Page 38 - Till the Last Breath . . .

4

Kajal Khurana

Kajal paced nervously in her hostel room. The news of Dushyant lying

unconscious for three days had just reached her. It wasn’t the first time she
had received such a call. When they were dating, she was used to going to

the hospital, picking him up and cleaning up his shit. But the last such call
was two years back. Today, she had suppressed the impulse to drop

everything and visit him. He wouldn’t want to see me, she argued. Do I
want to see him? Two years had passed since the last time they had talked.
Kajal dialled the number.

‘Hello, GKL Hospital? Can I talk to the doctor of a patient admitted
there? The name is Dushyant Roy.’

‘Hold on,’ the voice from the other side said. The waiting sound piped
up.
‘Hello? This is Zarah Mirza.’

Two summers before this one, Kajal was a second-year student and
Dushyant was a year senior to her. It wasn’t until a few friends pointed it

out that Kajal realized she was constantly being stared at by a senior. It was
none other than the swearing, belligerent, infamous, drunkard of a senior

with a penchant for getting into trouble—Dushyant Roy. Kajal hadn’t
noticed his stealthy moves earlier, but slowly she started to spot him

everywhere. She hadn’t made much of him earlier and thought of him as
one of the many roadside ruffians from the mechanical department. Little
did the rich daddy’s girl know that he was going to change her life forever.

Forever began on the day Kajal was sitting idly in the library, looking
blankly outside the window …