Maa

“Those were the best days of my life…”, crooned Bryan Adams’ voice loudly as I rushed outside to pick up my cell phone and to get away from all those staring people. I should have kept something subtle as my ringtone, I wondered in hindsight.

“Ya…”
“Is it over yet?”
“Nope. Not yet”
“How long has it been? When did it start?”
“Umm… about 2 hours”, I glanced at my watch. It was 2.45.
“A bit longer than usual”
“Stop freaking me out babe. Its going to be fine. Bye” I hung up, more worrisome than ever.

That was my friend Neeti, studying to be a doctor. Mom was in the O.T. undergoing a regular laproscopy. The procedure/ surgery had taken over 2 hours now whereas the doctor had said that it was a ‘simple, 30 minute thing’.

“You have a message”- My cell phone rang again
“Sorry Mihir. It’ll be fine. Don’t worry. I dunno what else to say. Take care dude”.

I had see countless movies where a surgery/ operation is going on with the hero/ hero’s wife, daughter or mom in the O.T. and all the relatives pacing in the long corridor stealing quick glances at the “red light”. I always found it funny and not realistic at all.

I tried to but couldn’t suppress a smile as I looked again at that “red light” while walking the length of the corridor leading to the O.T. Ironical, no?

“Have your lunch”, mom had said at 12.30 when she was being wheeled into the preparatory room.
“Ma, please..”, I couldn’t imagine she would think of our lunch at such a time. Mothers… Wasn’t she scared?

Me and dad were with her until she was administered GA (General Anesthesia). She was scared. She wanted this operation to get over quickly. It was a small surgical procedure for the doctor but her biggest operation yet.

We understood. We couldn’t do anything but to hold her hand. I was scared. Dad was saying all the right things to comfort her. I was too much in awe/ fear of the surroundings to say much. Repeating what dad had said seemed like a good idea. Soon she was under the effect of GA and was wheeled into the O.T. The doctor seemed comfortable, calm. We trusted him. We better.

“Brrrr..” - My phone vibrated snapping me back to the present. It was Neeti again. I cut it. I glanced at my watch again and I saw dad dong the same. 3.30, Damn.
Suddenly the “red light” turned off and the doctor appeared a few minutes later.

“Doctor….”, dad began
“We’ve done it. It was an unusually a large fibroid. You can see her in a few minutes. They are just trying to get her out of the GA.”
“Thank you so much.”
“Ya..Ya..” and her disappeared into some room.

I hugged dad and we saw mom being wheeled into the recovery room.

“She’s still under sedation. It’ll take her an hour to get back to her senses. You can try speaking to her”, I heard someone telling dad as I went towards mom’s stretcher.

“Hi mom”
“Hmmm”
“Its over Ma”
“Hmmm.. is the operation done?”
She was slurring and very much under sedation.
“Yes ma, you’ve done it”
“Hmmm”
Dad touched ma’s forehead and told me that we should leave from here and wait out till mom is awake. I did not want to, but suddenly I was feeling very hungry and we decided to eat something finally. Mom was alright”
I turned to go
“Hmm”
“You said something Ma?”
“Did you both have lunch?”
Post operation, under sedation, but still……….Mothers!!
“Yes Mom.”