An officer and a son

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

“Here comes one more dutiful son,” I muttered to myself, as the young Police Sub-Inspector, in his early thirties, was brought before me. He had reported for duty after remaining AWOL (absent without leave) for two weeks, apparently on account of his father’s sickness. A parent’s sickness being the standard, and often false, excuse offered by young cops for taking leave or going AWOL, I could be forgiven for my sarcasm. As the head of city police at Surat, I had to decide what action to be taken for his breach of discipline.

“What happened to your father?” I asked in the same vein.

“Sir, he is in coma. He has been in this condition for 8 years,” he said.

That hit me squarely.

“I am sorry,” I mumbled fighting embarrassment and disbelief as I looked at the papers. The evidence was all there.

His father had met with an accident eight years ago and had since been in coma. Nothing had helped revive him. The only motion that could be seen in him were his eyes blinking. The family had been caring for him ever since. The officer said that he had to go on leave frequently to help his mother and sister. He had been recently transferred to Surat – over 500 km away from his home town.

I recalled the case of the French journalist Jean Dominique Bauby, who while in a state of complete paralysis had gone on to write his memoir aided by his speech therapist, who devised a mode of communication using the only voluntary movement Bauby could manage – the blinking of his left eye. This movement helped Bauby in choosing one from many letters shown to
him and thus write out his thoughts painstakingly.

I asked the officer whether he knew about Bauby’s. He nodded. He told me he himself had a degree in physiotherapy and added that he had tried many methods to communicate with his father using different senses but to no avail. Unlike Bauby, his father could not blink his eye at will.

Only a few days ago, the Supreme Court had given the landmark judgement allowing passive euthanasia for terminally ill patients. I asked him if he was aware of the ruling. “I will serve my father as long God wills it,” he said
in a tone that forbade further discussion about it.

Struck by his forbearance, I asked no more questions and sanctioned his leave for the period of absence.

He never went AWOL again. He did not have to. For two weeks later, I called him to my office again and handed an order that relaxed his face. It was his transfer order, to a place close to his home town. The state Director General of Police had issued the order on
my request.