Page 15 - My Father-Final Book

moment. And, he would behave as if he had not been recently ill. My mother hadseen my father vomiting a bucket-full of waste while he had not eaten much food at all. Also, I myself have witnessed his suffering an illness that indicated his death is approaching. But, then he became well, the following moment. On some such occasions, he had told me that he would know the time of his death sufficiently before the actual death. In 1988, he was admitted to Prayag Hospital. He told the doctor that no attempts to save him would work. He was in coma for a long time and I could not see him. He told people around not to bother me with the knowledge of his condition as I was in New Zealand then.
Actually, during one such illness of my father, I was emotionally carried away. This was just after I received my Master’s degree in Engineering and I had come from West Bengal to work in Mumbai. As I have indicated earlier (cf:His Family), I was an established celibate for some years of my Engineering studies. So, no one had ever talked about my marriage though I was a very sought after candidate for an arranged marriage. I was working in Mumbai, but I was visiting Pune for a short time. I witnessed that my father was so unwell that he might die. Then, a thought overcame my mind that I should marry since I was the only son of my parents. But, I could not dare to say it openly. I wrote a small letter to my father that I am prepared to marry and I would like to marry the first girl that appears in the arranged interviews. I was apparently making a promise that I will marry whoever the first girl appears for such interviews. (I wish I had that letter with me today!) Surprisingly, my father became well within a couple of days. One girl’s family had approached my father to become a mediator for meeting with one of my father’s disciples for the purpose of arranged marriage of the girl with the disciple’s son. My father delayed this meeting, as
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