Page 141 - FATE & DESTINY

FATE & DESTINY

Cars were already in a long queue right from the border gate. In exasperation, Dendup peeped through the
windshield. “Hell, no!” He turned back to me. “Now what?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Chinta mat karo, main hoo na,” said the cabbie.
Dendup frowned at him. “Ap Shahrukh khan to nahi hai na.”
I chuckled as the driver grinned at him. The gas-filling delayed us by half an hour. The cabbie drove at his top
speed, but we were stuck in a traffic jam.
“What the hell is going on?” blurted Dendup. “Kya hai yae, driverji?”
“Hum ko kya pata,” He turned back and said, “Ek short-cut hai.”
He reversed and drove along the narrow-graveled road for about a mile. Dead end. “Aray, raasta to khatam hoga
ya,” said the cabbie.
Dendup scowled at him.
He made a U-turn and maneuvered through the traffic jam.
My jaw hit the floor. I grinned at him. “No way! How’d you do that?”
“Arey, hum to driver hai na.”
Dendup glanced at his watch and said, “I think we’re late. The train would leave us.”
The cabbie picked up the speed at 100 km/h. Still, I felt he drove at a snail’s pace. He reached us at Alipur
Railway Station at 10: 50 am.
“Hurry, we have ten minutes,” I said. “Six hundred fifty each.”
Everybody hurried to the platform. The cabbie ran after us and demanded. “Arey, tip dao na?”
I grabbed the wallet. “Kitna?”
He grinned. “Ap ka marze.”
I gave him 200 rupees. “Ab khush hai?”
He smiled, putting a considerable charm into it and waved. “Salam sahib.”
I saluted him and scurried to the platform.
The train arrived. Dendup went to his compartment. Chojey and her sister’s seats were in the next compartment.
I visited the two sisters often and ordered their meals.
At the Katpadi station, we reserved a cab to R.J. Mansion Lodge.
After we checked into the lodge, we made an appointment with our surgeons.
The next morning, we entered chamber no. 03. Dr. Sampath Karl was sitting beside a bespectacled man in his
late 50s. The bespectacled man introduced himself as the head surgeon.
“It’s the baby,” I said. “We brought him for the review. Diarrhea recurs.”
He skimmed through the papers. “We’ll conduct a Barium Meal X-ray.”
“Sure. Where’s Surgeon Jacob?”
“He resigned,” said Dr. Sampath Karl. “He is in Assam.”
“Assam?”
The radiographer carried out the Barium Meal X-ray. The luminous barium flowed down his esophagus on the
monitor. I mumbled prayers. Choki stared at me with a drained face. I could tell she was worried as much as I did.
The procedure took more than half an hour.
“No sign of intestinal obstruction,” said the radiographer.
With my mouth a little drawn back at the corners, I said, “Oh, really? Thank you, doctor.” I looked up and
muttered, “Thanks heaven, for your incalculable blessings.”
“Surgeon would explain everything to you,” said the radiographer.
We bowed and exited the X-ray room.
Chojey was supposed to show her sister, Pema to her surgeon, but she came to our room. “Help me, please,” she
said, biting her lips. “I don’t know where I should take Pema.”
“You must go to the doctor’s chamber,” I said. “They would do everything.”
“Why don’t you take them?” said Choki.
“Okay. Follow me.”
We went to the Orthodontic Department building, next to the gate. The orthodontist was another polite guy. He
fixed the date for Pema’s operation.
Next Monday, Dr. Sampath Karl prescribed medicine for Rinchen. “You don’t have to bring the baby here next
time,” he said.
“Why not, doctor?” I said.
“You come from a very faraway place. You can show him to the doctors in Bhutan.”
In the evening, we admitted Pema to the surgical ward. She would have surgery the next morning. So, Chojay
attended to her that night. After surgery, I went to see them.

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