November 10, 2010 is a day in my life that I will never forget. My son Sanjiv completed five years and we visited the family temple at Kalidaikurichi village in Tirunleveli District of Tamil Nadu. We were at the village after 35 years at the express desire of my father who wanted me to worship at the temple at least once in my life. Apart from my father and son, I was accompanied by my brother-in-law—Parthu-and father-in-law Mr Krishnan.
As the priest was performing the prayers, my worst fears came true. Suddenly my brother-in-law looked at my father and exclaimed that he appeared to be in trouble. A word of explanation is needed here. My father is a diabetic and at times he tends to lose consciousness, ironically enough when the sugar level dips. Indeed my father appeared to lose consciousness; we gave him sugar as we are generally prepared for such contingencies. He recovered but it was apparent to us that he was still not completely okay. My father however insisted on being in the temple as the prayers were still on.
Soon, it was clear that that this was not sustainable and my father fell unconscious again. My brother-in-law then acted swiftly and carried him on his shoulders to the vehicle parked outside the temple while a priest accompanied us to in order to give us direction to the hospital. A big thank you to these two men who were instrumental in saving my father’s life by their timely action.
Once we got to hospital, and explained the problem, the doctor put him on intravenous medication and wanted to see his case reports. I promised to secure it, went out and hailed an auto and explained the situation to the driver. The driver quickly took me to our relative’s place where we were staying and agreed to wait while I secured his case history.
Soon I was back in the auto with the reports and my mother. When we reached the hospital, we found out that my father had regained consciousness. I went back to the auto driver and offered to pay him extra money. He refused. I was touched and asked him for his name. “Ramaswami”, he replied. I thanked him fervently. I thank this unknown Indian again who resides in the small village of Kalidaikurichi but has kept alive my faith in human nature. Thank you once more Ramaswami.
