THE HOLY ANGEL

The sharp kick on my right thigh brought me alive to face yet another new born day “coffee”,she shouted after that routine kick .Previously in the beginning of the beginning I used to feel the pain but now a days due to callus formation I feel only a vibration sense like my mobile which stimulates my reticular formation and kick starts the day.But today was totally different ,utterly so since it was not yet’ day’,I mean it was pitch black with no trace of the sun who is supposed to begin the day in olden times with the back up of the cock howling[I have forgotten the English for “ cockaracho”].I checked up all the 5 clocks ,each said the time was around 7.30a.m and off course my day is supposed to begin at precisely that time since time immemorial .I look at the dark face of my would be ,no ,I mean- has been- wife and she says the sun has not come that day like the milk man or her servant maid .I am not surprised since now a days anything can happen,why not the sun take a day off or a night off .But yet I have an eerie feeling the sort which the camels or horses gets before an earth quake .Some thing has terribly gone wrong somewhere
But we superintendents cannot be cowed down by such trivia,we have seen worse and are prepared or trained to face far worse situations or emergencies as you may term .But in our dictionary there is no such term .Our motto is” “everything is under control and all possible measures or precautions have been taken or is being taken and the govt machinery is in full swing and is in red alert ,hence the public need not panic and can go to sleep after gulping down two large so to say and wait for the casuality figures which may loom large on their T.V. screens as the day progresses”.
See I am going off my track and coming to my present day or night,as usual utterly cool and composed I fly to my hospital and ottapalam is in bright darkness as the muncipal lights compete with the non existent sun shelling out their best possible emission that the electricity board can be proud of ,or is it” off “.All the people are in the streets and their faces couldn’t be out lined or rather out of focus and were huddled together whispering what not, I darenot guess.They were gesturing something to me which I couldn’t make out nor did I care since I am on duty and hence should be deaf and dumb, not to allow any emotions or sentiment to cloud my logic and reasoning .But still being a human being which many might not concur with , I started guessing to keep my brain in idling mode.
Has Soniaji resigned from politics? No,that is close to impossible ,eventhough she may resign from the party , her motherhood or wifehood or even the nationality if she is given the throne of India and designated Queen Elizebeth 3 ,it was not a news ,it was only a national pasttime.
Has Karunakarji and Muralibhai left for vanavas to Himalayas?Could it be that GOD has been taken hostage by the Lashkar e toiba in the Tajmahal .No way,since he has already been hijacked by the Godmen,Imams and the Popes,with none to question.Could it be that corruption has been wiped out overnight,but no it is our birthright and an ordinance or bill, that has not been decided yet ,but will be passed in both houses in the coming monsoon session to protect it from purview of the courts.Then what has gone wrong .?
By this time he has reached the hospital proper .A ghostly silence greeted him .The doctors and the nurses were hurrying through the casuality their eyes betraying a tragedy that none dared to mouth .Their familiar contemptuous smile was replaced by an untold sorrow or tension weighing them down .The usually barking dogs a hallmark of the hospital oosed out a silence that was more savage in its attack . The boisterous patients and bystanders stood like mourners allowing his vehicle to be parked infront of the I.C.U which sported a deserted look .The whole atmosphere was reeking of a divine tragedy yet to unfold .Though taken by surprise he kept his cool and proceeded to his office to initial his signature in the torn attendence register and as usual casually scanned the human resources available for saving the lives of the weak and the mighty, the rich and the poor, that his eyes came to a standstill in the last column of the doctors roster. The mystery of the unrising sun in ottapalam exploded within and outside him and he was shocked to the core .The blank column of Dr. Jyothsna stared back at him and the mystery and the misery of the universe came to light .
DR. JYOTHSNA WAS MISSING .
Now that the middle overs are about to commence I stronly recommend a coffee or smoke break for my tiring readers since I cannot but retreat from giving a birds eye view of the background of my little heroine who has to drag this blog forwards .
The over all picture that she projects is one of slender elegance.I won’t go to the extent of defining her as very beautiful but can compromise to the level of being pleasing to the eyes.Offcourse she is moonish bright elongated vertically rather stretched out fully and the face it seems has suffered by two hammer strokes from both sides laterally by the Creator as a final correction before finishing the sculpture but I I doubt he has overdone it on hind sight.Yet the face emits a strange fascinating glow that swallows you up.But the most glaring feature is the thinness of stature as if about to snap if she catches a strong wind and to sum up she is 25 and has been directly translocated from the medical school to the bosom of taluk headquarters hospital to try her tryst with destiny. Another little thing which I have observed with much interest is her stooping sitting figure in the duty room during coffee break her head bent 90 degrees downwards with her hands gently caressing her ethmoidal sinuses[situatedabove and inwards to each eye] as if suffering from a slight migraine or is it the tension of the sufferings of the o.p cases weighing her down
Now that the readers have resumed their seats after freshening up let us go back to the hospital on that eventual morning I mean to the supdts office.He walked forwards and backwards his hands clasping each other behind his back unable to free themselves,with a deep frown indicating his brain acting in a furious pace to plan the next step. He shook his head twice freeing his hands and marched to the O.P block .By this time the front yard of the hospital was thronged by a crowd which was growing every second . It seemed as if the humanity was converging to the hospital from north south east and west in all modes of conveyance ,the four wheelers ,two wheelers ,in bullock carts.He eased his way through the crowd which was annoyingly quiet which meant trouble to his experienced eyes .
In the O.P hall the scene was too bizarre to behold .Ottapalam o.p is the only o.p which can boast of transparency and truly democratic in the sense that the patient has the choice of meeting all the specialists in one large hall, like the old Roman amphitheatre , without any cubicles ,like the barbers in Thiruppathy seated behind 5 long tables with stools in between for seating the patients.The patient can pick and choose and if needed can avail the services of all specialities under one roof the ultimate globalisation or the ramraj that the once famous Gandhi dreamt of for those poorest of poor who are unable to pay for anything but the liquor ,I mean the B.P.L.category .Most of the Doctors were seated in their allocated seats which was quite unusual since it was only 9 a.m.A long queue could be seen stretching on both sides of one vacant seat and that seat,unmarked ,yet every dick and harry knew, belonged to our heroine Jyothsna.No patient dared to consult any other super docs that day and the whole picture conveyed to him the gravity of the crisis in hand .All the 400 eyes stared at the empty seat as if their combined concentration could resurrect their favourite one as if by hypnosis ,but nothing seemed to happen and he began sweating it out .
What was so peculiar about this inexperienced just barely MBBS doctor to attract such a huge gathering ,he wondered .Not that she was a super intelligent scholar or a master diagnostician not also eloquent with her tongue .Was it that girl next door image she projected?No definitely not. Did she cure all these cases---No way .He unraveled the myth and mystery when he casually asked an old lady who happened to be one of his very few permanent patients,and a frequent visitor of most of the seats and yet managed to survive to be in her 80’s what is wrong with Dr Jyothsna and after a few moments of deep thought,she came out with an astonishing reply “ SHE LISTENS TO OUR COMPLAINTS “ and I felt ashamed for the first time in my 25 yrs of wasted practice .,the most basic thing in everyday practice.
The crisis was getting out of my control with every passing second with all the doctors sitting idle their vacant gaze keeping them engaged with the queue elongating like Hanumans tail . My mobile cried and the D.M.O was enquiring what’s going on there ,the Press has been pressing him and I blabbered out the truth .He shouted angrily what the hell I am doing in the above matter and I had to give him the customary beurocratic[incidentally what is the actual spelling of the last word I had used] reply”off course I have intimated to police”.Satisfied with the answer of the prompt action taken he offed his cell .
Soon the news was out that the particular doctor has been abducted by the neighbouring municipality and was being forced to check up all the suffering patients in the local hospital there and would be released only after the scanning of the population was over.
I felt a surge of relief and it was then that a shooting pain in my right thigh by a violent kick caught me unawares and brought me back to my senses and when I woke up the sun was shining mockingly at me and the words “COFFEE” made me smile at myself for having DREAMPT WITHIN A DREAM ITSELF.May be the factor might have been Dr Jyothsna asking me for a leave which was duely turned down yesterday .
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