14. Back to Patna PMCH
From Darbhanga, he was transferred to Patna as Superintendent PMCH. The
children were admitted to respective schools. For a couple of weeks we stayed
in a transit house before shifting to the superintendent’s quarter. This was a
huge bungalow with large lawns and backyard. There were 2 gardeners, 2 jamadar,
and four messengers one of whom was just on telephone duty. But after the
social mixing of Darbhanga, initially I was missing them a lot. Nazim and his
family, Amman and Mumani Amman were also with us.
As the nikah was already performed, Sohail often used to come to meet us
there. The tradition that prevailed in our family at that time was that the
girls even after the nikah never came in front of the boy till the formal
wedding ceremony was over. Sohail in the meantime was posted at some centre at
Hajiganj in Patna city.
Though the quarter was large and luxurious, the posting was not so cushy.
PMCH was the only centre for quality treatment in the entire area at that point
of time. All the acquaintances and relatives who came there expected to be
given preferential treatment and would often land up at the quarter for meals.
Everyone expected him to help in the allotment of “cabin” in the hospital which
was not so easy and moreover he was the one who trying to streamline the
allotment procedure. He had his own tension related to administration. The
contractors were corrupt to the core and he had tough time cleaning up the
mess. The “chutney” that went with the dinner for the patients cost Rs. 1 lack
rupees at that point of time. He started visiting the hospital kitchen to
ensure quality food for the patients. Late night, he would go for surprise
checks to ensure that the nurses and emergency staff were on duty. Distribution
of medicines at the hospital involved heavy corruption and he had to struggle
hard to impose checks. All this took its toll he got very irritable. I was also
not keeping good health ever since I came to Patna. The staff told me that all
the predecessor’s wife who stayed in this quarter invariably suffered from
health problem. That was the time I had arthritis problem for the first time.
Dr.Mukhopadhyay who was his classmate gave me cortisone injections.
Principal of the medical college Dr. Acharya was also a classmate of
Doctor Saheb. Once we were invited by him for dinner. The food was sumptuous
and the fish was good. It didn’t, however suit me and I was induced to vomiting
to alleviate the allergic reaction. We came back home late at night and I was
rested in a room at the ground floor. For the whole night he kept a watch on me
sitting in a chair close to me. Next morning I was taken for the ECG in an
ambulance but nothing could be pinpointed.
During the period we were there, Bhaiyya came over to Patna. At that time
a memorable photograph was taken at Trivedi Studio at Chauhatta. This is the
one and only photo of the full family that was. Together with Bhaiyya.
He received an order for deputation to America for training in
administration. He started his preparations. I was somehow not too happy over
this development. It was more than two years now since Talat’s nikah had taken
place and now was the time for the marriage. Everyone who came to meet would
ask the reason for the delay in marriage. They tried to guess if the boy was not
in favor of marrying the girl or was there some demand for money. It
was impossible to satisfy everyone’s inquisitiveness. Children’s education was
at crucial stage too. While I did not discourage him to go, somehow, deep
within my heart I was praying his visit to be held up. Eventually he left for
Delhi to collect his visa and after the medical check-up, the departure was
almost certain. As he went to collect his final papers, it was disclosed that
some other Bengali gentleman having political connection is being sent in his
place and his deputation was eventually cancelled. Thus he had to return from
Delhi. I was so happy to see him back. I tried to console him that Allah must
be having some purpose behind these events and that eventually it may turn out to
be for our benefit.
As he had been relieved from the post of superintendent of PMCH, we had
vacated the quarter and had shifted to a three room small house in the campus
of PMCH which was next to a temple on the Main road. He was then posted as
Deputy Director of Tirhut Division having headquarters at Muzaffarpur. Sohail
was now being reminded for the marriage but his precondition was the arrival of
both his sisters from Pakistan for the occasion. This was the time when India
went on war with China and the postal service with Pakistan got disrupted. I
was in touch with Sohail and explained to him one day that it is not
practicable for me to carry all the wedding related items to
Muzaffarpur. As the war is on, it not possible for the sisters to come here in
the immediate future whereas I wanted to be done with this responsibility as
early as possible. Sohail was convinced but his problem was to go for the
arrangements for the wedding without any female member in the family. I offered
to help him to the extent possible.
My heart goes out as I write about Talat. I am unable to write beyond this point about her. Just want to mention she was like an angel. When she was living in Monghyr after her marriage, their landlord had five daughters and two of them was married. The third one was to be married. They wanted to borrow Rs.10,000/- to be adjusted against future rent of the house. Some earlier borrowed money was also due, so Sohail did not agree to it. The crisis worsened to an extent that the marriage was about to be called off for want of money. When Talat came to know she told Sohail that just for money if the marriage breaks up, it will be regretful and if he is not in a position to offer, let her ornaments be mortgaged for this purpose. Sohail eventually gave the money and the ceremony was held, the normal way. Another incident was witnessed by me in Rajendra Nagar Patna, when during the winter, Muslim Mian’s wife came to meet her and said she had no woolen clothing to face the chill. Talat asked “what happened to the shawl I had given to you last year”. She replied “ I gave it to my daughter when she came” Talat didn’t ask anything further and gave the best shawl she had for herself. Allah probably liked these attributes and took her from us in her prime days. May her soul rest in peace in the heavens. Amen. We treated Sohail as our son. He was bestowed the love of father as well as mother.
After Talat’s marriage was over, a good number of proposals started pouring in for Nuzhat. A few of them was from Dr. Khurshid Alam of Saharsa. Dr. Zia wrote a letter with offer for Dr. Tarique who was then posted at Kako. Both of them had studied medical from Darbhanga. Nuzhat, however, was adamant to go for studying in Medical College. Thus almost half a dozen proposals were set aside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter
INDEX.------------------------------------