What next? FF with the Doc: epilogue page 55 - Page 42

Originally posted by: turags

free advertising hain Doc...karna padta hain...demanding market ka zamaana hain...😆

A couple of years later...

The phone on the table of Dr Ashutosh rang shrilly. Ashutosh, just back and unwinding after a couple of back to back surgeries, hid his irritation and answered in a professional tone.

"Dr Ashutosh, KGH speaking..."

"Dr Kapoor, Dean, AIIMS would like to speak to you, Sir, is it OK for me to go ahead and connect both of you?" The operator at the other end was highly courteous.

"OK go ahead..." Ashutosh was highly curious, now what was this all about?

"Hello Dr Ashutosh, how are you? It's been a long time since we met..." Dr Kapoor was obviously an old acquaintance and friend.

"I am fine Dr Kapoor, tell me what can I do for you?" Curiosity had reached its peak.

"You see Dr Ashutosh, Can you please make a brief trip to Delhi as a personal favour to me sometime? There's no hurry, of course..."

"Fine Dr Kapoor, can I make it the coming weekend?"

"Ok see you then...please come straight to my cabin..."

The rest of the day passed without any significant event... meetings and ward rounds etc were done and the couple headed back home with their son, done for the day.

"Ashutosh, this envelope came for you through the courier..." HK handed over an envelope. Ashutosh examined the envelope, the address was handwritten, "to be handed over in person to Dr Ashutosh, Dean & Head Surgeon, KGH, Lucknow" the handwriting was vaguely familiar. He opened the letter and started reading the neat handwritten script.

Dear Ashutosh,

You will hear about my demise when this letter reaches you.

It has been some time since I have known that my days are numbered and I am destined to die a painful death, the death sentence which was passed on to me when I married Jagan...I did not know about his HIV positive status then. By the way, Jagan succumbed to pneumonia in US six months after his arrest and subsequent deportation. About two years back, I came to know that I was also positive; this was shortly before my visit to Lucknow. I have been living on borrowed time ever since and hence the efforts to tie up all the loose ends before the time comes to a close.

My visit to Lucknow was fulfilling in ways more than one. For one, I saw that you were a proud father and a loving husband, secondly, I saw a responsible and matured Nidhi...I am very happy for her academic success and wish her all the best in her future endeveours. Both of you are meant to be together despite your differences.

The city of Lucknow holds a special place in my life...it is here that my roots lie...I flourished here, both emotionally and professionally. We worked together for 12 years and how that professional vicinity started to sprout in an unwanted direction, I sincerely do not know...so when Nidhi came on the scene, I felt my lifetime efforts go down the drain. I harassed the poor girl, giving her continuous night shifts, false accusations with missing files, nothing to say about taunts, all set to ensure that she would quit the scene. But that was not destined to happen; you only got closer to each other... and then one day you preferred to attend her father's birthday over my dinner invitation was the last straw...I accused you of something that even today I cannot believe came from me. You gave in to my demands and sacked her the next day, I watched in glee as she walked away dejected in her love.

I was stupid enough to assume that that was the end of the story...I could see your guilt through and through...then I tried to divert your mind with Bhujiya which I knew you liked to have with tea...but in vain. I even connived to send you to the Mumbai convention so that you would go away from Nidhi, but then Nidhi's destiny also sent her there. Then one day you confessed that you and Nidhi loved each other...my idyllic world crumbled to pieces around me in a split second. With that went my ethics and sanity, and the devil took charge of my soul.

Ashutosh, you may not know this...it was Aditya who, on my request, pressurized Nidhi's father on repayment of the bank's loan even after he suffered a huge business loss...and Nidhi was forced to sell that house that Baba had gifted her. Of course, you didn't know this till I mercilessly taunted you later. You went missing in your rage and hatred of Nidhi, I watched with a sadistic pleasure. But then I had underestimated the design of fate...both of you patched up. I was once again shattered and even tried to commit suicide...you cared for me even ignoring Nidhi for a while and I was in a fool's paradise. My Bhabhi Suhasini throughout kept on insisting that the "infatuation" that you had for Nidhi would end once you realized that the differences between you both were too huge to be capped...well hope is always eternal, isn't it? And then your accident happened, I once again tried to push Nidhi away from your world and failed miserably.

Your breakup with Nidhi in Kerala was a feather in my cap...Ashutosh, even today I hate myself for feeling happy when you were devastated. I don't know what evil had possessed me at that time. Well, time is the eternal healer, everyone around me said, and I hoped that one day you would forget Nidhi...then one day Jagan came knocking and I once again tried to emotionally blackmail you into marrying me. You refused, saying that you loved someone else...well again I had underestimated your's and Nidhi's destiny which was designed by God.

My marriage to Jagan was more a bed of thorns than a bed of roses. Well, there were quite a few things that I didn't know about him at that time, his being already married, his promiscuity and the subsequent HIV status. He claimed to be in love with me, but that, as I look back, was more of a possessive obsession bordering on sadism. Love and marriage for him, were more of lust than genuine commitment, and I was more or less a trophy wife that he could show off... I somehow escaped, with the help of a maid, and found my way to Lucknow where you found me, badly abused and humiliated.

What happened next is what you already know...Nidhi cared for me, graciously forgetting all my wrongdoings...my health started getting better and better and I started getting addicted to the attention showered by you. You were oblivious to this...or maybe you were too innocent to believe in this sort of guile. Nidhi somehow sensed it, you can call it a woman's inherent intuition...and tried to convince you, and failed...I felt elated once again on seeing both of you drifting away from each other. But then, I again started getting paranoid, on whether I could fool you further...I was desperate and in that I tried to kill Nidhi, not once but more than that. Ashutosh, the hurt and pain that I could see in your eyes once my crime was uncovered jolted me to reality...what had I done? What did I seek to achieve through all this? There are no answers. You could have easily turned me to the police, but for some reason, you didn't...but then you just deleted my name from your friend's list, a retribution which was much worse than any other thing possible in the civilized world.

Ashutosh, today as I lie alone and defenceless in the hospice, counting my last days, my body racked by fever and other opportunistic infections, I remember the days when Nidhi cared for me...and when you cared for me on my unsuccessful suicide attempt. The Management of AIIMS has been kind enough to provide for anti-retroviral support, but I refused...what do I live for? In my own self-centred obsession, I have lost the only friend I ever had in life...you!!! My own brother never bothered about me once I got married to Jagan...for them I was only a liability as an unmarried sister; on top of that Aditya had to face disciplinary action because of my insistence about Col Verma's loan, so he bears that grudge against me. My only hope, my child didn't survive to see this world...

There is nothing more to say...there are a few things that I am leaving behind for you... Dr Kapoor, the Dean of AIIMS will hand them over to you. I had clicked a lot of photos of both of us, with associated memories, which I am returning back to you...there is a rare collection of CDs which you would love. My blessings to Aneesh...I can see a future neurosurgeon in him already. There is a handsome balance in the account, which has been willed to be donated to charity...Then there is a collection of jewellery, I will be glad if Nidhi wears them...I would take that as forgiving on her part and my soul will rest in peace.

Adieu...my friend. My cremation formalities have been taken care of, and will be probably done before you get this letter. I had promised that you will never see me again, even when dead.

Your's friend (once upon a time)

Mallika

Ashutosh got up from his table, wherein he was sitting and reading this letter, and walked slowly outside. He looked up to the stars and a lone tear trickled down his cheek. Nidhi had walked out behind him and gently touched his shoulder, he put his arm around her and pulled her close...they stood for quite some time staring at the sky, her hand, adorned with a delicate silver bracelet, reached out to grasp his.

Originally posted by: niniborn2rule

hey doc was expecting some sweet ashni scenes in epilogue and not mallika...ashni's interaction with their kid...

Originally posted by: Sujatha.rao

You had to make your Mallika a star 😭...but I guess she is now in a place so far above that nothing will touch her...may her soul rest in peace!

Originally posted by: oaz30

Interesting way of seeing things... Actually i like it nice closure to the whole story...as we would say in literature the natural order of things has been restored