And They Lived Happily Ever After - 3 - The Dawn

The dawn brought a new hope in his life. The blood stains on his shirt were dry and lost the bright red tinge like his sadness. He was now more confident and started his studies. Sleep still eluded him. Dreams would disturb his sleep and he used to study all night and went for running. After coming back from running, he did pull ups, push ups with me. He always pushed for another set even when we were exhausted. I could sense fire in his heart reflecting on his face. Annual social gathering gave all of us a chance to see the changed Mahesh. He won prizes for Hindi elocution, singing, painting and running. He won maximum number of trophies. Applause never stopped for him. In the same program he became ‘Mahi’ from Mahesh. Students were chanting ‘Mahi…..Mahi.’ Even the dean of the college asked him in lighter vain whether there was nobody else in the competitions. I could see the expression of shock on Paro’s face. She left the ceremony after receiving her single prize.

Mahi and I studied hard for XII boards and appeared for PMT. There was no bound to our joy when we got the news of admission in the same medical college after counseling. We got admission at Sawai Man singh Medical College, Jaipur. Again we were room mates. Mahi’s hand was very good at dissection. Even our Anatomy professor appreciated his fine and delicate skill of dissection. He would work on dead body as he was doing surgery of an alive person. It was very difficult for Mahi’s parents to bear all the expenses of medical education. Scholarship was not enough as Mahi was very fond of books. He met those expenses by giving tuitions to some students of high school. When other students enjoyed movies, he was busy giving tuitions of Science-Biology. When others relaxed and went to canteen, he worked on his English. We were always together and often called by others as ‘KrishMish’. Mahi never talked with any girl. He never initiated any conversation with them, but would answer them very politely. He was hot favorite of all girls at the college, yet never had a girlfriend. Mahi scored well in Surgery and I did well in Medicine. We passed our UG and started preparing for PG entrance. We joined a multispeciality hospital, it was owned by Dr Uddhao. We worked their as residents,and handled ICU at nights. Mahi’s nightmares continued. Within a couple of weeks we became favorite students cum colleague of Dr Uddhao.