Chapter 20: chapter 20

16One of my pastimes while I was in Hyderabad was to visit the Unani hospital there. Even though the Unani hospital was giving treatment to many diseases, it was famous for its treatment of Leucoderma. It had a research wing too! Leucoderema is a disease that causes the loss of skin colour in blotches. Some people would ignore or dismiss it as an ordinary skin disease. Some others, thinking that it was the wages of sin committed during previous births, would resort to going on pilgrimages to get some remedy. Slowly they would also realize that there was no remedy and would decide to live with it. If women have the disease, it would be a barrier to their marriage. I had heard about women who had committed suicide because of leukoderma!The Unani hospital was in Erragadda. Mahaeswari had leucoderma- the disease had spread throughout her body in patches. The first symptoms of the disease appeared when she was a child and then slowly spread all over her body. As she had become a young woman, her parents tried every system of medicine to cure the disease. They had heard about the Unani Hospital and had requested me to enquire about it. The hospital also allowed inpatients. They were given food too, free of cost. Her father accompanied by her two uncles and grandfather came with her to Hyderabad for treatment. They also wanted to go around Hyderabad. I took them to the hospital taking things casually. Soon I realized the burden- I had to visit the hospital often as she was admitted as an inpatient.As the number of white blood cells in the blood increases the white patches appeared. The disease would not come if the number of the white blood cells was in balance with that of the red blood cells. When one took fish along with egg, that combination increases the number of white blood cells. If one took lime juice in large quantities, it would also increase the number of white blood cells. Mostly the disease spreads through fish, I understood.Maheshwari had to stay in the hospital as an inpatient for three months. Simple food. Non-vegetarian food was given once a week. The food mostly consisted of bread which Maheshwari did not relish. I had to spare some time to call on Maheshwari. As I had to handover to her the letters I had received from her parents in Palladam, and also because of the telephone calls, I had to visit the hospital almost every week. Whenever I went to see her I had to take with me soaps, oil and certain ladies’ items. I had to take for her some special food preparations made at home, avoiding tomatoes and tamarind as her tongue had almost lost its sense of taste because of the bland food served in the hospital.In the hospital, she was given tablets that were muddy in colour. Even though she was given different types of tablets, they were all muddy in colour. The tablets had to be made into powder and it had to be spread on the white spots. Then the patient had to expose himself/ herself in sun light. That was an important part of the treatment. One of my important duties as far as Maheshwari was concerned, was to search for olive oil in the medical shops.The structure of the hospital building made one remember the Muslims. Most of the employees were Muslims. As I did not know either Hindi or Urdu, I had to converse with them only with the little Telugu knew. As the Telugu speaking people had no interest in learning Hindi or Urdu, so also the Muslims did not evince any interest in learning Telugu. As I struggled with my Telugu, they also did the same. The hospital building was quite dirty. I was surprised to see plants sprouting out through the cracks in the building.As days went on, my trips to the hospital on weekly holidays had become quite boring. I was almost fed up! Maheshwari had become a bit leaner in twelve weeks. Sometimes, I went to the hospital a bit late due to some other work; sometimes I could not take any home-made food! All these were promptly reported by her to her parents as acts of colossal carelessness. As it was believed that the tone of the skin would change with continuous treatment, I had to get the medicine from the hospital pharmacy once in a month. To get the medicine, I had to get the signature of the doctor in the old prescription and then show it to the pharmacist. That cumbersome procedure cost me half a day’s leave. To avoid it I often used the ‘backdoor’ method for which I had to pay. I was asked to come in the evenings, avoiding the routine hours. Riyaz, an employee of the hospital, would talk in broken Telugu. As he understood my shock when he first spoke to me in Urdu, he was condescending enough to talk to me in broken Telugu. He would stare at me when I spoke in fluent or broken Telugu. He was not at all satisfied with the money I used to give him. He would insist that I should pay him more. When Maheshwari’s skin colour became a bit normal, many heard about the hospital and enquired about the hospital through phone and then visited the hospital. Such things happened frequently! I had to accommodate them in my house. It had almost become a routine. As I had to accompany them to the hospital, I had to switch my work to night-shifts; sometimes, I had to apply for leave too! That sort of thing was continuing.To call on the people who had come from the Coimbatore district or to call on the people from Tamil Nadu, who had come to the hospital or to take the inpatients’ relatives to the hospital, to get medicines for those who had completed their stay in the hospital as inpatients – for all this I was asked to help. Further the medicines were mostly ‘bought’ and sent by post- courier service was not introduced yet- and to plead with the man in the post office to accept the medicine-parcel telling him every time that such medicine-sending was a part of my social service. All this had almost become my daily routine.Ravichandran who was living in Bolarum in Secunderabad came to my house with Jayamani. He requested me to take them to the Unani hospital. Jayamani belonged to Madurai. She was aged about 30 and was married. Her husband was living separately, without getting a formal divorce. He had married another woman. The reason was the leucoderma that was slowly spreading. Her husband started looking down upon her as though she was an ugly insect. White patches were everywhere, her neck, face and feet. She had heard about the Unani hospital and had travelled alone to Chennai and from there, to Secunderabad by train to meet Ravichandran who was her relative.To have a skin with a normal colour, to marry a man (“Won’t there be a man to marry me?” she asked me), to beget children and to walk in front of that fellow holding her head upright – that was Jayamani’s only aim in her life. That was her angry reaction too!For many who had the treatment in the Unani hospital and their relatives, I had almost become a demi-god. They came to Hyderabad frequently for follow- ups. The address of the hospital, the telephone numbers, the manner of treatment etc, etc., I had to write in tens of letters and post them. The photocopy machine was not invented yet. The experience I had in running manuscript magazine during my college days helped me a lot.I was a bit disappointed on knowing that Maheshwari had stopped taking medicines. I thought that she was completely cured. But when I saw her after a gap of two years, the whiteness had spread on her body wholly and she looked like an Anglo Indian lady. I was utterly disappointed. “Within a year, the whiteness would take over her skin completely; it would appear as a different colour then. Somebody would marry her then,” her father told me. When I received her marriage invitation I was very happy.“She had become a White! It was a good thing that I had saved some money for her marriage and had made some jewels! The disease is no more a handicap. It has spread throughout her body and has given it a new colour. The bridegroom is a little bit lower in social status when compared with that of ours but that is O.K!” he said. Most of the people who took treatment in the Unani hospital got married. Some did not continue the treatment.I didn’t know anything about Jayamani. Still I have a thin ray of hope that one day Ravichandran would flash some good news. I did not know his address. As I was not known then as a writer, there was little chance that he knew my address.