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Mamta Kalia

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next month.”<br />

“To marry you?”<br />

“Yes” —She had a confident voice<br />

but she was not looking at him. Pankaj<br />

had observed that she had put flowers<br />

of jasmine (mullai) in her hair. The flowers<br />

had dried up but the fragrance was there.<br />

“Can you tell me, how I was brought<br />

in this Intensive Care Unit?” He had<br />

come back on himself.<br />

“You had a massive heart-attack and<br />

your cute fat wife brought you here<br />

in Alfred Hospital.”<br />

“So , my wife has saved my life.”<br />

This was his turn to get emotional.<br />

“And she saved herself” She had a<br />

sarcasm full with emotion in her voice.<br />

That was strange. She had laughed. She<br />

had white teeth, no gaps, no cavities.<br />

“What do you mean?” He was just<br />

shocked.<br />

“You understand and even then ask<br />

so many questions”—she had said. She<br />

spoke in a very low tone but in the<br />

deep silence of the Intensive Care Unit,<br />

her voice was sounding well. The room<br />

had no open window, no passage for<br />

any cross ventilation. Her voice was<br />

echoing. She evaded reply.<br />

She had checked syringe bottles. For<br />

him that was his food as well as medicine.<br />

Then, she picked back the wooden stool<br />

and put it in its own place. She had<br />

put her head on the table and closed<br />

her eyes. This time he did not challenge<br />

his authority as a heart patient. Rather,<br />

he thought, this should be the right time<br />

when Thomas must be approaching her,<br />

sitting on the wings of his camel, from<br />

the Middle East.<br />

Every night when Sozen was doing<br />

double shift, Thomas used to visit her,<br />

sitting on the back of the camel-seat,<br />

crossing deserts and forests, towns and<br />

rivers, mountains and seas and then<br />

stopped at his last destination outside<br />

the doors of Intensive Care Unit of Alfred<br />

Hospital where his Sozen was on the<br />

job. Thomas who was a technician and<br />

whose hands had turned into iron-sheets,<br />

loved Sozen to such an extent that when<br />

he touched her, she had a feeling that<br />

Thomas’ hands are made of sponge. Sozen<br />

who was otherwise busy in injecting<br />

patients for the whole day, giving food<br />

through drips also used to come up like<br />

a blossoming flower. She used to take<br />

his head in her small hands and kiss<br />

him.<br />

Camel with wings waited for his rider<br />

Thomas outside the Intensive Care Unit.<br />

Sozen was very happy on that day. She<br />

had told Thomas about Pankaj. She had<br />

also informed him that he is working<br />

with media and he will talk to hospital<br />

authorities about her night-shift<br />

allowance. Thomas felt happy.<br />

Pankaj was aware of the reality but<br />

kept mum. Even the camel standing<br />

outside ICU was happy. Thomas was<br />

equally doing double duty as Technician.<br />

Camel also thought that things are same<br />

everywhere whether it is middle-east or<br />

April-June 2010 :: 97

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