What would you do

Dr. Joshi wiped his brow.

He wore his favourite blue shirt to work today. Usually, he never paid attention to his frizzy hair. And why would he? He was almost bald from the top and on the wrong side of 40. Whatever was left in the sides was sprinkled with dull grey. Thankfully, his moustache and beard still germinated as black.

His desk was cluttered as usual. Naresh, his assistant for the last fifteen years, was late.

‘Today of all days!’ he groaned inwardly. He turned to the small Ganesha statue kept next to his wife’s picture on the desk and hoped for an answer. But looked like, even Ganesha wanted him to figure out this on his own.

Casually, he picked up his planner and started going through the list of surgeries he had to cancel for the day. Two thoracotomies, one artery repair, etc. hell! The list was painful to look at. He wondered how Naresh had managed to convince these patients to have their surgeries postponed by a day.

“Hello? I’m Naresh, Dr. Joshi’s assistant. Unfortuantely, the doctor is not available tomorrow as he had to deal with an urgent issue that has come up. We regret the inconvenience. He will now operate one day later. Thank you.”

Yes, that must have been his verbiage. He deliberately forgot to get into the details of his conversation with him.

He checked his watch. It was time.

The phone rang.

“Hello? Joshi.”

“Doctor, they are here.”

“Ok, I’m coming.”

Grabbing his stethoscope, he donned his lab coat, took the red file from the cabinet and prepared to walk out of the door. He paused in the act of turning on the doorknob. He turned his head for a glimpse of his favourite birthday present, the Ganesha statue. It was hidden behind the pile of paperwork and was not visible from his point. Sighing, he shut the door as he went out in the corridor.

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Maria stood staring out of the window. She had continued to sob while the doctor came down.

Although in her late thirties, Maria had showed no signs of ageing on her face. Her hair had hardly turned grey and yet, no one could assume that she was a mother of 3, her eldest child having just turned twenty last month. She had forgotten her handkerchief at home and had to use the drape of her sari to wipe away the tears. In all these years, she had never forgotten to leave her home without her handkerchief.

The sound of footsteps brought her back from her reverie.

“Hello, Maria,” said a familiar voice.

“Hello Pradhan,” she replied, hugging the doctor.

“How is he?” asked Pradhan.

“I do not know, honestly,” said Maria, controlling the tide of emotions inside her. This was the moment. She had to speak up. “He has not slept the entire night. I sat by his bedside, reasoning with him. But to no avail! Please talk some sense into him! Only you can help him.”

She saw Pradhan’s eyes widening on her last five words. Perhaps, he blanched at her outburst. She didn’t blame him. But, she knew what she was talking. If there was someone who could help them, it was this man.

“Maria, I…” he fumbled. She could see that he was visibly upset but couldn’t bring herself to pronounce it. In response, she wrapped her palms around his hands and gave it a little squeeze.

 

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‘Why am I sweating so much?’ he thought, as Dr. Joshi let go off her hands.

In all these years of knowing her, he had never seen Maria so upset. Despite, single-handled raising three kids, she was an excellent nurse and was the epitome of cheerfulness. Indeed, their household rang out with her laughter even though the last ten years had been the toughest time of their lives. He himself would drop by their residence, at the end of a particular grim day at work. Seeing her like this left him crestfallen. Perhaps, he had underestimated the situation.

Just then, the door opened, breaking the silence between them.

“Doctor, he is ready,” said Naresh.

He was surprised to see Naresh down there. Naresh not reporting to work before him had never happened before.

“What time you came in?” he asked Naresh.

“After years, got the chance to be a ward boy again,” he said, sounding a little happy.

“Did he contact you directly?”

Naresh nodded.

Without another word, he strode towards the door.

‘Help me, dear Lord.’

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“What took you so long?”

Dr. Joshi turned his head to the man on the bed.

The man was his best friend and patient for the last 10 years. Dr. Joshi remembered how he had rushed to the hospital, late in the night around 3, to operate on him. He was the survivor of a horrific car crash. Some drunken youths had rammed their SUV directly onto his car, while he waited to pick up a girl for her shift. The accident had left him as a handicap for life.

“Hello Aldo,” said Dr. Joshi, as he entered the brightly lit room. He smiled.

“Hello Pradhan,” replied Aldo, “ I see that you have not given up eating doughnuts.”

“Er, what?” asked Joshi. How could he possibly know that?

“Facebook,” Aldo replied, grimacing. “Better to tell your staff not to tag you.”

“Sure, let me add that to my itinerary,” said Joshi, making a mental note to reprimand her stupid intern later.

“Never knew you to be so careless,” Aldo berated him playfully.

“You know, old age,” said Joshi sorrowfully, “It has started to take a toll on me.”

“Really?” said Aldo, “Then, wonder what about me?”

Joshi took a sharp breath. The thing that he was dreading from last night was finally spoken out loud by Aldo. He knew that this was the moment.

Losing all pretence, he turned to Aldo with a sharp look in his eye and said in a steely voice,

“Aldo, you won’t get your way this time.”

“Meaning?” asked a perplexed Aldo.

“I will not honour your request for a mercy killing.”

To be continued