A tale of speech

Based on a true story

#Doctortales

#Author: #RhituparnaChakraborty

#Disclaimer: This is an original work by Rhituparna Chakraborty. There is no intention to hurt or rebuke anyone or any profession through this work. This story/episode cannot be copied, published or reproduced without the permission of the author RhituparnaChakraborty.

Every evening, Rishvi would go to her balcony, put her headphones on and would call her mother. This was a ritual she tried to follow earnestly. Why? Well, amidst a plethora of other reasons, one reason was, talking to her mom, gave her peace. She knew whatever she talked about, her mom would listen. Now, Rishvi’s mom had a trait. Yes, the trait was, she talked less, very less rather. She spoke only when spoken to. She would rather smile and keep quiet than initiating a conversation. This habit of talking less or not talking at all happened primarily because of her profession, which was teaching. Rishvi’s mom worked as a teacher for almost 30 years. Teaching meant non stop lectures for almost 7 hours everyday. After that, talking was a punishment for her. Rishvi had attended the same school where her mom had worked. There were times when she would join her mom for lunch. She would pull a chair near her mom, sit comfortably and would eat ‘french toasts’ or ‘Maggi’ or ‘Fried rice’ from her tiffin box, while her mom would have ‘Rotis and Sabzi’. Rishvi was never a huge fan of flat breads. Hence, her mom would make something else for Rishvi’s lunch box. During lunch all the teachers in the staff room would talk about stuff like movies, food, sometimes the topic would be about some difficult students and sometimes it would be about difficult bosses and so on and so forth. Rishvi would quietly listen and so would her mom. There were times when a specific movie was aired on television the previous night, and the topic of discussion at lunch would be that movie. Rishvi was a movie buff and her mom used to give her company whenever any new, good movie was aired. However, in the staffroom, if someone asked Rishvi’s mom whether she had watched the movie, she would say, ‘No.’ Well, the reason was simple. Rishvi’s mom would be worried that if she said ‘Yes’, there could be a probability of someone requesting her to narrate the story? It’s impossible for Rishvi’s mom to talk that much and that too during lunch time, which was the only time she could keep quiet. There were times when Rishvi’s mom would maintain cordial relation with people around her with just a warm smile and zero talking.

However, Rishvi’s mom loved to talk to Rishvi. Whether it was on their way home in a rickshaw or the school van or at bed time. This ritual of Rishvi and her mom talking like friends continued and even continues till date. Only difference is, now Rishvi has to call her to talk to her because of distance.

The best part of the conversation between Rishvi and her mom would always be some interesting real life event either from Rishvi’s mom’s childhood or something new happening around in the city. Yesterday when Rishvi had called her mom, the conversation began with checking on everyone’s well being and then it went on to some character in a tv show playing the role of a person who had slurry speech. Rishvi then said, ‘In shows they portray so much positivity, but, in real life, it must be so difficult for someone who cannot articulate words clearly.’ Rishvi’s mom replied, ‘You know what Rishvi, when we were young, we had this family living in our adjacent house as tenants.’ Rishvi knew that whenever her mom began a conversation with ‘You know what?’, some interesting story would be on its way. Rishvi said, ‘And then?’ Rishvi’s mom continued, ‘ So this family had three children. The youngest kid, Shubho, was unable to talk clearly till he was 7 year old. It’s not that he could not talk, but whenever he talked, he would talk in a deep nasal intonation and the words would not be clear. For example, if he had to say “Ball”, he would say something like, “Bakam”. His parents were hell worried. As a toddler he did speak few words but then as time passed by, his voice intonation became more nasal and his articulation of words became all the more difficult to decipher. This continued and no one could figure out any treatment for this. Now, one fine day, our all time favorite and our only “ Doctor Mama” aka my mother’s brother happened to visit us.’ Rishvi interrupted and said, ‘Woooh, our doctor grandpa was the bestest doctor I had ever known Maa. Remember how he had promptly cured my infection in my newly pierced ear lobes when I was in grade 2?’ Rishvi’s mom said, ‘Oh yes. He was a fine doctor.’ Rishvi said, ‘Then what happened after grandpa came?’ Rishvi’s mom said, ‘So when Doctor Mama was having tea, Shubho came to our house to play. He started saying something to me, Mama overheard the conversation. He then kept his cup of tea, looked at Shubho and then asked our mom, “Why does this kid talk like this?” Mom narrated all she knew about Shubho. Doctor Mama then told me, “Go get my doctor bag.” I rushed and brought him the bag. He took out the flash light from the bag and went near Shubho. Doctor Mama then told Shubho to stand still while he checked Shubho’s nostrils and tonsils with the flash light. Mama then took out a tiny tweezer like thing from the box. He then sterilized it. He gently inserted that into Shubho’s throat and pulled out a tiny little thing akin to a fish bone. Apparently, this thing was stuck in Shubho’s throat for quite some time now. This had hampered his speech. And right after that Shubho’s nasal intonation changed and his words were way decipherable. Shubho’s mommy could not thank Doctor Mama enough for this.’

After hearing the story, Rishvi said, ‘Whoa! This is such an interesting story. How come you missed telling me this earlier?’ Rishvi’s mom laughed and said, ‘Well, I need stories for you everyday, so had saved this for today.’

Rishvi’s mommy’s maternal uncle was a splendid doctor. Patients used to throng to him because they knew he would cure things in a jiffy. Not just that, he was a maestro in playing ‘Tabla’ and he was magical with his sketches too. He had left for his heavenly abode almost 16 years ago, but his memories are as fresh as ever.