Fiction / Renascence

On the enormous dense virescence of trees and vegetation that fenced either sides of the railway line, the small transient patch of twili...

On the enormous dense virescence of trees and vegetation that fenced either sides of the railway line, the small transient patch of twilight besprinkled the green stretches one after another like the captivating segued performance of a virtuoso. The incidence of quarks of light on the dumb boscage was uprooting their triste inquietude replacing which a new blood of exalted revival was being transfused on their haggard appearances.

Dr. Satish Sharma was leaving Mumbai for good. Upon arrival at New Delhi, he started for Nainital the same evening. Soon after exiting Haldwani, the road narrowed down and the bus moved uphill like a mounting screw wound around hills. Soon there was nothing visible outside. Then suddenly a dimly lit small array of lights made an appearance as the bus negotiated a hairpin turn.

It appeared that a sharp blade of light had made a kerf in an enclosure of gloom. It vaguely occurred to Satish that the expanse of darkness was no different from the banausic human mindset, reigning everywhere in the human society wherein the clusters of light in the darkness resembled the steady obstinate heights of tenacious characters of some men which effortlessly dwarfed the tawdry uprisings of darkness to scale their attitude.

He travelled for next one week like that to places unknown to him just to eschew the spell of depression that had crept into his nerves as an effect of sudden vicissitude. When his bus entered Raghunath Pur, he immediately decided to spend few days at that place of empyrean beauty. The chowkidar of the Dak Bungalow arranged for his stay.

Next morning chowkidar told him that he had to go see the ailing Pathak Babu in the neighbourhood who was suffering from serious tuberculosis. Satish too accompanied him. The old person was suffering through the terminal stage of TB. Satish wrote some medicines and asked the chowkidar to bring the medicines from Almora.

Next morning, a desperate knocking on the door awakened Satish. Looking at the petrified face of Malti, the daughter and only relative of Pathak Babu. Satish didn8217;t ask anything and started hurriedly for her house to see Pathak Babu. He at once understood that no doctor could help the old person then. He looked at Malti in utter helplessness. Pathak Babu asked Malti to come near him and listen. With great effort, he told her, 8220;I am an unfortunate father. Before leaving the world, I could not even fulfill my only responsibility. I am now going to die with this weight in my heart.8221;

That egregious moment uncapped the words of Sneha in Satish8217;s memory, 8220;What is the difference between you and an organised criminal? People die if they don8217;t pay you both. I know everything now.8221; Satish rose from his place and reached near Pathak Babu. He started telling him in a calm firm voice, 8220;Pathak Babu, it is shame for me that in presence of a specialist doctor, TB is going to kill you. As a doctor I have failed. I failed several times in the past though the reasons of failure were different. Today, I am going to fail as a doctor but as a man I don8217;t want to fail. I can8217;t let you die with a load of your heart. If it may be acceptable, I ask Malti8217;s hand for me.8217;

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A few minutes later when Satish was putting sindoor in the parted hair of Malti, he could descry the happiness in Pathak Babu8217;s eyes having struggled its way over his pain.