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RECAP
The lives of Bangalore-based Ahana, heading the Spanish department in an International school and
Siddhartha, the Vice-President (Research) of a multinational company got disrupted suddenly with the
news of their only child Tiya meeting a life-threatening accident in New York. While the daughter is
being treated in the University Spine Centre, we found the parents rushing to the city of Statue of
Liberty.

Part 2

The mobile rang.
As straightforward as he is, Dr. Kari sounded serious on the other side of the phone. ‘I must say,
Siddhartha, it was a serious fall, and the injury on Tiya’s spine is simply dangerous’.
Siddhartha remained speechless, as Dr. Kari continued- ‘I must not give you false hope. It was a
bad fall…..extremely bad. Injury is very deep and surgery is a must. The chances of complete
recovery are not very good, but she has the ‘age’ on her side. Keep faith in God, follow the doctor’s
advice (so far they are on right track), and cooperate with them’.
‘Be with her quickly, be calm, and pray hard to God’. Dr Kari continued, ‘she must be in great pain,
so she will be kept under a heavy dose of anaesthesia or sedative, do not get nervous, listen to the
doctor’s advice and cheer her up when she is back in her senses.’
A few hours later we found Ahana and Siddhartha checking in British Airways counter at
Kempegowda International airport in Bangalore.
Tiya was born in a nursing home in Gainesville, Florida in 1996. Hence, she is an American citizen (by
birth), while her parents had Indian citizenship, dividing in the process her world between Mississippi
and Ganges. She speaks the language of the former while thinking about the latter. As a result, she
grew up admirably, even with some natural conflicts in thoughts and dispensation.
Tiya spent the first three years in Gainesville, then shifted to Bangalore and completed her
schooling in the same international school where her mother Ahana has been a teacher. On
completing her A-level course, she was back in the USA in 2014 to do under-graduation. It was about
four years before today.
The 18-year-old girl, bubbling with energy, was welcomed by the city of New York. The first few
days before the start of regular classes at NYU, Tiya moved around a lot with her parents to know the
city. She visited some of the iconic sites of the city including the Empire State Building and sprawling
Central Park. She spent time in Times Square, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Bridge,

Broadway, and the theatre district. And of course, she did not miss the Statue of Liberty at the New
York harbour.
Tiya started pursuing a bachelor’s degree in the Department of Technology Management and
Innovation at the Tandon School of Engineering located in Brooklyn, New York. She has been allotted
a room in the student’s dormitory hostel, sharing with another three girls- Agacia from Athens, Ichika
from Osaka, and Isabella from Buenos Aires. The accommodation was not certainly lavish but decent
enough for inmates to focus on studies. The room had four bunk beds in two rows, with individual
cupboards, study tables, a common dressing table, and a kitchen facility with a fridge, oven and
crockeries, and necessary utensils. Quickly they became friends and gave a name to their group AIIT
– taking the first letter of their names alphabetically.
As natural as it was, the AIIT got acquainted with a few boys from the College and from outside
whom they met at parties and conferences. The acquaintances quickly bloomed into friendship,
particularly for Agacia and Tiya. They started bringing their boyfriends into the hostel room to spend
exclusive hours. Despite notes of caution by Isabella and Ichika who wanted their friends not to waste
their prime time in life at this stage, both Agacia and Tiya continued their escapades and went ahead
exploring life, probably a little early.
Boys took advantage of the emotionally vulnerable states of these two girls and robbed them of
their virginity, and soft-golden youthful feelings. Both the girls cracked physically and emotionally and
had to take recourse to psychiatric treatment.
Agacia could not complete her course and had to go back to Athens prematurely. Tiya however
stayed back in New York, but changed her academic course to Film and Media communications, and
arranged for a separate living outside the University campus. She is now sharing a one-room
apartment with a Spanish girl, Cleta. We spoke about Cleta earlier and will talk about her later, as
well.
Peter Rochester is the professor Tiya likes most. Peter has a strong personality with intense
knowledge of film and media. His understanding is largely resourced from his own wide experience
and not from textbooks. Tiya liked this most and never missed his lectures.
‘What are you thinking so seriously, my beauty?’ Tiya got a pat on her left arm from her roommate
Cleta. ‘You look serious, any fight with Beau?’ Tiya returned only a shy smile and pinched Cleta on
her back. Two girls hugged each other and rolled into the divan.
Tiya has changed a lot if one compares the today’s Tiya with her extremely outgoing and
outlandish attitude between 2014 and 2017. Her old bohemianism is much sedated now, and Tiya
appears to have started exploring the finer values in life. What Peter Rochester is contributing to this
state of Tiya in college, Cleta at home was doing the same. Cleta is a beauty from Barcelona, a north-
eastern city of Spain, and has been in a way helping Tiya to re-secure her grounds of purpose and
beliefs in life.
Of late Tiya has been taking lots of interest in films, film-making, and the thoughts that made those
films, particularly between the 1950s and 70s. She earlier heard the names of Akira Kurosawa, Martin
Scorsese and a few other thinker filmmakers, but never took a serious interest in them. But things
have changed now.
Now the filmmaker that snatched a special place of regard in Tiya’s heart was Satyajit Ray- an
Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, music composer, graphic artist, lyricist and author. This versatile
genius was widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. However today, more
people may know Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese than Satyajit Ray, the most under-appreciated
Indian filmmaker.
The next evening Tiya calls Cleta over mobile from college to inform her that she would be going to
dance class and would reach the apartment late.
‘But today you do not have a dance tutorial, I know your routine’, Cleta was a little surprised.
‘Yes, I agree. But it is going to be a special class. Ms Batiza will be leaving for her home to
Acapulco next week, and she wants to complete the third chapter of the Salsa dance recital. Do not
prepare food today at home. Please order some food from that nearby restaurant owned by your
Spanish boyfriend.’
‘You stupid, he is not my friend even …a simple acquaintance’ Cleta retorted.
‘Ok, ok, I know, just kidding you.’ Tiya cools down her friend.

That was the last time these two girls conversed before Ahana and Siddhartha found their
daughter Tiya in intense pain camouflaged by a heavy dose of sedate in the intensive care unit of the
University Spine Centre.
Sitting on a sofa at the hospital waiting room, and surrounded by Cleta, Ms Batiza, Manisha and
Ahana (holding the palms of Cleta in silent gratitude), Siddhartha looked at the long shadows of trees
out on the spacious lawns of the hospital. Today is the third day of BC to be in New York. Only
yesterday the all-important operation on Tiya was carried out by the noted neurosurgeon Dr.
Wisconsin.
The operation was long and seems to be successful if the preliminary and brief discussion they
had with Dr. Wisconsin is to be considered. However, there could be a few more surgical interventions
required in the coming days. Dr. Wisconsin was away out of the city on a special emergency service
yesterday and had promised to talk to Tiya’s parents today about the operation and post-operative
recuperation algorithm.
Siddhartha tries to trace back what exactly went wrong in an ‘apparently no-issue’ simple Bengali
Indian Hindu family. His marriage to Ahana was arranged by his elders at home. Both the families are
highly cultured and educated. Ahana was the only child of his parents-in-law, who settled in Delhi
having their own house in Chittaranjan Park, a posh locality. Siddhartha was however not alone at
home. He has an extremely graceful elder sister and a scientist father. The common thing between
these two houses was that women of both families were at the forefront to manage their homes.
BC got married during the extremely hot Indian summer of 1992 in Delhi. The twenty-four-year-old
Ahana was stunning with beauty and grace, and to everybody, they made a good couple. Siddhartha
had to return to Gainesville to continue with his PhD work…but this time Ahana came with him. The
first four years after marriage were like dream run for the couple culminating with Tiya coming into
their life.
Things, however, started falling apart the next year. The overbearing cost of living against a paltry
fellowship amount was always an issue. In contrast, being the only child of her parents and the only
girl-child in the extended family of cousins, Ahana received all the admiration of family members
before marriage, as also more than ample pocket money. But the situation here was different, which
demanded adjustment and curtailing expenses.
On the other hand, nobody could call more-serious-than-average Siddhartha very social, who had
only very few friends. He found socialising a waste and a distraction from his research. Perhaps for
the same reason, he could never become a friend to Ahana’s cousin brothers and sisters. To them,
he remained a distant husband of Ahana.
Ahana was just the opposite. She is a vibrant, social, a full of life girl having a love for painting,
dance and singing. Although Siddhartha was guiding her throughout in how to cope with the new
situation, Ahana found far less scope for innovation in Siddhartha’s approach. She joined the
University of Florida to learn Spanish and Psychology. She has always been a good student and
could pick up both the subjects, completely new to her, at admirable speed.
Not that they had very many occasions of altercation or exchange of words, but the two were
surely drifting away. Tiya was well looked after by both the parents, as well as by Ahana’s parents
who stayed with them in Gainesville for a few months. The parents could also feel that some problems
do exist between their daughter and son-in-law, and tried to meditate to the extent it should not be
seen as interfering. But their campaign did not seem to have worked.
Then came Ahana’s second pregnancy. Although BC did not exactly plan for it, Ahana was less
than ready to abort the baby. Several rounds of discussion between the two could not mollify
Siddhartha, for whom economics came before emotion and love. Placing details of income and
expenditure, Siddhartha wanted to drive the point that financially it will be a disaster to bring the
second child now. He also mentioned that they are only into their 6 th year of marriage and can plan for
the second child at any time once they have the cushion of comfortable finance. He even mentioned
that it is better not to invite a visitor if we cannot give him/her the best of comfort.
Ahana was devastated by these sorts of heartless reasoning. Her argument that God lives through
life and that the foetus is nothing but a blessing of God, fell flat. Probably Siddhartha was just not
trained enough emotionally to nurture a relationship of love. She felt bad and lamented. Tremendous
mental pressure griped her, she felt that she is consistently losing ground and being griped over by

hopelessness. The depression was heavy and lasted long till the time they shifted to Mumbai at the
end of 1999.

(To be continued)

Part 1

About the Author :

Dr. Ranadhir Mukhopadhyay is a Marine Geoscientist. He had retired from NIO, Goa as a Deputy Director. He now lives at Goa.

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