In a regular health check-up 15 days back, when my mom's TMT (Tread-mill Test) showed baseline positive, little did we know that we were going to go through the worst patch in our closed-knit family life.
Meet my mom: 52-year old, slim (she proudly proclaims she is "almost size zero" and she is not kidding, believe me), health conscious (she is done with the advanced course of art of living, and has been practicing yoga, pranayam, om vilom, sudarshan kriya and what not for more than 2 years now), very active (she teaches English in middle and senior school) - she has no family history of any heart ailment, she is not diabetic, no BP problems.
In a follow up angiogram, and then angiography on 18th Feb, mom was diagnosed with severe blockage in all the three main arteries to the heart - 80%, 80% and 90%.
We all were shocked - the doctors were slightly taken aback too.
Life defies logic, they say.
Science could not help us ascertain the reasons but scientific advancement helped us take immediate remedial actions. Mom went in for angioplasty - there were multiple complications and I do not even want to recall what was going through all our minds and hearts - we helplessly held onto faith - hating god for putting mom through this and at the same time thanking him for guiding us to the right course before anything worse could happen.
By God's grace, the operation was successful and mom's been recovering well.
We had a family reunion after almost a year - given my work schedule, Priyank's college, mom's school, dad's work, it becomes difficult to synchronize vacations - but we all realized, so blatantly - our strength is in our togetherness - that is living - cherishing our love and the bonds that bind; happiness is here, within - we cannot and will not give up - together we can fight, and win; so what if we are not together on festivals so many times - when our hearts are one - when we are together and for one another, life's a sparkling Diwali, a benevolent Christmas, a colorful Holi, anytime, anywhere.
