Back In Time

~thirteen~

He gazed at the clock for the umpteenth time and registered what an awfully eventful day it had been. It felt only a couple of minutes ago when Meera had rung him up with an obvious desperation egging at her tone. That had been about thirty minutes into ten in the morning.

And now, it was already four.

"Thank you beta." Meera's Father whispered in the hospital room where they both stood and Kanan flushed with embarrassment.

"Now you're embarrassing me Uncle."

Mr. Modi sighed, and turned towards the patient's bed where Meera's grandmother lay. Old and frail and weak, she didn't bear any resemblance to the venom spewing, heartless and sexist woman he once recalled her to be.

Funny, how age diminished everyone's might.

It had been nothing short of a miracle for Dadi to survive the heart surgery at her age. But his experience, however little it was, told him that this successful surgery meant nothing concrete. Her eighty years plus body was just not well equipped for surviving such a major heart attack.

He'd chosen to keep this extra bit of information from Mr. Modi. He looked paranoid beyond compare, and Kanan had no shame admitting he was scared of Uncle's rattled self. He'd seen too many shocking news lead to fatalities for family members in the hospital to know Mr. Modi was just not ready for it.

Which was astounding, comparing him to his other nonchalant family members.

A family of over fifteen, and only one seemed to care. Even though Meera's Bade Chachu had been one of the two who brought Dadi into the hospital in the first place, he too had disappeared thereafter.

What a shame!

For the first time in the years he'd known Meera, he was actually beginning to understand where she got some of her basic values from. Despite the kind of an impression he had of the Modi residence, Meera's Father had proved; time and again; how different he was. Not the perfect description of a Father, or a son, but a fairly decent man overall.

"You're hiding something from me, aren't you?" he posed cautiously, his bloodshot eyes giving away how stressed he'd spent the last few hours.

As an intern, Kanan had always found fascinating the diplomacy that laced a Doctor's tone when they wished to conceal facts without giving emotion. Like so many other skills, he'd worked on this aspect of himself too and hadn't stopped only until mastering the same.

"I'm not handling her case Uncle, Dr. Kothari is." Which wasn't a lie.

But upon noticing the lines of stress marring Uncle's features, he found himself place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "He's a very senior doctor Uncle. You have nothing to worry about."

Mr. Modi didn't argue.

Kanan glanced at his watch again and his eyes widened at the time yet again. How long had he been there?

"Uncle, I should get going-"

"-yes of course beta. You've already done more than enough." He was already up on his feet, and before Kanan could even register what was happening, Mr. Modi had gathered him in a tight gratuitous hug.

Awkwardly stiff, he found himself pat his back in consolation.

"By the way Kanan..." he started, as they finally separated from the awkward hug, "...I'm glad that you said yes for the marriage."

Kanan didn't know what to make of that statement. Did he think he'd agreed to marry Meera simply considering it as an arranged marriage proposal or because he was aware of him and Meera from the past?