Mamta Kalia

to the Oxygen mask. And then, there
wasn’t any curiosity too, but now, at
this time he was looking at him intently,
straining his memory.
Despite the similarity in physical
stature and complexion, the adultness
of the face, grey in the hair and the
shut eyes of the patient didn’t match
with the Vijay Mitra he had seen years
ago. His eyes grew big with pleasant
surprise remembering the Vijay Mitra
of twenty five or six years ago. He really
had become emotional at that moment.
Psychiatrist Dr. Ramashish Dev
addressed Dr. Bhagat, seeing him quiet
and slightly agitated —”what happened,
Dr. Bhagat?
Dr. Sujata Roy had also asked the
same question —”what happened, Sir?”
Instead of answering her I called Sister
Elvin, she came to me almost running.
I ordered her —”Sister, send his blood
sample to Biochemistry and, call his
attendant.”
Sister Elvin went back straight. Dr.
Sujata Roy had given the patient
streptokinase. I checked the I.V. line
to satisfy myself. Then I sat near ECG
monitor and waited for Sister Elvin. Dr.
Sujata Roy addressed me, perhaps seeing
me very serious —”Sir, what are you
thinking?”
Dr. C.K. Bhagat remembered vividly
what he was thinking about Vijay Mitra
at that time. In the third year of medical
college, the boy who became his roommate
was this Vijay Mitra. Wheatish-
complexioned Vijay Mitra was of normal
stature. He generally kept silent in the
class room. Steeped in himself as if his
body and soul were at different places.
Till second year he was just a hi-hello
acquaintance. In third year when they
became room-mates, he chanced to know
Vijay Mitra. In the beginning Vijay Mitra
talked just necessary things with him,
but after some time the formalities
crumbled. Now they talked more freely.
Those days, Vijay Mitra kept late
nights and studied by his table lamp.
Since he wasn’t in the habit of late nights,
he slept early. But whenever he awoke
at night, he found Vijay Mitra reading.
One such night when he awoke, he found
Vijay Mitra was not in his bed. He thought
he must have gone to bathroom and
slept. But after that often he found him
missing from his bed. This night bunking
of Vijay Mitra was as curious as it was
mysterious. After all he had asked him
one day —”Partner, where do you vanish
all night? Is there some affair?”
Vijay Mitra neither got surprised,
nor there was any feeling of being caught.
Just a little smile came to his face —
“No crushes, friend! Just go off to
wander.”
He wasn’t satisfied with this
explanation. But the manner of Vijay
Mitra was such that he couldn’t ask
anything further. It felt like intruding
into his personal matters. He suppressed
his desire to solve the mystery.
But his mystery couldn’t remain
April-June 2010 :: 117