Chapter 3

4: The Man in her Dreams

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Khanak at long last pulled her Nano out of the hospital parking lot and started to gingerly inch towards home. The car had been a graduation gift from her parents. Her father who had always ridden his faithful old scooter to work had bought it for her. When she had hesitated to accept it, he had insisted with pride; “Doctor Khanak Agarwal needs a car of her own. These docs keep odd hours don’t they? Isliye it is important you have your own means of transport and that should be a car and nothing else. Case closed.” Fortunately, it was not expensive and her father could afford it, though he still continued to ride his scooter saying it was an old friend and a hard habit to break.

Though she was extremely tired after her long shift she couldn’t relax right away. She cursed the rush hour traffic. The only difference was that she was travelling in the opposite direction. She had asked her mother to give her a missed call every five minutes to prevent her from nodding off on the wheel. Dr. Deepak had offered to drop her home but she had refused. For if he knew where she lived, he would drop by anytime and try to impress her parents. That wouldn’t be too hard–a future cardiac surgeon who wanted to hook up with their daughter. She couldn’t have that. For she disliked the man from the bottom of her heart. He was rude, irksome and worst of all inhuman.

SCREEEEECH! Khanak hit the brakes just in time. A young woman on a scooter with a little boy behind her had squeezed into the tiny space in front of her. As she tried to calm her racing heart down, she noticed that the boy was no older than the little girl in the ER–Megha. What a precious relationship they shared; Megha and her uncle. Just like a father and daughter. She hoped they were all right. She recalled Megha had clung to her arm then fallen asleep crying for her chachu.

Her family had finally arrived and created quite a scene. A woman who’d turned out to be her mother had been at the forefront screaming at the top of her lungs and scared the little girl out of her wits. Khanak had told her firmly to calm down. Then had gently persuaded Megha to go to her. She had albeit with great reluctance.

When Khanak reached home she found her mother beside herself with worry.

Sunita Agarwal was the loving wife of Pramod Agarwal and adoring mother of Khanak and her younger sister Palak. As a housewife she made sure their lives ran like a well-oiled engine. Though at times when it didn’t her usual slogan was–its life after all! She was the one who had encouraged her daughters to follow their dreams. She had seen their dreams with them and worked tirelessly to make them come true. She was a hard taskmaster but Khanak loved her to death. Because she knew if it been for her mother, she may have never achieved what she had been able to so far.

So when her mother told her that she had perhaps chosen the wrong career Khanak retorted: “Mama please! Medicine is not just my career; it is a part of my life. Don’t you remember how you used to encourage me to study late into the night telling me that I better get used to it? Do you want me to give up so soon?”

Her mother nodded reluctantly, “Yes but…your health?”

“Mom this is not going to be. Don’t you want people to say Dr Khanak Agarwal is a wonderful doctor? Woh bunk nahin marti? (She doesn’t bunk?)” Khanak persisted warming up to the argument.

“Yes, my intelligent baby. Tumse to koi argument nahin jeet sakta! Nobody can argue with you; your future husband will suffer. Then we’ll all be spared;” Sunita smiled mischievously.

“Mom stop! Don’t you dare talk about my marriage again. If you do; I will…!” Two blazing spots of red materilaized on Khanak’s cheeks.

“Mujhe kaccha chaba jayegi. You will eat me alive;” her mother laughed and shook her head. “We are vegetarians my dear therefore I’m not afraid. Go on take a shower; have some lunch and then sleep. Or else I’ll go mad.”

Khanak was too tired to argue and did as told. She flopped on to her bed and fell into a restless slumber. It was still light outside and her brain hadn’t yet learned to turn on and off at will as it did in some shift workers. She tossed and turned; a mess of confusing images flashed through her mind. She was in Mr. Bansal’s room; he was vomiting blood and laughing like a hyena at the same time. Deepak had her in his car; he was behaving badly and she was screaming and trying to get out. She finally did but then fell into a rushing river. She was trying to swim but her arms wouldn’t move; she was sinking, drowning in a whirlpool. But then her mother appeared in a superman suit and pulled her out. Then she was walking, her body shivering from the cold river; she was walking on a street. Little Megha was running next to her, skipping, dancing like a ballet dancer, when suddenly she took off and ran across the busy street shouting chachu! Khanak opened her mouth to scream a warning but couldn’t. Megha ran without fear, her arms spread out, as cars honked and people screamed around her. Chachu! she screamed and ran toward a tall man who stood waiting for her on the other side. He turned his face towards Khanak and smiled. It was the man in her dreams; her Prince Charming. He was Megha’s uncle.

***

The Following day~

Khanak left for the hospital early as it was her turn to round on the patients. She usually started in the ICU in order to see the sickest first. She hoped against hope that Shantanu Khandelwal was not included in her list. After realizing that it was his face she had seen in her dreams, she didn’t want to form an emotional attachment by seeing him in person as it was likely to lead to unnecessary heartache for her. She had already become quite attached to Megha and couldn’t afford to do likewise with him too. That would cause considerable damage to her psyche. But as it happened he was included in the list. She wondered if she could turf him to someone else.

Khanak stop behaving like a teenager; she chided herself. You are first and foremost a doctor and your duty is towards your job. This is just an infatuation. He probably occupies the dreams of a lot of girls being so decidedly gush-worthy. Remember the crush you used to have on your attending in medical school? He finally ended up being happily married and you just had to let go. Maybe Shantanu Khandelwal will turn up to be a stuck up, loud mouthed idiot and that will be the end of your dreams. She somehow didn’t believe so but decided to take her chances. She couldn’t pick and choose her patients.

He was still on the ventilator. After his long exploratory surgery yesterday; they had decided to let him rest. As he had lost a lot of blood, Khanak ordered a couple of units to be transfused. His vital signs were stable and she decided to lighten his sedation. Then she took a deep breath before stepping into his room and saw an elderly lady sitting by his bed side watching anxiously. Khanak smiled at her reassuringly and introduced herself.

The elderly lady said; “I am Shantanu’s grandma. The rest of his family should be coming in later. My dear, you look too young to be a doctor.”

“I will take that as a compliment;” Khanak replied. “No I assure you I did not forge my degree, I have completed all the requirements and I have a valid license.”

The lady shook her head smilingly; “No, no please don’t mind what I said. It’s just that I’m so used to doctors being old fatherly figures that it’s hard to imagine a young woman in the same role. But I’m sure you are equally if not more qualified.”

Khanak smiled relieved at not having to validate her credentials then got busy examining her patient. She pretended he was a mannequin and did a brisk systematic exam though she couldn’t help feeling regret about the scars his well-built body would end up with. She assured his grandmother he was making good progress and that she would be available to answer any questions.

Not too bad you made it through; she thought exiting the room. Now just a few more days and he would disappear into his own glamorous world leaving you high and dry. She frowned, not liking the phrase but was prevented from brooding when she was urgently called to attend to a young girl having seizures. She had been admitted with a cocaine overdose.

***

Shantanu found himself in a twilight zone:

It was that nightmare again! Beep…beep…beep…beep…beep…beep…

It was those people in white. Why did I have to read so many Robin Cook books?

Nurse hey I’m talking to you; can’t you hear me? My chest hurts like crazy. I can’t breathe. HELP!

“Looks like he is waking up!” his nurse said. “Finally, but his pressures have fallen quite a bit in the past half hour and he is bucking the ventilator. I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“What’s wrong nurse? What do you mean? My son looks like he is in pain. Can’t you help him?” Madhavi inquired anxiously.

“He was doing fine until a short time ago. Let me page Dr. Agarwal;” the nurse replied.

“Who is Dr. Agarwal? I want you to call Dr. Joshi. He is our family doctor and we trust him;” Sunil; Shantanu’s father declared.

“Sir, Dr. Joshi does not have privileges in this hospital, besides Dr. Agarwal is one of his doctors who is familiar with his case and she is a qualified doctor;” the nurse said.

“Haan beta, I saw her this morning and she seemed very efficient;” Dadi ma said to Sunil who was on his phone trying to get through to Dr. Joshi.

When she got the page from ICU Khanak wasted no time and rushed to Shantanu’s room only to find his entire family gathered outside. Their faces bore a tense expression and a well-dressed, distinguished looking man, obviously his father, was in deep conversation with someone on the phone. When he saw Khanak striding towards the room in her doctor’s jacket, a look of incredulous disbelief appeared on his face.

Oh no! she thought. It appears I’ve to face Hitler but then I’m no less than the Queen of Jhansi either! Khanak straightened her back.

“Miss who are you? I thought they had paged a Dr. Agarwal.”

“I am Dr. Khanak Agarwal;” she showed her name tag and smiled her most confident and professional smile.

“You are just a kid! No.., I want somebody who is experienced and a…”

“Sir, I am experienced enough to take care of your son and the situation calls for action not arguments so if you’ll please let me do my job!” Khanak said authoritatively and walked past him in to the room.

Within moments her well trained eye assessed the situation. It was obvious Shantanu was in much distress. A quick look at the Xray she had ordered was enough for her to figure out the problem. She looked at his face and saw a lot of pain and an unspoken plea for help before he passed out.

“Why isn’t the surgeon here?” Khanak turned to the nurse.

They are working on a case in the OR but sent word they’ll be here as soon as they are done.

“That may be too late.” Khanak said and then making up her mind demanded a 14-gauge needle with a catheter. Taking it in her hand, she took a deep breath and carefully inserted it vertically into the space just above his right third rib. The immediate hiss of escaping air brought a smile of relief to her face and within minutes Shantanu’s breathing became more relaxed. After giving further instructions to his nurse she came out of the room and smiled brightly at his father and the rest; “He is out of danger now. Air had built up around his right lung from a rib fractured during the accident and I just released it with a needle. He should be fine.”

As all of them stared at her dumbfounded, she took the opportunity to quietly make her escape.

tbc