Along the mild cool breeze outside, Rehan’s mind was also sailing at ease. Though a bit excited by the definite decision made by his friend, Rehan was busy thinking about shifting from the hotel. Willfully pulling himself out of his thoughts, Rehan said, “bro! let’s go back and inform the professor so that he could forward the admission procedures.” Hearing that Saarang nodded, and the friends walked back to the hospital building, rather more definite and hopeful this time. As they reached the professor’s cabin, two of the medical students came out and looked at them inquisitively. Rehan spoke up, “ hello! We just wanted to meet the professor and let him know that we would like to go with the treatment as advised by him.” On hearing that, the students said that they would inform the professor, as he was already out for the rounds and they were going to him only. And regarding the further proceedings, the students informed the staff at the admission office regarding their decision and asked the friends to stay back for a while in the waiting area, meanwhile, the staff would carry out the admission procedures and thereafter lead the patient and the bystander to their allocated room.
As the friends sat there waiting for the staff to head them, Saarang’s mind and eyes kept on roaming around, searching for something or rather someone. After a few minutes, they saw a dwarf man holding a sky-blue file heading towards them and then he lead the friends to the elevator. Saarang’s allotted room was on the second floor of the hospital building. They entered the room behind the attendant. It was an average-sized room with two small-sized cots with light green bed covers. Though not very spacious but the room was remarkably clean, and this was quite impressive for Saarang as he was a man, quite sorted in his thoughts and activities. By this time, it was noon and the attendant informed them that they may freshen up as lunch would be served in a while.
As informed, the food was served within a few minutes and by then both had eased and especially Saarang was off his formal attire. After the strictly wholesome lunch, both the friends sat comfortably over the couch in the room and were anticipating their days ahead when there was a knock on the door. As the door was not latched, the door was slowly pushed opened by two girls and a boy in white aprons. The girls were the same as they had seen outside the professor’s chamber before coming up here. It was obvious that they were the students and came in for some purpose for sure. The boy among the trio informed them that the patient’s consulting doctor may show up soon and they came to check whether the new place was comfortable for them.
On hearing that Saarang retorted that everything was pretty good, they were fine and waited eagerly to know about his treatment proceedings. Hearing this, the students were a bit lost and hesitated for a while. After that one of the girls spoke up and told Saarang they were here to record his case in a typical format as part of their curriculum. Rehan observed a kind of irritation in Saarang, being clearly expressed in his body language. As the student spoke, Saarang shot back the very second, “ I have nothing more to tell than what I explained down there in front of the professor. And I guess that you guys were rigorously jotting down each letter that trickled out of my mouth. So……!!!!!” Saying these words Saarang sat down on his hospital bed and instantly looked at the door as if showing those students, the way out.
Rehan skillfully dealt the situation; he told his friend that these students might be having a teacher like the accountancy lecturer they had at college who insisted every student to place themselves as the chief accountant of a particular company and initiate a personalized accounting method of their own while solving the problems. Saarang suddenly felt delighted as his mind overflowed with the goodies from the past, which paved the way to relatively warm environment in the room.
Simultaneously the students took over the lead from Rehan and one of them continued, “exactly sir, Professor Murthy is very particular that each one of us personally interacts with the patient and design individual treatment protocols of our own, which we present in front of the discussion panel consisting of students and various other teachers every evening in the ‘Clinical Club’ meetings held here. So sir, we rely on you for this and we assure you that we will never trouble you purposely. And there is one more thing that we would like to add, that it’s seen many times that when we discuss each case here, there are some points which the patient may reveal to some students and may miss the same to others. This has always helped to reveal some missing links that eventually become favourable to the patient himself. As events in history which generally seem irrelevant, turn out to be helpful in the better prognosis of the disease and in the prevention of the same in future. Professor Murthy insists on finding out all the events in history that contributed to the development of the present stage of the disease and eventually he develops personalized follow-up protocols for each patient so that the relapse of the same or related diseases in future could be arrested.”
Listening to the entire concept Rehan seemed quite impressed. Saarang eyes where kind of bright and hopeful when he asked the students standing in the room that, “so you mean to say that all the students would come here to interrogate me?” Though Rehan immediately understood his friends’ intentions, the students were again trying to persuade their new patient that he would definitely be not troubled by the students. Seeing the chaos in the students Rehan intruded and said to the boy, “ don’t worry boss, my friend would not let you down in front of your superiors.” Rehan’s reassurance surely came as a relief to the students, who seemed to be quite frightened by their ‘Professor Murthy’.
So once again Saarang repeated his history to the students with a hope that, he would get to know the whereabouts of that girl, if he cooperates well with these medico kids. As the case taking came to an end, the students conveyed that the consultant doctor would be visiting him in a while and then only his treatment plan would be designed. Saying this much the students bid a farewell and left the room, leaving behind their patient who seemed to be lost in some kind of deeper thoughts. It was not difficult for Rehan to guess that his friend wasn’t down definitely because of his health condition, rather it was the thought of that girl.
Rehan broke the silence, “you could have asked those students about that girl, it’s pretty sure that she’s one of them only.” Hearing this Saarang replied, “hmmm! That’s the reason I didn’t ask them.” Rehan frowned at his friends’ response. Saarang continued, “you know Rehaan I’m definitely not sure if that’s the same girl. And even if she’s the one I rather don’t let her know that I recognized her. Cuz you know I don’t wanna let her guess that it was because of this skin problem that I scooted off the proposal. Moreover, I’m afraid that this would reach our families. And I don’t wanna see that embarrassment on the face of my parents, even if they are not humiliated by the girls’ parents or the broker.”
Rehan was thoughtful again, as what his friend uttered was entirely different from what he had anticipated. The winds of love and romance which blew across his friend’s face were not seen anywhere. Rather the warm blush on Saarang’s face that he had witnessed in the morning had vanished giving him a cold look. As Rehan was lost in thoughts and Saarang laid down on his hospital bed, there was a sudden knock on the rather opened door and an array of people streamed inside, greeting the two friends. Saarang jumped out of the bed and stood straight trying to figure out exactly how many people were at his door and whether all would fit in the room, before he could actually function his calculative brain, the Professor who was in the front spoke to him, “Saarang this is our panel of doctors, and we are here to analyze your condition and plan the treatment accordingly.” Saarang recognized that the lady doctor whom they saw in the morning was there. And there was one more mature face of a male doctor, the rest of them definitely were junior doctors, who wore white aprons.
In the meantime, Rehan’s eyes fell on the girl standing towards the end of the crowd, almost half in and half out of the room. He doubted that this was the girl his friend was looking for, but he was unable to convey it to Saarang, as he was being consulted by the doctors and this girl probably was hidden behind others, thus out of his field of vision. Before Rehan could think any further, he suddenly noticed that the professor was trying to say something to him. So, he begged pardon to him and asked if could repeat what he just said. The professor nodded and continued, “we would start the treatment tomorrow onwards and looking into his present condition we are planning to start with a ‘Snehapana’ before that today we shall go for a mild ‘Rookshana’. His condition demands a ‘Shodhana’, and only after a proper ‘Shodhana’, I think we would get satisfying results.” Rehan tried hard to assimilate what the professor said but he was unable to decode the terminologies used by the doctor.
Saarang who sat there with similar expressions asked the professor, “Sir it seems that the words you just mentioned were the fundamental mechanisms of my treatment but unfortunately we are unaware of the technical terms. So, it would be nice if you could explain the same in a simpler way so that we know exactly what is being done on us.” On hearing that the lady doctor spoke up, “ Hey! Saarang, I’m Doctor Harini, the Resident Medical Officer of this hospital. I’m happy that you asked about the treatments. And I shall detail one of our interns to clarify your doubts and to explain to you the fundamentals as you demanded.” Saying this much she turned around to look at her students and called out a name, “Dr. Avantika… will you please help the patient with some awareness sessions regarding the basics of our treatment principles, in a way that he can inculcate ?
In response to the command, there was a faint but definite “Yes Mam”, heard from somewhere behind. And as Saarang tried to look in the direction of the voice, the students just behind the three doctors moved to both sides for the appointed intern to come forward. By the time the junior doctor walked towards the front, the professor engaged Saarang in a conversation and comforted by saying that the interns would help him out. By this time the intern, Dr. Avantika stood right in front of Saarang while he still sat turned to his right, facing the professor. In the meantime, the RMO cleared her throat to introduce the intern to Saarang. He swiftly turned towards the senior lady doctor but suddenly broke into a cough as he saw the girl standing right in front of him…
