Birth of a Miracle - III : Shock of Life

Period: 16 November, 1968
Location: Tiruchendur, Tamilnadu, India

The body of the child was lying in wrapped clothes in the next room for the next hours. In about two hours after the birth, the doctor's wife (a non-medical person), came down to see Mrs. Rose and the child. I had told you that the family of Mr. Rathna knew the doctor's family well. Since the hospital was functioning in the ground floor of the house of the doctor, it was easy for the lady to come and see Mrs. Rose. Also because it was a courtesy visit, as the child was "still born", as the doctor had informed her.

She was accompanied by a nurse. They spent few minutes with Mrs. Rose who was recovering, and was deeply tired. The nurse and the doctor's wife moved to see the child --more as a point of giving consolation to the family. While there, the doctor's wife asked the nurse if they had given any shock to the child. The nurse said, "No". The lady said, "I have read that electric shock can sometime bring life back, if there is some life left. Why don't you get a wire? Let us check!". Since this small sized hospital did not have any of the modern equipment, even of that time, they found a wire with naked end on either side as their tool. 

Now it was getting bizarre. They checked once more to confirm that there was no heartbeat or breathing signs of the child. This was in conformity with what Dr. Moses had told them. The doctor's wife told the nurse. "You keep one end of the wire on the child'd body. I shall keep another end into the plug, and I shall switch it on for a second, and switch off. Let's keep an eye on the child. If there is some life, we will know!"

So, this bizarre experiment of these two ladies started. The nurse kept one end of the wire on the child. The doctor's wife put the other side into the plug, and had her hands on the switch. Both were holding their breath! The child was lying on a bed under their observation for this shock....or electrocution? There was fear...suspense...worry...concern.... Both their eyes were on the child. The doctor's wife started counting, "One... Two.... Three.... ON... OFF... "Kadavuley!" (Oh, my God!) both shouted, as they had seen the little finger of the left hand of the child shaking for a second at the time when the electricity was switched on! They both shouted, "The child is alive, the child is alive!" The nurse ran up to call the doctor. The old man came down, and as he was hearing of this experiment, he checked the baby. There was very feeble heartbeat, and the child was struggling to breathe. He asked the child to be put on Oxygen, and it was given three injections within minutes. Further, it was wrapped in wool, and was kept so under medical observation for three days. 

By the third day, the child was better, and the mother too. After three more days, they left the hospital in good health. Mr. Rathna and Mrs. Rose thought of this as nothing short of a miracle. This is something not heard of! They got the child baptized immediately at the local Church following their Christian faith with the name, "Puthumai", which in Tamil means - "miracle", or "newness". 

Fighting the Gods

The disaster that has taken place in the state of Uttarakhand makes me continually wonder, "Are we fighting the Gods?" This state is also known as "Devbhumi", which means, Land of Gods. The tourist spots were closer to the plains - Nainithal, Musoorie and Dehradun, to name a few. The dwelling of Gods were mostly in the snow-clad mountains. People traveled on spiritual journey, not expecting to return back home! Yes, I am correct. People did not expect to return back home, when they were on spiritual journey. The other day one of my companions, Ms. Divya Gupta said that still people in some clans conduct a kind of funeral service for those planning to leave on pilgrimage to some of these places like Kedarnath, Badrinath and Gangotri. That is because, they thought that these were on their journey to moksha (roughly translated as "liberation" or "heaven") and if they return, good; if they do not, they have reached moksha. 

Picture courtesy: La Journal International

But, what have we done with the land? We have tried to behave exactly as do in the plains. We want high ways so that cars can ply at over 50 miles on hours on the steep mountains, we wish to have uninterrupted power supply and water supply at our door steps. What about uninterrupted tele-connectivity? We get upset if our mobile phones don't work --- and we blame the tele-service provider for poor connectivity. Young people move in hundreds and thousands only to provide service to the hundreds of thousands who flock to these and other temples, throwing away all along plastics from the fast food, cool drinks, water bottles, and packets from several brands of chips. The vehicles carry pilgrims and those on pleasure trips, leaving enough of CO2 that in their whole life time cannot undo. It is simply a tourism, centered around religious faith of people. Over exploitation of Gods for commercial reasons have probably been one of the biggest errors of all times. But religion and commerce are strange bed fellows - they openly speak against one another, but cannot live without the other.

The concept of development cannot be the same for all geographical locations, at all time. There is a need to leave many of these hills to remain just the dwelling places of gods and divine men. Remember that the Gods have remained intact in spite of the disaster, although the disaster killed thousands and destroyed much of livelihoods and buildings. Carrying worldly life of the plains to the spiritual life of the mountains is a dangerous proposition. God's will hit us back!

After all, all of us climbing up the mountain to seek God is not required, and not the right thing! One must truly be holy to climb up the mountains to see the face of God. I thought of ending it up with the first few verses of Psalm 24 from the Bible which is aptly titled, "The Earth is the Lord's":

The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
2 For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.

3 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, (my comment: money, power: new age idols)
Nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Watching Movies

I am not a person who likes to sit for cinema, although once in a while I see an English movie, and rarely a Hindi or a regional language film. But in the last two weeks I have seen two of them. That's for a record. The first one is Rowdy Rathore, in Hindi, based on a south Indian movie. I would rate it good, with  a simple story line of good versus evil, and impersonation of a person to grow from a bad person into a good person to destroy bad people! The other one we watched yesterday: Oh My God! It is about an atheist small businessman struggling with his own faith in humanism, when his entire shop is destroyed in an earthquake. The insurance company refuses to pay him the money because it was "an act of God". Now he calls to court all the agents of God (priests of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and every other religion) and takes you through the shallowness of faith of these "religious:" against the "apostasy" of his own commitment to "truth, justice, equality, service to the poor". In the process he must learn what true religion is all about, and teach others as well. A good movie to watch and reflect about. All must see.