Island of Angels
By Monami Basu
27 March, 2014
Countercurrents.org
I always share my happy stories on facebook but I think it is the right time to share this very personal sad story, I never thought I would but I think this time I should make an exception, it is the right time
This was January of 2011, 3rd jan, our whole family was vacationing in Lakswadweep, a big group, me, my husband, my kids, at that time 3 and 6 yrs old, my parents in law, an aunt and my mother. We were on a cruise which would take us to three islands over the next four days. This was day 1 of the cruise and we had just harbored at Kavaratti Island, it was 8am. We got off the ship to be spellbound! There in front of us, lay an island of white sands and aquamarine water enclosed within thick coconut tree forests. The sea beckoned us and we threw ourselves into the warm water. It was around 11:00 am, me, my father-in-law (baba), mom-in-law (ma), mashi and Tani (my elder one) were holding hands and jumping in the water, feeling oh so happy..Bappa, my mom and Gini who were on the beach waved to us. Suddenly Baba, it seemed, decided to go for a swim, abdruptly letting go of Ma's hand, We didn't think too much about it, “he is a powerful swimmer” I told Ma and continued jumping, but Ma thought something was wrong, she had a gut feeling, it is understandable you know, after all she had loved this man for four decades. She urged me to go take a look, and I looked and knew something was wrong, Baba was freely drifting with the waves, back n forth, limp, like a rag doll. I rushed to him, pulled him out, his mouth was frothing, his eyes open, expressionless, dilated.
What happened after that is all blurry. We are dazed, zombies really, everything is in slow motion, surreal, unreal. From somewhere two doctors who were co-passengers rushed to give him CPR, somewhere in the background I saw Ma falling, sinking into the sand, dazed, mouth parched, someone giving her water. an ambulance came, me and bappa, still in our swim wear covered in sand rushed, while some men helped us haul Baba inside, more CPR, more frothing, more helplessness
At the hospital, they try to revive him, I am pacing outside the ICU, I see some burqua clad women looking at me and I have this piece of trivia, something I had read up about Kavaratti, before embarking, go through my mind “More than 95% of inhabitants of Kavaratti are Muslim” you know one of those moments when excruciating pain can be replaced with a random thought, just for a nano second.
They declared Baba dead on arrival. Contrary to what we had thought, he hadn't drowned, there was no water in his lungs, he had had a massive heart attack, and he died even before he hit the water. The story so far is not what I really wanted to talk about, it is what happened after. That is the relevant part.
We went about doing the formalities like zombies, signing papers, we brought Ma to the hospital, told her. I didn't know where my children were, had they eaten? Were they safe? All that was irrelevant, everything seemed irrelevant and then suddenly some angels seemed to take matters into their hands, some burqua clad woman stepped in to feed my children, some man took a piece of roti, held it to Ma's sobbing mouth and said in broken hindi “mummyji aap nahi khayenge toh main bhi nahi khaunga” another man took my sobbing Bappa to his dilapidated hut, gave him chai and said “saheb mere paas paach hazar rupaye hain, apko paiso ki zaroorat hain toh le lijiye, baad me lauta dena”, someone somewhere built a coffin do we could fly Baba's body, and no one, no one let us as much as touch our wallets, their mouths curled up in a hurt smile everytime we tried.
More than 95% muslim population!!! to those people who dehumanize Muslims, to those for whom Gujarat riots represents merely the number of people killed (yes a guy once told me, laughing while he said it , no no not 10,000 *only* about 200 died) to those who say “them” versus “us” I want to shout to them, almost 100% muslim population !! do not criminalize communities, do not dehumanize communities, don't be inhuman in your thoughts. It amazes me how regular people, kind, reasonable in their own lives can be so inhuman in their thoughts. Please put yourselves in their place and think, would you still call it all collateral damage of development and growth. We are about to embark on a very regressive, communal, dangerous journey as a nation. Let us collectively halt that journey, change direction, take a different route before it is too late.
Kavaratti Island, for me is an island of angels, the ones that live there and the one that we left behind.
Monami Basu is Asst Professor, Delhi University
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