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The Mush Register

Rita

I wanted to please my parents. At the same time, I did not want to leave him. I was in turmoil. Here are my kith and kin, who have my best interests at heart, putting forward valid arguments — "How can you marry him knowing he is terribly unwell? He is a struggling artist. How is he going to support you?" I would only be throwing their concern back in their faces, if I left with him. Eventually, that is what I did. While logic was on their side, intuition reassured me, saying I was going in the right direction. Today, except for my mother, my family have accepted Paritosh.

Paritosh

Have you ever heard of a couple that honeymooned in a hospital? Two days after our wedding, I was wheeled into the operation theatre. In fact, we fixed the date for operation along with the date for our marriage. My kidneys had failed and I was coping with it through dialysis. Things came to a head and there was no alternative but to go in for a kidney transplant. Meeting the high costs of treatment verged on the impossible. Rita wrote letters to philanthropists, friends and even the Prime Minister to raise funds for my treatment. Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was the Prime Minister then, sanctioned a good sum. This added with succour from others such as Meena Dhadha, who also gave us jobs in her organisation Mukti, made the operation possible. The battle did not end there. My condition requires me to take medicine all through my life. Some of the tablets such as Cyclosporine and Azoran cost a lot and my monthly medical bills add up to Rs. 10,000. For this reason, we have decided not to start a family. Rita has taken it all in her stride. In Bengali, Paritosh means "to make happy". That name will be more apt for her.

AS TOLD TO PRINCE FREDERICK

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