Durga | ✓

32. Her Worries

No sooner did she come from the kitchen than the glass in her hand fell down.

She screamed. "Rudra!"

Rudra was lying on the floor, clutching his chest. Durga understood that he must have been experiencing pain. He started breathing heavily. Durga rushed out of the house. Seeing an auto near her house she went to the driver.

"Anna, please, it is an emergency, we need to go to City Hospital."

"Okay but where is the patient? You said we have to go."

"He is in my house. Please help me-"

The driver understood what she wanted to say. He quickly rushed and saw Rudra grieving in pain. They, somehow, carried him to the auto."

***

Two painful hours had gone; Durga sat on the cold metal chair, waiting for the reports. She had been worried when her father had been admitted to hospital. He had similarly clutched his chest. Again, same thing was happening. Or things couldn't be worst.

"Doctor, what has happened to Rudra?"

"What is your relation with him?" asked the doctor.

Durga paused for a moment. She said, "I am his friend, Durga."

"Okay, so Durga, when he was bought here, he had clutched his chest. Looking at the symptoms, I have doubt whether it is heart attack or dengue. We have to do some tests and only then I can tell you about his condition."

Durga nodded and sighed heavily.

Doctor asked her, "Do you know any friends or relatives who can donate blood? I am afraid, we need to supply blood lost during a surgery if its heart attack and we might need platelets if he is down with dengue."

"No doctor, there are no friends or relatives living here."

Durga had given her blood for testing. Of course, it had been rejected on terms of less haemoglobin. After all she was suffering from anaemia.

The doctor came with a watery smile. Durga stood up and asked him, "What happened doctor? Is he okay now?"

The doctor asked her sternly, "What kind of friend are you? You don't know what he has been eating all the day?"

"Eating? Sorry doctor, I didn't understand." Durga replied.

"It was a gastric attack."

"What? Gastric attack? You never said gastric attack. You told it could be heart attack or dengue."

The doctor sighed. "Looking at his condition we thought he had heart attack but-"

He narrated what happened in the emergency ward.

Rudra looked at the doctor. The doctor said, "I am Dr. Rohit Shetty-"

Rudra exclaimed, "Oh! You are also Shetty? Even I am a Shetty."

"That's nice to hear. Well do you still experience any pain in your chest?"

"No, it has reduced."

The junior doctor next to him exclaimed, "Doctor, the pain is reducing! This could mean that the valves of his heart have burst. This is terrible."

The doctor sternly said, "If we have dealt similar case in past that doesn't mean we will be dealing same case."

Rudra whined loudly, "Oh doctor please save me. I don't want to die at a young age. I haven't married yet."

The doctor tried to assured him, "Listen I will do my best. Please don't worry."

A nurse came in with syringe. Rudra stammered, "S-syringe? W-why have y-you bought syringe?"

The nurse smiled. "We need to take your blood sample for other tests."

Rudra closed his eyes and started chanting Hanuman Chalisa. The nurse smiled and removed his blood.

He didn't realise the nurse had drawn blood from his vein. "Om-"

"Sir, see we have taken your blood sample."

"-Hanuman-"

"Sir! Sir! We have taken your blood sample."

Rudra stopped chanting. He smiled. Dr. Rohit was puzzled that all the reports seemed normal. But he had completely forgotten to ask what he had eaten during the day. It was very unusual. Maybe seing Rudra's plight he must have forgotten.

The doctor asked, "What did you eat in the day?"

Durga looked as doctor stopped narrating. She asked, "What did he say?"

"He hadn't consumed anything for breakfast and in the lunch he ate two samosas with tangy chilli chutney. When your stomach is full of hydrochloric acid, the condition is commonly called as acidity, eating something oily and spicy could lead to sudden attack in the stomach called as gastric attack."

Durga fumed in anger. She went from hospital without saying a word.

***

Rudra knocked the door. Durga opened the door with narrow eyes. She turned and went to kitchen. He closed the door and followed her.

"Durga, please talk to me. Look, I am sorry."

Durga ignored him and started chopping carrots. Rudra said, "Durga why are you so angry? I came here to ask you what happened to you in the hospital? Why did you leave me just five minutes before the discharge? I mean you were waiting for two hours."

He got irritated as Durga moved on from carrots to drumsticks. He asked, "What are you doing? Here, I am blabbering like an idiot and you are chopping vegetables?"

Durga replied in cold tone, "You see Rudra; I am cutting vegetables for preparing curry. I cannot eat samosas like you and get admitted to hospital."

Rudra was shocked. He said, "Fine then. I know that you are angry. I can understand so many things happened today. We will talk about it later."

Rudra left her and banged the main door. Durga sighed.

I want to tell him that I like him. Or there is a feeling more than that.

Then why don't you tell him?

I want to tell him but then the next thing would marriage.

So aren't you ready for it?

It's not like that... what about the gift that I am supposed to give him?

You can use your savings, isn't it?

It's not so easy... there are so many things... Appa's pension and my salary... I need more money for it.

I am sure you must have calculated it... how much do you need it?

I don't know the cost... but it would take four to five months of my savings to purchase that.

To be on safer side ask him to wait for six months.

But will he wait?

What do you think, will he?

I think so.

Then talk to him tomorrow.

Durga smiled.

***

Why do you think Durga needs six months?

Okay so, all the Tollywood movie watchers, can you guess from which film this has been borrowed?

Thank you for reading.