<\/p>\n
In a narrow lane of Akhbar Nagar in Vadaj, Ahmedabad stood an old, crumbling house\u2014its fading walls silently narrating stories of hardship. One evening in 2009, Dr. Jay Sheth and his postgraduate student, Dr. Nishith, stepped into this modest dwelling.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cNamaste, Ba (Dadi)\u2026 may we come in?\u201d Dr. Jay asked gently.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2026?\u201d the elderly woman responded, surprised.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are doctors from VS Hospital. We\u2019ve come to ask a few questions regarding your daughter-in-law\u2019s death due to swine flu.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The old woman welcomed them in and spread a worn-out quilt over a broken cot, offering them a place to sit.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That year, the H1N1 swine flu had gripped Gujarat\u2014and much of the country\u2014in fear. Lives were being lost rapidly. The responsibility of conducting verbal autopsies<\/strong>\u2014systematic interviews after death to understand causes and prevent further mortality\u2014had fallen upon the Department of Community Medicine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Nishith began asking questions. The woman\u2019s daughter-in-law had passed away just days ago, leaving behind two young daughters\u2014a six-month-old infant cradled in Ba\u2019s arms, being fed with a bottle, and a three-year-old child playing nearby.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As Ba answered their questions, tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When asked about the care of the children, she spoke in a trembling voice, <\/p>\n Just then, the little girl ran up to her grandmother.<\/p>\n \u201cBa, who are they?\u201d she asked innocently.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are doctors from your mother\u2019s hospital,\u201d Ba replied, masking her grief.<\/p>\n The child\u2019s eyes lit up with hope.<\/p>\n \u201cBa\u2026 my mother will come home soon, right? She had promised to bring me a doll\u2026 She will bring it, won\u2019t she? Then we will both play with the doll\u2026 Mummy will bathe me, and I will bathe my doll\u2026 Mummy will feed me, and I will feed my doll\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Her words continued, but Dr. Nishith could no longer hear them. His mind fell silent. He was lost in the depth of her innocent faith\u2014her questions echoing in a void where no answers existed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After completing the interview, Dr. Jay stood up. As Dr. Nishith rose, he quietly placed a \u20b9500 note in front of Ba.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With quiet dignity, she refused,<\/strong> Nishith felt a deep respect for her self-respect. He instead brought some fruits from his car and handed them to the child.<\/p>\n As she accepted them, the little girl said softly, The drive back was heavy. For a long time, the child\u2019s face and her unanswered questions lingered in Dr. Nishith\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Years passed.<\/p>\n In 2020, another invisible monster rose\u2014COVID-19.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One morning, now an Associate Professor at GMERS Medical College, Vadnagar, Dr. Nishith received a call from the Taluka Health Officer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDoctor, a woman in Rajpur has died due to COVID. You need to conduct a verbal autopsy.\u201d<\/p>\n Nishith inquired about the family. He learned she had left behind a three-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n For a moment, time stood still. The memories from 2009 resurfaced vividly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He started his car\u2026 then suddenly paused.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He switched off the engine and walked back to his quarters. Entering his four-year-old daughter\u2019s room, he picked up something carefully\u2026 returned to his car\u2026 and drove off.<\/p>\n What he carried with him was\u2014<\/p>\n <\/p>\n a doll\u2026 for a little girl who had just lost her mother.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a narrow lane of Akhbar Nagar in Vadaj, Ahmedabad stood an old, crumbling house\u2014its fading walls silently narrating stories of hardship. One evening in 2009, Dr. Jay Sheth and his postgraduate student, Dr. Nishith, stepped into this modest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":902102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[376,375],"class_list":["post-902101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medicine-and-social-sciences","tag-for-a-doll","tag-the-doll"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902104,"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902101\/revisions\/902104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iapsm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cNow, I am their mother. But please, doctor\u2026 don\u2019t say anything to the elder one. She keeps asking me all day\u2014 \u2018When will my mother come back?\u2019 We haven\u2019t told her anything. She believes her mother is still in the hospital and will return soon\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSon, we are people who earn through hard work. We do not take money without earning it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>\u201cTake my doll\u2026 and please send my mother back soon. Tell her that her dear one misses her very much.\u201d<\/p>\n