The meetings and the policy terms and conditions with the government agencies were all getting streamlined and I was feeling hopeful again. But this dandruff of mine won’t just go. All kinds of antidandruff cosmetic treatments were going on side by side. But I had to remain extra conscious; to avoid those embarrassing moments during the official meets. Moreover, almost all official teams over there had a lady member, and these ladies are very particular about how well-groomed you are. Dandruff had become a nuisance, huge flakes scaled off when touched with the comb, and the itch was intolerable at times. Within a few weeks, similar silvery flaky scratchy little circular patches appeared on the knees and elbows. Days were busy outside, and nights passed scratching and tossing. Dreams of being a successful businessman won’t let me sleep either.
The days usually started early and while rushing out of the little rented house, this old lady named Sarah, who maintained the house and did the cooking and other stuff would take over. When back in the evening, a little tidy house and some warm Botswanian food waited for this foreigner. She was a sweetheart and she insisted on not stepping out of the house late in the evening, as nightlife was not that safe for outsiders. Nothing dangerous but some pickpockets and phone snatchers.
For the last couple of days, while gliding into the car in a hurry in the mornings, it felt as if this old lady tried to say something, but nothing actually used to get communicated, as I was in a hurry every other day. It was a Sunday, and no meetings were scheduled, Ms. Sarah was there as usual and was busy with her regular chores. Sitting with the laptop on my worktable, what was going on more vigorously than typing was scratching. A vicious circle across the head, arms, legs, at times the chest. After some time, this old lady came and stood in front of me. I told her that she may go if she wanted to leave early. But Sarah won’t go. I looked at her inquisitively.
She called me by waving her hand. I jumped out of my chair and walked. She pointed towards the floor, on the floor there was something which I couldn’t make out at first. Then I realized that it was nothing but a heap of hair and flaky scab like things. She looked onto my head, then my arms and legs with some motherly concern in her eyes. The scene was touching and tough to tackle, rather a kind of realization for me.
The floors were wooden and maybe because of less contrast, I never noticed these things ripping off my body. This old lady looked at me again and asked me to get medical advice as early as possible, rather the same day. I nodded, and immediately and much easily the decision was made. I went to the small clinic nearby with a local friend of mine, Oteng. He used to work as the mine supervisor in different tiny and huge mines in the country. But for the last couple of months, he was jobless as the mine he last worked had to be closed owing to some natural calamity. But this free time of his, came as a boon for me as he was my local guide and rather the bearer of a clear, selfless soul and that contributed to the faster progress of the various official and unofficial steps that had to be fixed before starting the actual business.
We reached the clinic. Oteng finished with the little formalities at the reception, and we were called inside by this old nurse, who dresses up exactly like Sarah and maybe as old as her. The doctor greeted us with a very pleasant and warm smile. He was a middle-aged stout white man. He told me that he was from Australia and was here because he wanted to serve humanity with the knowledge he had. I was called to the tiny room next door for the examination purpose. He examined my scalp and then asked me to remove my clothing. He inspected keenly all my itchy, scaly patches and then asked me to dress up and come over. As I came back and sat at his consultation table where Oteng waited with inquisitive eyes, he asked. “What took you so long to be here?” I had no answer and this friend of mine said that I was very busy all the time and had no time even to watch a movie with him. I was kind of embarrassed.
Then he shot his second question. “Is this for the first time you are getting these rashes?” I replied that, though the dandruff’s been there since I had returned from Siberia but the rashes on the body were just a couple of weeks old. The doctor asked again with a tone of confirmation, “Aha! Siberia! how long did you stay there and when?” I said that for almost 7 months, from last October to this April. He reconfirmed, “you mean the entire winter?” I nodded.
Then he continued, “See my son this is kind of a skin disease that has connections with your mental state, your level of immunity and the action of some chemicals called the hormones in your body. It may have been lying dormant in your genes, but the cold climatic conditions and then the sudden change as you came here, it seems that you have a fast life with quite an amount of stress. These factors might have brought it out. But you should take care of it at this stage as quick as possible; else you may repent in future.” Looking at my friend and then back at me he said, “don’t worry it’s not infectious and doesn’t spread from man to man.”
I was confused on hearing that. And asked the doctor what it was? He said that it was ‘Psoriasis’ and gave me some medicated creams and asked me to take further treatment as early as possible. And as there was no facility for it there, he asked me to go to the city hospital in the town as soon as I could fix it.
We took our leave; I was totally screwed. This was not the time for me to ponder on my health. The new connections are yet to be made. The office in Dubai has to be worked upon. Maintaining an office in Dubai was not simple, that too without any income from there. The expenses were high. Some export was happening from India because of which the business existed. The offices in Mumbai and Surat were struggling to maintain their staff and the rents etc. The bread for so many families came from this trade.
Loads of matters in my head and rather more of responsibilities. How could I go in and out of the hospitals and sit aback looking after myself? “What have I done till now? Where is the success? Is it my age to stay home and look after my health?” Questions like these were bombarding my head. I realized that I didn’t utter a word to my friend on the way back as I was lost in my thoughts.
We reached home, Sarah was waiting there eagerly to know the feedback. Oteng narrated the array of incidents at the doctor’s place and how I was imbibed in my thoughts on the way back home. I smiled at Sarah as she looked at me after hearing all that. And then she said, “My son! You must take a quick decision. He is a very experienced and dedicated doctor; he has saved many lives in the village. Though we have limited medical facilities, but this doctor has made sure that anyone who approaches him benefits with the most appropriate decision. Either in the form of the exact treatment or the timely referral to the exact place at the exact time. And if he has demanded for a quick move that means real quick.”
Sarah had wound up all the household chores and as the three of us sat muted in the living area. I broke the silence and asked Sarah that she could leave if she wanted to after lunch. Sarah responded back with a question rather. She asked “so, what have you decided Son?” I was purse-lipped, as I had no idea at all about even what was to be thought of. So, far lies the question of arriving at a decision. Maybe understanding my state, she left the room silently to the kitchen side. Then she was busy serving the lunch. I asked Oteng to stay, and we took lunch together.
After winding up the kitchen Sarah came over to leave. She said, “Dear son! One thing you must believe is that God always does some extra favour to those who work hard for a good cause. Do you know why? Because these people reduce his effort and actually help him, by sharing his job. So, what he does is that, when these lovely children of his, overexert, he plans for little periods of rest for them. And you know what the cutest part is? During these tiny rest breaks, God himself takes over the works left incomplete by his favourites. And you may guess what could be the fate of these little projects taken over and designed by the almighty himself. That is the reason that at times you hear people say, he’s lucky, that’s why success came looking for him so quickly. These people could only see the results that emerged when God started up himself on the project, and not the efforts and strain that was put in much before the success became visible to the world outside. But the God can and thus he does.”
Sarah left. Her words reverberated in my head. Oteng stood up from the sofa to leave too. He said, “Don’t worry brother, you are a good man. Only good things would come your way. If there is something that I could do, please let me know, I would love to help you. And think about what Sarah aunty said. She has got a whole lot of brains and she is much more educated than anyone in the village. My mother says that Sarah aunty could have spent her entire life lavishly in the United States if she hadn’t left her high paid embassy job as some administrator or something for her love.”
Another shock of the day. I blinked at Oteng, not knowing what to ask. Imagining this old, rather poor Botswanian lady who goes from door to door, doing housekeeping and other jobs to earn a livelihood, as a professional in an international office was actually strenuous for the neuronal networks of my brain.
Understanding my state of confusion, Oteng said that Sarah worked at the Botswana Embassy in the United States, holding a superior post at a very young age. She was married to her childhood love, who was a man with an agricultural background. He was here in the village, and she was trying for a transfer to Botswana. But about four years after their marriage, some deadly disease spread across the village and this young man also fell prey to it. In the meanwhile, Sarah’s application for the transfer got rejected owing to the same deadly disease spread. Following which she resigned from the job and struggled a lot to reach back to her ailing love. When she reached here, her hero was already bedridden but he had saved dozens of fellow beings by taking them to the city hospital on time in his motor vehicle used for farming purposes. She took good care of him, shifted him to the hospital and they say that he improved a lot, and it was her love and dedication rather than the medicines that worked. But the wrath of the disease was so severe that it took him in its clenches, and he left her in a couple of months.
After that, she never went back. She looked after his farms and as they had no kids, she considered her beloved’s cows and goats as her kids and cares for them till this day and would definitely do so forever. Among the young lovers of the village, the love story of this couple is still alive and vivid. After saying this much, Oteng moved to leave and he reminded again, “brother I would take leave now, you please rethink about Sarah aunty’s words”.
After Oteng left, I sat aback on the sofa, faint memories about the stories of co-incidences that my father used to reveal sometimes, started getting clearer in my mind. I could now somehow connect Sarah’s words to my situation. I could create a clearer picture of two things in my mind. One, connecting the diagnosis of my disease to the period of rest that God has planned for me to take care of myself. Two, co-incidence of meeting Sarah, who knows how international matters work and meeting Oteng who knows how mines work as the connecting link where God would take over my work from where I stopped it.
