Rab Rakha

Chapter 20

"Kya baat hai Sana?" Anju woke up when she heard people outside her room early in the morning.

"Aunty, Papa ko thodi vomiting ho rahi hai." Shehnaaz replied. Along with her family, they arrived in Delhi a few days ago and were staying with the Agrawals.

"Arey? Kaise?" Anju asked worriedly.

"Pata nahi aunty. Abhi thode thik hain, khaas rahe the toh mai peeni ka pani garam karne aayi thi." Shehnaaz replied, walking into the kitchen to find Anju following her.

"Kal raat ki sabji digest nahi hui bhaisaab ko? Maine zyada hi masaledar bana di thi?" Anju asked, wondering what went wrong.

"Arey nahi Aunty, aisi sabji toh humare ghar bhi banti hai!" Shehnaaz immediately corrected her.

"Ha pani leke ja. Mai Rajiv ko utha ti hu, hospital jane ke liye." Anju suggested, making her way back to her bedroom.

"Ha." Shehnaaz nodded, lost in thoughts since she saw blood in the sink while her father was vomiting.

"Ab thik lag raha hai Papa?" She asked her father, caressing his back while he sipped the lukewarm water slowly. She had booked her father an appointment for the other day in Fortis. She was afraid she wouldn't be able to prepone it for the present day now that the pulmonologist was so busy.

He nodded, taking a deep breath and returning the glass to his daughter. He puked a few times and was exhausted already. He began to feel drowsy and light headed as well.

"Thodi der aaram kar leta hu." He told them.

"Nahi, hospital chaliye. Uncle gadi nikal rahe honge." She mentioned.

"Arey, unko kyu pareshan kiya? Kal hi toh hai appointment apni!" Jagjit replied with a frown.

"Are you serious right now? Chup chap karke chalo Papa, I'm not in the mood to talk now." She argued, turning to her mother for help. Madhu was about to speak but her husband spoke first.

"Arey mujhe thoda chakkar-chakkar sa lag raha hai! Kuch der toh ruk jao." He told them. She sighed, nodded and left the room to inform Rajiv about the same.

He was a pneumonia patient, even though his health had improved but his lungs were still somewhere infected. That was a reason he suggested they stayed in a hotel and not with the Agrawals to avoid the risk of infection but Anju just wouldn't let them stay anywhere else. She had made arrangements for Jagjit as per his condition.

Talking about his condition, his lung tissues were infected and that was the reason he was having trouble breathing and had a cough and fever along with occasional chest pain, now vomiting.

"As per the symptoms, pneumonia toh hai sir aapko. Including the blood traces. I suggest you get some of these scans done for clearer picture." The doctor suggested. Rajiv took them to a nearby hospital for now since they already had an appointment with a specialist the other day.

"Ikko gal bar bar kehnde rende.." Jagjit mumbled incoherently because he was so not ready to go for those scans again because the machines felt so claustrophobic.

"Zyada time nahi lagega Jagjit, scans karwa lete hain. Aise bhi aapki reports ek mahine pehle ki hain, Fortis wala doctor pakka bolta in sab ke liye." Rajiv suggested.

"Ha Papa." Shehnaaz added and smiled when her father gave in.

"Aram se." She helped him lay down, now that Jagjit had to get into a machine for a PET CT scan, he was skeptical about laying down and letting the stretcher move in.

"Sir, yeh lijiye." The instructor gave Jagjit a yellow smiley-face squeeze ball to help him calm down while getting the scan started. Jagjit immediately began to squeeze the ball in order to distract himself.