This is the twenty-second part of the short story that I am writing in collaboration with other bloggers on Blogadda. Our team is 'Tete-a-ten'. Read the previous parts here: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen , sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty and twenty one
Cloud 9 Hospital
Mumbai
Veda replaced the receiver and looking at
Dr. Sneha Phadnis said, “Madam, Doctor says he’ll schedule an appointment for
tomo-“
“Look here now, I need to talk to him!” Dr
Sneha Phadnis cut her short and spoke loudly but with desperation in her voice.
“Madam, madam please have a seat. I’ll be
right back” said Veda as she left the reception, trying to get help from
another nurse to handle the situation.
Reluctantly, Dr. Sneha sat in one of the
sofas near the counter. She pondered her next step to trace Aryan Ahuja. Within
moments, another nurse walked in balancing stack full of folders and files in
both hands.
She placed some files on the counter and
said, “These are Dr. Ahuja’s cases. File it inside.” She was too busy to pay
attention at the unmanned reception counter.
Dr. Sneha noticed the nurse leaving the
files on the counter. She stared at the files and wondered if they have Aryan
Ahuja’s contact details. She felt tempted to see those files and carefully
unlatched one of them. On the top corner of the letterhead she noticed the
Cloud 9 hospital address and below it she saw another address. ‘Aryan Ahuja
must be running a consultation clinic from another address as well.’ She
thought and smiled when she spotted the apartment number in the address. ‘What
Luck!’ It was indeed Dr Aryan Ahuja’s home address.
Acting swiftly, she plopped out her phone
and clicked a photo of the address. Wasting no more time, she placed the file
back onto the counter and rushed out. The fatigue of the traveling, the drama
was now replaced with excitement and anxiousness. There was a spring in every
step she took as she dashed out of the hospital. Beaming with new sense of
excitement she hailed a cab and headed off to complete what was missing in her
life.
_______
Meanwhile the receptionist returned to her
desk to find Dr Sneha Phadnis gone.
“Madam? Madam!” She looked around the
place, inside the consultation room, the corridor- but Dr Sneha was nowhere to
be found. “Oh God” exclaimed a panicked Veda.
_______
'Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel?
Why, now let me die, for I have lived long enough’
She had blushed to a shade of crimson as he quoted Shakespeare to her looking into her eyes, after they had made love on one such night. Days passed and nights passed. And then came one such day where he quoted Shakespeare again:
‘This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.’
Aryan had quoted as they parted ways after medical school. And how Sneha's eyes showed exasperation when he said he was not ready to commit and that she was not ready to ask him to. It seemed like a professional decision, her choosing Psychiatry while him choosing Paediatrics as a specialization. But back then Sneha did not realize how bitter the end would seem in the following years.
Over the years she had learned to live with the tinge of regret of what could have been with the love of her life. She pondered over the fact of him getting married and settling down to someone else. There was always a chance that he wouldn't. What would his reaction be? How would he look? Why didn't he try to find her? Oh, never did a day go by she wished he would tap on her shoulder and say-
“Madam! Madam, aapka building aa gaya!”
The cab driver’s yell shook Dr Sneha from
her reverie and she was brought back to her present. She paid the cab fare and
stepped outside. She composed herself and became conscious of how she was
dressed. She adjusted her kurta, smoothed her hair and checked her compact
mirror for her mascara. Pressing her flame like bindi in place on her forehead
with one hand she pressed 9 with the other and Beethoven’s Für Elise filled the
elevator. Seconds later, she was going to be outside Dr. Aryan Ahuja’s
residence.
Read Part 23 HERE
My team and I are participating in ‘Game Of Blogs’ at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us!
