MediSIN
Fifteen years back…
I had to resign from that prestigious company during my younger sister’s marriage. Everyone asked my parents: ‘Why did he do that?’ Dad was fed up of this repeated question and he stopped talking to me. There was another reason too: I was one of the most eligible bachelors of our village! A jobless bachelor is mere waste!
Just for pass time, all I could do was reading books. I read every precious book from our local library. Joy, the librarian, he was my only friend. We used to smoke packets of Wills and discuss everything under the Sun. Then ‘he’ came, a very handsome guy, in search books.
‘Premji, Dr.Sunil… the new doctor in ‘SB Hospital,’ Joy introduced him. ‘Doctor, this is Premji… Ex-sales engineer!’
‘Ex?’
‘Yes doctor… jobless at present!’ Joy teased me.
Two bachelors of same age… Sunil and I… We became very close friends in no time and I used to visit his quarters in the evenings. One day, I presented him a copy of my first book, a collection of short stories in Malayalam. He read the whole book in that night itself. He wrote and gave a letter of appreciation on the very next day. It was the first appreciation for writing, in writing, in my life. That evening, we were talking about the alarming rate of sterility among women who reside in the cities.
‘Premji, I like the way you write stories… Now, I am going to tell you story… someday, in future, you can write it’
‘That’s interesting Doc!’
‘Two years back… we were working as House Surgeons at our Medical College… One night, we… me, my friend Sajeev and his girlfriend Anita… were sitting in the casualty. Suddenly Anita started playing with the surgical cotton kept on the table.
‘Anita, please don’t touch it… It’s sterile.’
‘I know it’s sterile… But, you are not sterile!’
Then Sajeev and Anita burst into laughter… I wanted to kill that bastard that moment itself… They went on laughing…
‘Sajeev, what kind of idiot are you… telling intimate secrets to women? She will tell the entire college… Shit,’ I started scolding him.
‘Anita, did you tell that to anyone?’Sajeev asked.
‘No’
‘You better stick on to that ‘No’… Otherwise, I will divorce you…Understand.’
‘Divorce… even before marriage! That’s great,’she laughed.
‘Doc… then, why did they laugh at you?’I asked.
‘I am not sterile, Premji’
‘That means?’
‘I have two sons,’he told in pain.
‘Doc.. What are you saying? You are still a bachelor!’
‘So what! Premji, you are an engineer… You won’t understand the plight of a Medical student… Every Medical student… he or she has to be the most obedient to all Professors… otherwise Bachelor of Medicine will remain only as a dream.’
‘That’s there even in Engineering Colleges’
‘Not up to our standards.’
‘May be… then Doc.’
‘One day, I bunked the morning classes and was sleeping nicely in the hostel…. Then somebody knocked on the door… Which bastard is that not allowing me to sleep? Our Department Head’s personal peon was standing outside.
‘Anything important, Rajettan?’
‘HOD wants to meet you… right now...’
Jumped into jeans, I ran behind him. HOD was busy reading some medical journals.
\'Good Morning… Sir.’
‘Morning… Why did you bunk the classes?’
‘Not feeling well… Sir,’ I told a lie that he understood in no time.
‘Sunil… You are in the final year… So, be careful.’
He was silent for a moment…
‘Now… Go…Get it,’ HOD told while handing over a small glass bottle…
I rushed out with the bottle. Peon Rajettan was standing outside… He was smiling…
‘Rajettan, what is happening around?’
‘Nothing man… A family is under treatment in our infertility clinic… Her husband was in Dubai for the past 12 years… His balls are dried up of the hot Sun… She is so beautiful… You are her ideal match… Your HOD has a great sense of beauty!’ he started teasing me again.
Back in hostel, I was busy searching for some porn books… At last I got couple of copies of ‘Fantasy’… Lovely pictures… beautiful stories… but… but…
‘How come you are so late?’HOD asked in anger.
‘Sir… tension.’
‘What tension? Now…out.’
He kicked me out mercilessly and walked away with the bottle… Millions of fighters were swimming towards the unknown destination! God! My life…my life…
After nine months, one day Rajettan came in search of me again. I stood before my HOD like a lamb before a butcher.
‘Boy, Congratulations… Now you are a proud father of two young boys,’he told…
‘Sir?’
‘Twins’
‘Sir, can I see them at least once?’
\'Sorry… No.. It’s against medical ethics.’
‘Sir…please… only once,’I started begging.
‘No… you are a mere donor… now get lost’…
From that day onward, they come in my dreams… ‘Father…Father…Father.’
‘What kind of father? Someone, yet to see the kids… their mother’…tears were rolling down from his eyes…
‘Doc… How can I console you?’ I told in a sad tone. \'You better get married to Neelima… your hospital owner’s daughter’
‘Premji… what are you saying? You want to put me in troubles?’
‘No… Doc… She is madly in love with you’
‘How do you know that?’
‘See Doc… You are a father… But I am a writer!’
He started laughing again...
Premji