The Visit to the Hospital

You got change, Don’t you?!’ The conductor was screaming. Or so I felt-The bus was quite noisy by now. I took out a twenty rupee note from my pocket, and continued my desperate attempts with my phone. My roommate was sick, we knew it was Cosmo Hospital but had no clue about the room number. A random call to one of his classmates, and we knew Arj was in ‘508’. Fifth floor, Cosmo I said to myself. There was nothing interesting in the journey, except that my mind was wandering & my friends were kind enough not to tell me when the stop had arrived. The screaming conductor was also an alert man thankfully.

A look at the Cosmopolitan Hospital and I had butterflies in my stomach.

My liking for doctors was quite contrary to my indifference towards the ‘State-of-the-Art facility’ they practice at. As a

teenager, I adored the medicine profession maybe because my biology was weak! And being lucky enough not to visit beyond clinics and dispensaries that I certainly thought a smiling, respectable and charming doctor could be the girl of my life! And the fact that Medical College Trivandrum was so close to my college was a reason for my excitement.

Perhaps it was when I realized that a blood test can make me faint that I had to recheck my ideal match notion! I guess it’s like an Astronaut would never marry a person allergic to space dust! (If my analogy sounds stupid, blame the clock:))

Entering the crowded reception, I thought it was going to be a dull visit. People with receipts were moving here and there. Stretchers & Wheelchairs were all around. A man with a plastered limb was being moved out of the Casualty. I was getting nauseated. I rushed with my folks to the elevator. We pressed ‘5’, which was brightly lit then. Huge lift, I thought. A standard for any multi-specialty hospital I guessed.

The elevator opened to a rather dimly-lit corridor. We tracked down Room no 508, and finally some familiar faces was a relief. Arj had been recuperating from Dengue Fever. And I guess he found himself a very nice room. Quite spacious, it opened up to a nice view of the city. I stood there for a while, trying to make out the different routes around the place. As I looked around, the corridors wore a deserted look. I carefully avoided the medical details being volleyed around the room. I guess at least one of the guys joined me on my way out.

Seeing the nature of the hospital, it seemed the burgeoning profits from the hospital convinced the management to add two additional floors. It was Arj Jr who joined me out of the room, and he was pointing to me the Nurse Station. To his delight it was straight across the floor. I didn’t say anything to him. Boys will be Boys would have sufficed. I now felt I was past my interest and comfort to look out for girls!

I was checking around the place, and I realized that apart from the doors to the Nurse Station, you could easily see through the doors to several rooms. I casually scanned through them. Fifth floor…Fourth floor…and oops!..A girl in a blue outfit somehow caught my attention. She looked pretty. No! Stunning! I couldn’t help but believe she was looking towards my direction too. The Achha Bachha in me made me go back to Arj’s room. Nurses had arrived to give him fresh shots of platelets.

It was soon time to go. As we headed back to the elevator, some strange feeling engulfed me. A Déjà vu to be, I felt! The elevator doors opened and we joined about 12 people inside. The 25 people capacity elevator was operated by a thick-moustache man in uniform. He closed the doors of the elevator, and we continued our downwards journey. The speed gradually decreased. There were people to board from fourth floor.

There she was! More elegant and even more beautiful. She stood about an arm’s distance from me, her eyes transfixed to the floor. A close relative may be serious, I thought. Some people still look beautiful even though after they shed a few tears.
When the elevator reached the ground floor, I realized my friend was hinting about her all along! Sometimes your aural senses just don’t register. I simply smiled back at him.