Love Short Story – A TWIST OF FATE
Photo credit: lorettaflame from morguefile.com
A sudden flash of light brought Arushi back to consciousness as she tried to recognise the faces through blurred vision that were hovering upon her.
She could feel nothing below her waist, except for a sharp pain on her nape. She was oblivious of where she was, with whom and why? All she could remember was the pretty little 3 year old Bhavna Saraogi, on whom she was to perform Valvuloplasty. Bhavna was a rare case of MITRAL STENOSIS. She needed the OR in the very first hour of the morning. Arushi was in a hurry to reach the hospital, she quickly drove out of her apartment .
She could hear voices asking her to count 1 to 10 slowly, as the anaesthesia put her to sleep the lights in the OR dazzled as Dr. Sumer Kapoor prepared to do his 50th craniotomy here at the CITY MULTI SPECIALITY HOSPITAL in KOLKATA. The new batch of interns sat apprehensively in the observation gallery watching the ‘MIRACLE WORKER’ about to scalpel through Dr. Arushi Bose’ cranium. He was the attending to four interns who were renowned for their dexterity and finesse while operating critical patients. Smriti; Chandra; Neel and Vignesh scrubbed in with Dr. Kapoor. As he looked into the brain he noticed the aneurysm which was restricting the blood from flowing down the main artery. He had Dr. Trisha Sen, one of Kolkata’s top neurosurgeon to assist him along with the interns. The surgery was going to be time taking, as it concerned removal of the clot without damaging the other tissues; getting the CT scan perfectly to see through any other anomalies that could disrupt Arushi’s movement, speech, sight and most of all her memory. A fraction of a mistake could send her into a permanent vegetative state. Sumer could not afford that. He was the best, INVINCIBLE!
The patient lying on the table before Dr. kapoor, was critical with multiple injuries and severe head trauma. Now the question was who was Arushi Bose? Why was she here in this hospital and what did Dr. Sumer Kapoor have to do with her? To find the answers we have to time travel, about a decade back. It was the last year at MEDICAL COLLEGE, Arushi was all nerves, it was the last exam that would make or break her whole life. Everything had to be right, she had toiled sleepless nights to pursue her dream to be India’s best paediatrician. When it came to kids she was a natural, she could mingle instantly and figure out their problems in a jiffy. Tension gripped Sumer too. He was on the turn to become India’s youngest and finest brain surgeon, and both were madly in love with each other.
Love just happened to them under the sun, there was no intervention from friends, or peers. It happened based on only one common interest, ‘medicine.’
They were intimidated by the two new challenges they were about to face, but they knew their priorities. They had an incredible understanding, almost as if they shared a mind. There was no place for nonchalance in their relationship. One look into Arushi’s large hazel eyes made Sumer go crazy. She was always over the top, trying to do things that were beyond his sensibilities. Suddenly at 2a.m in the morning she would go biking for fresh air after a whole night’s study, or sometimes she would just pack her bags and her medicine kit and leave for a remote village some twenty kilometers away from the city to attend the sick who couldn’t pay for their treatment.
Sumer couldn’t get a grip of her activities, they baffled him but he was head over heels in love with her, so reasoning was the last thing he wanted to do. Little did he realise that fate would bring them to such a juncture in life after a whole decade, and in such a situation where he would have to operate that geniuses brain to get her back on her feet again. He felt lost, and helpless.
In these ten long years his love for Arushi only increased by folds, as looked upon her frame on the table before him, tears glistened in his eyes as he kept thinking how he could get her back. Their marriage never happened due to some twist of fate, but that did not stop them from pursuing their dreams of being wonderful doctors. Both immersed themselves in their practice and their diligence and craftsmanship won them many accolades.
The Indian Medical Association bestowed honours on them for their research on advanced neurological science, that could help doctors deal with diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Dr. Arushi Bose was chief of Paediatrics at St. Helen’s Child Care and Trauma Unit at Kolkata. Dr. Sumer Kapoor was on a special visit to Kolkata after so many years because he lived in the U.S.A where he was chief of surgery at The Pennsylvania State Hospital. Their families never approved of their marriage so both decided to be celibate.
This again annoyed Arushi’s parents as they had big plans for their daughters wedding. The two weary souls wear filled with frustration and anxiety. Sumer got a hold but Arushi gradually went into depression as duress stealthily crept in. She was losing concentration, and patience which was severely detrimental to her high flying career. Time stood still for her, and Sumer could not be erased from her memory. Her distraction attracted the attention of the management and she was asked to see a psychiatrist.
Tossed between these turbulent emotions she had left home in her new HONDA CITY on Friday, the 23rd of April thinking how fast she could reach the hospital for Bhavnas valvuloplasty. No one could apprehend the impending danger lurking at just a few blocks away from her residence. As she swerved to take a right turn at the crossroads, a speeding truck loaded with slabs of marble hit her car from the left ramming the vehicle into a vacant shop for sale. The door on the left squished her inside the car. Her head lurched back and forth hitting it hard on the steering wheel.
Arushi lay unconscious inside the mangled mess. Gas cutters had to be used to rescue a very critical ARUSHI from the debris. Her parents stood speechless and benign before the same man who they loathed for loving their beloved daughter. He was their only saviour. After 15 hours of surgery when Dr. Sen stitched ARUSHI and released her from the OR Sumer stood under the shower crying like a child in distress. Both he and Arushi had dreamt of a perfect life with each other, a life that would have no woes or miseries, it would be their world of love and adulation that both shared intensely!
But everything was shattered. All lay in the hands of providence. Sumer prayed to see her sitting on the bed, smiling, as if assuring him that everything was going to alright but to his utter dismay! His 50th surgery seemed to have failed. The attending doctors and the interns involved in Arushi’s surgery were called for in emergency. When Sumer walked in all he saw was the monitor above her head that showed a stable heart but a vegetative brain. Arushi had slipped into permanent brain death! Nothing was left to be retrieved. He left the hospital that day and no one has ever heard of him till date. People have their own explanations about Dr. Sumer Kapoors disappearance, about why he left, what were his shortcomings etc. most of them were apathetic. Arushi died after 2 weeks of surgery. FATE had proved itself as invincible.
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