Bone marrow Transplant

 

 What does one do in Kerala when he goes jobless for years together? Especially when his family is in penury.

He tries to migrate or emigrate. It is not that he is after riches. The intention is to land a job abroad and ensure a better lifestyle for the family with his earnings.

Rajesh just did that.

Vilayasserril Rajesh went abroad with great difficulty. A native of Kunthirical, Thalavady in the District of Alappuzha, Kerala, India, Rajesh had limited options. He could have stayed on in his native place performing odd jobs. But abject poverty drove him to distant shores.

He found a job in Dubai, the paradise or the land of promises or the land of milk and honey for all Keralites.  The compensation wasn’t mind boggling. In fact it hardly sufficed. However, the family in India was sustained by inward remittances of. Rajesh. Family meant, Rajesh’s parents, his wife and his son.

Alas, everything went topsy-turvy when Rajesh collapsed at the work place. There was medical intervention at once. The diagnosis stunned Rajesh as well as his family. He was in need of Bone marrow transplant to save his life. Rajesh returned to India as the cost of treatment abroad was beyond his means.  It meant he rejoined the ever-swelling ranks of the jobless of our country. He was admitted to Believer’s Church Hospital in Tiruvalla.  The Hospital has estimated the cost of the treatment as Rs.20.00 lacs.   

Rajesh and his family know they are outwitted. The family resides in an apology of a house – a ramshackle contraption -  in a 2 cents’ plot in Kunthirical, Thalavady. For the uninitiated it is Kuttanad, the granary of Kerala, but susceptible to waterlogging and heavy flooding that occurs without notice at any point of time.  Even if they sell the property,  Rs.20.00 lacs. would remain a distant dream as property prices have not sky rocketed there. Further, the disposal of the property would transport the family to the homeless, jobless status and abject penury where the recent trend or fashion in Kerala is ending it all on a whim. Well, Rajesh and his family do not subscribe to that philosophy. They are battle scarred but not battle weary. Hope leads them. They believe the impossible is not their destiny. 

The trials and tribulations of Rajesh and his family raises questions upon the whole humanity.

We have to immerse ourselves in empathy. It is imperative, when we are well off even on a constricted scale, we lend a hand to assist those in need. Who knows what tomorrow holds for us. 

How wonderful it would be if people think of Rajesh and his family for a moment and act decisively to make the world a better place for them as well as us.