Ade Ramachandra!!!

In the past, I have not kept well on a number of occasions. Most of the time it would be the common cough, cold, fever, headache, stomach ache, dysentery kind of stuff. But today it was something else. Something that made my heart, skip a beat. I have been having this severe cough for the past 4-5 days and due to the workload in the past few days, I found myself paying too little attention to it. Moreover my eating and sleeping habits had gone for a toss. Little did I realize that I was in for some surprise today morning. Now that I am into Marketing, myself and Babu (my boss) had been working on getting the design (look and feel) and content of the brochures and catalogues for the past few days. A seminar is coming up the next Wednesday in New Delhi. We had to sit with the creative team at the graphic design studio to see to that we got what we wanted. So last night was THE DAY, as the postures and brochures had to be sent for the press today. So by the time we got it done, it was 2.30 in the morning and by the time I came back home it was 3.15. I straight away crashed into my bed and dozed off.

Getting up today morning, I realized I had to go to the press. (Babu had insisted that I accompany him to the press so that I get to know how much work goes into a poster (or brochure) before it comes out in the form of a booklet. That way I would be able to appreciate it better.) It was already 10.45 A.M and I had to hurry. After brushing my teeth, I was busy getting ready when I suddenly got into a fit of coughing that I had to rush to the washbasin to spit out the mucus that had accumulated in my throat. After spiting it out I kept staring at the sticky mess that lay in the washbasin. It was at this particular instant that my heart almost skipped a beat.

The mucus was covered with blood.

Flushing the washbasin I staggered out of the bathroom and wiped my mouth with a kerchief.

What could it be? Then I suddenly felt a sense of relief rising in my body when I remembered that just immediately after brushing I had drank a cupful of cough syrup.
May be the cough syrup too had come out with the mucus making me mistake it for blood. But before I could come to a conclusion, I was seized by another fit of coughing which found me rushing back to the washbasin.

This time I had no doubts, for the color was unmistakable. Cough syrups don’t come in blood red.

Fighting the fear that was fast enveloping me I tried to remain calm and think about it. Then remembering my visit to the press, I called up boss and informed him about my situation. He urged me to make it to the hospital immediately. Hanging up the line I called my buddy Ashok, who said he would be in my room in a moment. By the time he and his roommate (Ganesh) arrived at my room, Ashok had already called up his Sister, who is a doctor. She had asked him about my smoking habits. When he had replied that I was an occasional smoker, she had dispensed fears of me having tuberculosis.

TUBERCULOSIS.

Oh! God!! Then Ganesh wanted me to speak to his brother (who again turned out to be a doctor). As I spoke to him, he questioned me on the symptoms and asked if I was having dry coughs. When I replied in the positive, he fell silent for a moment and then rephrased his question to whether I was having dry cough or cough accompanied by mucus. When I made it clear that it was the later, he seemed relieved and told me not to worry much. He meant that chances of it being TUBERCULOSIS were very remote!!!

He advised me to get it checked up immediately. So off I went with Ashok to Sri Ramachandra Medical Hospital near Porur. The MIOT hospitals was just 5 minutes from my home whereas the Ramachandra took close to 20 minutes but I still preferred the later knowing very well that former were very good at swindling money.

Sitting in the pillion of the bike, I just couldn’t keep myself still. For some reasons my mind kept playing a scene from Kamal Hassan’s movie “Valvea Mayam”. It was the scene where he coughs and blood splutters out of this mouth. The film ends when he dies.

He dies of BLOOD CANCER.

Oh!! My GOD!!!! What if? What if? What if? I did not want to complete that sentence even mentally. I pulled out my purse and checked its contents. I had a thousand rupees. Was it sufficient? What if I had to go through some expensive tests where there probed some kind of a tube down my throat while the doc checked for anything abnormal on the computer screen? Then seeing the thick gold chain on Ashok’s neck I felt relieved!!

Finally we were in Ramachandra Hospitals. The moment I landed there all stuff related to blood, mucus, tuberculosis, and cancer took a back seat as my eyes shifted across a section of beautiful girls in their white coats walking my way!!! (The campus housed the college as well as the hospital)And only when they had crossed me did all the seriousness of my purpose of visit get back to me. No wonder they say BOYS will be BOYS!

Getting myself registered, I waited nervously outside the ENT specialist room. A few minutes later I heard my named being called out loudly and I walked uneasily to the room. Pointing to a stool, the doctor, who had a torchlight fixed to his head, asked me to sit down. Even before I could tell him what was wrong he asked me to open my mouth. Baffled, I emphasized the fact that I had BLOOD in the mucus.

Not much impressed, he repeated his earlier instruction to open my mouth and when I did so, he pressed down the lower jaw with a metal strip with such force that I felt it was on the verge of snapping open! He glared down the throat for some time and casually tossed aside the metal strip and looked me in the eye.

I fretfully tried to read the blank expression on this face. TUBERCULOSIS? BLOOD CANCER?

“Well, due to too much of coughing, you have developed a wound in the bottom of your throat which is bleeding right now!! Just have the prescription that I give you and everything will be all right” said he.

What? A silly little wound that was bleeding?! Hehe! Hoho!

PHEW! PHEW! PHEW!

Relieved would be too much of an understatement!

He handed me the prescription when I asked him the consultation charges.

With an amused look on his face he smiled and said “Nothing”

I walked out of the hospital, when Ashok joked about how terrified I had looked in the morning. He suddenly asked me what I would have done for the money, had the doctor insisted on conducting a series of complicated tests. I just smiled and looked at him. The gold chain on his neck glittered under the hot afternoon sun.

As we walked towards the bike stand, all stuff related to blood, mucus, tuberculosis and blood cancer were light years away from my mind as it was busy analyzing which one of the bunch of girls walking towards me in their white coats was the most attractive one.