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My dream for
my Nana
Wednesday, January 29, 2014

KIRAN SOOMRO UPDATE

Best option may be to

continue current medicines

oung Kiran Soomro, who

flew from Karachi to Bangalore with a lot of hope, is coming to terms with the fact that
doctors at Narayana Health cant
help her.
Kiran, 17, reached the city on January 20 to get a hole in her heart fixed.
However, after extensive tests, her heart
was found to be inoperable. Doctors say she
needs a heart-and-lung transplant.
"Reports say her lungs are irreversibly
damaged. In Bangalore, heart transplants
are quite common but lung transplants
havent happened so far. Weve suggested
the names of a few hospitals in Chennai where transplants can be done.
Kiran is heartbroken, Dr Devi Shetty, chairman of Narayana Health told TOI on Monday.
"Kiran was initially keeping to herself and
not talking much since she heard of the transplant," said her father, Sikander Ali Soomro.
Later, however, she spent a good two hours
on video chat with her five siblings in Karachi,
giggling and in high spirits, said Konchadi Vasanth Pai, 82, an Aman ki Asha volunteer in Bangalore who visited the family on Monday with
his laptop so that the family could use Skype to
communicate with the children back home.
Kirans condition was earlier evaluated as
being a case for an open heart surgery, but after
conducting an X-ray, echo and ECG, doctors
said a transplant would be more feasible.
However, there are many complications with
that option, including waiting within a 12-hour proximity of a hospital that
would be able to perform
the
operation,
for
months, or more, until a
matching donor is found.
The likelihood of a
donor is greater in Chennai, where the number
of brain-dead cases is
higher than in Bangalore. "Preference is
given to Indian nationals. We cannot register
foreign nationals in
Karnataka," said Manjula KU, chief transplant coordinator,
Zonal Coordination Committee
of Karnataka for Transplantation (ZCCK).
Chennai also has several private agencies,
public and NGOs that come together to successfully conduct transplants. "As soon as we

By Saswati Mukherjee B.

Bangalore doctors
find Kiran Soomro
inoperable

At the hotel, waiting for test

results. TOI photo

Cross-LoC trade
can promote peace
- J&K Joint CCI
he Jammu and Kashmir
Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry has
urged the governments of
India and Pakistan to promote trade
across the Line of Control (LoC) in
Jammu and Kashmir by easing restrictions on travel, communication
and meeting of traders, expanding
the list of tradeable items, and setting up the necessary infrastructure
to support the trade.
The Joint Chamber is the first
ever institution of cross-LoC collaboration. It includes representatives

have been mandated to facilitate

the elections as Election Commissioners on either side of the LoC respectively.
The Joint Chamber expressed
serious concern about the latest
standoff on cross LoC trade, following the Indian authorities arrest of
a Pakistani driver for smuggling
brown sugar. The matter must be
thoroughly probed, the results
shared with the concerned stakeholders, and it must be resolved in
a speedy and transparent manner
according to the Standard Operat-

Cross-LoC trade: Install truck scanners at entry points

of chambers of commerce, elected
business entities and cross-LoC
trade associations and unions connected with trade in the region.
Joint Chamber members from
both sides at their annual meeting
in Kuala Lumpur signed a landmark
agreement on reforms within the
Chamber, including transition of
leadership and a democratic electoral process. It is telling that the
meeting had to be held outside the
region due to the difficulty in obtaining visas.
Conciliation Resources, a London based peacebuilding organization facilitated the meeting along
with its regional partners. Senior
journalists from either side, Ershad
Mahmud and Zafar Choudhary,

ing Procedure governing this trade.

Those involved in misdoings should
not be allowed to derail this historical CBM, said Chamber members.
The Pakistani and Indian authorities must also immediately facilitate
the return of the stranded drivers.
The Joint Chamber should be
made part of the clearance process
for registering traders on both
sides of the LoC, said members, reiterating the urgency of installing
truck scanners at entry points for
cross LoC trade. The process of
cross-LoC trade has the potential to
be a strong confidence building
measure (CBM), promoting peace
amongst the regions of Jammu and
Kashmir as well as between India
and Pakistan.

Kiran and her mother Shamshad soak in the Bangalore sun. They had just heard that the operation
will not take place. Photo: Konchadi Vasanth Pai
have a deceased (brain-dead) donor, we get in
touch and perform the operation. It helps to
have an alert team and organized channel," said
Dr Sumana Navin, course director, Mohan
Foundation, Chennai.
All transplants in Chennai happen under the
Cadaver Transplant Programme.
VISA HURDLE
If the transplant is to take place, the Soomro
family will have to contend with another issue:
they only have a visa for Bangalore and will
have to obtain a long-term visa for medical
treatment in Chennai.
Obtaining a visa is not easy, but thats the
least of the problems," says Samir Gupta, a volunteer with Aman ki Asha, a joint initiative between The Times of India and Jang Group in
Pakistan.
The economics of treating Kiran are also
getting complex. While bills could shoot up
from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 20 lakh if the transplant
happens, she will need medicines worth over
Rs 10,000 each month after the procedure.
"We had arranged for Rs 2 lakh, but the
amount of Rs 20 lakh makes it a little difficult. There are logistical problems too, as the
family will have to stay back for an uncertain
period in India," said O.P. Khanna, the Rotary

coordinator for this project.

Post-op care for transplant cases requires a
long-term commitment for bi-monthly visits for
check-ups to the hospital where the transplant
takes place. Most dauntingly, the survival rate
of heart lung transplant cases is not very high.
AKA and Rotary volunteers are exploring
other options. Top cardiologists in India, America and other countries to whom scanned
copies of Kirans reports were sent, say that
the most feasible scenario appears to be for
her to continue with the medications she was
prescribed in Delhi last May. These medicines
have improved her overall condition and quality of life considerably and may well allow her
to live a reasonably healthy life for some years.
Well take a call based on what is best for
her health," said Aman ki Asha (India) volunteer Samir Gupta.
Nitu Jiwnani, 26, Kirans friend and a classical dancer in Mumbai, says that Kiran says
that she doesnt mind as long as she is not
bed-ridden. I want to learn to dance, Kiran
told her.
"Were ready to go anywhere as long as we
know Kiran will get better," said an emotional
Sikander. The father, who sells chips for a living back in Karachi, has only one prayer on his
lips: that his eldest child gets well soon.

By Sila Abdullah

arel, Dadar, Railway Colony

I feel as if Ive lived in
these places. But the truth
is that I havent visited them
even once in my lifetime. Yet theyre
etched in my mind as my grandfather
speaks of them often.
My mothers father, my Nana
Saheb, Muhammad Zakiullah Sharif,
73, always shares with me his childhood spent in India as he walks down memory lane. He was born in
Nagpur, where he spent the first few years of his life. He often
speaks of Nagpurs oranges (sangtra). His father worked for the
Railway Department, Nagpur but was then transferred to Bombay.
There, my Nana lived in Parel for about eight years.
He refers to those years as the best days of his life. Playing with
his friends, going to Chowpatty with family, enjoying the rains,
going to school in local trains, and related incidents.
There was a park, where the workers of Parel workshop used to
rest at lunchtime. I remember seeing their wives and children
bringing lunch to them, he reminisces. Those rains, I remember,
I and my brother, we used to leave early to enjoy the rains. And wed
get scolded by our mother if we ended up drenched.
After the partition of India, my Nana moved to Karachi. He
worked in Dawn newspaper for years. Since retiring, he lives with
us in Dubai. He speaks of Nagpur and Mumbai often, missing his
childhood so much!
He really wants to visit India. And all I want is to take my Nana
there, to visit Mumbai and Nagpur once in his lifetime, and revisit
his childhood memories. If I can help him
to fulfill his dream, Ill be the happiest of all.

The writer is a 15-year

old student in Dubai

Memories Milne Do

Two slabs of marble from Lahore

By Waseem Altaf

Its good to
hear that the
Punjab
government
plans to
renovate the
historic tomb
of Bhai Vasti
Ram. Now if
only visas were
easer

n December 27, 2013, at 2

pm, my friend Amits mobile phone rang in Amritsar. It was somebody
wanting to deliver a
carton that had just
arrived from across
the border in Pakistan. Amit already
knew what it was, but
his excitement peaked
as he opened the consignment.
My friend Amit Singh Rajat
Gauri from Amritsar is the eighth direct descendent of Bhai Vasti Ram
(1708-1802), the son of Bhai Bulaka Singh who is said to have accompanied Guru Gobind Singh to
the south in 1707. He settled in Lahore after that journey.
Amits family elders ensured that
all their children were well aware of
their roots and family values. Amits
father, Balwinder Singh Gauri,
would always stress that, as descendants of the saint that they must
keep away from doing certain
things.
Amit particularly idolised his
grandfather, Inder Singh, a bar-atlaw who was the principal of Khalsa
College, Amritsar. At night, he
would tell Amit stories of his
family legacy, which he still
remembers. As a child, he
was particularly fascinated
and thrilled by the stories of
Bhai Vasti Ram, recreating
them in his imagination.
Thus began Amits lifelong
quest to gather every bit of information about his ancestor.
He placed a picture of Bhai

Untended and in disrepair: Bhai Vasi Rams Samadhi, Lahore

Amritsar: Amit Gauri and his son Saaz with a painting of Bhai Vasi Ram, now
flanked by two marble slabs from his tomb
Vasti Ram in his house, paying his
Ganda Singh and Jhanda Singh.
respect to his ancestor every day.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh became
Bhai Vasti Ram lived through the
an ardent devotee early on. In his
long period of persecution that the
court, Bhai Vasti Ram enjoyed a staSikhs endured and their eventual
tus higher than ministers and advisrise to political power in the Punjab.
ers. The Maharaja often attributed
Devoting himself to the study of
his success in the battle of Bhasin
medicine, he became famous for his
(1800) and his subsequent hold
skill in the use of indigenous herbs.
over Lahore, to Bhai Vasti Rams
He was deeply humanistic and
guidance.
treated his
After
Bhai
Vasti Rams death
in 1802 at the
ripe age of 94,
his
devotees
raised a samadhi
embellished
with white marble outside the
Lahore Fort,
facing the spot
where he was
cremated
(where the
Minar-e-Pakistan was later
erected). Mams samadhi
r of Bhai Vasi Ra
haraja Ranjit Singh would visit the
In ruins: interio
patients free of charge. Stosamadhi every year at his death anries of his healing power and piety
niversary. In 1992, after the Babri
spread far and wide.
mosque incident, a frenzied mob atBhai Vasti Ram was also well
tacked and damaged this historic
versed in Sikh scriptures and enstructure.
joyed considerable influence in the
Keen to visit the samadhi after
Sikh community. Common people
hearing this story from Amit, I got
as well as important Sikh leaders
the opportunity during a trip to Lawould visit him to seek his blesshore last month. My heart bled to
ings. They included names venersee the state of the historic monuated by the Sikhs: Jassa Singh Ahlument. The structure lay in ruins and
valia, Lahina Singh, Gujar Singh,
the interior was devastated. Pieces

of marble that were once part of the

tomb were piled up outside. I, and
my dear friend Faiza Javed, a good
photographer, took photographs of
the samadhi from various angles.
Then I picked up two carved
slabs of marble. I knew that for us
these were just stones, but for
someone else they were a treasure a vestige of Bhai Vasti Ram.
A few days later, thanks to the efforts of my dear friends Sohail Sajid
and Dr Asma Riaz, the slabs of marble reached Amritsar. I had already
informed Amit Rajat Gauri and his
wife Neelu Malik Gauri of the gift
they were about to receive. A wonderful couple, passing on humanistic values and traditions to their
children Ragini and Saaz, they eagerly awaited it.
As he touched the pieces of marble, tears trickled down his face. It
was as if out of his sheer imagination something suddenly assumed
the form of reality. Whatever he had
heard and imagined about the saint
converged in those stones - the linkage spanning over two hundred
years had revived. It was a reunion
of two generations two centuries
apart.
The following day, he had the
slabs placed on specially designed
wooden brackets in his drawing
room. Amit was indebted and I was
relieved, for stones, which had been
lying rotting under the open sky had
reached where they belonged. They
were with someone to whom they
were not just stones, someone who
knows their true worth. To Amit,
they are priceless treasures. Later,
Amit told me that he felt as if the
saint was present in his house guiding him at the subconscious level.
Postscript: The Government of
Punjab recently announced that it
was allocating Rs 2.2 million to renovate the tomb of Bhai Vasti Ram.
Let us hope that the building is restored in its original form and that
the visa regime is relaxed between
the India and Pakistan to allow
cross-border devotees easy access
to the final resting places of their
saints.
Waseem Altaf is a writer
based in Rawalpindi. Email:
mwaseemaltaf@hotmail.com

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contributing to genuine and durable peace with honour between our countries.