Page 167 - Demo

Alarm bells began to ring when people realised that the man was a VIP and a guest of the state. The state machinery swung into action and he was moved to the PGIMER Chandigarh in a very critical condition. He was very fortunate because the hospital, a centre of excellence for superspecialities, had just been started the previous year. He probably survived the accident because of the qualified specialists on hand and the top priority given to his treatment. PVG Raju's children were in Vizag at the time for their summer vacations. His daughter Suneetha, a child of eleven at the time, remembers the news coming as a bolt from the blue, %u201c%u2026and then a telegram comes. I remember the date very clearly. th The time is etched in my mind %u2013 it was the 11 of May. Those days communication was very primitive and telegrams were used. We get this telegram that he met with a serious accident and by then the government of Andhra Pradesh had organised a chartered flight from Vizag to Hyderabad. So, we get onto this chartered flight, and go to Hyderabad and then to Delhi. Overnight we're in Delhi, the next morning we charter a flight again and go to Chandigarh. But being so young, we were stunned and didn't realize the implications of what was going on.%u201dWith a bandaged head and tubes running into and out of him, PVG Raju was lost to the world and in a deep coma. Around him, there was a buzz of activity. His relatives and friends came and were on hand anxiously awaiting developments. Politicians came to visit, and commiserate. Weirdly enough, not a few of them also got their photographs taken with the unconscious man on the bed. 153