The Bestseller She Wrote (25 page)

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Dr Krishnan J

Medical Superintendent.

As he turned back to wind up his work for the night and head back to his house—he stayed within the hospital complex—he spotted Aditya. ‘Don’t expect too much,
son,’ he said. ‘From what I see, it is a matter of “when” and not “if”. Unless . . .’

‘Unless . . .?’ Aditya repeated.

‘Unless the serum works. That’s our last hope. It has thus far been administered to two patients—an American doctor who survived and a priest who died. So let’s keep our fingers crossed.’

‘If it doesn’t work, Doctor . . . Then what?’

‘Forty-eight hours, at best.’

If Aditya had had any tears left that night, he would have cried. Why had this happened? Was this his comeuppance for his indiscretion? But why was Maya the one to suffer? He felt like forcing his way into the room where Maya was sleeping, oblivious to the happenings all around, and lie down next to her. He remembered the vows he had made in front of the holy fire when they had got married. He had not kept his end of the promise. But she could forgive him for Aryan. Didn’t she have a responsibility towards their child? How could she shy away from that?

Dr Krishnan got up to leave. ‘I will be in my quarters. Call me if you need anything?’

‘Thank you, Doctor,’ Aditya replied.

His mind was overflowing with thoughts of Maya, of the two of them. About the fabulous life they were leading till Shreya came into their lives and about the day he came back from Kolkata, when all hell broke loose . . . How could he make sure Maya didn’t go away feeling that all the effort that she had put into this relationship with him was worthless?

Suddenly he had an idea. He turned and hurried outside the room.

‘Dr Krishnan,’ Aditya called out and ran behind him. When he caught up with him, he gathered his breath for an instant and then said, ‘I need your help.’

58

T
HERE WAS HECTIC
activity in the anteroom. It was five in the morning and there were seven people in the room—Dr Krishnan, Aditya Kapoor, two medical supervisors, two people from the Bio-safety department responsible for the gear, and one representative from National Medical Laboratories; who had arrived with the vaccine. The vaccine was to be given in two jabs over a twenty-four hour period. A dual dose was normally given in such cases in the hope that the second would improve the efficacy of the first one.

‘It is high risk, Aditya. You are aware of the consequences?’

‘Yes, Dr Krishnan.’

‘Any deviation from what we agreed on and I will be in trouble.’

‘Once in my life, I shortchanged the person I love and look at the price I am paying for it. Do you think after this, I will ever compromise the faith that someone shows in me, Dr Krishnan?’

Dr Krishnan came up to him and patted him on his back. ‘Go ahead, young man. God listens to people with a conscience.’

The door to the patient’s room opened and Aditya walked in, complete in a moonsuit, a pair of gloves, water resistant boots, mask, oxygen supply and a hood on top. The only part of him visible to anyone from the outside, were his eyes. He walked close to the bed. He could see Maya’s face now. Her eyes were closed. Despite the blisters around her ears and the crevices of her nose, she looked so pretty. It looked as if she would get up and walk into his arms right away. For a minute her face almost looked inviting. He wanted to kiss her on her lips and wake her up. He resisted the urge to cry.

‘Maya,’ he said, ever so softly. Nothing changed. He called out again, just a bit louder than earlier. He couldn’t be sure if he were imagining it, but he thought he saw her eyeballs move behind her eyelids.

‘Maya . . .’ he repeated, a quiver in his voice, ‘forgive me if you can, Maya. I have remained loyal to you, for almost all of the time that I have known you. But that one transgression on my part cannot be explained. Shreya and I . . . The attention she gave me, made me weak. Maybe it was pure lust which took an emotional turn, I don’t know. The fact that she needed me gave me a high . . . But why am I saying all this? Whatever be the reason, Maya, logical or not, I know I’ve hurt you. I fell for someone else. It was not in my control. The entire world will say that it is impossible to love two people at the same time. How can you feel for two people at the same time without hurting one of them?’ he choked and stopped.

‘I was a fool, Maya. I was wrong. I ended up hurting you. I ended up being an infidel, a cheat, in your eyes. I should not have done that to you. If I didn’t love you, it would have been different. If our relationship were not in the best of health, it would have been a different issue. But you have lived your life to help me live my dream, to make Aryan a great human being, to help your students and society. You have never given me a reason to complain. Everything you did was just perfect. There was no flaw in you. Perfection they say is a means for man to get closer to God. Is this what they mean when they say closer to God?

‘Maya, you were the one who held me up. You were the one who I owe everything in life to. Without you I won’t have anything left. The true test of a good human being is not the number of people who love you, but the number of people who learn how to love, looking at you. You don’t have any enemies, and everyone who comes in contact with you falls in love with you. You have an unfulfilled agenda, my love. You have to turn Aryan into the most fabulous man ever. If you go away, I have to deal with the challenge alone. I don’t think I would ever be able to do justice to him.

‘I love you, Maya. Please forgive me. I beg of you, please forgive me. I can’t live under the weight of the realisation that you believe that I am an evil man. I am not evil, Maya, I am not. Don’t make me pay this price. Please come back. From this instant, I will live my life the way you want me to live. I will dedicate it to you, Maya. It’s a promise I make to you. Please forgive me, please forgive me. Forgive me, Maya . . .’

Aditya broke down. He started sobbing by her bedside. He fell on his knees and held his hands in front of him, clasped together against his forehead. ‘Forgive me, Maya,’ he sobbed. His body was convulsing furiously in rhythm with his sobs. The stench of chlorine inside the bodysuit did not bother him. The heat didn’t matter.

Dr Krishnan was standing outside and watching everything through the glass wall. ‘Be ready to go in if he tries something dramatic,’ he prepped his team. Despite Aditya’s assurances he was not sure that he would behave sanely.

Aditya looked up. How he wished he could erase the last few months from his life. If only he had an option. ‘Please give me another chance, Maya. I wish I could spend another life with you, to make up for everything that I have done.’

As soon as Aditya had said this he felt he could see her facial muscles twitching, as if she was trying to say something but couldn’t. And then as if god himself was trying to tell Aditya that Maya had forgiven him, the ends of Maya’s lips curled upwards as if she were trying to smile—the first time in the last three days. Her eyes were closed, her body was immobile, she was on life support, but her lips gently curled upwards.

Aditya cried out loud, loud enough for Dr Krishnan, in the room outside, to hear. He turned back and looked at Dr Krishnan, who gave him a thumbs up.

‘I will always love you, Maya,’ he said as he turned and walked slowly back to the anteroom.

As he was helped out of the moonsuit Aditya was happy that Maya had heard him out and perhaps even forgiven him. It was like an elephant was off his chest.

Save a miracle, Dr Krishnan was not confident that Maya would last the day. Yet as a last resort, half an hour after Aditya’s talk with Maya, she was given the first of the two jabs of the untested Canadian Ebola vaccine. The second was to be given to her in another twelve hours.

59

F
URTHER DETERIORATION OF
Maya’s health, which Dr Krishnan had expected, stopped. Her overall health stayed static—showed no signs of improvement but didn’t worsen either. That was a big positive. The turnaround happened with the administering of the follow-up jab.

By the next morning, the whole hospital was rejoicing. The reason was that a conservative Dr Krishnan had just upped Maya’s chances of survival to 35 per cent from 10 per cent a few days back.

Savitha and Sanjay were allowed to go home and were kept under quarantine for a week more. They were instructed not to venture out or meet anyone apart from close family. Sunaina went back to Kolkata. Shreya visited the hospital every single day and spent about an hour with Aditya before going back home. The meetings were not friendly. Aditya had started cold-shouldering her. He would speak when spoken to, and respond to questions in monosyllables. When Shreya mentioned this to Sunaina, she said, ‘This is not the time, Shreya. You should not even bring this up with him. It will put him under extreme pressure.’

‘I just wish that bitch kicks the bucket. Everything will be resolved once and for all. Aditya will be mine and only mine. I won’t have to share him with anyone else.’

‘Do you realise, sweetheart, it’s not you who is sharing him with someone else. It is the woman lying on the bed who is unknowingly sharing him with you,’ Sunaina raged.

‘Well, she knows now. So why can’t she just leave him and go?’ Shreya responded nonchalantly.

‘Are you out of your mind, Shreya? You are wishing her ill, at a time when she is struggling in the hospital. That’s just evil!’

‘Oh please, Sunaina! It’s not like she will die because I said so.’

*

Whenever she met Aditya, Shreya would subtly try to
raise the issue of the manuscript and Aditya would stoically ignore it. She was worried. Vaishali was putting pressure on her for the submission of her own manuscript. She was lagging behind on her deadline. The second half of the
year was always a crowded one for books, and missing a deadline meant a cascading impact on the others too. Vaishali hated altering time-frames. Eventually Shreya sent the manuscript to her without Aditya endorsing it. She knew that if necessary Vaishali would seek Aditya’s views and incorporate them.

Shreya called Vaishali the day she submitted the manuscript. ‘How long will it take for the book to come out?’

‘Three months. We will announce the book for pre-booking in a month and a half, once the cover is ready and we have a firm date for launch.’

‘So our promotional activities have to start now?’

‘Yes,’ Vaishali agreed. Shreya could see her dream slowly about to turn to reality.

60

S
IXTEEN DAYS LATER
, on a Friday, a nurse walked up to Aditya, who was waiting outside the isolation ward and addressed him, ‘Dr Krishnan wants to see you in his office.’ Dr Krishnan got up from his chair when he saw Aditya rushing in.

‘You wanted to see me, Doc?’

‘Relax, Aditya,’ Dr Krishnan said when he saw the tension on Aditya’s face. ‘The reports are fine. Maya can go home tomorrow.’

The smile on Aditya’s face was one of joy and relief. His eyes were moist. On the verge of tears, he turned away. He did not want the doctor to see him cry.

‘Aditya,’ Dr Krishnan said, ‘give it some time. It will all be okay. Time heals everything, including broken relationships.’ In these past few days, he had developed a strong liking for Aditya. ‘If you sincerely repent your wrongdoings with complete honesty, god will fix everything. Maya could have died. The only reason she didn’t was because god wanted her to come back to you. Remember that.’

Aditya just nodded. Dr Krishnan’s last line rang in his mind as he walked out. He was at peace. But there was something he still had to do. On the way out, he picked up his phone and dialled a number. It got picked up after three rings.

‘Hi Aditya!’

‘Coffee? Now?’ he paused. ‘I can pick you up from office.’

‘Call me when you are near and I will come down.’

In an hour’s time Aditya picked Shreya up, and they went out to the Hyatt Regency coffee shop a mile from their office.

‘What happened?’ a visibly surprised Shreya asked him, first in the car, and then when they settled down in the coffee shop.

‘Shreya, we need to put an end to this,’ Aditya got straight to the point.

‘What?’ Shreya was shocked. There was an air of finality to what Aditya was saying.

‘My family is falling apart, Shreya. I love Maya. I love Aryan. I don’t want my son to grow up knowing that his father was someone who cheated on his mother. Maya has given up a lot for me. Her life, her friends, her career, have all been sacrificed at the altar of my career. I cannot do this to her.’

‘When have I demanded anything from you? I completely understand that your family is your priority. I come in only after you have finished your duties and obligations. I know I can never replace them. I am very happy finding my place in your small world. I love you, Aditya.’

‘It doesn’t work that way, Shreya. Maya knows about us. I have lied to her all along. I need to regain her trust. And for that I have to be honest with her, and that is not possible if we are still in this . . . this . . .’ he struggled for words.