Olive Chaudhuri

~THIRTY EIGHT~ Kanan studied the multiple blood test reports carefully and tried to hide the consciousness he felt at the uncomfortable scrutiny of the female patient before him. Her husband sat next to her, and looked awkwardly nervous. It wasn't very unnatural for him to have nervous patients really, for there were times he'd have to announce illnesses that were capable of freaking anybody out. But this seemed like one of the healthiest couples he had ever had for patients. Mr. Atul Shah and Mrs. Jayana Shah 'Shah' was quite possibly the most common Gujarati surname and he could count at least a fifteen other of his patients that were 'Shah-s'. So there was no certainty of him having had this couple as his patients before. In fact, they didn't even look like people he knew until today! Then why is she staring at me like I've slept with her daughter? Clearing his throat, he began, "Your reports look fine to me." The woman raised her le...

~THIRTY SEVEN~ Vedant clutched the strap of his laptop bag and waded through the sea of office crowd as he made way for the platform. The escalator wasn't working today, and he found himself curse under his breath as he climbed two steps at a time on the frozen escalator to reach the platform in time. Absentmindedly enough, his shoulder ended up pushing a middle-aged woman busy on the phone and her coffee cup landed on the floor messily. "I am  It was a leather bag. Surely the stickiness wouldn't last after running some water? The metro pulled up on the platform thereafter, and Vedant pushed through the crowd and squeezed his body between two middle aged men on the cold metro seats. Neither of the two looked like they planned on getting off at any nearby stations. Sighing to himself, Vedant plugged into his earphones and scrolled through his unread messages. Being a little biased for Meera, he first opened her chat screen and found one unheard voice note. Like ...

~THIRTY SIX~ Meera had always prided herself for her complete grip over her emotions. In her early teens, she had had serious anger management issues, but being with Kanan had surprisingly changed her a lot. Changed her in a good way, she liked to think. So much so, that she never quite realized the precise moment when she became an acute peace lover. But today was different. Today, she was feeling the need to let every ounce of her anger for Rishi out,  "If you needed money, why didn't you ask  Rishi let out a loud, exasperated sigh as he got back up from his seat. For a second there, Meera thought he would leave the room out of anger and frustration. It seemed quite unjust to her to be honest.  But he surprised her, as he didn't head for the door. Instead, he looked her way, "Because it wasn't two or three hundred bucks I needed. I needed money yes. I needed  She stared at him agape, wondering how to react. Head tilting to one side she questioned, ...

~THIRTY FIVE~ Rishi staggered to his feet from the ancient sofa the very instant she walked into the living room with her tiny suitcase in tow. Meera pressed her lips into a thin line, trying to supress a laugh seeing the obvious panic she could see take over him. Tugging at the suitcase, she had only taken two steps in when he rushed to her in quick strides and offered, "I'll take it." Meera gazed his way disapprovingly and felt something caustic at the tip of her tongue when she was interrupted with, "Oh it's Meera! Come come." It was Rishi's mum and her Badi Chachi, obviously trying to diffuse the situation. Rishi rolled his eyes to that for some reason, and Meera sent a forced smile her way in greeting. "I want to sleep in Dadi's room." she declared to no one in particular. Her Mother walked out of the kitchen now, wiping her damp hands on the homely, sorry excuse of a night shirt which Meera had once owned.  'SWEET DREA...

~THIRTY FOUR~ Mrs. Shah signed on a Hospital register and collected another one of the numerous blood tests she and her husband had had to get done for their annual full body check up before she visited Dr. Gandhi the following day in the hospital instead of his clinic. The hospital seems pretty convenient too. I should probably get a membership card made for emergencies. She called out to the receptionist on the next counter, and asked for two membership cards, one for her husband and one for herself. And then, she turned around from the counter while the receptionist worked on the same. There wasn't anything of her particular interest to witness, not that she was expecting to see anything. Nurses roamed, some with patients, others in conversation with white coat clad Doctors, peons walked through the floor with sheets of paper and some with trays full of some kinds of samples. It was just another usual day, in just another usual hospital. But then, from the corner of her ...

~THIRTY THREE~ He gazed at the clock for the umpteenth time and registered what an awfully eventful day it had been. It felt only a couple of minutes ago when Meera had rung him up with an obvious desperation egging at her tone. That had been about thirty minutes into ten in the morning. And now, it was already four. "Thank you beta." Meera's Father whispered in the hospital room where they both stood and Kanan flushed with embarrassment. "Now you're embarrassing me Uncle." Mr. Modi sighed, and turned towards the patient's bed where Meera's grandmother lay. Old and frail and weak, she didn't bear any resemblance to the venom spewing, heartless and sexist woman he once recalled her to be. Funny, how age diminished everyone's might. It had been nothing short of a miracle for Dadi to survive the heart surgery at her age. But his experience, however little it was, told him that this successful surgery meant nothing concrete. Her eight...