Dr Rangnath smashed the coconut onto the
foot steps of his newly constructed house,
marking a new beginning of his retired life. As a chief medical officer
in kannur district of Kerala life was often bit more busy than required at that
age. This new house of theirs was a dream house especially for his wife Suman . All through her life she lived in the
stingy government accommodations, and you know how they are ? The interiors and
fitments are never to your taste, seepage with the first rains would forecast
the onset of monsoons and the creaky sound from doors and cupboards would never
go, no matter how hard you try to grease them. This house of theirs was built
with the choicest interiors and all things perfectly matching in color and
design. Suman’s kitchen was state of the
art modular and ergonomically designed. This was perfectly what she had longed
all through her life in those government accommodations. Dr Rangnath was a
surgeon of highest order with an eye and hand for perfection. In his profession , he couldn’t afford a smallest
incorrect incision or for that matter an extra small suture. As per him ,things
could only be medically correct, if they were surgically
perfect. His perfectionist attitude could well be seen in their house. Dr
Rangnath was a placid personality in love with nature. It is this reason that
albeit he remained away from village all though his life, he finally decided to
settle down in his native town in a serene environment away from the hustle
bustle of city life. India's abysmally
low doctor-patient ratio - one doctor for 2000 people, and medical emergencies
kept him busy all these years of his
service. In this fuss, he could never realize when his children grew up,
moved on to their professions and his service came to a terminal end. In
his retired life keeping himself close to nature , he planted a coconut tree in
the back yard of his house. The daily morning routine would begin with watering this tree and watching sprouting of leaves
gave an immense pleasure. Bringing up a coconut palm is like raising a child.
Its germination takes six months and it almost takes 20 years for a palm to
mature and reach its full potential with
an average life span of at least 80 years. With his care the palm was growing
at a healthy pace and its husk would get thicker as days passed by. The
noticeable growth of the palm would also indicate that reasonable time has passed since
their children visited last and their visit must be around the corner. Time had flown and this young palm was now
over fifteen feet in height, when it conceived its first fruit of it’s life
span. Sipping their morning tea sitting under the sprawling leaves of the palm,
Suman noticed that the young palm had ripped coconuts this year. Dr Rangnath grinned
and told Suman , “their two children she had raised , but this palm was his
post retirement parenting , trying to recover the joy he had missed
experiencing his own children growing”.
Consoling him Suman said “ no, you have been
a perfect father as you have been a perfect surgeon, else our son wouldn’t have
become an IAS and daughter wouldn’t have been a practicing doctor in London.”
Dr Rangnath said” you have always been
modest in giving all the credit to me
and I am lucky to have you as my better half”
He thought of sharing the first fruit of
his palm with his wife. He couldn’t control the feeling of his joy at a thought
of sipping coco water together from same nut. This feel brought a brisk smile
on to his face. Dr Rangnath climbed the stairs to reach the roof top to pluck
the coconut. He went to the edge of the roof to reach for the fruit , his reach
was just a couple of inches short, he leaned forward in an extra effort and then he realized that he
had leaned little more than he could balance and there was nothing on the roof
to support him. Coming down with a force, his head hit the white marbel floor of the backyard.
It was a fatal head injury. Now, Dr Rangnath is no more there, but that palm
still stands as a symbol of his love, affection and a reason for Dr Rangnath’s
union with GOD the Almighty.
No one has ever been able to understand
God’s design. In the panoramic view of life, more often than not, we would
realize that everything has a purpose and we don’t understand it, until life
unfolds it’s meaning to us. The coconut tree had a specific purpose of being the reason for Dr Rangnath's union with God,What may seem to us as an error, is actually a perfect part in God's script. This story is inspired by a true incident.
