As he entered the Apollo hospital, he could see the
tear-stained angry faces of
Sivaramakrishnan, Swetha, Anandavalli and Srinivasan. As he walked on,
Srinivasan walked up to him, and beat him hard with his old umbrella, as he
used to when Venkataraman was a kid. At the end of it Srinivasan broke down.
Venkataraman calm as ever, kept walking. His mother, and daughter, hugged him
to cry, and he walked on towards the ICU. He entered the ICU.
The blood pressure was rising. After nearly a week,
it was rising for the first time. People around were shocked. The doctors were
still not too confident though. Venkataraman went up to his struggling wife’s
body, and touched upon her hand. She had miraculously regained consciousness
that morning, and now the sings of revival were encouraging to the rest of the
Venkataraman family. As he touched her hand, she turned. The face, first
twitched into a big smile, and then, tears rolled out of the eyes. But as she
smiled, the breathing started becoming difficult. The pressure started
increasing rapidly. Venkataraman knew, this was the flourish before the end.
She looked at him, and he looked right into her eyes. As their eyes were
locked, the light firmness with which she held his hand was gone. She died with
that smile on her face. He closed her eyes, whispered a chant, and turned up.
He completed her final rites. He had not shed a tear
in the whole process. As he finished the rites, and walked towards the Indian
Ocean, he realized that the mental detachment was beginning to work. He was
feeling truly happy, as an individual. He had become a true sanyasin.
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