Through you to Immortality
- a 10th Anniversary collection -

By: Dr. Leimapokpam Swasti Charan *

I could hardly wait anymore. I had been waiting for the last patient to be seen by Dr Lenin, the psychiatrist in his OPD room in the Psychiatry wing of the RIMS hospital. The last patient had just gone out when I barged into the room, "Yambung!" The already tired Dr Lenin, a senior colleague of mine who was also a close friend, had just finished his OPD and I knew very well that he must be dead tired. But I wanted to see him for a while.
"Come, sit down, Shantanu! What's up? You look so anxious?"
"Yambung, I am tired and worn out. I have seen it again! It's not hallucination! It's not a dream. I saw it with my own eyes!"

I called out Dr Lenin to come with me till the window of his room facing the Isolation ward of RIMS.
"Can you see that bottle brush tree at the corner? He was standing there and he called out to me "Shantanu!!" I was coming back from a friend's house and was driving inside the Lamphel area. I could have gone the other way, but it was my habit to just drive around or inside the campus of RIMS where I studied my MBBS years ago. Every corner of the campus has some nostalgic moments. Moments filled with love, excitement and fear. But I love driving inside the campus just for nothing too. These drives made me renew my whole being and refresh once again those happy memories of those prime years of life.

So, it must have been around 7:00 pm in the evening, I just drove inside the gate adjoining the mortuary area. When I was trying to negotiate the potholes on the rain beaten bad road, I heard someone calling out my name in the dark.
"Shantanu, wait!"
I braked the Kinetic Honda, I was driving to a halt and put off the engine. "Shantanu, this way!" I heard it again and I could not still believe my ears. I turned towards the direction from where the voice came. It was towards the Isolation ward. "Oh, my God! Who could this be? Every one says it's haunted," I thought but could not stop checking who that was calling out to me in the darkness.
"Who's there?"
"It's me come over here!" a male voice answered still not saying his name.
I started the Kinetic Honda again and drove inside the campus towards the bottle brush tree at the end of the row of trees lining the entrance of the Isolation ward. The light of my Honda struck on the silhouette of a lean and tall man. The figure was not familiar with me. I still could not figure out who he was and how he knew my name and that I was the one driving the Kinetic Honda.

"Shantanu, follow me!" I followed the voice and in the corner of the corridor in front of the isolation ward, "Sit down on that mora!" I sat down and start to speak, "I am sorry, but who are you?" "A school friend!!! You will know in a moment!" he told me with a chuckle. It was all dark all around us and I was sitting with a stranger who claims to be my friend. I was worried, afraid but yet I could not think of running away as fast as I could towards the crowded parts of RIMS!!

In the darkness, he told with an air of excitement, "Its dark here but it is not inside. You will see brightness everywhere!!!! Follow me." The silhouette of the tall, lean man got up form his mora and I followed him as he inches into the darkness lit by the half moon above, towards a door! Suddenly he pushed open the door and pulled me! It was blinding bright and the sounds of the beeps which had become unfamiliar for many years now!! Then in the bright light, I saw him. The tall, lean man was wearing a full PPE (personal protective equipments) including an N-95 mask and goggles. I could not make out who he was. Then I was still wondering where in RIMS I was walking. I knew every corner of RIMS. This was a long corridor of Isolation ward with some rooms in a row and had no door that opens into a big well-lit ward!! Before, I could think anymore, we reached the cubicle in the centre of the ward where two doctors and three nurses were busy doing something.

As we walked into the cubicle which was partitioned to your waist height only, giving a full view of a big ward housing nearly fifty beds, the doctors and nurses stood up seeing us. I realized that I was also already wearing the full set of PPE. One of the nurses, I could realize that she was one staff nurse Kanan because of the limp she was having. During my college days, I had worked with her as an intern. She must have become very senior, I thought because she seems to be heading the ward.
"Good evening, Doctor! We have a new patient admitted today."
"Subhash, 18 year old male from Konthoujam traveled from Hyderabad on Jet Airways flight on 13th June. He had attended a marriage party in Hyderabad two days before coming to Imphal and one of his colleagues in the party was tested positive for H1N1. His samples tested positive at the BSL-3 lab in JN Hospital, waiting for confirmation from the Centre at Delhi!" the tall doctor near me told.
"Thanks sister, I have been mailed already by Dr Ibochou!" Saying this, he turned towards, Dr Ibochou, one of the doctors with the masks.
"Thanks, Ibochou, for the good job! Have we finished compiling the reports? Kindly send the flight details to the State Nodal Officer so that they can trace the passengers who were there in the flight!" "Sister, Tampha, get me the logistics report"
"Sir, we have 1000 doses of Oseltamivir supplied by the State Government, 446 PPES, 300 N-95 masks, 10000 Triple layer masks. The viral transport medium is stored at the Microbiology department."
"Dr Thonba, tell me about the treatment protocol."
"Sir, we have downloaded the standard treatment protocol from the ministry's website and have got them printed them and each and every page have been laminated so that the pages can be disinfected frequently... fto avoid transmission of H1N1."

"Wow, this is RIMS!!!" I thought within me. When my friend was reading the case history of the patient who was admitted that day, I looked around. There were about 50 beds and all of them well spaced from each other and separated by a screen hung from the roof! On one corner was a glass cabin which housed some computers with some analysers. At the extreme end there was another cabin with four beds. It was the ICU attached with the Isolation ward. I could see no patient yet but it was fully equipped with the ventilators in between the beds. The monitors hung on the walls neatly.

Around me I could see on the walls, some posters. One was with Sadananda pointing a fingers at you captioned, "Hi guys, read these." and beneath that, there were the Dos and Donts for the Flu Pandemic. What am I seeing!!! I thought within me!
"Come Shantanu, lets go!" the tall man beside me thundered.
"Where ?"
"Follow me"
Once again, I followed the tall figure towards the ICU. He walked waving to the patients on the beds. Some were boys, some adult males. As all of them wore masks, I could not see their complete faces. I could feel the laminar flow of the air within the room. It was blowing towards one side of the room. I turned along the direction of the wind and show a small exhaust above leading the air away! "Improvised laminar flow, Good enough before the HEPPA filter come!" I thought within me.

The tall figure, stopped before an empty bed. Without saying anything, he took off his PPE one after the other. He stopped short of removing the masks. Then he took some alcohol rub placed on a side table beside the bed and rubs it all over his hands. Then he took off his goggles. Then I saw something that made my heart raced faster. A mole amidst the hairs of the left eyebrow. The face smiled at me. Seeing that I said,
"Oh my God, who is this!"
I have the same pisum marakki shambru and the smile is exactly like me smiling back to me".
"Not for me Doc, for the next patient... not for me anymore, think about the next patient!!" He said this mischievously and closed his eyes.
"Are you sleeping? How do I go out? " I called out and before I could think anymore, someone pushed me from behind and the next moment I fell into the darkness with one foot into a pool of mud. I was at the end of a corridor.

"Are you alright?" a voice called out from behind.
"Huh, yeeess!!" I replied. It was the chowkidar of the isolation ward. He was lighting my way with the small torchlight in his hand. I got up on the corridor and stood still not knowing what was happening with me.
"Are you sure, you are alright?" the kind man asked again seeing me sweating profusely. I looked behind me for the door that led to the isolation ward for Influenza Pandemic. There was nothing but darkness.
"There, I saw something, I saw some ward!! Something!"
"Ibungo, you must have met RIMSngakpa!! There have been reports that people sight strange things inside the RIMS campus. But he is harmless, don't worry!!"
"Harmless!" I thought within me, "He showed the future..."
"Not for me but for the next patient to come!!" I remembered what the doctor said to me.
"Was it me saying it to me!!!! I am confused!!"
The next moment, I realized Dr Lenin holding my hand and listening intently to what I was narrating. He smiled knowingly with the nod of a psychiatrist.

"Yambung, I am not having hallucinations! I won't need the anti-psychotics! I won't need them!! I got up to go. Riims ngakpa!! What a future you have shown me!!

I glanced at the clock at the wall. It was showing 5 o'clock on this December Sunday evening. I had slept off in front of the TV with my daughters.
"Papa, boora sapna do sach oibro?"
I can see the panic on my little daughter's just awakening eyes and with worry written on her entire face.
"No, Blessy. Boora Sapanadi sach suk oie oide!" We talked in the Hingmanipuri that she has developed.
"Keidoure Thoibi, mang fataba manbra! Sapana fataba oobro!"
As she sat speechless, still worried that her bad dream might come true, I pulled her close to me and asked,
"Sapana da kari oobano, Blessy."
"Sapna, Papa, khangbra, Leerie ghoom oikhre! Aduga, fangsu fangdre!"
By this time my six year old was starting to cry! I pinched her chubby cheeks and turned her face towards her sleeping younger sister Leerie!
"Look, Leerie is here sleeping with you! Apangbi!"

A little smile swept her face but the worried look refuses to go. I then asked her, "Blessy, close your eyes and pray to God that as you sleep, you don't have any more bad dreams! Anyway, bad dreams don't come true either!" She folded her tiny hands and closed her eyes and started to pray. Relieved, I tried lying down on my pillow. The cold sweats were still rolling up and down my forehead. Was that RIMSngakpa! Was that a bad dream? Am I possessed or am I hallucinating? I would not know the answers.

As I stroked my little daughter's hair I wished that what I saw was correct. Suddenly, my other daughter on my other side who speaks more of Hindi and who till now was sleeping tightly asked,
"Papa, boora sapna toh sach nahin hote! Phir accha sapna kaise sach hoga!"
"Huh, Leerie! You were not sleeping."
She, like her style always, did not reply to anything but with a soft smile on her face, she continued the slumber in Delhi.

It was already 5:30 pm in the evening. My daughters and I got up from the rare afternoon nap we all had together. Blessy was still worried with her thoughts! Their mother was getting restless with the tea getting ready. Blessy looked again and asked,
"Papa, dhou dhou hanna kari lai joigi manakpa chatleeno! Bobokti kari konna chat toino!"
I knew the greatest fears that my daughters are having these years. I had no answers to their worries and questions. But I had an idea of giving them company for years to come. I got dressed and rushed out of the house to the next sector market and into the confectionary shop. I chose one chocolate cake and handed him a chit on which I had scribbled what is to be written on it!

Then hurriedly, I rushed back home, rang the bell. Then, my wife opened the door, I rushed in and placed the cake on the centre table in the drawing room.
"Blessy, Leerie... come. Let's celebrate!"
My two daughters rushed out from the other room hearing my excited voice and went more ecstatic seeing the cake. They jumped in joy and soon everybody in the house had gathered around the cake. Except for my two daughters who are always happy to see a cake, with or without any reason to celebrate, everybody was looking at me with that amuk ngoukhat lak-isina karigino look.
"I will give you immortality! For a long time, I will be with all of you! They will be around you to comfort you or make you laugh! I don't know how long but it will be for a long time. Let's celebrate the birthday!" Then, when I knew that everyone was around the table, I slowly opened the cake and let out the immortality of my stories!

The cake had the pink words "Happy Birthday, E-pao!"

My eldest daughter knew the e-pao radio from where she listens to her Pushparani numbers. My wife knows all the stories there in my corner. But she would not accept that I am looking forward to immortality through this media for my daughters. Anytime, for years to come, my daughters can log in and hit leisure and Dr Swasticharan's corner and read the words that I had penned down for years to come!

With truth and facts of life sinking inside all of us, we dipped the singing knife into the cake. The first piece went to Blessy and the next to Leerie and followed by the rest of us! At one corner, like any good wife, my daughter's mother sat at the corner of the sofa refusing to eat the cake! I closed my eyes and said a silent Thank You in my heart!
Thank you E-pao!
Guys! Keep going!