Chapter 7.
Kamalkant adjusted the pillow and tried to relax. The AC WAS WORKING NICELY AND IT WAS PLEASANT INSIDE THE COMPARTMENT. He tried to kill the demons in his head by concentrating on people travelling with him. There were 4 young people in their mid thirties. They were speaking in telugu, his mother tongue, a language he had not used in the last 15 years. During his jail term and in the following years in rishikesh he avoided using that language concentrating on improving his Hindi. He heard the heated exchange of words. He tried to concentrate.
“have to finish him off in the train only. Once he gets down at Hyderabad, he will be totally outside our reach. Security blanket around him will be tight. He has become a VIP now.”
‘Why should we kill him?’ asked another man. ’Not all operations are successful. He performed the operation all right, but patient died.
Exactly. the patient died. cause of death was negligence. The person who died was my young son ,because of doctor’s negligence. The court did not decide. They wanted to go by rules. Rules helped him to escape. My rule says the doctor dies .
It was never proved. You had your chances. your lawyers did a lousy job. He is free now.
‘whose side are you on’ screamed the young father. He escaped by legal gymnastics. we signed the papers before surgery that gave him a life line .when I have my dagger in his eyes, he will have no way of escaping. daggers do not speak legalese.”
There will be people in his compartment.
No ,he has taken a coupe. He will be alone.
How will you enter?
Caterer’s uniform. I have got one .I have really planned well for this task. Dr Shankar Reddy , you will not escape now. the man hissed
KamalKant heard all this and was jolted when he heard the name of the doctor. Dr Shankar reddy. same man? The name was same , the man who took over his unfinished hospital. The man who promised to keep it operational and running till he returned. The man who ditched me.
Kamalkant sharpened his ears to listen to their conversation with more interest now.
The young father continued.
My father told me once. This Shankar reddy was a product of a surgical academy, a top class training set up exclusively to train surgeons. It was started by Dr kAMALKANT, a brilliant doctor from UK. SHANKAR Reddy was entrusted with task of managing purchase dept in addition to medical services. The man wanted to make fast buck by fleecing the vendors. He picked up a fight with milk vendor .The supplier hit back by supplying poisoned milk. More than 10 children died in the child care centre attached to his hospital. Even the infant child of Dr.Kamalkant had died.
The case raised a big stink. Poor kamalkant became a scapegoat who was sent to jail. Dr Shankar Reddy kept low profile and no body connected him with the tragedy.
Shankar Reddy got hold of unfinished and unregistered hospital some how and never looked back. He is now VIP DOCTOR.
If Kamalkant was alive now, he will gladly hand over the dagger to me to finish him off.
Kamalkant winced hearing these words.
The pebble spoke softly.
‘did you hear that swamiji. This is your chance to redeem yourself. You have to save that doctor. In spite of whatever they say about him, he still remains a good doctor”
Must I save some one who ruined me?
‘A good hospital should not close down because of one bad man. you have to save him. I am telling you”
Swamiji was not convinced. He was not very keen on getting involved..
The pebble hissed
“Kamal, this Doctor is important for the hospital. It is your hospital. It is your legacy to the society. It is serving a good purpose and Doctor is an agent.”
This doctor killed a patient.
‘How do you know.?
These people are agitated because of that. ”the swamiji pointed out.
‘Kamal, you have performed a thousand operations in many places. Has not any one died on the operation table in the theatre, be honest. Surgery has its risks. Patients are told about it’
But this doctor was said to have been negligent
“It was never proved”
It is never easy to prove negligence. Doctors always clean up the mess made by them .There must have been some motive.
“Exactly. There was no motive in this case. Are these people talking about any motive?”
No, there is no mention of motive , not so for.
“that clears your way to intervene and save the doctor”. There was relief in the tone of the pebble
I am 72. How can I stop these people.
Alert the doctor. Inform the security.
‘Are you joking? You know what happened last time you sent me to alert the army about cloud burst in the hills.’
You saved thousands of people
“Nobody gave me any credit!”
That does not matter. .In my green book, I have entered all A’s against your name.
Big deal. That is joke of the century.
‘I am serious.’ The stone mumbled
KAMAL LAUGHED SILENTLY.
Kamalkant thought about the matter on hand. He did not know where Dr Shankar Reddy was sitting in the train.
Even if he knew that ,how was he going to convince the doctor about the danger?
What if he recognised kamal? would that not create new problem?
What if he refuses to believe him?
Kamalkant thought for some time. Then he decided he will involve a third party to save the doctor.
He prayed to Krishna.
The pebble grumbled, ’can’t a guy sleep for some time?”
“Krishna, you can not sleep now. You are here to help me. Now, tell me how do I find Dr Shankar reddy in this train.”
Simple. Find the travelling ticket inspector. He carries a clip board with list of all names of passengers. Ask him.
Kamalkant got down from his berth making minimum noise. But old age and weak bones are great nuisance. The compartment was dark because all passengers had gone to sleep switching off all lights. He stumbled through narrow aisle lurching from side to side. The TTE had his own bunk. he had completed his examination of all tickets and was getting ready to grab some sleep. Swamiji with his long beard scarred him silly, appearing all of a sudden
Kamalkant had his lines all set, “excuse me, I am not well. Can you help find a doctor on this train.”
The TTE was irritated. ”How will I know about that”, he was aggressive.
Kamalkant was calm.it is mandatory for doctors to indicate it in their application form while filling reservation form. It is always shown in the list of passengers. Please check.
The TTE glared at the bearded man. He extended the clipboard towards kamalkant, ‘take this and find out if such information is there’.
Kamal kant grabbed the clipboard and went through the list. It took time but he found it Dr Shankar Reddy AND Mrs Reddy IN COUPE D attached to HA1 compartment. He also noted that in coupe E there were 2 passengers Major Dickey and Mrs Kadambari. Kamalkant returned the clipboard with a word of thanks.
Kamalkant had noted that one could go from one end of train to other as all compartments were inter connected. He asked the TTE where HA1was .It was only two compartments away. He decided to wake up the passenger in coupe E to alert Dr.Shankar Reddy.
He lurched through the vestibules and reached the coupe E .He was about to knock on the door when the door opened sliding on rails.
Kamal was taken aback to see the door slide open all of a sudden. A burly Gurkha in army fatigue was at the door with a bull dog face and a tone to match.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? .The tone was authoritative and demanded a prompt answer. Even before he could catch his wits and answer the first question, a volley of questions followed in rapid fire mode.
‘You are not here again to sound another alarm about another overdue disaster.?
Kamal RECOGNISED THE PERSON AS Army major deputed to the hills to oversee the rescue operation. He had watched him speak to the jawans and his superior officers. He had dominated the show so much that a person watching could not say whether He owned the army or Army owned him. He had appeared at that time like a lion and jawans were running head over heels executing his orders. He had watched from his cell window the major sitting with the jawans and sharing their food.
Kamalkant thanked the gods for putting him in touch with this Major. He knew his job would become a lot easier if he could convince this man.
“Thank god, you are here major. You are the god send. Yes, I am here to sound out another alarm.”
Don’t you dare to tell me you have planted another bomb in the train. somewhere.
“No, no major.no bombs. But there is a bunch of young parents plotting to kill a doctor in this coupe. They are expecting to strike just before the train streams into Nagpur station early in the morning. They will strike and get down from train at the station and walk away.”
‘How do you know?’ Dickey barked
“I heard them talking. My berth is right over their seats. They spoke in telugu.”
.You understand Telugu?
“I am a telugu.”
You are telling the truth?
“Yes, Major.”
In the mean while, Kadambari woke up and joined them to see what they were discussing. Kadhambari smiled to herself. Her friend had been complaining that life had all of a sudden become very dull with out any excitement or violent action. Dickey looked for trouble at every corner and when it came he was in his elements dealing with it. From the way the conversation was going on, she was convinced that trouble had at last found its way to Dickey.
She patted Dickey and said, “enjoy yourself, Dickey. I will go and sleep”
No kaddu, not so soon. we may need a feminine pitch here. So please stand by and watch.
Dickey knocked at coupe D door.
An impatient man shouted from inside, “go away , we are sleeping”
No, Doctor. Please, open the door. This is an emergency.
The doctor opened the door and saw the burly Gurkha in army green banyan and khaki shorts.
He was annoyed and tried to shut the door on Dickey’s face. But Dickey was quick to put his feet in to prevent the door from shutting., He said in an unpleasant tone, ‘Look here Doctor. There is a bunch of young parents out to kill you and throw your body out of train. Would you like to talk about it or allow them to walk all over you.’
Oxford English from a gurkha floored the doctor.
He said haltingly, ’what was that? I did not catch all that you said. Somebody wants to kill me? whatever for?’
You killed a two year old child in a botched up surgery.
‘When and where?’
Do not act as though you do not know. It was there in all national papers and media went bersek. It is a miracle you escaped .you possibly have powerful friends. But to night, you are at the core of a trap like a bloody rat.’ Dickey could cut you down with words.
‘What are you talking about?’
The surgery you did at AIMS Delhi. If you still continue to act as though you don’t know, I will punch you to death and save those poor parents lot of effort. Dickey’s Popeye forearm and ham fist was with in inch of Doctor’s face.
Doctor stepped back in hurry.
‘I did not perform the operation. I have explained it all during the enquiry. The doctor who actually performed the surgery was careless. He did not check the child’s blood condition. The child bled to death, not because of surgery but because the child was a haemapalia patient and the stupid doctor did not know about it. That is the truth’.
“May be. But the young parents of the child are not buying it. Would you like to argue that point with them? They want your blood.”.
That is not fair.
“Not fair? You doctors, what do you know about fairness considering the way you all gang up to fleece the patients. Did you not collect the fees for your services beforehand for a surgery that was botched.”
That is a different matter.
“That is what you think. The parents think differently. Now they are holding you by the short hair. You want to scream for help or fold up and die. That is for you to decide.”
Doctor was silent. The major was menacing.
Doctor said , ‘I am not the fighting type.’
Then you must be the running type, rats .
‘I am not good at that either.’
“So what are you, man?”
Dickey was angry.
‘I am a good doctor.’
Dickey looked him in the eye. what he saw in the eyes impressed him.
“Okay , you are good doctor. I will not debate that point now. The Oldman wanted me to save you. So I will help you. Now we have to swap places. You take my place and I will take your place. They will come to hit you and I will be there to deal with it.
‘I do not seem to have any other choice. I will talk to my wife. tell me how you got to know about all this?’
Dickey pointed to kamalkant standing away in the corridor. There was no light and doctor did not recognise him.
‘I SUPPOSE, I SHOULD BE THANKING YOU FOR THIS.BUT PLEASE BELIEVE ME I DID NOT KILL THAT CHILD”
He did not wait for response. He went inside the compartment to brief his wife and prepare to swap places with the major.
Kamalkant went back to his bed satisfied that matter was safe with Dickey in the picture.