Four-year-old Sarbajit Baidya, battling leukaemia in his hospital free bed. Picture by Amit Datta

When her husband died in an accident last December, Soma Baidya steeled herself — like all mothers do — for the sake of their only child, four-year-old Sarbajit. The 21-year-old widow wasn’t to know then that the son for whom she wanted to live would be diagnosed with life-threatening leukaemia barely a month later.

Sarbajit has been in the paediatric medicine ward of Medical College and Hospital for the past five months, 14 doses of painful chemotherapy robbing him of not only his hair but also the carefree smile of childhood.

Soma’s agony is no less; she has spent over Rs 1lakh on her son’s treatment and doesn’t have anything left in the bank.

“He is on a free bed, but the medicine bill is increasing… We need at least Rs 25,000 per month for his treatment. The expenses will shoot up after four more months, when doctors say they will start blood transfusion,” said Soma, sharing a corner of bed No. 65 with her son.

Soma’s late husband, Shankar, used to earn Rs 2,000 a month from his job as a pharmacy salesman and an apprentice in a doctor’s private clinic in Chetla. She is now entirely dependent on her mother’s income of Rs 75 a day to keep Sarbajit in hospital and buy the medicines that have been prescribed to minimise the side-effects of chemotherapy.

“I can’t cry in front of him… He starts asking why I am crying. I don’t have an answer,” Soma said.

Had leukaemia not struck, Sarbajit would have started going to school this year. He doesn’t speak much these days, except to complain about the painful injections that the nurses administer. Occasionally, he clutches his mother’s hand and pleads with her to take him home.

The para clubs, friends and relatives Soma has approached for assistance have all been helpful, but she and her son need more.

Dilip Nandy, Soma’s father, said the entire family had been flung into the deep end. “I used to have a paan shop in Chetla. But even that was demolished around two months ago and I do not have any source of income now.”