Page 138 - Till the Last Breath . . .

fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.’ She knew

this better than anyone else.
If only she could snuggle into her bed and stay there till her parents left
the house, the building, the apartment and were far far far far away. She

wished she could do that. After splashing some water on her face, she sat
down with her newly bought and inexplicably expensive MacBook Pro,

which she hardly had the time to use. She logged on to Facebook and
scrolled down her newsfeed mindlessly. Some friends were getting married.

Others were on vacation. A few had pictures in short dresses, partying in
glitzy clubs with rich-looking, fat boyfriends.

On the other hand, her life had a sense of overbearing inertia … slow and
moving at a dreary, constant pace. But she was sure no one else looked at
her life like that. After all, she was the lucky one who was interning at a

renowned hospital known for its unparalleled research facilities and labs
wielding the most cutting-edge technology. She was the one who had got a

chance to work with one of the best doctors one could have asked for. A
few years in the US and her success would be a coffee-table conversation

topic amongst her peers for years to come. Disappointed, she switched off
the laptop and cursed her wretched life. She desperately wanted a smoke,

but her mom was persistently banging on her door. She thought of Dushyant
and how he had managed to shed his family and move ahead.
After changing into her night clothes, she joined her mom in the kitchen

and helped her out a little. Her mom had managed quite a spread in the little
time she had. Dal makhani, paneer kofta, butter chicken, boondi ka raita—

the only things that made her want to go back home and stay with her. They
sat on the table and she tried hard not to meet her father’s searching gaze.

She hoped it would be over soon. For her, the incident that had scarred her
for life was her father’s fault and she had accepted it as God’s honest truth.

‘How’s the doctor you are working under? I heard he is pretty good,’ her
dad said.
‘Yes, he is.’

‘Tell your dad more about him,’ her mom nudged to encourage
conversation between the two. She had been the silent sufferer all these