Mediciens and Miracles 13 - Breakthroughs often come with a higher cost, Be careful what you ask for.
Breakthroughs can sometimes Break you - Not every question can be answered, and some answers are beyond comprehension.
The conference on Holistic health started with much fervor as delegates from some of the biggest institutions showed up. Posters galored in the hall way while panel discussions went on in three different halls. Some topics went beyond medical comprehension and even garnered raised eyebrows, example being the centrally funded study which was started on a trial basis along the lines of - "Effects of chanting in healing of terminally ill patients". These were some highly unconventional topics, with immense support and representation from government agencies, and many were left awestruck, unsure of whether to laud or to shun. Either way, it was becoming a spectacle of much interest.
Mehr got a chance to discuss her collaborative findings with some of the peers around, when she got nudged to the side by Richa.
"Come we're all going to higher grounds." Richa suggested mischievously, she had been bored by the cacophony of endless jargon about a topic she was not so keenly invested in. She liked to stick to statistical evidence and only a few of those studies could justify that.
"What are higher grounds?" Mehr was puzzled.
"Arey terrace yaar! Aren't you bored seeing all these oldies preaching about their studies they are minting government money on? I can bet half of them don't even understand what they are saying. Most of the work has been taken care of by their JRs and SRs, slogging day and night for nothing, while they simply throw a statement or two about some ancient text and half cooked spiritual gyaan." Richa gave a look of disapproval, and pity for those gathered.
Mher didn’t mind going along, the group had a mixed lot of cross teams, most of them smokers. Somehow they knew the terrace gates were open in evenings and since the event was expected to go on till late in the night, a gala dinner had been promised, so fhey were anyway going to have to stay put on premises. Might as well enjoy the view a little. It wasn’t too late in the evening, but with the October sun going down much earliers, there was an orange hue in the sky. Some puffed lil clouds of smoke into the air while others enjoyed the view, time went by and the orange hue changed colors to a splendid pink and then a faded dark blue with sprinkles of stars here and there. Mehr like the view, going around taking pictures of the sky, and skyline visible right ahead with vast stretches of green all around. It was surreal, while at work, the only view she had was that of the concrete neighborhood with residential complexes all around. Yet here at a height, the trees towered over the complexes and gave a greener, more peaceful view.
Kshitij was there too, along with a few of his team members, keeping a watch on Mehr from the corner of his eye. Her new obsession with seemingly hideous stone jewelry had been an annoyance to him, and she had disregarded his strong suggestions with a simple "Tu 13 Dekh" attitude which he did not appreciate and had his displeasure registered with her. She had chosen to keep on her trinkets to keeping his company. His team members were talking about ghost stories they had heard from their childhood days and cracking some light hearted jokes. Kshitij and Sayan were dishing out some expert advice made on the spot about ghosts and tackling them. Richa wanted to stay longer and enjoy the peaceful view, while they all waited for the dinner time to start and did not mind the mild fun everyone was having. She wanted to sit and stare at the beautiful sky for the mere beauty it presented in this serene evening where for once, atleast for a few hours, she did not have to rush or collate or worry about anything. Mehr wanted to get back and check out the many facets of the curiously curated projects being discussed back at the conference and decided to go back to the event instead.
Mehr walked down the staircase from the terrace only to find the service lift out of order. This was the lift which connected the employee chambers of each floor without having to go through the patient area. She was not a fan of staircases, and luckily had her access card in her backpocket, she decided to go around the service area, to access the patient area lift. While walking through the corridor, Mehr was intrigued by the corridor leading to 913 again. That old man should have been discharged by now, given the commotion she heard last time, as if some repairs were being carried out. Were they actually remodelling the space for some new activity, she wondered, either way she wanted to take a sneak peak. The corridor was chilly again, and there was no one in sight.
Mehr walked slowly, treading in her heels, it was a little difficult to not be loud. Thankfully she did not expect much people around this time anyway, it was the VIP patient floor and they preferred privacy.
Meanwhile, it was already almost 7, on a moonless night. It was becoming a little irksome for Richa as the ghost stories and movie discussions got more and more annoying with boys being boys. She wanted the dinner to start so she could have some good food and go home to crash in her bed and spend the rest of her weekend in peace.
*2 texts notifications* Everyone's phone went ting in one go
Everyone recieved those on the common group, one was a message requesting staff members to move towards the dining hall for the netwoeking dinner, while the other was to announce the break down of service lift. Richa sighed as she thought of treading down 4 levels of stairs to reach the 5th floor where diner was going to be served. They all wrapped up their terrace talks and joint smoke session to head out. No body wanted to go through the patient section of the building and waste time waiting for the lift, as that area irked them a bit in general with the blazing ACs, and VIP patient attendants who could often be complete snobs to those wearing IDs.
After a not so long walk, they were greeted with a melieu of not so intellectual discussions being mixed with banter and remarks on the Dal Makhani being a close competitor for the chicken curry. People are people, and food brings them closer better than anything. The hall was filled with the aroma of fresh breads and curries, floating over a throng of people lost in their chatter. Richa looked around but could not find Mehr, assuming she would be busy talking to some nerds around, Richa chose to mind her own business like everyone else and focus on the Dal Makhni and Pulao. Kshitij looked around and was intrigued by Dr. Sana talking to Nirvan, when he spotted the same kind of chunky jewelry on her as he had seen on Mehr. Unknown to him, Nirvan and Dr. Sana were planning to leave the guests after short pleasantries so as to not be noticed by anyone and go check out the mystery of 913, to end the suspese for good. They decided to leave as they saw their guests and delegates get comfortable with food being served. From starters to Dessert, they would have enough time to leave, scan room 913, and return with whatever observations Dr. Sana had to make.
Expecting Mehr to be somewhere around the two, he looked around, but failed to spot her anywhere, a loo break could also not justify the long absence and she had said something about going back to the event to Richa.
His thoughts went back to the texts about the lift and 913 being on the way between the two lifts. He made a wild guess and hurried back to 913, to find the door ajar. Mehr was inside, and sounded like she was talking to someone. Kshitij hurried inside and barked at her, as he saw her standing close to the window.
"Mehr, why the F*** are you here AGAIN!"
Mehr turned around with a polite smile, as if she had company and did not want to come off rude. She could see the old man who had been asking for her help a few months ago was back again in a corner, resting somewhat uneasily agaisnt the cold bedding. The lights were dim, as they are kept on these floors in evenings to help patients sleep. Mehr was calmly standing there as if trying hard to understand something being told to her.
Kshitij looked at her puzzled. He did not want to enter the room, but somehow felt the need to go and retrieve her. His anger boiling over, with each step he took, and breathe rising. By the time he had taken the 5 steps to reach at an arm's length to Mehr, he was high on rage fuelled by his previous intoxications. Nostrils flaring and eyes burning with tears forming at the corners, it was difficult to decipher the exact concoction of his emotions. Mehr could sense the change in his tone, as he reached for her arm, his voice almost a bark, questioning her sense of dressing and her inability to obey his orders. His hand tightly gripping her arm, causing a fear rise in her spine, he had said some things in the past and right now with barely anyone around, she could be in serious danger. Mehr did not like the way she was being talked to, but the voice in which she heard this person talk was raising a different kind of fear inside of her. As if she might be in danger, her face contorted, not sure how to react to Kshitij and his anger mode. Just as Kshitij was about to raise his hand on Mehr, she felt a strong pull on her other arm, bony cold hands as that of a really old person but rather chilly held onto her forearm and pulled her onto the old hospital bed, saving her from the hard blow. Kshitij ended up hitting the glass window and causing it to break. Mehr was too stunned to speak, as she closed her eyes in fear, but she did hear the old man's voice say "I did not want to hurt anyone. I did not want to hurt anyone" in a rather shaky voice.
Outside 913, there was pin drop silence and only the tapping of Nirvan's shoes and Dr. Sana's sandles was audible as they walked into the corridors of floor nine. Dr. Sana and Nirvan walked hastily seeing 913 ajar when they heard the sound of the window glass breaking. They rushed in to see Kshitij standing close to the window, confused and breathing heavy. He had a few scratches on his fist. While Mehr sat looking around scared.
"This is not what it looks like" Kshitij offered an explanation promptly. Nirvan stared at him with contempt, fearing he was looking at a potential harassment situation in the name of concern. It was not new for Nirvan, he had seen men being overtly concerned in this line of work, and it usually ended in situations possibly much worse than what he could see here.
Dr. Sana rushed to Mehr, and put her arms around her. There were two marks on her arm, one of wringing and another of scratches as if she was pulled from a lower angle.
"Mehr ! are you okay?" The both asked her, as she looked around puzzled. Mehr looked around the entire room, there was no one, but she could swear only a second ago, some old man had helped save her and even said something to her in her ear. She searched around frantically.
Nirvan decided to bring them all out, and Dr. Sana sat with Mehr to understand what happened.
"No Sana ma'am there really was someone there. Kshitij got furious about some stupid things and that old fellow saved me" Mehr was going over and over about the old man saving her. Telling her that he did not hurt anyone, and something about being sorry too.
Dr. Sana recollected the story Nirvan had shared with her about the old man in 913 who had been believed to have killed a nurse and later died. Maybe it was an accident, and maybe he was innocent. The energies in that room were definitely imbalanced but there was both strong positive and negatives, that much she had sensed in the less than a few minutes time of her being there.
"You sure you are okay and do not want to report?" Nirvan looked at Mehr, asking her if she wanted to report the incident. He had seen the rage in Kshitij's eyes earlier, every time a male colleague stood too close to Mehr, but this was too much.
"I am tired of the system, there are flaws everywhere, just find some way to keep him at a distance so I may work in peace, it has taken me a while to find a place where I do like to work, I cannot give up my work and life here because a moron decided to lose his mind over me, not again, not anymore" Mehr looked at Nirvan with hopeful eyes seeking assurance. She seemed shook but also resolute in her decision.
"I will see what can be done" Nirvan said hesitantly. Mehr knew it already having completed 15 months in the system, even if she did raise a concern, nothing would happen except for more trouble and hardships at work for herself. She knew how the justice system worked against the fairer sex in general. Sana agreed with Mehr's decision with an understanding which left Nirvan confused, as to whether she had suffered something she was not disclosing. This was a question for some other day, some other time Nirvan decided.
Sitting with Kshitij and reading through his files, Dr. Sana realized, he had a dark past and some very disturbing emotional traumas giving rise to negative emotions that he hid with his constant drug abuse and light hearted mockery of everything under the sun. it was his defense mechanism against the world to protect his vulnerabilities. He offered to resign as an apology to Mehr, to which she simply requested him to keep as far away from her as possible. Nirvan sympathised with the gesture while Sana stared with pressed lips, she wasn't moved at all. Dr. Sana was wiser as she knew the resignation he offered to submit was just a gimmick to come off as innocent if Mehr ever tried to pursue a harassment charge against him. She had lived through far bigger battles and knew she had to stay a bit longer and teach Mehr a few more things before leaving this place for good. Her eyes filled with a darkness as if she was reminded of something not so pleasant.
Mehr wanted to question Dr. Sana and her knowledge base, but part of her was scared to pursue this curiosity. She had enough lessons for the day to know, that she needed to exercise more caution going forward with her curious questions.
What if her battle scars are far worse than what I can handle to hear about? Mehr thought to herself. She had seen a little too much for the day, week or maybe month she pondered. She did not want to know anymore, at least not now. Mehr never trusted Kshitij as a friend but now she had lost her faith in him as a person. It was all too much of life lessons for her to comprehend in a single day.
*Text Message*
Hey babe, pick you in 5, I am 2 minutes away from your office.
Mher read her text, and immediately jumped to her senses. The guy she liked was here to pick her up, and she definitely did not want him to even get a whiff of this mess. That would only complicate things for her and everyone else. Besides, she was safe anyway, why risk causing anymore of a scene.
Everyone has a story and not all stories can be shared. You may not be able to handle the truth of someone else, let them choose when to share.
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