Seven Year Battle Comes to an End:

My office manager who was suffering from cancer for seven long years breathed his last yesterday. He was not merely an office staff to me but something more than that. Right from my appointment in the university (1994), I had developed some physics and chemistry with him; perhaps I was seeing some replica of my childhood school friend in him. So my relationship with him became not hierarchical but just emotional and sentimental. This did not change even after I became the Head of the Department. Indeed at one stage in the early 2000s I told him that if he was not available in the department as office manager I would not even accept the headship. The wise and benevolent destiny delayed my professorship and in the process denied my headship too. He felt more than what I missed.

Right from the day when he was diagnosed as a cancer patient, another office staff who worked as manager at that time played a very supportive role and he was the one who was present at his death bed. Very rarely I have come across a person like him who was willing to run around to save his life. In the beginning my friend was slightly indifferent to his ailment and when the time came for treatment his one leg had to be amputated from the hip. With tremendous religious faith and will power he managed to walk with crutches and ride tricycle to come to office. He never allowed his physical ill health paralyze his work ethics. He had to undergo two operations in the lungs and he successfully negotiated all kinds of physical and financial discomfort with courage and fortitude. Affectionate wife and lovely daughters gave him the necessary oxygen to live, love and respect the fellow human beings. He was always soft spoken and kind and very meticulous in doing office work, sometimes carrying files home and on important occasions attending office on Saturdays.

Such a nice young man in his forties was just snatched away by the almighty for the reasons known to him only. It was only a month ago he complained of stomach pain. We all felt at that time that it should not have anything to do with his ‘problem’. But this time he was quick to go to Chennai Cancer Institute and check. Like a bolt from the blue the scan report revealed that the cancer had invaded his liver and pancreas and he was told that he must switch over to some alternative medicine as further surgical operation was not just possible.

Being a deeply religious person, he somehow felt that God would not abandon him and somehow he would come out of this acute pain but alas he was not destined to be. Given my pressure of work and my own health problems I could not frequent his house in the last one month as I used to in the past. There is only some consolation that I was at his side just four hours before his death. His face was fresh and serene despite his problems he spoke to me. That picture of his will remain as one who fought against the deadly disease with all the smiles on his face. I don’t know whether he was aware that his days were numbered. Given his acute pain and many other complications that had developed I feel that God was merciful enough to take him to his kingdom with tremendous love, care and concern giving relief to him and also to persons who were close to his heart and hence were not able to bear the pain that he was suffering from. The entire university including the new VC were sharing the agony of the bereaved family and also willing to shower the much needed financial benevolence for the family. As and when the university does adequate compensation which will definitely provide some economic wherewithal to my friend’s wife in the form of a job the uprooted family tree can get some sustenance to live and thrive.

Personally it was a great loss. Outside our family circle we get closer only with a select few and Mr Murugan was one such person. His whole life is an example for many of what one should do (about work) and what one should not do (ignoring health). While giving condolences, I just pleaded before the faculty and administration that all of us during our brief stay on the planet must conduct ourselves in such a way that we will be of some help to fellow human beings in whatever way we can. This is what I have learnt from Murugan. I also wish I had his faith in the almighty.