Dr K L Chowdhury
This is the story of Amit Zutshi. He is born August 3, 1977 to first generation Kashmiri immigrants seeking the American dream. He grows, under the watchful eyes of his parents and the loving care of an extended family, into a handsome, highly socializing, intelligent, inquisitive, fun-loving lad, proficient equally in academics and sports. But during the last two years of high school while his father is frequently out of town furthering his business interests, Amit’s school grades fall. After graduating in 1995 he fails to qualify for any of the prestigious universities. From there it is a meandering pursuit of education and career – from Oholone Community College in Fremont, to De’Anza College Santa Clara, to a private college in San Deigo and, finally, to Fremont University of Phoenix from where he gets a business degree in 2002.
By now he is 25 and raring to go for a career as well. He takes up a fulltime job in marketing, operating from his parental home in Fremont. But he is yet not finished with academics for he also pursues his MBA part time. It is then that his father notices his gradual withdrawal from social life which is totally contrary to his gregarious nature. In 2004 he takes a job with a Santa Clara based company which entails frequent travel to Seattle and sometimes to Washington. From then on his visits to home get scarce, though he phones regularly. When he comes home he takes his family to dinner where his father finds that he eats little if any, mostly raw salads. When asked the reason, he replies that he wants to be ‘someone different’. But the family watches in helplessness a progressive thinning and frailty in this bright young man.
Both his father and little brother Rahul suspect eating disorder as the cause but Amit is in denial. Father arranges a meeting with a counselor at an Eating Disorder Clinic, and another with a psychologist, both of whom find nothing wrong in him except that ‘he is intense about his nutrition’.
Desperate father contacts Amit’s primary physician to find out what ails his son, but she refuses to talk with him unless she has Amit’s consent.
Meanwhile, Amit sees less of, and shares little with, his family. By 2007 he is thinning down progressively, eating only raw salads during family dinners when he visits; proudly claiming that he knows what is good for him for he has a better understanding of health and nutrition. In fact, he has a certificate in Health and Nutrition from the Institute of Integrated Nutrition.
Though he looks frail, he appears full of energy, ‘working hard to grow into a knowledgeable person’. That is the time he finds himself under Obama spell, inspired by his campaign for change to which he devotes time and energy.
The family meets on August 3, 2007, Amit’s 30th birthday. He is annoyed (‘set off’) when father asks him to eat a little during dinner. On his visit home during Christmas that year, he has grown thinner with sunken eyes. Father again tries to contact Amit’s primary physician but she avoids answering any query.
Frustrated, he succeeds in convincing Amit about consulting another doctor. The doctor finds his blood sodium level ‘dangerously low’, yet he tells the father, “He looks very orderly, talks sense. I have no reason to detain him in the hospital. In any case, I will speak to my Director.”
Next day, March 12, the doctor calls back. He fears losing his license for breaching patient confidentiality under the HIPPA Act. So, rather than speaking with the father, he would like Amit to call him directly because his life is ‘hanging in balance’.
Father phones Amit on 15 March. He finds nothing unusual in the conversation to alarm him about his condition. Amit says, after he finishes work with his project and a TV interview scheduled for 17th about his work with the Obama campaign, he will come down at 8 pm with a bunch of movies to watch together with the family. Amit does not come by 10. Father is upset and ‘unloads’ himself on him. But the son is cool, asks him to go ahead with dinner, and to sleep if he wanted to. That is what father does.
Around 11:30 pm Amit lets himself in and goes to sleep in his bedroom.
He is home for an overnight stay after a long time! And for the last time, alas!
16 March, Sunday, father sees him crouched up in downstairs bathroom -in a faint. He calls 911. The paramedics try to revive Amit, and carry him inside the ambulance. ‘Don’t take me anywhere, I am home’ are the last words he ever speaks. His father touches his feet like he used to when Amit was a kid. A ‘divine’ smile appears on his face, his eyes still closed as the ambulance drives away. It is The Last Smile. He remains unconscious in the hospital for three days. Death finally triumphs over ambitious, impetuous life.
While Amit is in the hospital father and brother go to clear his apartment. They find ‘vast amounts of nutritional supplements’. Father feels it was these that caused the end of his beloved son. The autopsy reports Cardiomypathy, and heart failure, as the cause of death.
In sum, The Last Smile is the tragic narration by Jeevan Zutshi of the story of his young son whose life begins with a great promise but takes a torturous course to end under mysterious circumstances at the tender age of thirty. It is at once a memoir, an autobiography, a commentary on the great divide between the Medical Establishment and The Alternative Health Movement in USA, and an indictment of the FDA for its failure to keep an eye on, and rein in the guilty amongst the Pharmaceutical Companies and The Food Supplements industry, the sharks that feed on the vulnerabilities of a growing population of Americans, especially the youth, in pursuit of elixirs for perfect body and sound health, longevity and, even, immortality.
The Last Smile, written in simple and lucid prose, with an astute introduction by Maharaj Koul, is a timely reminder about the pitfalls and perils of chasing dreams in a country where sky is literally the limit of attaining one’s overweening ambition.
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