Preface
This
is my first attempt at writing a short story. I hope this turns out
to be good and becomes the first of many more to come. There was a
lull in my blogging due to the attack of "Bell's Palsy" I
suffered in January after which I have been on a physiotherapy
treatment since the last six months. I was asked to lay off all
screens and it is only since April 1st this year I am back to my
cellphone and laptop. It has been a frustrating six months as I
am being egged on by many of my blog followers to start blogging
again and hence this attempt.
This
blog is dedicated to all doctors in general who are doing the noble
job of healing the sick and one doctor in particular who is the one
who asked me not to stop my blogging and continue to do it. I
am indebted to her for the selfless service provided to me.
The
recent attack on a junior doctor in Kolkatta inspired me to this
story. This is purely fiction and is not based on a any true
incident. Any resemblance to an incident or names used in this story
is purely coincidental.
I want
all my followers to wish me "Good Luck" in my endeavor and
give me your honest views and comments. It is now in your hands to
make or break a budding short story writer.
Here
follows the story.......
The
main characters in this story are as follows
Satyajit
- A very influential politician who rose from the ranks. Was a
firebrand goonda in his earlier days and has now mellowed in to a
repenting old man (approaching 70 years of age) trying to undo the
wrongs he did (or was instrumental in doing) in his earlier days.
Nikita
- Satyajit's daughter and the apple of his eye. Twenty six years old
and a well qualified doctor who has been selected to receive a gold
medal from the President of India for meritorious services to the
poor and needy. She is in-charge of a hospital in Kolkatta. The
hospital has been built by her politician father Satyajit.
Sushmita
- A doctor in her early fifties who suffered in her earlier years
because of Satyajit's misdeeds. Her only aim in life is to make her
only son Biswajit in to a successful politician and take revenge on
Satyajit by defeating him in the forthcoming elections.
Biswajit
- An up and coming young politician who has just entered the
thirties. He has fallen in love with Nikita Satayjit's daughter.
Satyajit
was getting ready to go to the City’s Biggest charity hospital
where his daughter was to receive an award for exemplary work done in
the field of medicine providing services to the poor and needy. The
President of India was to handover the award in the presence of many
dignitaries. Satyajit was proud of his daughter as any father would
be.
His
mind went back twenty six years to the day his daughter was born and
he lost his son and wife on the same day. Let us go back twenty six
years down memory lane….
Satyajit
was in a dilemma. Two important events were happening in his life on
the same day. He had just admitted his wife to the Government
Hospital for her first delivery and the political leader of the party
where Satyajit was an important upcoming member was visiting the city
of Kolkatta on the same day. He was confused. He had to be there at
both the places at the same time and he did not know which to give
priority.
He
went and talked to the doctor who was in charge of the ward where his
wife was admitted and asked her opinion. Dr Sushmita told him that
the delivery will take some time and now that he had admitted her he
can come after 6-7 hours. Satyajit heaved a sigh of relief. He could
easily finish off meeting his political leader and explain his
position and excuse himself and be back in time for his wife’s
delivery.
He
went ahead, met his leader and attended to his duties of receiving
the leader. The leader was impressed with Satyajit. He confided that
he was being considered for a ticket to stand in the forthcoming
elections. Satyajit explained his position to his leader and asked
permission to be excused to leave so that he could go to the
hospital. The leader chided him and told him he should not have
neglected his wife to come and meet him. He asked Satyajit to leave
immediately to be with his beloved wife when she needs him the most.
In the
meanwhile at the hospital things were happening fast. Satyajit’s
wife delivered twins , a boy and a girl but developed post natal
complications. Both Satyajit’s wife and the male child were in
danger and Dr. Sushmita had her hands full. She was a junior doctor
and had little experience in such matters. To add to her woes the
senior doctor in charge of gynaechology was on long leave. Dr.
Sushmita tried to contact Satyajit to update him on the news but was
unable to contact him since he was very busy with his political
duties, She left a message for him to contact her immediately adding
that it was urgent. There was a group of youngsters from Satayajit’s
political party who had been stationed by him to take care of any
emergencies while he was away attending to his leader. It was the
leader of this group whom Dr Sushmita contacted to pass on the urgent
message to Satayajit. Now this young man was by nature a very nasty
person and took pride in harassing young ladies who he came across.
He saw that Dr. Sushmita was a pretty young thing. He threatened her
that if anything happened to his boss’s wife the hospital will have
to pay a heavy price.
In
addition to being nervous Dr. Sushmita was now afraid. A crucial
medicine required was not available in ready stock and she had to
order from the hospital store. The store keeper said it wil take
minimum one day for the stock to be replenished.
The
situation worsened. Dr. Sushmita was alone in the hospital since
heavy rains had disrupted the city’s normal life and her assistants
have not turned up due to disruption of traffic. As the day
progressed the condition of Satyajit’s wife turned bad due to non
availability of medicine. The newborn baby boy was deprived of
mother’s milk and was crying himslef hoarse with hunger. If the
doctor attended to the mother the child would suffer and vice versa.
Finally she took a bold decision to first save the mother for the
sake of the other twin and take a chance with the life of the male
twin. Dr. Sushmita tried her best but fate seemed to have ordained
what was to happen.
Satyajit’s
wife breathed her last in spite of the doctor’s valiant effort to
save her. Soon the ailing child followed the mother and breathed the
last of his short life. Satyajit was also getting late reaching the
hospital due to the heavy rains and the traffic woes. The news
reached Satyajit’s group of men who were stationed at the hospital.
Their leader was furious and wanted to teach a lesson to the helpless
Doctor who had tried her best valiantly. The group leader decided to
take the law in to his hand. He hunted down the doctor and was soon
carrying out his threat. The furious followers thrashed the doctor
mercilessly and also took advantage of her by physically molesting
her. By the time the police were informed and they reached the
hospital everything was over. The doctor was unconscious and the
hospital furniture was damaged because of the mob running amuck due
to the death of their beloved leader’s kin.
Satyajit
reached the hospital and was dismayed to learn about his wife and
kids death and the dark deeds of his followers. He made immediate
arrangements to shift the surviving girl child to another private
hospital. The leader of the mob was arrested and sent to jail.
Dr.
Sushmita met Satyajit and appraised him of the facts about the non
availability of medicines and proper assistants and tried to explain
about her helplessness. Satyajit though understood her predicament
had to support his followers with the aim to further his dreams of
being a politician. He refused to help her.
Next
day the hospital staff went on a lightning strike to protest the
attack on the attack on their valiant colleague, The staff demanded
police protection against such future attacks before they returned to
work. Politicians were taking advantage of the situation. The ruling
party was for taking action against the doctor for negligence in her
duties whereas the opposition was with the doctors and supported the
strike. The main sufferers were the general public who were being
deprived of medical attention due to the strike for no fault of
theirs. A political leader’s supporters taking law in to their hand
and attacking a public service doctor was untenable but who cares?
The
media took advantage of the situation with TV channels holding
opinion polls, debates for against both sides with the persons
interviewed basking in their hour of glory.
The
doctors strike was called of after a week of national support to the
doctors with the ruling party ultimately agreeing to providing
protection to the government hospital doctors when the doctors
resumed work.
Poor
Dr. Sushmita who was widowed only last year due to her husband’s
death in a road accident was suspended and later sacked from her job
for being the cause of all the turmoil. She moved to a smaller city
with her three year old son Biswajit and took up a job with a small
nursing home. She however made a resolution to bring up her son to be
a future politician, her ultimate aim was to bring Stayajit to his
knees by defeating him.
Chapter
II
Five years passed by . Satyajit had by now risen in ranks and his political party was now ruling the city. Satyajit was the State health minister. He understood the difficulty of the Government doctors. He wanted to find out about Dr. Sushmita and apologise to her about his helplessness earlier and atone for his sins. He was unable to find her whereabouts and learned about her suspension and subsequent termination. He spread word with his followers to locate her and bring her before him. He was determined about undoing his wrongs. He wanted to build a charitable hospital in the city for the poor and needy
Ten
more years passed by. Nikita his surviving daughter was by now a
charming fifteen year old. He was glad to learn that she was a very
bright child who was extremely good in her studies, He made a vow to
make his daughter into a doctor and build a charitable hospital in
memory of his wife and son who expired in an unfortunate incident
years ago.
At
last he was able to trace Dr. Sushmita to a nearby small city. He
found out that she was in-charge of a small nursing home and had a
handsome young eighteen year old boy. Satyajit went and met her and
apologised to her on his past misdeed of not helping her when she
needed it most. She was furious and told him about her determination
to finish him off as a politician. Satyajit who by now was a more
matured person smiled at her and told her she need not do that. In
fact he promised that he will take her son under his wing and help in
making him a good political leader. In any case he missed having a
son he told her. Dr. Sushmita was adamant. She refused point blank.
She admonished him and threw him out of her house. Satyajit was not
aperson to give up. He decided to keep tabs on her and the young
Biswajit and help her anonymously.
Chapter
III
Ten
more years passed by. Nikita was a now Dr. Nikiita having passed out
with flying colours in her MBBS. She was now doing her MD.
Her
father Satyajit was now the chief minister and was busy giving
finishing touches to the plans of his dream hospital in memory of his
beloved wife and son. Satyajit had been successful in making his
daughter a doctor. He had also succeeded in bringing Biswajit (who
was by now a budding politician having passed out in Political
Science) under his wing (unknown to him about his past relation with
his mother).
Biswajit
was by now a regular visitor to his mentor Satyajit’s house. When
he first Satyajits daughter Nikiita it was love at first sight for
him. He was hopelessly in love with her and was waiting for an
opportunity to express his feelings to her and her father. He somehow
kept his mother out of his little secret telling himself that he will
bring her in to the picture at an appropriate time. He was aware that
his mother did not approve of Satyajit and had not confided in her
about his being his protege.
Let us
cut the long story short and come back to the present.
Chapter
IV
It was
a further two years later that we come to the present. In the
meantime the following things have happened. Dr. Nikiita has passed
he MD and having rendered meritorious and selfless service to the
poor and needy has been selected to be the recipient of the
President’s Gold medal.
The
hospital building is ready with the help of the chief minister’s
support and will be inaugurated by no less a person than the
President himself.
Biswajit
has managed to express his love to Dr. Nikita who was also secretly
admiring his handsome presence in her house. Satyajit wholeheartedly
approves the match and wants to announce his successor in Biswajit to
the world at large. Dr, Sushmita however is blissfully unaware of all
these developments is and busy with her nursing home duties.
The
function of the gold medal presentation goes off smoothly. The
president then formally declares open the multi speciality hospital.
Satyajit
takes this opportunity to declare Biswajit as his chosen successor.
Everybody
all around is happy. But not Dr. Sushmita. She is furious with he son
for joining hands with Satyajit her sworn enemy. How can she now
fulfill her vow of defeating Satyajit.
Both
Satyajit and Biswajit succeed in convincing Dr. Sushmita not to carry
venom and revenge in her mind. Whatever happened in the past was not
intentional and Stayajit had already set things right by educating
Dr. Nikita as a doctor and building a hospital for the poor and
needy.
Biswajit
also told her about his love for Dr. Nikita and his plans of marrying
her with the approval of both Dr. Sushmita and Satyajit.
Finally
Dr. Sushmita relents and in any case does not want to go against
Biswajit's love.
There
is happiness all around and my story comes to an end.
Comments
[15/07, 23:03] V: And really for addressing the basic health needs of people of this country, we need better PHCs with minimum 3 Doctor's attending full 24x7, in 3 shifts. Also medicines, water and Power.