The Estranged

There was a very large crowd outside Iyer hospital. A large gathering of people as well as press reporters was awaiting to know about condition of a famous political leader. He was to undergo a bypass surgery. His was in a delicate state of health. Huge stakes were involved. If anything had gone wrong, there would have been outburst of his supporters and the hospital would have been brought to ruins. But Dr. Iyer was a man of courage, wisdom and experience. He had handled several such cases before and knew very well how to deal with such over-enthusiastic supporters.

As Dr. Iyer arrived the hospital before surgery, reporters started asking him questions. “No questions please. I will talk to you after the surgery. Let me go now.” “Sir just one question, who do you rely on the most while doing your surgeries?” one of the reporters still took the chance. “I always rely on my daughter who is also a cardiologist. No further questions please.” Dr. Iyer rushed inside the hospital.

The leader was brought inside the operation theatre. Dr. Iyer reached there. Entire team of doctors was ready, except Dr. Neha. “Sir, should we start?” asked one of the doctors. “Where is Neha? We can’t start without she being here.” The same time, Neha reached there. “Where were you Neha? You can’t be late at such an important moment.” Said Dr. Iyer.

The operation started. Based on the one line reply given by Dr. Iyer, news channels started making stories about the surgery and broadcast them, saying that Dr. Iyer to be assisted by a team of doctors and one of them to be his daughter; so on and so forth.

The surgery took a pretty long time of above five hours, but was successfully done. All the doctors took a sigh of relief and congratulated each other. Dr. Neha was of immense help in successful completion of this. After the surgery, Dr. Iyer called the reporters in the auditorium of the hospital at the ground floor. Questions started.

Among other questions asked, reporters wanted to know about Dr. Iyer’s daughter. They pointed out to Dr. Neha sitting two chairs next to him and asked if she was his daughter. “I would have been happiest to have a daughter like her” replied Dr. Iyer. “But we heard you say just before the surgery that your daughter is a cardiologist.” Dr. Iyer smiled at this and said, “let me remove the ambiguity. She is my daughter-in-law. Though not my daughter by blood, she is more than a daughter to me and is the backbone of this hospital.”

Then came the expected question, “Dr. Iyer, is your son also a doctor? Does he not assist you?” “No, gentleman. He is into a different field” replied Dr. Iyer. Neha gave him a surprised look.

Raghav came home late in the evening after completing his daily routine. Neha was excitedly waiting for him to give him a firsthand account of what all happened in the hospital that day. Raghav hugged her and congratulated her for the successful surgery. She had just started narrating him about the chain of events that took place when he interrupted her and said, “I know all this. I have already watched it on news channels and also Dad’s interview.” Neha felt disheartened with this.

“So what does the great man think? I am not a doctor? Oh! This is the same old story. He is a cardiologist; you, his daughter-in-law, are also a cardiologist, but I am just an MBBS. So, I am below his standards, not even fit to be called a doctor.” “Raghav, stop this. Let Dad say anything about you, the fact is not going to change. We all know, you are an MBBS doctor and are making your own livelihood. Don’t take it to your mind what he talks about you.”

This had become a usual conversation between Raghav and Neha. Raghav usued to outburst at humiliations by his father and Neha would try to pacify him after that.

Raghav, after completing MBBS and apprenticeship twelve years ago, had joined Dr. Iyer’s hospital as an employee doctor initially so that he could learn under the able guidance and experience of his father. This was the hospital he had been visiting since his childhood and had always cherished a dream to perform orthopedic surgeries in the operation theatre. Yes, Raghav wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. Being a regular visitor for a long time, he knew each and every corner of the hospital. At the ground floor, there was reception lobby where admission and discharge procedures would take place and just in front of main entrance, there was a staircase to go upstairs. Next to it was elevator. On the right side, was auditorium for various functions, programmes or to address press conferences. On the left side of elevator, was a ramp to take emergency patients to ICU or to operation theatre. On extreme right, was pathology department and on the left end, was OPD. Operation theatre and ICU were on the first floor. There were also cabins of specialist doctors and discussion room on the first floor. Raghav used to be fascinated with his father’s imposing cabin on the first floor in his childhood and had always dreamt to occupy one of that stature. There were general and special wards/ private rooms on second and third floors. On higher floors, there were special departments such as orthopedic, oncology, etc. with wards for patients on those floors, if they required separation from other patients.

Dr. Iyer was the founder and the Chief Director of the hospital and also owned major stake in it; that was why the hospital was named after him.

On his first day in the hospital, Raghav was hoping to receive a warm welcome from his father and other doctors who he had known for many years. But these were Dr. Iyer’s words to him on the first day, “See Raghav, I would have been happy if you had completed your specialization and then joined here.” He also didn’t allow Raghav much access to him and entrusted him with OPD responsibilities. He also used to be called upon during various surgeries for junior level support. The sort of treatment he was receiving from all the specialist doctors and especially his father was that of showing his inferiority as a mere MBBS doctor as opposed to specialists that they were.

Slowly, Dr. Iyer started emphasizing him the importance of doing a specialization. “See, this is the difference between MBBS and a Specialist, you are experiencing it nowadays. Do some specialization.” He would try to persuade Raghav to pursue a further specialization in medicines in whatever ways possible. “You are not a doctor. MBBS is just a physician. We, the team of cardiologists, surgeons and orthopedics are doctors,” Dr. Iyer used to tell Raghav. Instead of igniting motivation in Raghav’s mind to pursue further studies, these words of his father and the attitude of specialist doctors at the hospital created disgust in Raghav’s mind about the specialization and further studies.

There was a reason why Raghav had totally lost the spirit of being a specialist doctor. He had to take an outstation college for his MBBS studies and stay in hostel. While doing MBBS, he started getting spoiled in bad company of his hostel friends. At that time it was not possible to change his college which resulted in he taking two years extra to complete MBBS. He could not even get the class which he had aimed to get in the final year of MBBS. So, he came out as an exhausted graduate, having lost the drive and confidence to specialize further. His father, instead of supporting him to pursue further studies, took pride in nailing him down, mentioning repeatedly about his lack of desire to pursue specialization. Perhaps that was his way to persuade his son. What Raghav needed at that time was finding back his lost confidence.

In persuading Raghav to pursue further studies, Dr. Iyer would sometimes say, “If nothing else, at least do M.D. in pathology. There is good scope in that also. I will make you head of our pathology department.” But all his talks would fall on Raghav’s deaf ears, as he had developed a hatred for his father.

In this conflict with his father, Raghav was getting a quiet support of his mother. While talking to his mother, Raghav had once said, “had I been born in a poor or a middle class family, I would have been greatly admired on completing MBBS. Here, we all are living under the shadow of this man. No one has any value for what I have achieved.” Dr. Iyer came to know what Raghav had said and commented, “tell that lazy boy, if he was born in a poor or middle class family, he wouldn’t have completed even MBBS. It takes killer instinct to fight adversities and come victorious. It’s all because of the academic and financial background that he got that he could reach up to this stage. Useless, thoroughly useless.”

Raghav used to wonder sometimes how his father didn’t marry a doctor, but an ordinary graduate lady. Then he used to tell his mother, “that is because he wanted an unpaid slave to toil at home, that’s why he married you.”

Raghav’s employment with his father’s hospital became more tolerable with joining of Dr. Neha Ramaswamy, a fresh cardiologist in the hospital. Neha was from a humble background, but was intelligent, hardworking, at the same time, a down-to-earth girl. She won confidence of Dr. Iyer in a very short span of time.

Raghav and Neha got in love with each other and eventually, got married. Thus, Neha Ramaswamy became Neha Iyer. There was no reason for Dr. Iyer to oppose them. “The only sensible thing this boy has done in life is marrying Neha. If he had asked me, I would perhaps have selected for him, a girl with a lower caliber than her. But he is a boy of a great fortune. He was born with a silver spoon in mouth and now, got a wife who is superior to him.” Dr. Iyer wouldn’t spare a single opportunity to humiliate Raghav and make him feel inferior.

As days passed, it became impossible for Raghav to tolerate humiliations of his father. Before his wedding, it was an altogether different thing; but after marrying Neha, being shown down before wife was a huge insult. Ultimately, Raghav decided to start his own clinic, leaving the employment of his father. Dr. Iyer got furious with this and tried to stop his son from going, but he had already made up his mind.

Though Raghav started his own clinic, he and Neha were still staying with his parents. Raghav also had an elder brother named Ramesh who, knowing his father’s dictatorial nature, started staying separately no sooner he got married.

Once Raghav had to meet Neha urgently for some work, so he came to the hospital from his clinic and started going upstairs to Neha’s room, but the receptionist stopped him and told that Dr. Neha was busy and couldn’t meet anyone for half an hour. Raghav got wild with this and asked her if she didn’t know him. The receptionist replied that she merely had to follow orders of her superiors. Raghav called Neha’s mobile but she did not answer his calls, nor did she reply his text messages. Dr.  Iyer had known about Raghav coming to meet her in the hospital, so he had deliberately kept her engaged in a meeting. Even she was feeling uneasy due to not being able to connect with her husband, but could not help. Finally after two hours of Raghav’s waiting, the meeting got over and Raghav went upstairs.

But it was not Neha who he met first. He had an encounter with his father who said to him, “I guess you’ve been waiting here for not less than a couple of hours. Had you been a specialist doctor, you would have got an entry in five minutes.” Raghav who was already annoyed due to the long waiting, could not control his anger at this. “So, you did this purposefully, didn’t you?” said he, “it’s not the qualification alone that counts. Patients want to get cured and if you can do that, they don’t see your specialization. Now you have made me wait for two hours and I missed some of my patients’ appointments, but I’m sure, they trust me so much that they would still be waiting for me in the clinic. And yes, I have more knowledge and experience than some of the specialist doctors in your hospital.” He then rushed to meet Neha.

Neha too, was upset with the way Dr. Iyer used to treat Raghav, though she respected Dr. Iyer as a senior. The thought of leaving the hospital and joining elsewhere came to her mind several times. In fact, she and Raghav had decided that Neha would join another hospital and both of them would start staying separately from his parents, so that the daily conflicts with his father would come to an end. But Neha became pregnant at the same time and needed a flexible schedule in her job, which she could get only at Iyer Hospital. As she needed care at home also, the plan to stay separately had to be cancelled.

Raghav’s practice was in a developing stage and he was earning a decent income, but not enough to stay comfortably with his only income in their separate house. In her pregnancy, Neha needed to rest more, but had to go to the hospital, though in a flexible schedule. The daily stressed schedule in her delicate physical condition made her more irritated and annoyed. She became upset with Raghav and started blaming him for his passiveness. She also started believing slowly that Dr. Iyer’s criticism of Raghav was correct and not out-of-place. However, Raghav was doing his best to settle in practice, which needed some more time.

One night, Neha was rolling her fingers through Raghav’s hair, but he was in no mood. She even turned his face towards her and took him in arms, but he was upset due to some reason. “Take some initiative at least here, Raghav,” she said getting annoyed, “the first three months are over and it’s safe now.” Before she continued any further, Raghav fell asleep.

Neha gave birth to a son. This brought a wave of joy in the lives of Raghav and Neha and also changed the otherwise gloomy atmosphere at Iyers’ house. They named the baby as ‘Neil’. Raghav’s mother became very happy as she got some relief from the daily conflicts of the father and son duo. Dr. Iyer loved Neil very much. He had grand children from his elder son also, but he did not let his family mingle much with his parents. Neil was greatly influenced by his grandfather and wanted to be like him.

Since bringing up Neil was a priority during his early childhood, Neha preferred to continue at Iyer Hospital instead of changing her job. Also, Raghav’s mother happily took the responsibility to look after her grandson. After Neil grew up a little, Neha had approached other hospitals for placement on Raghav’s insistence, of which Dr. Iyer got clues from his sources in those hospitals. He wanted to retain Neha anyhow, so he increased her salary sharply and offered her a luxurious cabin. Due to this, she lost interest in changing her job and continued in the same hospital.

Neil became seven years old now. Once there was a prize distribution function in his school. Neil had won the first prize in mathematics. Prize winners were to inform the school teacher, names of two parents who would attend the function. Neil informed names of Neha and Dr. Iyer as parents who would attend it. An invite was received by post from Neil’s school in the name of Neha and Dr. Iyer. Raghav saw the envelop and was shocked to see the invite marked in the name of his father and wife. He then scolded Neha for not instilling in Neil’s mind about loving his father. This came as a surprise to Neha as well. She asked Neil why he informed his grandfather’s name instead of his father’s. Neil replied, “I informed your name because you taught me maths and grandpa’s name because I want to be like him.” Neha then told him, “You have to invite your Dad first before grandpa. If your Dad is not coming for the function, I am also not coming.” Neha then met Neil’s teacher and got the invite changed after which, Raghav and Neha attended the function.

It was only Raghav’s mother who could speak openly with Dr. Iyer. When Dr. Iyer used to show Raghav down at home, she would intervene and take Raghav’s side. Raghav being the younger son, was her favourite child and also closer to her as he chose to stay with his parents, unlike his elder brother. She had a fear in mind that if the confrontation between the father and the son goes beyond a limit and Raghav decides to live apart, she will be alone at home after Dr. Iyer goes to the hospital. This loneliness was what she was afraid of at this age.

Dr. Iyer’s hospital was one of the most reputed ones in the city and there was an invitation to attend a three days’ seminar for three of its specialist doctors in Edinburgh, Scotland. The doctors could also bring their spouses along with them. Fee for the seminar, cost of travelling and stay in Edinburgh was all negotiated by the Medical Association in India at a reasonable price as a package which included some local sightseeing as well. “You must come for the seminar, Neha” Dr. Iyer was telling her. Neha was feeling excited. She said, “yes, I will surely like to. What is really nice is that we are allowed to take our spouses along with us. Due to this reason Raghav will also get to see a new country and we all will have a good time together.” “What will Raghav do there? Let’s not take him with us. He has his own practice; and who will look after Neil in your absence?” “But Dad, I thought Neil will also come with us. We will pay the additional cost for him. If I come alone, the amount paid by the hospital for two of us will go into waste.” “No Neha, that’s a bad idea. Let’s not take Neil with us; he is too small. The UK climate will not suit him and he will miss his school too. And don’t worry about your cost. I will arrange for a lady doctor from another hospital to accompany you in your room and will also negotiate for reduction in price for you, but I want you to attend this seminar anyhow.”

When Neha told Raghav that Dr. Iyer was forcing her to attend the seminar in Scotland without he accompanying her, he got wild with anger. “Throw your resignation on the face of that old man. What does he think of himself!” he said with fury, “you are so knowledgeable with so much experience; you are well known as a cardiologist in the city now. Don’t hesitate. You will easily get offer from any other reputed hospital in the city. Or let’s do this. I am now settled well in my practice. We can start our own hospital. You can join me as a cardiologist.” “Have patience Raghav” said Neha, “I agree with all that you say but I can’t do it at this stage. I will have to attend the seminar and then I will resign.” “But why? Why can’t you say no to that man?” “Talk about him respectfully, Raghav; he is your father. I can’t say no to him because he is my boss first and father-in-law afterwards. He is the one who gave me my first break and trusted me a lot, gave me a wide exposure and helped me grow as a doctor. Today, if I am well known in medical circles, that is because of Dr. Iyer who made me known not as his daughter-in-law, but as an expert doctor.” “But Neha, isn’t it absurd that you go to Scotland at the hospital’s expense and then resign immediately after that? Why should the hospital invest in you if you are no longer going to work there? I will talk to Dad tomorrow morning about this.”

The next morning Raghav informed Dr. Iyer that Neha was not going to Scotland. Dr. Iyer made it clear that as long as Neha was working in the hospital, she had to follow his instructions. Raghav then told his father that she was resigning from the hospital. Dr. Iyer was expecting this. “You have to find a separate house for your family then. You can’t stay with us any longer” Dr. Iyer replied. “Surely Dad, give us some time to find a new house. We will get one and shift there” said Raghav. “You have only time until Neha’s notice period expires after she resigns. After she leaves the hospital, you can’t stay here for a single day.” Raghav and Neha couldn’t believe this. Can a father be so ruthless with his son?

Raghav’s mother was listening to all this conversation. After Raghav and Neha proceeded for their daily schedule, she asked her husband, “why are you always after destabilizing the atmosphere at our home? Ever thought what will be my condition like after Raghu and Neha leave us and start staying apart? I am so attached to Nilu and even he can’t stay without me.” Dr. Iyer said, “listen, Maithili, nothing happens of that sort. Both of them are so used to comforts of staying here, that they will find it impossible to adjust anywhere else. This resignation of Neha was just a threat of a desperate Raghav. Neha can manage even this flexible schedule in the hospital with you looking after Neil. What will she do if she joins another hospital with a tough schedule without you being there to look after Neil? Don’t worry.”

“But why do you keep showing Raghu down every time? He is now settled in his practice and Neil is also growing up. Will he respect his father if you insult him before that child?” said Dr. Iyer’s wife. Dr. Iyer said, “You remember Maithili, Raghav was always an intelligent student and both of us had a lot of hopes from him. Despite this, we never forced our choices on him. It was my only advice to him that whichever field he chooses, he should strive to top it.

Selecting the medical field was his decision and not mine. He could have chosen any different field like Ramesh did. There was a dark period during his MBBS curriculum and he took two years extra to complete it. In fact, I admire him for completing MBBS despite being on the verge of getting spoiled. But I was thoroughly shocked to hear from him that he wanted to join my hospital as an employee. If he wanted to pursue a specialization, I would have encouraged him come what may. Losing two years in studies is not a big deal. But it was not just two years that he had lost; he had lost his dream of life. Instead of dreaming to become an orthopedic surgeon, he started dreaming to marry a beautiful girl and settle in life. And he did the same thing finally. He has not broken my hope, he has broken his own. I wouldn’t have minded if he had chased his dream and failed, but I am very much upset with the way in which he gave up his dream so easily; that’s very unbecoming of my son. If you talk about I insulting him, we are not on talking terms with each other basically, leave alone having daily conflicts, you know this. It’s just that today he opened the topic of Neha resigning from the hospital that’s why I had to talk to him this way.”

“But why don’t you want Raghu also to come with Neha?” “See Maithili, it was he who broke ties with the hospital himself and I don’t want him now to associate with or represent it even indirectly. Not even as a husband of a lady doctor in my hospital.”

As decided by Dr. Iyer, Neha had to go to Scotland to attend the seminar. A lady doctor from another hospital accompanied her throughout the tour. Raghav became utterly furious at Neha going alone. He connected with Ramesh, his elder brother and elaborated him all the incidents that drove him mad. “I wonder how you tolerated that man for so many years! You should have shown some guts, Raghu and left that house long back. Or did the temptation of staying in a large bungalow in heart of the city stop you from staying apart? Look at me; I immediately separated from the joint family the next day after I got married; and I am happy. I don’t have to dance at Dad’s tunes. And I have good relations with everyone that too, keeping safe distance.” “Ramesh, the thought of staying apart came our minds many times in past years, but due to one reason or the other we didn’t do that. Mom is attached closely with Neil. Neil can still adjust without her slowly, but she will find it very difficult to stay alone in daytime in such a large bungalow. Even at night, if any emergency occurs, she or Dad will need our support. We didn’t want to isolate them.” “See Raghu, your considerate nature itself is spelling trouble for you. I don’t say you isolate Mom or Dad. But if things got so much out of hand, you must take action now, otherwise you will lose respect in the eyes of everyone, Neha’s and also Neil’s over the years.”

Ramesh’s words really boosted Raghav’s morale and he started looking for a flat on rent on priority basis. He could certainly afford to buy a new flat which was very much on his agenda but that would have taken much longer time and he didn’t want Neha to continue in the hospital any longer.

By the time Dr. Iyer and Neha returned from Scotland, Raghav had already seen a few flats on rent. He showed them to Neha afterwards. Both of them finalized a flat that was about ten kilometers from Dr. Iyer’s bungalow. It was a two bedroom flat in a decent locality. Raghav’s clinic was equidistant from that flat as compared to that from the bungalow. Neha had many choices to join any hospital of repute in that area. Neil would have had to travel longer since his school was farther from the new flat, but there was a decent transport arranged by his school. What’s more, there was a well known baby sitter in the immediate vicinity from the flat. Icing on the cake was that the owner was also ready to sell the flat on flexible terms later on. Both, Raghav and Neha liked the flat very much and decided to shift there as soon as possible.

The next day, Neha put in her papers. “Your notice period of one month starts now, both here and at home. Have you seen any new house as yet?” “Yes Dad, we were just about to inform you. We have finalized a flat on rent in Nungambakkam area and plan to shift there in about 10 days. In fact when you have time, we can all go there to see the flat.” “Not very keen about it. I’ve got more important things to do.”

At home when Raghav’s mother came to know about Raghav and Neha’s plan to shift to the new flat, she became very upset and tried to persuade them to change their decision. “That’s not possible Mom, Dad is bent on we leaving this house and Neha can’t continue in the hospital as well. Things are beyond our control now.” “You are only thinking from your and your wife’s point of view. Ever thought how I and Nilu are supposed to live without each other? After your father goes to hospital, this big bungalow will make me frighten. And if something happens at night, where do we run at this old age?” “Come on Mom, don’t worry. You also come with us for a few days. In fact I wanted to say, for as many days you want, but then who will look after Dad?” Raghav’s mother didn’t say anything, but she was feeling depressed about what was going to happen.

Raghav and Neha were making all the arrangements to shift to the new flat. They had already paid security deposit to the owner and made rent agreement with him. Raghav also arranged for transport to carry their luggage to the new place. They were to shift on the forthcoming Sunday which was after 3 days. Dr. Iyer had told Raghav and Neha that they can stay in the bungalow until Neha’s notice period of one month was over, but Raghav swiftly turned down his father’s suggestion.

Dr. Iyer seemed to be bit emotional. That night, he took Neil in his lap and said, “come on my tiger, let’s have dinner together,” and he fed him a few bites. “Don’t pamper him so much Dad,” said Neha, “otherwise he will become a difficult case to handle.” “Doesn’t matter Neha,” said Dr. Iyer, “after you people shift on Sunday, I won’t be able to meet him so often.”

The next morning, Raghav and Neha were getting ready to go to their workplaces. Neil had left for school. Suddenly Raghav’s mother came running down and said in a panicky tone, “Raghu, your father has not got up since morning. I called him many times, even shook him, but he is not responding at all.” Both, Raghav and Neha ran upstairs to Dr. Iyer’s bedroom. Raghav checked his father’s pulse; but he could not find it. His heartbeats had stopped completely. Raghav whispered something in Neha’s ears. She also checked Dr. Iyer and confirmed the same thing. Yes, everything was over. Dr. Iyer passed away due to heart failure.

Raghav informed Ramesh and other relatives about his father’s demise. Neha informed this at the hospital and tried to calm Raghav’s inconsolable mother.

There was a huge gathering of people to have the last sight of Dr. Iyer. Even media representatives also rushed in to give coverage over news channels and newspapers. The last rites were performed by Ramesh, being Dr. Iyer’s elder son.

From “Eminent Doctor in the City Dies”, “Cardiologist Dr. Iyer dies of heart failure” to “God of heart patients goes to heaven” were headlines appearing in newspapers and on news channels, followed by articles on him in next few days.

Due to Dr. Iyer’s death, Raghav and Neha had to cancel their plan to shift to the new flat and decided to stay in the bungalow and look after Raghav’s mother. At the hospital, Dr. Parthasarathy, who was the senior most after Dr. Iyer, took charge as the Chief Director. He requested Neha to extend her notice period which was about to expire within twenty days. Neha agreed to this.

A few days later at home, Raghav’s mother was going through a cupboard in her bedroom. She found a diary written by her husband. She started reading it. It was not descriptively written, but had only taglines written in it on various dates. Dr. Iyer had a great affection for Neha. He had written at a place, “Neha, you are so intelligent and kind. I have no daughter, but you have made up that deficiency. The same struggle for excellence, the same hard work; it reminds me of my early days when I became a doctor.” At another place, he had written, “Neha, in next birth, be my daughter, not a daughter-in-law.” He had also written about Neil, “You are my brave tiger. Go and conquer this world, but never hurt your father and mother. They do so much for you.” He also wrote about Raghav, “Raghav, my dear Raghu, I am weak at expressing my soft feelings. I am proud that you have stood erect in your own practice and will always love you. All the best my dear.” The last quote was for Neha, “Neha, take care of Raghu, Neil and yourself. I had known that you all will leave us one day and live separately, but was crazily hoping that you won’t. There is something I want to say, but Dr. Parthsarathy will tell you in my absence.” The last quote was dated just a day before he passed away.

Raghav’s mother showed the diary to Raghav and Neha in the evening. Both of them read the quotes written by Dr. Iyer and could not control tears. “Dad, I always misunderstood you; I’m sorry” said Raghav with tears rolling down his cheeks. Neha took him in arms and calmed him down.

The next day, Neha went to the hospital and got to know that Dr. Parthasarathy had resigned as the Chief Director of the hospital. She met him in his cabin. He said, “Dr. Iyer was totally dejected when you resigned and decided to leave his bungalow. He expressed his feelings before me and it was his wish that after him, you should be the Chief Director in the hospital.” “Me! But I have a little experience of handling administration here, and there are so many doctors senior to me. Moreover, why didn’t Dad tell this to me?” “There was a good reason for it. Dr. Iyer always wanted you to be his successor as he trusted you a lot, but there was a clash between Dr. Iyer and Raghav. When you resigned, it was clear that you took your husband’s side. Dr. Iyer didn’t want to turn you again to his side by giving any counter offer.” “Did Dad know that he was not going to live longer?” asked Neha. “He was an iconic cardiologist. This hospital meant everything to him and he could not see someone else succeeding him other than you. Though he accepted your resignation, he felt very depressed deeply inside. He was witnessing changes in his pulse rates and heartbeats and surely knew of his imminent end. In his last days, he expressed this wish to me. You may call it his succession planning. Your experience is not a problem. You will get cooperation of all of us.”

Dr. Parthasarathy  continued, “You may now think that at his one word, you would have taken your resignation back and could have saved his life, but that’s not how he was. He also clearly mentioned about Raghav joining back to look after OPD here once again.”

With a heavy heart, Neha accepted the position of the Chief Director in the hospital and Raghav became in-charge of OPD at the hospital apart from running his own practice.