The Dream Run

Date : 11th June 2017

Day : Sunday

Time : 0900 hours

It was a gloomy day to start with. I had a plan with my friends to visit Tata Memorial Hospital for Cancer patients in Parel, Mumbai and spend time with the patients there. We were a group of 6 people initially planned to visit the place. Due to unfortunate incidents, one behind the other out of the 6 started cancelling out and because of things which were unavoidable. I was left with 2, myself and a close friend of me called Akshay through whose reference I was supposed to visit that place.

Not only did we have cancellations from our buddies but it was raining torrential. To add to it, the western railway was having mega block which delayed trains further. Our plan was to take fruits to the hospital and distribute it there among 200 patients, but due to shortage of man-power, commutation with fruits for 200 people was a big question. Google then added on to our already existing list of problems. 2 Reliance Fresh stores, 1 Ofresh store and 1 super market which Maps portrayed as opened never existed. We ended up wasting around an hour finding a place where we would not only get fruits but would get quality and proper packing to enable us take them to the hospital. Our last throw of the dice was a Godrej Nature's basket store which was at Prabhadevi, 3 kilometers away from where we were then located., again with the help of google maps. We took a cab and made our journey in a near to give up position just to find out that the Nature's basket store was in place and open. Then the onslaught started and it was no stopping us.

We emptied 4 racks of apples and 2 racks of pomegranates without really thinking what would be the approximate cost of the fruits we were then purchasing. Not to forget it was still raining torrential and we were already drenched in rains. Somehow managed to pack all the taken fruits and checked out. The staff was very helpful and helped us carry those packed packs (God knows how many) to our cab. We somehow managed to fit ourselves with all the fruits in and over us.

We entered Tata hospital 20 minutes after we left Nature's basket. Our entry in the hospital was near to hilarious. Akshay's mom apparently was a doctor in Tata and she was then the only available doctor with us. With near to no staff available for spare since it was a Sunday, we were on our own to carry the Kilos of fruits we had with us. What best we could then do is hire a stretcher. The stretcher for a change was not having a patient on it but racks of fruits. We were looking as if we were some fruit vendors moving in to open a fruit stall inside Tata. We then entered the general ward with stretcher. Close to 80 Females and 80 Males in the general ward, a ward which is meant for the under-privileged and has limited resources was our prime target. The faces spoke a lot there. The fruits that we offered to them was not only a blessing to them but to many a medicine which maybe they could not have afforded with ease. The stories, the smiles on faces of patients which are still in dire straits spoke a lot, the change of expressions and thanks in eyes of their relatives spoke a million words. Small stories which were like a stress buster to them and to ease out their frustration probably claimed our motive to help them. Fruits were just a medium to interact, the main gist was to hear them out. We then entered the Day-Care where patients are kept for Chemotherapy. A place were its rare to see people apart from the ones suffering to exist but we still made it through. The faces there spoke a million words just by expressions when we could give them fruits and maybe have a word or 2 with them. Few were so happy that they wanted to have pics with us but due to restrictions, we had to deny them, the feeling though was conveyed in the perfect manner.

More than 200 patients served in a day, many of them heard out and some quality time spent with them to ease them out on their frustrations and tensions probably made our day a not so sweet to experience in terms of the pain one goes through, but memorable in terms of the way we could serve them in the best possible way. It happened to be my birthday, couldn't have asked God for a better gift than smiles on faces of 200 patients or more and their relatives. Sometimes, life that we have seems to be pathetic and weird but looking at these people, I really do feel blessed to have such a wonderful life. I pray to God to give them and their relatives all the courage to handle the pain and get them out of this asap. For me, it was a birthday well spent, first with the people I work for and then with my family. Last but not the least, the motive of my life still stay the same and with every single second of me passing on towards eternity, my team's effort with keep on growing - "In this moment of grief, You'll Never Walk Alone"...

Regards,

Gladi.