It happened in Bombay

RONOBEER

FLASHBACK

She was going away, injured, in pain, questions still in her eyes as I was laying there dying.... Blood dripping out of the bullet wounds which was washing away with the pouring rain. My body started to give up, my eyes were closing, I lost my last hope towards life, I was worried about my little Tara. She was just 5 and she only had me, she has never seen her mother. I just hope Kusum finds her and tells her that her Baba loves her. Ma! She would have to be strong, she was the only family my little baby had now. My eyes were closing, the pain was taking over, my lungs gave up.

But as they say God is great and I guess I now believe it. 5 days later I woke up in a place, that looked like a school, that was converted into a military hospital. Doctors, nurses and volunteers were helping the wounded and sick. I got up from my bed whining in pain because of the stitches, but no one noticed as the staff was less as compared to the people who needed medical attention. I walked through the corridors, it was stinking with the smell of medicine, lack of sanitization and death. The doctors were really busy because the country was facing war from outside and inside. Cholera was still not under control and war was making it more difficult.

The doctor in me got restless to help the people who were suffering when a soft hand touched my shoulder, I was only wrapped in bandages and was sweating because of weakness and pain. In the hope that this might be Kusum I turned back, but to my disappointment it was some other woman, she looked pale, eyes puffed with crying, messed up hair. She was looking tired from lack of sleep and crying for a long time
"You should be on your bed sir, your wounds are still fresh and stitches are there. You are weak because of all the blood loss and cholera is still spreading."

She held me from the shoulder and guide me back to my bed "I am a doctor as well I can help!" I said though I knew it was useless as I myself was not strong enough to help anyone else.

"You get healed once, we anyways need help, and since you are a doctor yourself you know that you need to be strong and healthy to help others."

"Yeah I get it! Aap... Aap meri Ma ko inform kar sakti hai? Wo pareshan hongi! Unse kahiyega mein matlab Ronobeer thik hu, aur kahiyega k Tara ko bata de that her Baba loves her!" I requested her.

"Sure sir, please give the phone number, mein khud phone kar dungi." I requested her again to directly call my mother on the number I gave her and she said once she will get free from her duty today she will call her.

"Also did a woman named Dr Kusum Ganguly came to look for me?" I was nervous to ask.

"I am sorry sir, I am afraid no one of that name came to ask for you, but I can inform her aswell if you have her number...." She said

"No that's okay, thank you so much." I said, she gave me polite 'doctor' smile and left. And then I realised I didn't even ask her name.

She never visited me again, even though I have seen her passing through the corridor many times. After a few days my wounds were better, they had removed the stitches and I was better. My mother visited the hospital after two days, she was glad I was okay though she was looking weak, she has not been eating well and understand she thought she lost her only son and now her granddaughter was left alone with none of the parent alive. I asked her to go back home and take care of Tara, tell her that Baba loves her and he will be back soon.

I volunteered in the same camp after I got well, that Stanger and I never came face to face because we were always in different shifts. The war ended and I went back to Kolkata. I tried to contact Kusum but got to know that she has left Kolkata with her mother a long time ago. Some said she got married to Ratan and all of them went abroad, I don't know what to believe but I kept my hopes and continued with my life waiting for her.
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PRESENT DAY

After searching for Kusum for two years, I shifted to Mumbai. Life in Mumbai was different from Kolkata, everyone here was in some hurry to reach somewhere. So I also started to run, in search of peace, in search of happiness, in search of love! Let's see what happens in Mumbai?

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Okay I have picked up some plot from it happened in Kolkata. It's fiction and I don't know if this has any historical relevance.