September 16. I recently came across an article about M.S. Subbulakshmi and from it I gleaned that she was born on this date. This was the first time I learnt of her birth date and I looked up wikipedia to confirm it. It checked out. I sat in stunned silence as my thoughts transported me back to my CA Articleship days. A fellow intern called Sathya Narayanan used to be crazy about MS Subbulakshmi and pretty much worshipped her like he would a Goddess. So devoted to her was he that he would carry a picture of her along with his favourite deities whenever he would travel on out of town audit trips.
Sathya had a slightly sad personal story. He was not very well to do. His mother had passed away the day he was born due to labour complications. His father had remarried and life with his step mother was .... well, not the best. Nevertheless he was an extremely cheerful guy and would always be joking around the office. Some of his jokes would turn macabre especially the day before exam results, when he'd laughingly say things like 'Tomorrow is Result day. If you hear of a young man being found dead on rail tracks, it'll probably be me' . Of course he'd laugh it off.
There was this one joke that he used to tell us very often. Apparently some fortune teller in a local share auto had read his palm and exclaimed 'This hand is not meant to be in India. It is meant to be in the USA'. What he meant was of course that he was destined to fly abroad soon. He came to office and repeated the fortune teller's words verbatim when one of the Audit partners quipped 'Paathu Sathya, indha kaiya mattum yaaravadhu vetti eduthutu po poraanga' (Watch out Sathya, someone might just hack your hand off and take it to the US). He found her joke so hilarious that he went around telling this to everyone and followed it up with a hearty laugh.
It was sometime around the second week of September that year, that I went on exam leave. My last audit before leave was at Vasan Publications (Ananda Vikatan, Jr Vikatan etc) and he had been my fellow audit assistant. He was to go on leave a few weeks after me. Around 13th September or so, I remembered he had borrowed my Cost Accountancy notes and hadn't returned them. I rushed to Vikatan office and collected them from him. Little did I know that this would be the last time I'd see him.
A few days after that, one morning, he had gone to the bus terminus near his house to catch a bus to work. As he was boarding the bus, while standing on the footboard (steps inside the bus), he noticed his sandal strap had come undone. He had bent down to adjust it. At the exact same time, the driver had taken a sharp left and Sathya lost his balance. He fell off the bus and his hand went right under the wheel and was severed. A lady who was watching all this fainted. With great difficulty he was extricated from under the bus. Though bleeding profusely and in great pain, he was still alive. His family, for some reason, couldn't be contacted immediately. After some delay, the people at the bus terminus decided to rush him to the General Hospital (GH). Someone even brought his severed hand along in a plastic bag with the hope that it could be stitched back. When he reached GH, he had apparently pleaded with the doctor to save him. Unfortunately it was not meant to be. Due to delay in bringing him to the hospital he had lost a lot of blood. It was all very unfair. Though he had lost a hand he could have easily been saved had help reached him early. The hand that was supposed to be in the USA, died along with him that day.
When we all heard the news we were shocked and devastated. Could this really be true? Our Sathya dead? We were in total denial and disbelief. With heavy hearts we rushed to his house in Nanganallur to pay our last respects, still unable to believe that he was no more. The world had lost a bright and young soul and we, our good friend.
I came back to the present and read the article again. My eyes glazed over. September 16. The day his Goddess was born. The day he left us all.
Sathya had a slightly sad personal story. He was not very well to do. His mother had passed away the day he was born due to labour complications. His father had remarried and life with his step mother was .... well, not the best. Nevertheless he was an extremely cheerful guy and would always be joking around the office. Some of his jokes would turn macabre especially the day before exam results, when he'd laughingly say things like 'Tomorrow is Result day. If you hear of a young man being found dead on rail tracks, it'll probably be me' . Of course he'd laugh it off.
There was this one joke that he used to tell us very often. Apparently some fortune teller in a local share auto had read his palm and exclaimed 'This hand is not meant to be in India. It is meant to be in the USA'. What he meant was of course that he was destined to fly abroad soon. He came to office and repeated the fortune teller's words verbatim when one of the Audit partners quipped 'Paathu Sathya, indha kaiya mattum yaaravadhu vetti eduthutu po poraanga' (Watch out Sathya, someone might just hack your hand off and take it to the US). He found her joke so hilarious that he went around telling this to everyone and followed it up with a hearty laugh.
It was sometime around the second week of September that year, that I went on exam leave. My last audit before leave was at Vasan Publications (Ananda Vikatan, Jr Vikatan etc) and he had been my fellow audit assistant. He was to go on leave a few weeks after me. Around 13th September or so, I remembered he had borrowed my Cost Accountancy notes and hadn't returned them. I rushed to Vikatan office and collected them from him. Little did I know that this would be the last time I'd see him.
A few days after that, one morning, he had gone to the bus terminus near his house to catch a bus to work. As he was boarding the bus, while standing on the footboard (steps inside the bus), he noticed his sandal strap had come undone. He had bent down to adjust it. At the exact same time, the driver had taken a sharp left and Sathya lost his balance. He fell off the bus and his hand went right under the wheel and was severed. A lady who was watching all this fainted. With great difficulty he was extricated from under the bus. Though bleeding profusely and in great pain, he was still alive. His family, for some reason, couldn't be contacted immediately. After some delay, the people at the bus terminus decided to rush him to the General Hospital (GH). Someone even brought his severed hand along in a plastic bag with the hope that it could be stitched back. When he reached GH, he had apparently pleaded with the doctor to save him. Unfortunately it was not meant to be. Due to delay in bringing him to the hospital he had lost a lot of blood. It was all very unfair. Though he had lost a hand he could have easily been saved had help reached him early. The hand that was supposed to be in the USA, died along with him that day.
When we all heard the news we were shocked and devastated. Could this really be true? Our Sathya dead? We were in total denial and disbelief. With heavy hearts we rushed to his house in Nanganallur to pay our last respects, still unable to believe that he was no more. The world had lost a bright and young soul and we, our good friend.
I came back to the present and read the article again. My eyes glazed over. September 16. The day his Goddess was born. The day he left us all.
1 comment:
Oh damn.. that is quite tragic... :-(
Infact just before reading this, gramma was telling me today is MS's bday and how she & Indira Gandhi are probably just months apart...
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