He is a sharp and intelligent chap. 13 years old.
He came to the Hospital with his mother.
Not as a child, but more as guardian.
His mother has been diagnosed with stomach Cancer and she came with him 2.5 weeks back.
His father walked out of their lives when he was told his wife was a cancer patient.
The mother was left with a 13 year old boy, a 2.5 year old girl and an ailing old mother-in-law.
She came into the Hospital with a bag in one hand and her son clutching on tightly to the other.
She was admitted, but there was no one to sign the admission form.
Nobody from her family came up to help.
For moral, emotional, mental or more importantly, financial support.
The Boy had no home and made the waiting room outside the ICU his home.
He sat there whole day, watching the people pass by and the TV which was turned on to a news channel.
At the appropriate times, a nurse or a Doctor would come and take him to the canteen for his breakfast, lunch and dinner. He slept at the waiting room, making the bag his pillow and a blanket to cover him which the Hospital provided. He had his bath in the patient family washroom and dried his clothes out in the Hospital terrace.
Once his mother was out of immediate danger, she was shifted to the General Ward and the Boy went from sleeping at the waiting room to the Ward floor, lying a thick mattress and a blanket to cover him. And that is when, he started spending time in the Playroom.
When he came in, he was a timid, well mannered docile child.
But like all kids his age, he was immediately drawn to the PSP and the computer games and soon, he became addicted to it. He started spending the whole day at the Playroom.
Due to the situation, we couldn't help but allow him staying on for hours in there.
But after a while, he started dominating over the younger kids who wanted to play on the PSP too.
If he was rebuked and asked to give the younger child to play, he would hesitantly allow and go back to "teaching" the child how to play and continue to control the PSP joystick.
So much so, he went back to his sick mother and complained of not having a computer back at home.
They don't come from a well off family.
There is no support system. No family to come and share the crisis.
If (*touchwood*), anything happens to the mother, there is no one to hand over the body to.
You can't hand over a body to a minor, can you?
The situation is serious.
The stigma of Cancer is now inherent in our society.
Where the husband walks out of a marriage and neighbours treat the family as a pariah - walking past the house keeping a distance of 20 feet. To avoid catching the Cancer. To avoid this fatal disease even touching their lives.
Today the mother, after a operation is better.
But, What IF something happens?
With this disease, you can never tell.
What happens to the Boy?
What happens to the 2.5 year old daughter back home?
Will the ailing old mother-in-law really be able to take care of two kids, when she can't take care of herself? When she couldn't even take the train to come see her grandson, literally living in the Hospital and her daughter-in-law fighting the disease?
Does the Boy understand the situation? I'm sure not.
But can we blame him? I doubt.
Do we blame the mother for wanting to keep him in the Hospital, close to her - inspite of knowing fully well that a 13 year old child should actually be back home, going to school?
Or do we blame this non existent family?
If you ask me, I'd blame the society.
For pushing this whole situation to a corner.
I'd blame the father, who calls himself a "man". Is he a man?
This is when you have to let Time take its course and reveal what the Future has in store for this mother and son.
All, I can do is keep a watch on his young chap and Hope for the best.
He came to the Hospital with his mother.
Not as a child, but more as guardian.
His mother has been diagnosed with stomach Cancer and she came with him 2.5 weeks back.
His father walked out of their lives when he was told his wife was a cancer patient.
The mother was left with a 13 year old boy, a 2.5 year old girl and an ailing old mother-in-law.
She came into the Hospital with a bag in one hand and her son clutching on tightly to the other.
She was admitted, but there was no one to sign the admission form.
Nobody from her family came up to help.
For moral, emotional, mental or more importantly, financial support.
The Boy had no home and made the waiting room outside the ICU his home.
He sat there whole day, watching the people pass by and the TV which was turned on to a news channel.
At the appropriate times, a nurse or a Doctor would come and take him to the canteen for his breakfast, lunch and dinner. He slept at the waiting room, making the bag his pillow and a blanket to cover him which the Hospital provided. He had his bath in the patient family washroom and dried his clothes out in the Hospital terrace.
Once his mother was out of immediate danger, she was shifted to the General Ward and the Boy went from sleeping at the waiting room to the Ward floor, lying a thick mattress and a blanket to cover him. And that is when, he started spending time in the Playroom.
When he came in, he was a timid, well mannered docile child.
But like all kids his age, he was immediately drawn to the PSP and the computer games and soon, he became addicted to it. He started spending the whole day at the Playroom.
Due to the situation, we couldn't help but allow him staying on for hours in there.
But after a while, he started dominating over the younger kids who wanted to play on the PSP too.
If he was rebuked and asked to give the younger child to play, he would hesitantly allow and go back to "teaching" the child how to play and continue to control the PSP joystick.
So much so, he went back to his sick mother and complained of not having a computer back at home.
They don't come from a well off family.
There is no support system. No family to come and share the crisis.
If (*touchwood*), anything happens to the mother, there is no one to hand over the body to.
You can't hand over a body to a minor, can you?
The situation is serious.
The stigma of Cancer is now inherent in our society.
Where the husband walks out of a marriage and neighbours treat the family as a pariah - walking past the house keeping a distance of 20 feet. To avoid catching the Cancer. To avoid this fatal disease even touching their lives.
Today the mother, after a operation is better.
But, What IF something happens?
With this disease, you can never tell.
What happens to the Boy?
What happens to the 2.5 year old daughter back home?
Will the ailing old mother-in-law really be able to take care of two kids, when she can't take care of herself? When she couldn't even take the train to come see her grandson, literally living in the Hospital and her daughter-in-law fighting the disease?
Does the Boy understand the situation? I'm sure not.
But can we blame him? I doubt.
Do we blame the mother for wanting to keep him in the Hospital, close to her - inspite of knowing fully well that a 13 year old child should actually be back home, going to school?
Or do we blame this non existent family?
If you ask me, I'd blame the society.
For pushing this whole situation to a corner.
I'd blame the father, who calls himself a "man". Is he a man?
This is when you have to let Time take its course and reveal what the Future has in store for this mother and son.
All, I can do is keep a watch on his young chap and Hope for the best.
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