The Doctor’s Wife

It was a warm humid morning when he set out to complete some work. He adjusted his mask, as the norms of the time, which he grudgingly wore. Stood waiting for the lift to come. Getting in he checked himself in the mirror as he was accustomed to, even though he was new to the place.

As the door was about to close, he heard a voice asking him to hold the door. He turned to see a heavily pregnant lady waddling towards the lift.

As she made it in time into the lift, she thanked him for holding the lift. “I am Maya”,  she said, introducing her self with a smile. She was probably smiling, her mask hid that, but her eyes radiated a smile. She was Smizing.

“I am Kyle”, he said, smizing too.

“Oh yeah! You’re our new neighbour!” She said, maintaining her jolly demure. “J hope to catch up soon! Of course when this pandemic ends and this baby stops using me as her carrier!”

He couldn’t help but smile too. “See you around”, he said as they both exited the lift.

He saw her go towards her car. “Shouldn’t she avoid driving in her condition?” He thought. Each their own!

He then saw her scold a couple of kids, may of whom were not wearing a mask. “So she’s the high and mighty type”, he thought, “and here I thought she was one of the sensible ones!” He made a mental note to keep his distance from her.

He walked out of the gate and looked around for an auto to take him to his destination. 

Just then he heard a honk behind him. It was her again. “I am heading that way”, she said, “let me drop you”.

He tried to wriggle himself out, but she insisted and persisted, so he grudgingly gave in. There went his plan of keeping his distance. 

“I wonder why can’t people ever wear masks, or wear them properly !” She grumbled, “ after all it’s for their safety only. And those children, if the next wave is going to affect children how do we keep them safe when they can’t follow simple rules!”

“But shouldn’t it be up to them, whether they choose to wear a mask or not” he said, trying not to get into an argument. The last thing he wanted was to get into an argument with a pregnant lady. 

“But then wearing a mask is fir their own protection against the virus,” she said. 

“Don’t you think if the virus is in the air it would be able to pass through the mask,” he replied, “wouldn’t it be able to get through the mask?”

“Well, in a way you maybe right, but that doesn’t mean you don’t wear one. Some protection is better than no protection!” She said thoughtfully.

“I agree”, he said carefully, trying not to aggravate the situation “but wearing a mask should be a choice, not a decision imposed on someone!”

“It’s easy for you to say”, she said sarcastically, “what if you took all the precautions, and the opposite person behaved careless. Wouldn’t you get infected because of their carelessness?”

“Well”, he said carefully, knowing he was treading in thin ice. This was the last thing he wanted. “That’s true! But this just a flu, and in time it will be something common. Right now we are overdoing it!”

“Hmmm”, she said, “go on, you have my ears!”

“Ok”, he said, knowing that there was no going back from here, and he needed to stand his ground, “take for example, this lockdown. What benefit would you get keeping people cooped up in their homes 24 by 7.”

“But then the lockdown was meant to curb the spread of the virus. There would be a greater death toll if the country wasn’t lockdown,” she said, matter-of-factly.

“How long would you be able to contain people,” he said, trying hard to maintain his cool, “at some point in time you have to leg them go. After all, they have got to eat, to earn, to take care of their families”.

“Well you are right in that way,” she shrugged, “but then the number of infection and the number of deaths would be high!”

“Isn’t the the number of deaths just fraction of the population?” He asked, “have t more people have died in accidents and of other diseases?”

“Well, not in a single day!” She said maintaining her calm.

“If you think this isn’t that serious l, and we are overdoing it, what do you think it is?” She asked him.

“If you ask me this a way by which pharma giants want to make money, and get the world indebted to them” he said, “for all you know they might be the ones behind this catastrophe! They want us to be vaccinated by something that’s not too sure would protect us!”

“So you agree this is a catastrophe?” She asked coolly. “But you believe we are giving this virus undue importance.”

“That’s right,” he said, worrying if he was stepping into a trap. “Take for example the lockdown. It has effectively culled so many small businesses. So many people have been brought to the streets. And wouldn’t locking people up actually being down their immune system instead of boosting it, which is actually the need of the hour?”

“Well that’s right,” she said, “the lockdown has destroyed as many lives as the virus. But then the lockdown has been an ill planned one. If it was planned better, we wouldn’t have found ourselves in such situation.” 

“Have you lost any business because of the lockdown ?” He asked, but didn’t wait for her to answer, “I have. I’ve lost my job because of this lockdown. I had to shut down my printing business, because I couldn’t afford it. My wife, who used to run a fitness studio, had to close down cause students were comings and she couldn’t afford to keep the studio. I’ve had friends who have lost all their source of income, and living on the generosity of others. They didn’t deserve that!”

“I can never fathom what you have gone through,” she said, “and I do wish the situation wasn’t this way. But we are in situation because of our very actions and the in capabilities of the ones in power.”

“Let me ask your this question,” she said, maintaining her concentration on the rode ahead. “Have you ever lost someone to virus, or do you know anyone who may contracted it?”

“Well, I did have  couple of acquaintances who tested positive. But no one I’ve known succumbed from it,” he said wondering where this was heading to!

“Well I have”, she said, “I have lost someone dead to me, to the virus!”

He could detect a hint of sadness in her voice. He suddenly began have this guilty feeling creeping up in him.

“I do see from where you are coming from”, she said, after a brief pause, “his pandemic has hit all of us in different ways.”

“However, I would like to add here, though we have a right to our opinion, in a way we need to be respectful of our losses”, she said. “I lost my husband to the virus. He was a doctor who seeing infected patient on a regular basis.”

He didn’t know what to say. He could only manage a very feeble “I am sorry”.

“Don’t be,” she said, trying hard to fight back her emotions. “I am proud of him and what he and many frontline workers have done for the community. Many them chose to stay and fight, putting their lives at risk for others. They didn’t want anything in return, no applause, no banging or plates, or showering v of petals. All they wanted to be supported, cause they coming to an end, abs are struggling under this weight.”

“If my husband wanted he would have wanted he would have chosen life”, she continued, “if he wanted he could have chosen not to help. But he had taken an oath of service, and died sticking to the oath.”

“He chose to put his life at risk. And since he didn’t want me to be at risk, he had to stay away from his family. He paid the ultimate price by sacrificing his life for that of others. His only regret was he couldn’t help more people, and his child would grow up not knowing his father.”

“But there’s one thing. I feel sad that  I wasn’t at his side when he breathed his last. But I will not mourn him. I will always be proud of what he did. I will always be proud of him and countless other doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals who weren’t afraid of the virus and in fact sacrificed their lives for it.”

He didn’t know what to say to her. She had left him stunned.

“I do understand from where you’re coming from, and I sympathise with your situation. I think, somewhere down the line, we will be able to have a better understanding, and would be more respectful of each other’s opinion,” she said.

“I think that’s your stop” she asked.

All he could muster was a feeble head shake.

He thanked her, as he got out of the car.

“You’re most welcome”, she said cheerfully, “I should thank you for the company and the wonderful conversation. But now I should take your leave. This baby is  all set and eager to greet this world, and doesn’t even want to wait for a single moment. So we are on for dinner, once I am back from the hospital”, she said Cheerfully as she drove off to deliver her baby as he stood there staring in her direction.