Rab Rakha

Chapter 23

"We tried our best but couldn't revive him. Unki body, unka dil bohot kamzor tha, itna pressure nahi jhel paya." Dr. Singh informed the family after trying to bring Jagjit back into senses for about an hour. He sighed and looked at the patient's family looking at him with an expressionless face, at such hard times even senior doctors wished that they could do something that would bring the patient back to life.

"I am sorry beta." He kept a hand on Shehnaaz's head and left.

Madhu choked as she slowly realised what had happened and began to cry out loud at the loss of her husband. The tears would not stop and her voice echoed across the hall, Shehnaaz hugged her mother and rubbed her back.

"Sana tere Papa! Tere Papa chale gaye Sana.. kal hi toh mere hathon se khana kha rahe the. Aaj aise kaise chale gaye humko chhod ke.." Madhu asked her daughter as she bawled her eyes out.

Shehnaaz simply hugged her mother tightly having no words to come up with. She wasn't able to process everything either. She looked at Gurjot towards her left as he kept his hand around her, the guy was wiping his tears.

It wasn't until Anju and Sheena hugged them that she realized that they were around her too. She had zoned out a little too much to acknowledge their presence. They had arrived since her father had suffered the cardiac arrest, Gurjot had called them. She let them take the charge and console her mother better. She wiped her face, corrected her unruly hairs a little and made her way into her father's room. The nurses were still there, cleaning up the room and wrapping up the defibrillator and its essentials.

"Mam, signature." One of them asked her with a pen and paper she she nodded, signing it away.

"Discharge ke liye?" Shehnaaz slowly asked the nurses so as to take her father home.

"Bas Dr. Singh se kuch papers sign karwane hai, tab tak aap pending bills clear kar denge toh kaam jaldi ho jayega." The lady in while uniform replied.

"Okay." Shehnaaz replied, walking out to grab her purse which had her ATM card.

"Kaha ja rahi hai?" Gurjot asked her.

"Bills clear karne hai." She replied.

"Yeh hospital walo ko situation nahi dikhti kya? Bill ki padi hai. Saaley paise hi khate hain." He cursed the staff and shook his head.

"Tu rehne de, Aunty ke pass ruk. Mai dekh lunga." He told her.

"Nahi, koi baat nahi. Mai kar lungi." She denied, picked up her purse and walked out of the corridor. He stared at her, taken aback by the way she was reacting to this situation. She was so not doing well.

"Mai Sana ke sath ja raha hu." He informed his wife before following his friend out.

"Ha Anju." Rita Ma was in the kitchen while carrying her phone between her shoulder and head.

"Mama, yeh dekho. This car looks good." Advait and Sidharth were in the living area, scrolling social media together. It was a fine Saturday, most of them were home.

"Kya?? Hey bhagwan!" Rita Ma almost dropped the ladle she was using to stir the curry.

"Mum?" Sidharth went to see her, she sounded so weird this time that he suspected something went wrong.

She saw her son and shook her head, walking out of the kitchen and taking a seat in the furniture.

"Acha thik hai. Khayal rakhna tum un sab ka. Hum ayenge milne." She replied and then hung up with a pretty upset face.

"What happened?" Sidharth asked again.

"Sana ke Papa. He passed away this morning." She replied and saw his son's face losing its expressions as well.