children should show more care..." I had waved to Gopal and moved on with a heavy heart.

Now as I walked further away from Gopal's residence, the same thoughts came to my mind. "Today's employee is tomorrow's retired employee. I wonder what fate awaits me in a couple of years...."