Son sings to dying mother: ‘Tera mujhse hai pehle ka naata koi...’

KOLKATA: Tweets by a city doctor narrating a man’s final farewell to his Covid-affected mother — who was on her death bed in a city hospital — has touched a chord and triggered a tsunami of emotional posts on Twitter from hundreds who have lost a loved one but never had the opportunity to bid adieu.

On Wednesday, critical care doctor Dipshikha Ghosh of Apollo Gleneagles made a video call — like she had done many times during the year-long pandemic to connect critically ill patients with their family members on request.It helped them get closure. The calls were discreet and though some of them were very emotional, Ghosh had always been composed while handling them.
But she wasn’t quite prepared for what happened in the ICU on Wednesday afternoon.

She connected the 47-year-old Covid patient with her 25-year-old son. After inquiring about how she was, the son began to sing a popular Kishore Kumar number from the 1973 hit film ‘Aa Gale Lag Jaa’.
The poignant moment is best described in the tweets she sent out a few minutes later.
“Today, towards the end of my shift, I video called the relatives of a patient who is not going to make it. We usually do that in my hospital if it’s something they want. This patient’s son asked for a few minutes of my time,” she wrote.
“He then sang a song for his dying mother. He sang ‘Tera Mujhse Hai Pehle Ka Naata Koi’. I just stood there holding the phone, looking at him looking at his mother and singing. The nurses came over and stood in silence. He broke down in the middle but finished the verse. He asked her vitals, thanked me and hung up,” Ghosh posted.
“Me and the nurses stood there, shaking our heads, our eyes moist. The nurses went back one by one to their allocated patients and attended to them or the alarms of vents/dialysis units. This song is changed for us, for me at least. This song will always be theirs,” Ghosh wrote.
The tweet went viral within minutes, with first tens, then hundreds and finally thousands applauding the doctor’s gesture and thanking her for succinctly sharing a touching farewell that so many bereaved families of Covid patients had missed. Till last count on Thursday evening, the post had been retweeted over 10,000 times, drawn nearly 40,000 likes and over 1,500 comments.
“Read this piece twice. Sums up the pain and choked emot-ions. Good job doctor,” wrote one netizen.
Many recounted how their inability to speak one last time with their loved one still haunted them. “The value of this call is too much. Thank u doctor. God give you strength and good health. Bow down,” wrote another person who had lost his mother as well.
Yet another commented, “Wish I had such a doctor on duty when my mom died in ICU. Was refused to see her last time or hold her hand or say goodbye. Still hurts.”
“Doctor by profession but lady by heart,” is how one Charitarth Tiwari described Ghosh.
On duty in Covid ICU since last April, Ghosh has lost many patients to the virus, including in inexplicable deaths of young people in their 20s and 30s without co-morbidity in this second wave.
She said something about the song in that poignant moment uncorked the emotions that had been bottled within her for long.
“I later learnt it was their favourite song. I, too, have heard the song composed by R D Burman many times in the past. But now, to me and the rest of the team who were present in the ICU that day, this song will belong to the mother and her son,” she said.
The patient passed away 12 hours after the video call.