Scrambled Tales

02. the summer

THE BUZZING campus of Calcutta School Of Tropical Medicine and hospital is nothing new to Dr Sidharth Bakshi, rather it is something he had seen all since a long time. A long time? Yeah, a decade can be considered as that.

His phone pings with a text and that left a smile on his lips. A smile on the face his grad students were afraid to say, they have never seen. But then again it was from Sheuli after all.

Sheuli: Dadabhai remember to take sweets on your way back and I'll call you back at night?

He sent a quick reply and gets back to the last set of reports he had been looking at.

His brows furrowed and the creases on his white shirt were evident enough. So much for being an Oncologist with a specialization in breast and endocrine surgical oncology. And he is the best in his field. Not much into research but yeah he is planning to, but not right now.

He closes his file and leans back a little before looking at his phone screen once again, it's 3 PM right now. His shift ended at 2 PM but he is here still, maybe he should just walk out of his cabin and pass the next two buildings and find himself a seat on the back row in the academic building and that's what he did.

The arrival of summer brings a new rush along with the line of last seminars for the end of spring. The clear sky is with the slow winds, warm but soothing.

In STEM, October to March are considered the ideal for seminars, at least, he likes to believe that. Now living in a country where you are sweating half of the year and other in the festive season you need to get your priorities set, he has his done back years ago.

And today is the last one he would be attending, for him the most important one too.

Indeed important one.

Soon he finds himself sitting on one of the middle rows, in the corner. With his students, grads, post-grads, trainees and a few postdocs sitting around him. The room is filled mostly with known faces, a colleague passed him a warm smile which he returned with a nod, it's not, after all, every day you see the notorious Dr Bakshi in the Academic building.

But then again it is not every day you get such a seminar as right now.

An alumni who had left the country and went to Stanford some two years back and now returned with the Postdoc and got sponsors and funds for her further research. Someone he always knew would do great in the research field.

He looks at the stage, at the particular figure standing right towards his left clad in the six yards of black saree. The black waves made into a low bun and a professional smile on her lips.

The smooth yet strong voice echoed through the room, "Pancreatic cancer is detected late, spreads rapidly and has a poor prognosis. There are no symptoms in the early stages."

In the hall of dim lights, the screen behind the stage shows slides and a spotlight falling upon the left side, on the podium where she stands in her glory.

It's her domain.

It's her work, her findings she spent years after.

"...There are tests already present but with these biomarkers, it would be easy, cost-effective and time-saving. This way we can save lives and that's what we are trying to in STEM"