Love in the time of things graver than Cholera

Bhajan Samrat Anup Jalotarsquos phlegmatic smiling face belies the battles in his marriage to attractive Medha Jalota Together the Jalotas have faced it all a chordae of Medharsquos mitral valve cut by mistake in a US hospital an emergency openheart surgery a lifesaving heart transplant and a hospital checkin scheduled of all things in New York on 911 in 2001 Together they have had a roller coaster life a decade and more of Medharsquos deteriorating health her skirmishes with death and a mountain of medical bills Yet the Jalotas have negotiated the obstacle course with optimism and hope that is a lesson for everyone BEND IT LIKE BECKhellipOOPS ANUP Proposing to Medha Now for the first time the celebrated bhajan singer who had two unsuccessful marriages behind him and his wife who had a failed marriage with renowned filmmaker Shekhar Kapur behind her talk about their life in a book called lsquoHeartfelt the inspirational story of Medha Anup Jalotarsquo by celebrated film journalist and writer Bharathi S Pradhan It is a book that celebrates Bharathi says the fact that the ldquomind can battle even heal the body when medical science has given up on yourdquo SUBMERGED IN LOVE Anup and Medha underwater in Mauritius Bharathi says that the book began with a party ldquoIn the year 2008 where at NDTV editor Abhigyan Prakashrsquos party in Mumbai I got talking with Anup Jalota who is a very old friend of mine and his wife Medha I knew her too but got to really understand her as a person after I started writing Heartfelt But right there at the party I realized that there was a book waiting to be written Indiarsquos very own The Secretrdquo UP IN SMOKE Medha with Shekhar Kapur in a marriage that went kaput Candid The Secret about AnupMedharsquos marriage started to unfold as Bharathi began to write She says ldquoI was very comfortable with Anup because I had interviewed him several times in the past and was aware that he was very candid about his life I realized that Medha was just as candid after I began to interact with her for Heartfelt Although I know them both very closely Irsquod still call it a warm professional relationship Wersquore not personal family friends or confidantes But they knew me well enough to trust me with their storyrdquo NOT JUST PAGE 3 Writer Bharathi Pradhan l with filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar in Kolkata recently during a FICCI event called lsquoMadhur Bhandarkar In Conversation With Bharathi Pradhan While celebrities are still wary about talking about current relationships the book touches on past failed marriages and relationships with refreshing candour and forthrightness In an excerpt from the book which illustrates its lsquonosecretsrsquo approach Medha says ldquoI was 39 when I met Anupji and an official marriage didnrsquot really matter to either of us Anupji brought me here to his Shivaji Park house and introduced me to his mother as lsquoaap ki bahursquo your daughterinlaw I touched her feet Then he came to drop me at Versova and didnrsquot return to his own house He said lsquoNow that we have decided to be together why should you live alone As far as Irsquom concerned we are husband and wifersquo He stayed with me for one year in that little house in Versovardquo Upbeat In an age of political correctness the candid accounts are like a cool mintfresh breeze wafting through 200 pages divided into 14 chapters of what essentially is an upbeat book despite all setbacks Says Bharathi ldquoIt would be a dreadful pity if the focus shifted from what Heartfelt is all about it is not Medharsquos bareall biography it is an inspirational true life story of this cheerful patient A smorgasbord of doctors have corroborated the story all through the book Anup and Medha have been so forthright in Heartfelt because firstly they havenrsquot been up to anything they should be ashamed of Glossing over the past would have been like a selectively edited memoir to hide shameful experiences that you donrsquot want your kids to know about A failed marriage or a struggle for finances is not exactly a crime you knowrdquo After a forthright account of her failed marriage to filmmaker Shekhar Kapur the book moves to Medharsquos marriage to Anup Jalota and then to health problems that follow in quick succession Health In the chapter lsquoThe Heart Breaks Downrsquo Bharathi writes that it was in 19992000 that Medharsquos heart condition slowly deteriorated after a holiday in Mussoorie where she found she could not climb Medha says in the book ldquoI went to a few cardiologists on my return and all of them told me that I was in for a heart failure A heart failure does not mean that you are going to die immediately one can live with it for many years But you start suffering from water retention breathlessness and so onrdquo Since then Medha has lived on the brink for very long Bharathi quotes her in the book ldquoIt began with a lot of arrhythmia irregular heartbeats in my heart Certain wellknown doctors bluntly told me not to do anything One very wellknown South Mumbai doctor who visited me in a hospital in Bandra took Rs 10000 from us and in front of me the patient he just tersely said lsquoForget a transplant Nothing is going to help her she has very little time leftrsquordquo Eventually going in for a heart transplant page 88 of the book cites Medharsquos fight It was a long and arduous procedure to be on her feet again Going to the US ldquoGetting a little screwed by their systemsrdquo that eventually took up two full calendar years and left their coffers Anup and Medharsquos more than empty The chapter goes on to state that Anup stood through it all trips that drained them of their finances and like the writer states ldquoWhen things begin to go wrong life has a way of falling apart on several fronts It was the starting point of a long period of bad luckrdquo One passage says ldquoSo I went to Mayo Clinic in the USrdquo Medha relived the experience ldquoDuring my biopsy they inadvertently cut off a chordae of my mitral valve and I almost went into a comalike state I was haemorrhaging the blood was flowing backwards It happens maybe once in 10000 cases An immediate openheart surgery to fix that valve was the only option thereafterrdquo Deceptive The book moves on with a great many doctors consulted for corroboration and facts attesting to Bharathirsquos belief ldquoI never gave myself a deadline but I believe that you have to keep gathering facts and information until you are completely and creatively satisfiedrdquo At one stage the Jalotas seem to have put their troubles behind them as a chapter goes on to talk about how Medha returned to India and everything seemed fine Yet this period of relative calm and health was deceptive The book states ldquoIn October 2000 Dr Alok Chopra her Medharsquos old cardiologist in Delhi noticed that she didnrsquot look too well and tested the condition of her heart by asking her to climb two flights of steps with a meter on her finger that checked how much oxygen was going into her heart Alarmed at the result he made Medha call her mother lsquoYou are going into cardiac failure I39m taking you straightaway to Escortsrsquo he said to Medhardquo Kidneys It was not just Medharsquos heart giving her trouble In Chapter 9 of the book titled The Kidneys Fail it was a time when her kidneys threatened to pack up Bharathi writes ldquoThe alarming state of her kidneys was a problem that Medha had anticipated Aware that the heavy medication necessitated by her heart would eventually take its toll on her kidneys she watched with alarm the rise in the creatinine levels in her blood reportsrdquo When a threetimesaweek dialysis routine became mandatory it is perhaps for the first time that the book speaks about Medharsquos spirit threatening to break ldquoWith it came Medharsquos first real bad case of plummeting morale which lasted all through 2008 culminating in another lifesapping crisis on the festive day of Diwali She spoke dispiritedly perhaps for the first time everrdquo Medha says in the book ldquoMy social pattern changed I am not always well I get tired easily I may look well but the truth is there are certain aspects of the dialysis that I am not taking to very well I keep getting fever after every dialysis which is very exhausting The only way out for me is to opt for a kidney transplant Otherwise I will have to be on dialysis all my liferdquo Heartfelt is at its most poignant when it quotes Medha as saying ldquoI am living on borrowed timerdquo She accepted it with resignation ldquoIf we didnrsquot have the money I wouldn39t be alive todayrdquo The book winds to a close towards the end of 200 pages on a happy note in the concluding chapter Hope 2012 ldquoWith three hernia operations a bout of amnesia dialysis up from three to four times a week and the muchawaited donor kidney still elusive there was an incomprehensible cheer in the airrdquo writes Bharathi ldquoThe year has begun wellrdquo said a content Anup as he went up to receive a Padma Shri ldquoThe couple crossed two more important landmarks in 2012 On August 5 2012 AnupMedha celebrated 18 years of marriage and the new heart ticking inside Medha turned 11 in Decemberrdquo the closing chapter states This book is not about heart transplants or heart failures but about two hearts braveheart Medha and ldquomast maulardquo happy go lucky Anup as described in the book who goes about life with a song be that a bhajan or ghazal on his lips and in his heart NO COVERING UP The book stands out because of its honesty and candour in a politically correct world lsquoHeartfelt The Inspirational Story of Medha Anup Jalotarsquo by Bharathi S Pradhan Published by Om Books International Price R395 u00a0