SUNDAY POST 28 DEC- 3rd JAN
SK SATPATHY
During the post-independence era and up to the seventies most of the interesting novels, drama, stories and films were related to hospitals and the lives of doctors, as most of the good writers were doctors or friends of doctors.
Films like Dil Apna Aur Prit Paraaye, Dil Ek Mandir, Pathe Holo Deri, Ananda Ashram, Tere Mere Sapne, Safar, Dr Zivago and many more were mostly hospital-based real life stories, but in recent times one would seldom come across such classic movies on the silver screen. Today, too, similar dramas get enacted in different hospitals but largely go unnoticed.
A young girl named Asha, who came from a lower middle class family, was the attendant of her younger brother, who was undergoing treatment for pneumonia in the pediatric ward of a 600-bedded hospital of SAIL. She came across a young doctor Dipankar during her frequent visit to the hospital. They got attracted to each other like molasses attract black ants. It was love at first sight for both. Doctor Dipankar started helping Asha by bringing fruits and other essential items for her pneumonia-affected brother.
Then the separation time came for them as Asha’s brother was cured and discharged from the hospital. They used to meet in cinema halls or cafeterias frequently because that was the only way to communicate as mobile phones were costly and had just entered the Indian market at that time. The name and home address paper of Dipankar was carefully kept by Asha in her handbag.
Asha’s mother came to know from her close relatives and friends that her daughter was going for matinee shows missing her classes. The gossip amongst the girls of the college was the burning topic everywhere, be it the marketplace or a marriage function. And that was too much for Asha’s parents in that small town of Rourkela to digest.
Meanwhile, Dipankar had left that hospital without the knowledge of Asha. But he had promised to marry Asha soon after the completion of his house job. Accompanied by her father Rajkishore, Asha decided to meet the parents of Dipankar at Saktinagar. When she pressed the calling bell a middle-aged person opened the main door.
“Is Dipankar at home?” Rajkishore babu asked.
“No, he has gone to the hospital. Please wait he will be back in a few minutes for his lunch,” Dipankar’s father said.
So they waited. And at long last an exhausted Dipankar came back home.
“Rajkishore babu whispered to his daughter “Is he the culprit?”
“Papa, this doctor is not Dipankar! His complexion is fair and not as dark as this doctor,” a nervous Asha said.
There was a chaotic situation at the house of Dipankar. His father asked Rajkishore about the problem and what they wanted from them?
“You see gentleman, I do not know you, but you waited for my son to return and now your daughter says he is not the boy, what is this all about?” Dipankar’s father was blunt in his statement.
“Sorry to disturb you, sir. Actually this is the address provided by the doctor Dipankar who promised to marry my daughter but could not be traced in the hospital for the last few months hence we decided to come to his house and talk to his parents about the marriage proposal,” Rajkishore babu said in one breath.
Dipankar had a very good reputation in the hospital, a married man with a kid. He entered the drawing room after washing his hands and changing his dress and took a seat next to the father and daughter, both strangers in the drawing room.
He read carefully the address and said the name and address were perfect but he didn’t know the girl. Things became clear when Asha narrated the whole story about the imposter Dipankar. Police case or police information was avoided due to fear of bad reputation in the society by her parents.
Next day Dipankar verified if any other doctor by the name Dipankar ever worked in any other department of that hospital of Rourkela. The most important information was collected from a coffee shop inside the hospital campus. A young unemployed homeopathic doctor would come with a stethoscope dangling from his neck during odd hours to different wards of the hospital and behave like a junior doctor and used to pick up unsuspected victims and introduced himself as such and such doctor and would give them names and address of a doctor copied from the big notice board of the casualty. A doctor as groom was a proud achievement for a girl and her parents. This time poor Asha became a victim to that allurement of the imposter.
A few years later Asha was going to Puri with her husband to celebrate their marriage anniversary and New Year celebrations along with their friends. As they were waiting in the platform for her train to arrive, someone called her name, she looked back. Her husband asked, “You know that handicapped person?”
“Yes, an imposter. Poor fellow has lost both his legs, a heavy punishment indeed…..” Asha replied in a chocking voice as the rest of her dialogue was inaudible due to the engine sound of the Tapaswini express, as it entered the platform.
Asha was trying to spot her first love through the tinted glasses of the AC compartment.
There is a saying that a woman seldom forgets her first love, some agree, others don’t.
