Ruskin

A love story from past unravels as a Doctor faces a dilemma on whether to stay with his family or patient.

Chetan is standing at the window staring at the snow that has been falling since morning. His neatly packed bag is waiting near the door. His bus leaves in 15 minutes at 6.30pm.  There isn’t much time left, he needs to decide now whether to stay or leave. The door opens and Dr. Richa enters. She has a concerned look on her face.

Richa: “We don’t have much time. Would you be staying for the surgery?”

Chetan turns and looks at her with a blank expression.

Chetan: “Yes I am staying.”

Richa: “As Chief of Medical Staff and your friend it’s my duty to remind you that although you would be of great help for the surgery but you have every right to leave. There is no obligation for you to stay, especially considering the condition of Shweta back home. Are you sure you wanna stay and help?”

Chetan: “Yes I would stay”

Richa: “Then let’s not waste anymore time. Scrub up, she is very serious.”

Chetan wears his scrubs and enters the operation theatre. He knows it’s gonna be a very long night and this woman would need every shred of their strength to survive. The entire staff is nervous including Richa and they should be. This is a very complicated surgery for a hospital that was just inaugurated a week ago. This is the first government hospital in this small hilly district called Shoja. Chetan was sent here from Delhi to oversee the opening and get things running by staying here for a week. A lot has happened over this week for Chetan. He bore the pain of getting a hospital started from scratch along with Richa. His wife Shweta who is expecting her first child back home got sick and had to be admitted to the hospital. Her condition hasn’t been improving. Chetan was to catch the last bus back home today but he couldn’t.

Sahil is standing out of the operation theatre peeping in through the small window as his beloved wife Aahana fights a battle for her life. Aahana loved snowfalls, she wanted to see one, little did she knew that the same snowfall for which they came from Chandigarh would cause their car to overturn and leave her hanging between life and death.

Throughout the night Sahil was pacing up and down the hall outside the Operation Theatre. OT Door would open at regular intervals, and  a nurse or a doctor would hurry outside and grab things. Finally around 4pm Chetan came out, Sahil approached him hurriedly.

Sahil: “How is she?”

Chetan: “Surgery is complete. Now we would just have to wait. We did what we could. Now it’s actually up to her. She needs to fight for herself. ”

Sahil: “She will fight. She is a fighter. I know”

Chetan nods in affirmation and moves out to find his phone.

Chetan is trying to find cellular network in the hospital by pacing up and down the hall. Sahil watches him doing so.

Sahil: “There is no network. Even the landline is down.”

Chetan sighs and sits on the bench placed in the waiting area.

Richa enters the hall with three cups of coffee in a small tray. “Coffee anyone guys?”, she asks.

Sahil grabs the cups from her and hands one over to Chetan. “Thanks”, says Chetan.

“I wanted to thank you both. You have helped us a lot.” said Sahil.

“You don’t need to thank us. Its our job”, said Richa with a faint smile on her face.

Sahil looked towards Chetan who sat there as if he heard nothing.

Richa: “Don’t worry about him. He doesn’t understand things like thank-you and gifts since college.”

Sahil: “You were in same college?”

“Unfortunately yes”, chuckles Richa.

Richa takes a seat near Chetan. Sahil sits on the adjacent bench.

A few minutes went by in silence.

“What were you thinking, driving in such a storm?”, asked Chetan in a condemning tone.

Sahil was a bit startled at the question first.

“She wanted to, she loved snow. She made a plan out of the blue and I agreed”, said Sahil.

Richa: “Love marriage?”

“Yes love at first sight”, said Sahil with a slight smile on his face.

Richa: “How did you guys meet?”

Sahil: “Well that is a big story”

“We all have time at the moment I think, right Dr. Chetan?” asked Richa.

Chetan gave a slow reluctant nod in agreement.

Sahil started his story nervously.

It was about 10 years ago. She was still in college, third year maybe. She was the happiest girl in this world. Dancing, acting, photography, singing and anything that you can think of were all her hobbies.But the reason of her extreme happiness was not just these things, it was something else, it was love. Yes she was in love, she was in love with Ruskin. No, not the old writer Ruskin Bond. This was her Ruskin, she named him. She always said that she named him so because he used to write wonderful stories.

Life was all good, but then parents happened. They wanted to marry this chirpy little girl off fast. If not marry at least get her engaged with anyone except Ruskin.  But Aahana had different plans in mind. She decided to run, run far away with Ruskin and live the lives of her dreams.  A plan was made. Ruskin was to meet her at Bus-stand early morning. They would catch a bus and run far away. It was the perfect plan, what could have gone wrong?

She reached the bus-stand early, it was still dark. Ruskin was not there yet. She waited, she was scared and the cold winds were not helping. Soon light came up, Ruskin was still not there, she was even more scared now since anyone could have spotted her there and alerted her parents. She heard footsteps behind her that she recognized. Ruskin had finally reached the scene. It had started raining slightly.

It looked like a fight broke between Ruskin and Aahana, and Ruskin seemed to be on the receiving end. Ruskin was standing there with his head low, Aahana was crying. Turns out Ruskin didn’t want to run away, he was scared.

“Ruskin, I am leaving either with or without you.” said Aahana and made her way towards the first bus she saw moving. Ruskin stood there in rain, tears rolling off his eyes. He could see Aahana crying in the window of the bus as it moved away and away from him.

Sahil paused at this time. “Then, what happened then?” asked Richa curiously.

Sahil continued, “Then I found her, crying alone at Chandigarh bus-stand. She was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen even though she was sobbing. I wanted to help. I was lucky I was with my sister whom she trusted and agreed to come with us to our house. And since then we are together.”

“And what happened to Ruskin?” asked Richa.

“She never saw him again. She made a point  to never see or talk to him. She hated him.” replied Sahil.

“Excuse me, I should check on the patient.”, said Chetan and left.

“I’ll come too.”, Richa followed.

The next couple of hours were spent waiting. It was 6.30 in the morning, Aahana was still unconscious, Sahil was waiting for her to wake up along her bedside, it was still snowing lightly. Chetan decides to leave for his bus which was at 7, there was nothing more he could do.

He decides to bid Richa goodbye before leaving. He can hear the landline phone in Richa’s office ringing as he makes his way towards her office. Apparently it was fixed early  in the morning. Chetan enters the office, Richa is on the phone, she looks sad. Chetan’s heart starts trembling with fear. Richa offers him the receiver. Sahil knows somewhere in his heart the news he is about  to hear, but he doesn’t wanna believe it.

“Sorry Chetan sir, we couldn’t save her or your  child.”, said the voice on the other end of the receiver. Chetan drops the receiver, tears start rolling off his eyes.

Richa sobbing, “It’s not your fault, there was nothing you could have done. There was nothing you could have done.”

Chetan: “I could have seen her once for the last time. I could have told her I love you. I should have gone Richa. I just didn’t want to ditch Aahana the second time. You know Richa, you know.”

“I know Ruskin, I know. It’s not your fault.”, Richa hugs Chetan.

A nurse comes in, “Doctor, patient is conscious.”

“Ruskin, I need to go check her. I’ll be back, don’t leave without seeing me.” said Richa while wiping her tears and  made her way towards the ICU.

Chetan lifts his bag and makes his way outside through the snow. He stands there for a moment, turns back to look at the window in the ICU. He can see Aahana conscious, Sahil is along her side holding her hand, Richa is staring back at him from the window. There are tears in Richa’s eyes. He turns back and walks away into the snow.