Ma's Appointment with the Surgeon

“There's a story behind everything. How a picture got on a wall. How a scar got on your face. Sometimes the stories are simple, and sometimes they are hard and heartbreaking. But behind all your stories is always your mother's story, because hers is where yours begin.”
- Mitch Albom

  'For One More Day'

The hospital was huge!

Its large pillars and domes on the four corners made it seem more like a Mughal palace than a place where people come to when they are sick (or to die). There was lush green lawn outside with a smallish angel fountain in the center of it, around which the IN and OUT routes for vehicles were mapped out so that people may navigate themselves within the premises. It was quaint on the outside. Beautiful flowers were beginning to bloom on the decorative plants around the park benches in the lawn. This place reeked of rich monies. There was probably had a rich trustee or a patron, who had donated generously!

But on the inside, inevitably, the environment was gloomy. The whole place stinked, the usual stench of hospitals anywhere around the planet. The smells of medicines, anti-septics, alcohol swabs, maybe a bit of urine here and there. This hospital was just as big inside as it was outside. But the sheer number of people inside it made it seem tiny and crowded, especially around the reception's desk. That was where Vik was standing right now hands on hips and exasperation evident on his face.

Vik had just told the lady at the desk for the hunderedth time that he was here for an appointment with the surgeon for fixing his mother's leg. To which the receptionist has just informed him for the ninety-ninth time that his appointment was for 6PM and he has come in at 6:45PM he will have to wait now. She can only get him to see the surgeon once a gap shows up in the his schedule which was packed for another couple of hours, or he could take a seat and hope that someone else was just as punctual as him had an appointment today and shows up late so that she could get him into their slot.

Vik was always a kind-hearted guy but also had considerable amount of temper under his hood which he always kept in check. It inevitably showed up from time to time, especially when he has had a rough day in office like today.

---

He had had an argument with his manager at work just an hour ago,
when he had gone to tell him that he wanted to leave early to take his mother to the hospital. The manager started listing out the amount of work that the team still had on its plate that needs to be taken care of before monday's status call with client. Vik just reminded him that he was done with his module's work and all the updates from his side has been input to the spreadsheet and anybody else can pull up anything from it if and when needed. But the manager wasnt hearing half of what he said after the 'I-have-completed-my-work' phrase, he started ranting on about how he always saw his people as one unit and expected them to see themselves in the same light and work towards their common goal, 'together-as-a-team' there was nothing called 'my-work or your-work'. Blah blah. The same bullcrap that managers pull at employees when they have work to get done and less number capable hands on deck.

Vik hated this guy.

Vik hated his lopsided toupee that was always of a different shade of brown from the rest of his black hair. Vik hated this overly pompous snob who would at any conversation with anyone try to insert one of those best insprirational Thought of The Day from QuoteGarden. Vik hated the way this pretentious bufoon talked about the French Riviera and Monet like he has actually been to/seen any one of these. Vik had even heard him talk about Tagore being Anglophile, and that our national anthem was written in praise of the then visiting King of England and that nothing in the song was anything related to our country. He actually believed to be the first to have discovered this scandal.

But most of all Vik hated him today. For making him stay back in office, doing other people's work. Work that already was much less complicated and much more tedious than what he had busted his butt off doing most of the day. He had already come in three hours earlier today to get all his work done and leave early. Still he grudgingly took to his computer and started charting out the documentations for the modules that the other lazybums in his team were supposed to be working on. He chose to help only Shrini and Purohit, two of the better liked members of the team. They themselves were already burdened enough by the unruly client's daily-changing requests, it seemed more like a two-year-old kid who had just realized that if he cries loud and long enough the people taking care of him has no choice but to do things to his liking.

Darn them. Darn them all. Stupid maggot-brained buffoons.

His phone rings.

"Beta, where are you? Did you board the train just fine??", came the slow feeble female voice from the other end. And he couldnt help but blame himself more for trying to shut out the pain that he sensed in it.

"Nah Ma, I will have to stay back in office for another hour or so. I will get somebody from office to drop me home rather than get the train, that should make up for the time we have lost.", he lied.

There was no way he was going to reach in time to make it to the hospital for the apointment. He just couldnt bring himself to tell her ,knowing how much she was in pain, he had stayed back in office cause his boss ordered him to. Oh, how he hated that guy!

"Oh, that is alright dont worry beta. There was no need for the hospital visit anyways. You know how much I am scared of Dr. Patel touching anywhere close that swollen heel. That surgeon just likes to hurt people, I think he enjoys that part of his job the most. You just do your work well and come home carefully, I am fine.", she said all of it a single breath. Trying desperately to hide how much out of breath she is because of the pain running all through her right leg. She didnt want her son to be burdened with any more guilt than he has already assumed on himself.

Mothers. Lovely adorable, mothers. Where would we be without them?

"No way, Ma! You need that heel taken care of, and you are going to have it done today. I am leaving immediately. You get ready to leave as soon as I get there, okay?"

"Okay beta, I will be. You just come carefully alright? Don't be in a hurry, and don't be hanging off doors in the train back, stay inside the compartment okay?"

'I am thirty-one-year-old. And she still says that everytime I am about to travel by train.', Vik thought to himself.

Mothers.

"Yes, Ma. Promise."

He disconnected the call with a smile on his face. He didn't recall that he had picked up the call with heavy shoulders and a frown on his face. That was gone now.

He turned to his computer screen next. After a moment's pondering, he simply opened his office's internal messaging software, informed his boss that he had typed a basic first draft of the documents and the rest will be done by Shrini and Purohit. He was leaving.

Vik did not wait for a reply, and went offline immediately. And went out of the building as fast as his legs would take him.

He blitzed his way to the station, to the platform, pushed and shoved his way into the train. There crammed into a tiny cube with over a hundred odd other weary daily commuters, he was counting back the stations to his destination, to his home. So was everyone else.

He got off the train, got into a autorickshaw, payed him and ran off into his apartment building without waiting for the change. He climed the stairwell two at a time. They lived in the fourth floor.

He knocked on the door, his mother opened it already ready and the smell in the air telling him she had started preparing his tea for him. She always knew.

He went into his room, changed from his office clothes. They stinked of sweat, exhaust smoke, fast food and of train.

He dressed in jeans and a cotton t-shirt. Got out of his room, and his mother handed him his tea.

She was limping a little. But wasn't showing any pain on her face, and was still talking about how his sister had called earlier and had told her how his neice had won another competition of some sort at kindergarten. She was just five-year-old, but already had a knack winning at almost everything she gets into. She and her grandpa, who was presently visiting them for a couple of weeks, were out walking in the park. Vik's mother can't wait to get her leg fixed up so she could join her husband and see her grandchild again.

The grandma in her seemed very pleased just talking about her grand-daughter right now.

Vik liked to see her smiling, so let her be for a while more. When he was completed with his tea, helped her out of the apartment, he had already booked a taxi to get them to the hospital.

---

That's how they got here.

Still waiting near the reception at the lobby. Vik was standing near the hallway to the surgeon's office, facing the desk. Ready to dart towards Dr. Patel's with his mother as soon the lady gives him the heads up. His mother was sitting in one of the chairs in the waiting lounge, playing with the infant of a complete stranger couple who was sitting beside her. He had no idea how she did that. Make friends with a complete stranger so easily and so well that they even trust her with their child so soon.

Mothers.

He was bored of all the waiting, it was almost half-an-hour now that he has been waiting in the lobby now. Maybe more frustrated than just bored. Vik wanted his mother to be attended to as fast as possible now. His usually suppressed temper was going to show anytime now.

He moved from where he was standing and walked over briskly to the receptions desk, a nerve pulsing clearly on his high forehead. Even the lady at the desk noticed the pace was faster this time and was secretly bracing herself for an heated argument anytime now. She hated these parts of her job, he was just trying to look after his family she wished he could tell him she was trying her best to help him.

Vik had reached the desk and heavily placed both his palms on her desk and opened his mouth to yell out to her.

"Vikram, is that you?"

Vik turned around to see who was foolish enough to call out to him at such a time.

Obviously. It was his boss, Hari Sade.

'God, help him. If he pulls anything funny now, he is so dead.', Vik said to himself.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were off to your house. Your mother was unwell wasn't she?", he said haughtily.

'That is why we are in an hospital now, you darn fool', he was close to shout that to his face.

Instead he said, "Yes, she is sitting there."

He pointed out to the place where his mother was sitting. That's when he also saw that she was holding her right leg tightly and was wincing with pain. She never shows pain on her face, unless it was something really that unbearable.

He left his boss standing where he was and rushed to his mother.

"What is the matter, Ma? Has it started paining again?"

"Nah, just tried to stand up to go to the restroom. And unknowingly put some weight on the heel spur, thats all beta.", his mother said sitting back on her chair still wincing.

"Thats all? You know how much that is going to hurt, why did you try to get up on your own?! Wait I will get a nurse to take you to the rest room."

He turned around to find his boss was just behind him. The fat slob had followed him, sensing he could snoop out information about Vikram's real reason to evade his tasks in office. Vik didn't have time to handle his boss's craziness right now.

He went off to find someone to help his mother, while his boss stayed back talking to his mother.

He convinced a young nurse to help his mother to the restroom, she was already busy with a tray full of cups and bottles of different colored syrups and tonics. She grudgingly put them down in a table nearby and followed Vik to where his mother was sitting.

The nurse helped his mother onto a wheelchair, taking care that the older lady does not put any weight on her right leg.

"Thank you so much nurse, I am really gratefull for your help. I will be waiting for the both of you right here when you are done."

"No you will not be, Vikram."

He turned around to find his boss there, again. Only now he was returning from the receptionist's desk again and had an odd kind of smile on his face now. Odd because, for the first time since the three years that Vik has known this guy, this smile was actually a pleasant one.

"You will bring her directly to Dr. Patel's office." he said to the nurse, and then turning to Vikram added, "I have spoken with the receptionist. I have an appointment with Dr. Patel starting in five-minutes. The lady has agreed to let your mother see him in that slot. She seemed rather happy with that proposal actually, guess you scared enough with that pulsing nervepoint on your forehead there!"

Vik, who was also now smiling without him knowing it, asked "But then what about you, when will you be able to see the doctor?"

"That doesn't really matter son, your mother needs the doctor's attention more than me. I am just here to check out an option for an abdominal wall surgery. Which is just another glorified word for a Tummy Tuck," he said grabing a chunk of flabby flesh around his waist, "just don't mention anything about it to the guys at office". He winked at that, he actually winked.

The nurse was already off with his mother while the two were talking.

Vikram was sort of speechless. He never thought he would be seeing anything resembling a shimmer of goodness in his boss. But here this guy was, helping him when he really wanted somebody's help really bad, even if he wouldn't admit that to himself.

"Hari, I.." he started to atleast attempt to thank this man.

"Let me stop you right there, son. There is no need to thank me for anything. While you were off to find a nurse to help your mother, I got to speak to her for a bit, she is a really lovely woman. But was in a hell lot of pain. I just did what any other decent human being would have done, man. After all, we all have mothers!"

They just looked at each other for a while. All Vik could do was smile, a tad bit too emotional to say anything else. He was afraid tears would show, if he did utter a single syllable.

"Well then now, get going", his boss, Hari, said after a while clapping a fist on Vik's shoulder. "Your mother might already be on her way to the surgeon's office. See you tomorrow in office then, on a ssecond thought take a day and just don't come in tomorrow. Take care of Maaji, tell her I said goodbye."

Hari Sadu simply turned around and walked away with a uncharacteristic jump in his step. After a long time, the 'boss' was feeling good about something that he had done. A very long time.

And Vik?

He just stood there looking at his boss walking away.

Just enlightened to the fact that when it comes to some things in life, everybody has a soft corner in their hearts. Even, Hari Sade.

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