It had been almost a week since Virat left. It was 1:00 AM in the night, he was sitting in a corner collapsed, beaten down and tired in a tent with two of his colleagues. What would have been a regular medical camp, where the doctors provided free medical services to the villagers in a remote area with no proper medical facilities, had become the most hectic and insane experiences of their lives.
The whole area had become infested with a pandemic flu and the group of 15 doctors who left on the camp was barely able to control the situation. They were short on medicines, personnel and time. The situation was getting out of hand. Virat had been working round the clock and had not slept in the last 48 hours. He looked at his phone, there were a number of missed calls from Manvi. He stepped out of the tent and called her.
Manvi answered in a single ring "Virat? Kab se call kar rahi hoon? I haven't talked to you since two days. What happened, Is everything ok?"
Virat closed his eyes with his fingers and sat down, beside the camp fire. It was cold as hell. "I am fine Manvi. It is crazy over here. We are so ill-equipped to deal with this." His voice sounded, low, sad and tired.
Manvi gulped her words. She had been very worried about him. She was even a little upset he didn't call her since two days. Ever since he had gone, he didn't even have time to talk to her even for a few minutes every day. She could sense how tired he was right now, and what he had been going through. Virat seems all indifferent and technical when treating patients but losing a patient always crumbled him inside. He would deny about it when she asked him 'Doctors are not supposed to get personally attached to the patient' he always said. And this was so large, she had seen on the tv, about the pandemic flu, people were dropping like flies. "Virat, are you ok? Maybe you should get some rest. You sound very tired. I will call you back tomorrow." She said very concerned.
Virat: "Yaa, I will. How are you doing? Are you ok? Kuch problem toh nahi hai na?"
Manvi: "Nahi, kya problem ho sakta hai? Jo din raat pareshaan karta tha, woh toh hain nahi, so aur kya problem ho sakta hai?" she tried to lighten the conversation a little.
Virat gave a tired half-smile "hmm..."
"Virat, it's not your fault. You are doing whatever is in your hands. Your job is to give the best feasible treatment with the resources available, it doesn't always work. Tum bagwaan thodi ho and I heard they are sending more people. Don't take it personally."
"Actually woh baat bhi nahi hain, these two weeks will probably decide if I am going to get recommended to the neurology fellowship abroad or not."
Manvi: "this 2 weeks? aaise kyu?"
Virat: "Dr. Mehra himself told me, it's between me and Ankush. They are watching us closely, keeping a tally of everything. Watch how we function under crisis."
Manvi sensed something very wrong with his tone. He never spoke about his competition, he was always so confident of himself. "What's wrong Virat?" she asked.
Virat: "Kuch nahi yaar, bas aaise hi, I don't think I am going to get it this time." He stated it like it was already decided.
She just waited for him to speak up, something was bothering him and she knew it. If he sensed it was worrying her, he wouldn't confide.
He didn't speak anything for a bit. Then he started "There was this sweet little girl, so young, so fresh, so innocent, in the camp today. You would have loved her." he smiled.
" She was dying, her parents knew it, I knew it, I think even she knew it, but she kept consoling her mom, saying everything would be fine. She said her doctor, I, would save her at any cost. She called me her angel. She had blind faith in me Manvi. I couldn't leave her; Dr. Mehra had called for me so many times to attend to other patients. But, I couldn't walk away from those eyes. They were so full of hope, so full of trust, she held my finger and wouldn't let go."
