The rescuer
K S S Pillai
People were dying like flies. There were reports of overcrowding at crematoria. There was an acute shortage of Oxygen in hospitals, causing the death of a large number of patients. That was also the case with certain medicines prescribed for treating the disease. Patients were being turned away by hospitals due to lack of beds. Television channels and newspapers seemed to have nothing to report except the frightening situation caused by the second wave of Covid-19.
All members of my family, except me, were tested positive. As my grandson Abhi aged 18, and his sister Anjali had only mild symptoms, they were asked to take treatment at home. My son and his wife were required to get admitted to a hospital. Luckily, the hospital had an Oxygen plant that produced enough quantity of the gas. It also managed to get the required supply of medicines for treating the disease. Their condition was such that they were expected to remain there for some time.
I did not know how to face the situation. A leg injury had forced me to remain upstairs, and there was no possibility of my going down to the kitchen to cook food. Neither were my grandchildren of any use there.
To my pleasant surprise, Abhi rose to the occasion and took charge. He assured me that everything was going on well. Both my grandchildren would keep their distance from me and wear a mask whenever they had to approach me. Usually, they avoided coming to my room and used their cellphones to communicate with me.
That is when our maidservant Naina came to our rescue. She had first come to our house with her mother when she was barely ten. Like other girls in her community, she had stopped attending school after the primary stage. The mother had stopped coming after some time, leaving her place to Naina. For a brief period, she had entered into wedlock and gone to her husband’s house. One day she bade goodbye to her married life and came back. She had been working in our house for more than forty years.
She has moved with the time. Now she has a mobile phone, and she gets lengthy calls now and then. I have never seen her calling someone on the phone.
She was the only one well-acquainted with the kitchen. Though her family members were mixing up with all kinds of people, it was a wonder that none of them contracted the disease. They had not even taken the vaccination.
When told of the situation, Naina assured us that she would come to the house as usual. The only precaution she took was wearing a mask. Though she knew my grandchildren were undergoing treatment for the disease, she did not show any reluctance in entering their rooms or taking care of their needs.
I dreaded the day she would contract the disease and stop coming. Every morning I would listen anxiously for the sound of the gate opening, and she never failed us. She would do all the usual work and cook different kinds of food for the three of us.
Her brother plied an auto-rickshaw. Whatever clothes or other things my daughter-in-law asked for, she would send them to the hospital through her brother. I was sure she would fall prey to the disease any day, but she didn’t. My anxiety knew no bounds till I was informed my son and daughter-in-law were discharged from the hospital.
Naina was the heroine of the entire episode. I dread to think what would have happened if she had not come to our rescue. When she opened my room with a cup of steaming tea every morning, I would see my patron goddess in her.
The wonder of wonder, she never caught the disease. Now the chances are less because she has taken both doses of vaccination at our insistence.
The least I could do was to raise her wages substantially.
(The author is a retired professor of English. A regular contributor to The Kashmir Vision, his articles and short stories have appeared in various national and international publications)
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