My friend Gopal

It was the heady 70s.

We were in our half pants and on our bicycles. in those days one bicycle is much more convenient than a Rafael Jet. It empowerd you to sneak out of prying eyes of elders and start all misadventures.

Every morning, we would gather at Maharana Sir’s place for mathematic tuition. It was in the Ranihat area. As the tuition would be over, we would ride back home in a pack of cycling group towards Bajrakabati Pola.

Gopal was the first to leave the pack.

He would take the first left turn at Dolamundai to his place at Mahtab Road. Others like me, Pipi  and Tapan would push straight towards Kathjodi on our way home to Rajabagicha till Khannagar. In those days there used to stand a huge, huge banyan tree ( I am yet to see a tree bigger than that) right at the Dolamundai Chhak on your left. The road from the Bajrakabati bridge to Link Road would curve around this banyan tree before meeting the Baba Sagar Das UP School. Gopal and others have got their primary schooling from Sagara Das Bidyapitha.

Today also he was first to leave the pack.

Everyday, there will be an Instant Formula One Cycle race from Ranihat to Dolamundai. Around the Bajrakabati Pola the formula race would break down into a Spanish Bull (Bicycle) fight. Pipi ( Surajit Mahalik) and Gopal were the fiercest Cycle fighters of our time. They would ram into each other with their Rafaels. it is a sheer miracle that none of us had any broken bone. It was always Gopal who would first hit Pipi’s Cycle from behind before turning left at Dolamundai. Both would fall. Then an hand to hand duel with Cycles as missile would start till one of the cycles was broken. Suddenly both would realise that now the cycles would need repairing. That is money to be spent. Parents would be informed. That was suicidal. Every day they would fight. But everyday in another two hours they would be sitting together in the benches of C section.

That was Gopal for me. Very tough from outside. Very soft from inside. He would be first person to arrive, when anyone ( friend or foe) would be in trouble.

His father wanted him to be an engineer. They had a workshop at the industrial estate which manufactured Water Pumps for Unicef. Gopal was the brightest among the three brothers. He could easily have got a seat in any private engineering college in the south. Private engineering seats would cost only 10,000/- in those days. His father was affluent enough to finance several engineering courses. But he was adamant. He was not going to take a private seat on payment. In his family circle, several time we would try to brain wash him to join engineering seat. He said No. But he went into commerce instead. His father would always lament to me about the missed opportunity.   In Odia we had a term for it- Munda.

But then Your destiny decides Your destination.

He would always insist that I should leave the railway job and come back to my ancestral place at KhanNagr to set up a private practice. In 1990s on one fine afternoon, I had boarded the Konark Express to leave Odisha for this UPSC job in Mumbai. Just like that. It was pure whim and fancy. I had no prior planning or no career goal. My old parents were staying alone at Khannagar. Gopal often would turn up at our place during their problems. You see Cuttack had a lot of problems for old people staying alone. Water logging, Neighbour’s trouble and what not. Each time he would insist me to come back and look after my parents. Each time I would reply, ”Next Time.” It took me 20 years to come back to Bhubaneswar. I couldn’t come back to the banks of Kathjodi till date.

Your destiny decides your destination.

So when Gopal told me that he had fever and throat pain on 25 April, Sunday I was worried. I had reasons to be. He had uncontrolled Diabetes. He had a cousin brother of our age who had just succumbed to Covid. Dola, his cousin was our batch mate and was working as a GM in Mecon, Ranchi. He had all the access to finest treatment available at Ranchi. He was doing well till the day he was to be discharged. Then he had some breathing problem and was referred to a corporate hospital at Ranchi. He could never be weaned out of NIV. 

I believe the course and the outcome of every disease runs in family. If you (lady) had an Ovarian tutor, your daughter would most likely be going to have one. It is an accepted fact. Today we know that a particular gene inherited from your mother, (ie BRCA) decides whether you and all your cousins will get the cancer or not. Similarly, this Covid runs an asymptomatic course in millions. But in some families, peculiarly it runs lethal course and becomes fatal in spite of our best treatment. For example, his cousin Dola had the best medical support. Ranchi has very good health care facility. He himself was the GM looking after medical facilities at Mecon. But he didn’t survive.

So when Gopal had fever for two days, I immediately advised him for the test. These are difficult times. It took 5 days to get the report, that too in Cuttack. He was admitted to AMRI hospital on the same day that his report came positive. Both his wife and he were admitted in the same hospital. Mania was closely following his treatment. We friends like Shankar and others tried our best to do the needful. But these are difficult times. Once you are inside a Covid Hospital, your destiny takes over. Neither money, nor influence matters. Otherwise, Dola a GM in charge of medical department of a big industrial house like Mecon would not have succumbed. Neither Gopal.

Gopal taught us a grave lesson.

He had uncontrolled Diabetes. It was never controlled even by massively increased doses of Insulin. Inside the Covid Hospital, he was put on steroid from the day one. His sugar levels shot up. We are told that it is the effect of steroid and will be over. We never knew whether it was finally controlled or not. Though his wife recovered in time and was discharged home.

These days I find that a lot of people are given steroid even before they’ve tested positive. This is wrong. Steroid is a double edged sword. It heals but it can kill. It also increases fungal infection, black, white and so on.

Please enquire if the drugs you are taking contains steroid or not. Believe me some of the alternative medicines for Asthma like conditions are steroids only. They cure dramatically but damage your system effectively.

Lastly please take care of your Diabetes, BP and Weight issues. Don’t worry about the Virus. Our body will take care of the virus.

These are difficult times.

It is a miracle that every morning we are waking up to a fresh new day. I hope and sincerely believe that we all will cross the peak of Covid in another two weeks. The world will recover. a new world order will be established sooner or later. Lock down will be a distant memory

But friends who had left us unfortunately will not return again.