Official Website of CSI Parish Kattakada, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

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My Reflection on Dr. Resiyamoni[1]

Rev. Shibu R Mayam

Associate Pastor CSI Kattakada

 


 

 

Long back, I think some fifteen or more years back, one of my acquaintances was talking to one gentle middle aged man. He told me that the person whom he was talking to was the husband of an ayurveda doctor. The same was one of the mangers of P.R. William High School. I wondered an ayurveda doctor from a CSI community!

Dr. Raseeyamoney

 Years passed. I forgot all about such an ayurveda practitioner.

After my marriage my father-in-law was talking to an ayurveda doctor over phone. He wanted to consult the doctor for an ailment he himself was undergoing. I did not ask who at the other end was. But I knew from my wife that the doctor was a gynaecologist in ayurveda and was working in Thrippunithura Govt. Ayurveda College.  Again I wondered how such a person could manage to reach the college and come back to her native place every week.

The next occasion was the meeting with the person. I came with my wife to see the doctor at her residence. Some patients were on the queue. I waited until the last but one patient consulted the doctor. She was taking longer time to consult each patient. My wonder came at the thought of why this doctor was very slow in meeting each sick person. Some of her words crossed the boundary of the closed room. Even the simplest English words the commons were well aware of, were all heard translated into Malayalam. This evidenced her love for the native tongue.

Her words comforted each person rather than the medicines which she prescribed. Before leaving I gave her the consultation fee, but she with love refused to accept.  I learnt from other patients that she would not ask for consultation fee or accept nominal fee. This practice was against the profit making medical industry. To her, consulting a patient was a service to the poor rather than a means of income. Of course she herself was getting salary from the government.

From then onwards frequently I visited the doctor with my family. I did not talk to her very much, but I was experiencing a strong motherly attachment from her.

In the next occasion with my posting order to CSI Kattakada, I joined here. That time I did not think about such a doctor. After the first worship service when I got out from the church I saw the doctor, being busy, talking over mobile phone. When the conversation was over, I called her and she was very much happy to see me there. She enquired about the well-being of my family and left. I thought I could get a good time in ministry with such a noble person.

The next time I saw her in the bereaved house of Joel. Z, Ushas, behind her house. She was singing funeral songs making our funeral service easy. It was on a rainy day. I saw her sweating even though I was feeling cold. I thought after strain fully singing she was tired.

The coming Thursday, I heard from one of the committee members that the doctor was having some physical problems. I was shocked to hear that she was having cancer and the disease was in its advanced stage. We did not pray openly feeling that others would know her disease. As time passed by what we hid became public. And the doctor herself was asking prayer support from the church. We met her on the previous day of her first chemo. A group of pastors and believers were there praying earnestly for the doctor.

I met her after the first chemo in Dhanya, her residence. She was very much tired. I prayed and left. 

Then we met her at her sister’s house in Peroorkada after her surgery. She was experiencing good at that time. The next time I heard her being in critical condition. We went and prayed. I did not think her end would come soon, unfortunately the unavoidable thing happened. She breathed her last with ‘Ninnilaswasam kanaan...’ a popular Malayalam Christian song while being sung by pastors. Of course she has found and experienced aswasam, that is comfort in Jesus, her soul mate.

She was an elegant person, always ready to help others. Yesterday one of the pastors who worked before me in this church was sharing from his personal experience with the doctor. The doctor was an exceptional personality who would always speak gently and was not a character of finding fault with or blaming others. With my limited experience I knew that she was active in all the activities of the church, choir and diocese and synod whenever she was sent. Her contribution was fully visible in medical camps which had benefitted to all ailing persons.  

I learnt from others’ sharing that she used to prescribe and give medicines with a silent word of prayer. Though she had displayed her name in front of her house, the time and day of consultation was not mentioned. This is an indication that she was available to any patient at any day and any time. In this age of everybody turning to modern medicine she knew the value of ayurveda, that is, the vedam of ayus, life, she kept the traditional medical practice to go on by insisting her son to be an ayurveda doctor.

She tried to console others and heal their wounds though she herself was undergoing severe burns in her body and mind. She made others happy while being disturbed inside her.

Her loss has created a wide gap in CSI Kattakada. And I express my heartfelt condolences to the members of the family and those who feel grieved by her untimely demise.

 

Kattakada,

26 Sept. 2014.




[1]This is my personal reflection on Dr. Resiyamoni.  Through this I would like to highlight some of the inimitable qualities which she herself had had.