EXPO 2020, Family 3030

He was just like any other patient I met during the regular pre-operative rounds in the ward . He was admitted in for a surgery which was scheduled the next day , and would need to be in the ward for a few days . As I looked around in his room, all I could see was his phone, a charger and a few books on the smaller extra bed next to his meant for a family member staying with him . But I didn’t see much luggage or bags around, and not a single family member anywhere in or around the room . ‘So who’s staying with you , Mr AB?’ I asked him . ‘Who’s gonna be with you as you recover after the surgery ‘ ‘ Oh nobody doc, I’m by myself . I’ve arranged for a person to check on me intermittently for the first couple of days during the daytime, and I’m hoping that would be enough ?’ ‘ Well, not ideal . It’s always better to have a family member with you, someone you can call your own . If I were you , I’d not come into the hospital without them . So who’s family then . Where are they ? How many of you in the house ?’ ‘ Just me, my wife and my two daughters doc . They’re still in pri… ‘

‘ Ok then why aren’t they here ?’ Atleast one of them ?’ He gave me a big smile ‘ It’s a long story doc, not sure if you have the time . I’m a businessman , and I was doing extremely well . I own two hotels in Dubai, which were both running at a loss but I kept clinging onto them hoping they’d be revived soon . And I was waiting with bated breath for the Expo 2020 to kick off but then this .. ‘

I knew where this was heading , all too familiar after having seen so many patients who had difficulty paying their hospital bills . Ultimately the story would end with them requesting for atleast part of the hospital bill to be written off . He was no different . From businessman to broke, and now asking for a concession on the bill .

‘ Actually I’m sorry . ‘ I cut him short . ‘ Maybe you could talk to my colleague when he has some time ‘ I was in no mood to listen to another sob story .

The surgery went off well , and AB made a quick recovery . I knew he was eager to go home , and maybe that spurred him onto do his physio and exercises regularly . He always had a smile, whenever I saw him in his room or in the corridor walking with a walker . But there was no family , no wife no daughters . A young boy was getting him food thrice a day but otherwise he was largely by himself, the nurses told me . ‘ Poor guy, the family deserted him after his hotel business went kaput, I told myself ‘ I thought maybe I could have a short chat with him , but decided I had more important things to do .

When he was discharged , I was sure I would be asked by one of my junior colleagues if we could give him some concession . But to my surprise, I was told that he had already paid the entire bill and was waiting to go , and wanted to say a big thanks and bye to the team doing ward rounds .

Intrigued, I went in to his room . ‘ Hi doc, good to see you . Oh I’m so glad everything went off well . I can’t wait to go join my family ‘ Family ? I thought he didn’t have a family ??

‘Thank you very much for everything doc . I really am glad I came here for my treatment ‘. And I could see that just like the first day I saw him, he was still smiling and cheerful .

‘Well AB, I would like to listen to your long story which I didn’t get to hear , but I’m not sure if you have the time ?’

Again with his trademark smile , he started. ‘ Yes , so I was saying – I’m a businessman . I own two hotels in Dubai . Both are not doing well . But I knew expo 2020 was just around the corner . So I decided to somehow keep them running , coz once the event starts , it would more than make up for all my losses . I sold off my properties back home , and poured all that cash into the hotels . I knew , come October 2020 , I would run both the hotels at 100% occupancy . And I just had to somehow hang on till then ‘

I got it . The family never forgave him for selling off those properties , and after Covid , the event itself must have got cancelled and he would have gone from riches to rags overnight .

‘ But then, Covid struck . Lockdown . EXPO 2020 was called off . All my plans went down the drain . There was nothing else I could do to infuse more funds into those hotels , I had lost everything within a few weeks.’ Bingo, my prediction was spot on .

‘Im sorry to hear this AB , Im assuming Mrs AB got wild with you for what you did, and she never forgave you . Is that why she didn’t come, nor did she let her daughters be with you during your hospital stay ?’ I felt like asking but thankfully didn’t . ‘ You’ve been through a lot I can see Mr AB . But through all this how did you manage to stay so happy and cheerful all this time in the hospital . If I were in your position , I’m not sure if I’d been able to handle it . I mean, losing everything is not a joke ‘

‘ Yes , losing everything is not easy . But actually doc , I still had something intact. I knew I had lost all my properties , I had to give up both my hotels as I could not pay the taxes and the rent , but I had an invaluable asset intact – my family . They’ve been my pillar of strength through these horrible few months . And the reason I got my surgery done is so that I could get rid of the troublesome hip pain, and work hard to get back into business . It won’t be easy , but with my family around, I know I can do it ‘ His confidence was rock – solid . But that still doesn’t explain why the wife didn’t stay with him . ‘ And I’m not from India , my family lives in Bangladesh . There was a time when I could afford to fly from Dubai to London for a meal, and fly back home . But now to cut costs , I travelled by train , alone . And that’s why my wife and kids didn’t travel with me . They’re still in primary school . They need their mom to be with them, more than I need my wife to be with me . This young boy who got me food is one of the errand boys working in the lodge where I stayed . It was much cheaper this way, and that’s why I came alone ‘

As he put his shoes on to leave , he said ‘ Doc , my wife was upset with me when I sold off those properties , but at that point in time I had nothing else to do . She has all the reasons to blame me for this situation we are in, but she chose not to howl at me . And doc, one thing this pandemic has taught me . I may or may not regain my past glory. But I’ve learnt that if the family is with me, then I’m still blessed. EXPO 2020 may get cancelled, EXPO 2021 may not even happen . But be it 2020 or 3030 or whenever , as long as I have my family by my side I can never be broke . Financially , I may lose everything but as a person with them around I’m always alive and kicking ‘ He showed me a family pic as he left the ward .

I googled later and learnt that Expo 2020 was postponed by a year , and will now happen in Oct 2021 , though it would still be referred to as expo 2020 ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_2020 ) I’m pretty sure by then AB will not be in a position to get back into business .How I wished he could stay back and talk to me longer that day, to give me a fresh insight on life , to teach me valuable life-lessons . But I knew I couldn’t hold him back , I shouldn’t be preventing him from getting back asap to his biggest asset . With them around, no matter how bad the situation seemed , he was alive and kicking . Coz to quote him ‘whether it’s 2020 or 3030 , if family is with you , then you are never in a loss , you are never broke . ‘