KANAKPUR DOCTOR
Ayan was right. . . Kanakpur is not Govindapur. Just a moment ago. . . That morning, he took the five-forty-four train and left home for the afternoon. He got off the bus at the city intersection and the commotion was still going on. The jolting of the ox cart might crush some of his back bones. Damn! Do back bones ever crush? Binayendra laughed to himself. Having just passed his medical degree, he was going to Kanakpur with hope and confidence. Everyone's friends, relatives, and relatives were there.
What do you say, Mondal Mashai! And where is Kaddur, your Kanakpur? To break the boredom of being silent, Binayendra asks the cartman.
This is what I said. After crossing Fatehpur bend, Dhopar Dighi - then Kanakpur Hospital. Yes-r-r-! Tha-tha. Rakhhari Mandal replied by twisting the tails of the two bullocks.
How is the treatment at your hospital?
Morning will be morning, now let's go home, Nibaran is getting angry.-
There are three rooms in the Kanakpur Health Center. The room next to the verandah provides outdoor treatment. There, a shaky cot with a torn oilcloth sheet. In front, on a table covered with dusty sheets, there are two or three vials and large bottles. In the next room, a dirty bed on a stool. Lungis, towels, dhoti and two or three Punjabis are hanging from the ropes on the wall. A hunchback is in one corner of the room and dishes are next to the hunchback. This room is under the control of the lower class, they say with folded hands, it is a village hospital! What happens when you spend the night? Can anyone tell me about the dangers? That's why I have to spend the night here.
"Your house?" Binayendra asks with surprised eyes.
He is far away, about thirty miles from here, in Chardanga, said Nibaranbabu, you have arrived, now I am at ease. If you survive, you will have time to go home in a day or two - what a mercy!
Rahmat didn't say anything, he just laughed and stood up.
Why, why won't I survive?
This is your room, all the previous doctors have spent a night here, Nibaranbabu said, turning back to Binayendra, "Please leave the suitcase there and go to Hensel. The washroom is next door. There is water in a bucket. Egg soup and rice - will that be enough, doctor?"
"You mean it will work?" "It will work great," said Binayendra, sitting at the checkpoint, "but what about the light?" "Is there no light system?"
Morning will be morning, now let's go home, Nibaran is getting angry.-
There are three rooms in the Kanakpur Health Center. The room next to the verandah provides outdoor treatment. There, a shaky cot with a torn oilcloth sheet. In front, on a table covered with dusty sheets, there are two or three vials and large bottles. In the next room, a dirty bed on a stool. Lungis, towels, dhoti and two or three Punjabis are hanging from the ropes on the wall. A hunchback is in one corner of the room and dishes are next to the hunchback. This room is under the control of the lower class, they say with folded hands, it is a village hospital! What happens when you spend the night? Can anyone tell me about the dangers? That's why I have to spend the night here.
"Your house?" Binayendra asks with surprised eyes.
He is far away, about thirty miles from here, in Chardanga, said Nibaranbabu, you have arrived, now I am at ease. If you survive, you will have time to go home in a day or two - what a mercy!
Rahmat didn't say anything, he just laughed and stood up.
Why, why won't I survive?
This is your room, all the previous doctors have spent a night here, Nibaranbabu said, turning back to Binayendra, "Please leave the suitcase there and go to Hensel. The washroom is next door. There is water in a bucket. Egg soup and rice - will that be enough, doctor?"
is taken
"You mean it will work?" "It will work great," said Binayendra, sitting at the checkpoint, "but what about the light?" "Is there no light system?"
There is a big shortage of kerosene here. There is a hurricane - Rahmat will light it when it is ready. Sit down, Nibaranbabu said as he left the room.
Darkness began to gather around Binayendra. He opened his attaché case and took out a torch. In the light of the torch, he took off his clothes and shoes and lay down on the bed. Leaving the house in Maniktala and going to the doctor's office in Kanakpur - who knows what fate awaits him?
Suddenly it rains! Or is it a blizzard! Mosquitoes swarm and the sound of a humming song. The sound of a whisper in the air. Binayendra shivers in the cold. How hard and rough everything is under his back. There are twinkling lights all around. He is shocked! It is very difficult to open his eyes - his eyelids feel heavy. What is dancing in front of him - white thumps, swinging their two hands? Binayendra is shocked! Isn't it a ghost? Ayan said it was a ghostly Govindapur! The hair on his head stands on end. No, not a human. Humans don't dance in such a random, rhythmless, wild way. Besides, if they were humans, they would have legs and a head. Binayendra sits up with a thud. Where is the bed? Where is the health center room. All around is only grass and piles of broken bricks. The torchlight was near his head - Binayendra kept moaning. There was nothing anywhere - except dry branches of trees. He came to the house in the evening? How did he come? He had a habit of coming out in his sleep no. The white statue dances away and then comes forward again. While studying medicine, he spent night after night in the hospital. He went to the morgue and dismembered the bodies of dead people. He had never seen a ghost. What was the harm in this? He picked up the branch of a fallen tree. Gathering courage and strength in his hand, he threw it at the statue, aiming for it.
Ah! Save me! I'm dying! Save me!
Binayendra's aim was in vain. He stood up with a bold leap. He chased the running white statue with the energy of twenty-four years. He stumbled on his bare feet. He didn't care. The determination to catch the ghost was pressing down on his head.
What the hell, Rahmat, what happened? Nibaranbabu, who had just arrived at the front veranda of the health center and was about to fall down, wanted to know. He ran inside the house and brought the flickering Hurricane lamp and leaned over to light it. Binayendra came and stood next to Rahmat, who was covered in blood.
I won't live anymore, save me, Doctor. I will never be a ghost again, I will never be born again, she continued to sob.
mercy
Ah! Nibaranbabu, break the pot from her head. Binayendra ordered in a hoarse voice. He leaned over and examined Rahmat's injury. His head was cracked. He needs stitches. Quickly bring my attaché. Nibaranbabu removed the broken clay pot, stained with dust and dirt, from Rahmat's head. He ran inside the room. Rahmat suddenly grabbed Binayendra's leg, "Dr. Babu, save me."
"Come on, come inside," Binayendra said, lifting the injured Rahmat with both hands. "If the blow had been a little harder, she could have died."
Nibaran Babu had just arrived at the outdoor table with Binayendra's attaché. Binayendra skillfully stitched Rahmat's torn forehead, applied medicine, and bandaged it.
He gives a tetanus injection on his left wrist. He wants to know, now tell me why you dressed up as a ghost?
It's not his fault, Nibaranbabu cried out, it's all my fault. Since childhood, I had wanted to be a doctor. I became a compounder. I forgot to give medicines to the people of the village. I'm not a doctor - whenever a doctor came from Calcutta, I would scare them away by dressing up Rahmat as a ghost. To maintain my hobby of fake medicine.
But how did I get out of bed and into the field, Binayendra wants to know.
"Rahmat and I took you away," Nibaranbabu replied, lowering his head.
What if a snake had bitten me instead of being possessed by a ghost?
Nibaranbabu doesn't answer. He stands silently with his head bowed, "Forgive me, Doctor. Get the car ready, Babu! If you don't leave early in the morning, you won't be able to get the bus to the station," Binayendra looks up and sees Rakhhari.
Standing in front of the circle, the sky was slowly turning pale.
"What do you say, Nibaranbabu? I will go with Rakhhari," Vinayendra asks.
Whatever happens! Doctor Babu won't go anywhere - he'll stay here - whatever happens, Nibaran Babu rushed towards Rakhhari without answering Binayendra's words.
In the morning sky, somewhere in a distant tree, a cuckoo calls out, "Kahuuhu-ka-tee."