I went through all the other patient’s charts. Accident case was getting discharged in the morning. I was happy for Kumar. I looked forward to being appreciated for my efforts to clean and dress the wounds. There were no signs of infection in any of the wounds, the main reason the patient was getting discharged. And I did it!

Dr. Bhatti came for the rounds a few minutes late.
I nodded my head and greeted him
“Good evening sir”
He looked at me as though he was trying to figure out something.
I kind of figured he must have got the smell of the Jasmine flowers!
He didn’t ask anything and I didn’t say anything.
He walled towards bed 1.
I followed him.
I wanted to tell him about the new abdomen measurements. I knew something wasn’t right and i wanted Dr. Bhatti to know.
Before I had a chance to tell him he asked Mariamma
“When is the wedding?”
“in 2 1/2 weeks Dr. Sir, When can I go home?” She asked
“Most likely by the end of this week Mariamma”
But, Dr. Bhatti, there is more fluid in her belly. I wanted to tell him.
“Did you measure?” He looked at me
“yes sir.” I told him the latest measurement.
He looked at the chart and nodded his head.
Did he not see? I wondered.
He could have.. He was the one who measured and wrote the charts the last time.
“Everything is going to be alright Mariamma. Soon you will be going home” Dr. Bhatti tapped Mariamma’s shoulder and smiled.
I wanted to smile too.
How to smile when I knew there was something wrong? But the Medicine professor said everything is going to be alright. He has decades of more experience than me. I looked at Mariamma and smiled. I was happy for her. I knew how she looked forward to seeing her youngest son getting married.
Would my mother look forward to my wedding? I wondered.
Nah, nah, no wedding. I won’t think about wedding. I am going to be single. I told myself, knowing very well that, it is a lie. Because the truth is, there is always a yin and yang, just as there is a right and left, just as there is light and darkness.
I needed my other half to complete the whole picture.

There was a young male patient on bed 5 who was admitted in the morning. I had noticed the word ? blood Dyscrasias. Rule out causes.
I had no idea what was blood dyscrasias.
I also didn’t spend any of my precious energy to find an intern and ask what does it mean.

As we walked to bed 5, I could feel the Apocalypse. Any minute now Dr. Bhatti will ask me what is blood dyscrasias and I will have to face the consequences . Hopefully I will only be getting yelled at in front of all the patients.
My karma!
I wanted to hit my head on the wall for being so thick headed.
Dr. Bhatti was speaking to the patient. He informed the parents about all the tests that are being done. He checked the patient’s eyes, wrote couple of things on the charts, nodded his head and walked to the next bed.
I took a deep breath.
Phew, that was close.
Never, never, never will I do this again. I will always ask ‘why’ to every unknown factor/word etc.
Just before we reached bed 6, Dr. Bhatti stopped walking. He looked at me.
kadavuley, Here it comes. I looked at his eyes, waiting for him to say the dreaded word dyscrasias.
“Do you know Who is Rasputin?” He asked
What? What did he say?
“Excuse me sir, what?” I knew I sounded like an idiot.
“Do you know who is Rasputin?”
Rasputin? I churned my brain in and out. No Rasputin in Greek/Latin or any of the stories I have read. The closest name I could think of was Rumpelstiltskin. But not Rasputin.
The only Rasputin I could think of was the Boney M song Rasputin. I knew I would sound dumb if I said it is a Boney M song. So I shook my head and said No.
“You never listened to Boney M songs?” he looked at me quizzically
Of course I did. I have all their albums.
“I do sir”
“You never heard their song Ra Ra Rasputin”
Of course I have listened to that song a million times.
Ra ra Rasputin
Lover of the Russian queen
There was a cat that really was gone
Ra ra Rasputin
Russia’s greatest love machine
It was a shame how he carried on

Who the hell was Rasputin and why the hell did Boney M sing that song? I wondered, knowing well that it was tad too late to wonder about it now. I had sang that song so many times and never once wanted to know who was this Rasputin guy.
Dr. Bhatti shook his head disappointedly.
Come on, Don’t shake your head, tell me who is Rasputin. I thought of telling him. But he was the Professor. How to tell him that?

I hated not knowing something. Not that I knew everything. But how could I not bother to know who was Rasputin when I knew the song so well.

Eventually we reached bed 12.
Kumar’s father came towards Dr. Bhatti, folded his hands and thanked him. Kumar got up from the bed and he too folded his hands and thanked Dr. Bhatti.
I looked at them with a smile on my face. An advance smile for thanking me.
But they didn’t.
Neither of them said a word to me.
And if you have ever smiled anticipating something and you didn’t get it, then you will know how it felt to smile like an idiot.