Part 2
"Mr.Mishra, she is busy with another patient," informed the portly nurse curtly. "Now, don't make a fuss. I don't have all the time in the world for your temper tantrums." She had heard enough about this moody patient not to let him take the upper hand. So she tried to assert control in the beginning itself.
"No. I am going nowhere till she comes," he adamantly refused to budge.
"Look here, Mr.Mishra. You have been presented a rare opportunity of getting your eyes operated by one of the world's renowned Neuro Surgeon Dr. Mohanty and one of the finest eye-specialist in the country Dr. Bhagvati . Both the doctors are in the city to attend an international conference and have kindly agreed to stay back for a day at the request of our chief doctor inorder to perform this intricate surgery on your eyes. Time is precious for them and you cannot make them wait for you to make your mind to come. If we do not complete the pre-operative procedures in the next half hour, you will not be operated upon today. And if you miss this opportunity you will not get another, as both the doctors are leaving the city tonight," she said sternly and tried to take his pressure.
He jerked his hand from her and said with finality, "I don't care. I want her to take me to the OT or I'll stay here forever."
A few minutes later Prachi came rushing to him.
"What is this, Mr.Mishra. Sister Rita tells me that you were refusing to get ready for the operation. Don't you know how important it is that you make it to the OT today? Don't you want your sight back?"
'I do, Prachi. I do want my sight back, if only to see you. But I want you to take me to the OT, not some stranger. It is your touch I want to feel,' he thought to himself but did not respond to her query. Instead he asked her where was she all this while.
"I had to attend to an emergency case, it was important," she said without elaborating.
'Am I not important to you, Prachi?' his heart silently cried out.
Not being able to hear his mental conversations with her, she wrapped the BP monitor around his arm and checked his pressure and pulse. She sponged his face and helped him into the wheel chair. She then wheeled him to the X-Ray lab. After all the pre-operative procedures were completed, she changed him into the sterile gown and pulled a cap over his head to cover his hair. Soon two men assisted in shifting him from the wheel chair into a stretcher. As they pushed him to the OT, he clasped her hand in his.
At the entrance of the OT, she bent her head to his ear and whispered, "All the best for the surgery. May you get to see this world again soon."
When she tried to leave, he held on to her hand tightly in his and begged her to be with him during the operation. She tried extricating her hand, explaining to him that there was another nurse who was on duty in the OT on that day but he refused to let her go.
She knew today was an important day in his life. It was the day that would bring back what he had lost; a week from now he will slowly be able to be inducted into the world of light, back from the world of darkness he had been for the past six months. She lied to him that she was attending to an emergency case. The truth was that she was fervently praying for the success of his surgery in the mandir inside the hospital. She wanted to be with her God, pleading with and demanding that he returns the sight of the man who meant more to her than she was willing to admit, even as God's human instruments work on him. But when Sister Rita came and told her how difficult her patient was acting, she was forced to leave the house of God. She did not stop praying for him, though. Throughout the operation, she was uttering her silent prayers. As she watched over him she hoped that her prayers would be answered soon.
Anupamaa
