Apurva’s plight

Apurva was making chai when his phone rang. “Hello, may I speak with Apurva Mitra please?”, the voice on the line said. It was 5:30 in the evening, and Apurva had wrapped up work for the day. Typically, he likes to wrap up work before 6, and have chai with his wife, Aparna. Aparna likes to work late, so this is the time when they get to discuss how their day went, plans for the next day or week, share stories and tantrums.

“Speaking”, Apurva had answered the call with a frown on his face. He was kind of annoyed. He has a tendency to get annoyed easily. Especially, when someone interrupts him, or calls him at odd timings. Things like open cupboards, (that Aparna had forgotten to close), messy drawers, someone misspelling his name, someone not closing the door on their way out, are a few of his pet peeves. And the list is pretty lengthy. The streaks of grey hair make him look older than he actually is. He stoops a little while walking. He can’t remember where he acquired that habit from. Or rather he doesn’t care to find out. He is forty seven. Everyone around Apurva feels he has aged prematurely.

Aparna is five years younger to Apurva. They had met at a common friend’s wedding seventeen years ago. They have been together since.

Like most love marriages in India, they had to convince their parents to agree to their wedding. They are from different States in India, with different backgrounds and cultures. It had taken a lot of effort to get married, emotionally and financially. A thousand people were invited to their wedding, which was held across two cities with elaborate arrangements spanning across seven days. It was kind of a grand affair.

They both feel marriage has become mundane for the last year though. Staying at home all the while during this pandemic hasn’t helped either. Since the time they have relocated to the West Coast, they have been mostly stuck indoors. There has been a transition of seeing each other every day for eight hours to seeing each other every day all day. At times, it gets frustrating for no reason for both of them, and they end up arguing for petty reasons.

Somewhere the age difference also plays a role in their disagreements, feels Apurva. Somewhere he feels that Aparna could have been happier with someone younger than him and more fun and adventurous perhaps. Though he doesn’t say this out loud, he feels there is a disconnect between him and Aparna on their perspective, thought process, food, and interests. He feels he is unable to compliment her, and is unable to bring out the best in her. He longs to go out for a smoke. But then he remembers he had promised Aparna that he won’t smoke a couple of years back. He doesn’t know why is he telling himself not to smoke though. Is it because he is a good person? Is it because he had promised Aparna and she will not think highly of him? Is it because he is not that much into smoking now?

“What is it about?”, Apurva had asked the caller. “It’s about your health reports, and we would like to discuss this with you in person”, the voice on the call had said. “Can it wait until next week? I have got a ton of work to wrap up. This week is critical for this product launch we are working on.” “Mr. Mitra, you need to come down ASAP. It’s critical that we meet.” The voice had sounded sharp and concerned at the same time. Apurva could sense the tension in the caller’s voice. The caller was the lead physician, Dr. Desai at the hospital which Apurva had been visiting for the last year for routine check ups. He had been there last week for a full body check up after he had a headache that lasted for two days accompanied by a severe back pain. It was excruciating. There were a range of tests conducted for nearly the entire day. But then he had started feeling better. He had gone out for a jog even yesterday. “What is wrong now?”, he thought to himself. He had tried not to show his concern to Aparna while he was on the phone.

For as long as Aparna could remember, Apurva has always had the quirks of a strange man. She knows he takes all trivial things seriously, spends too much time where he shouldn’t be, worries for no reason, and gets annoyed very often. Aparna is the exact opposite in character. She is outgoing, loves to unwind with a beer and conversation, doesn’t take life that seriously, opens the cupboards and forgets to close them. At times, she wonders why did she marry Apurva. That fateful day when they had met at a common friend’s wedding, Apurva had seemed like a different person. Smart, charming, loquacious, funny. Everything that the present Apurva is not. “Must have been a judgemental error”, she thinks to herself at times. But how could it be a judgemental error? Apurva was kind of fun during their dating days as well. He used to bike all the way from Indiranagar to Jayanagar to meet her after work. His enthusiasm was palpable. To bike for more than twenty miles after work is no joke. What had changed after marriage then?

“I will have to call you back”, Apurva had said. “Please do Mr. Mitra”, Dr. Desai’s voice was surgical as ever.

“Who was it?”. Aparna could see from Apurva’s face that something was not right. But Apurva didn’t answer. He was zoned out. Apurva had a habit of spacing out while having conversations. He enters in this realm of thoughts and a lot of times, it happens without any effort. It’s as if he gets redirected to some parallel universe where a fictitious story unfolds. Sometimes, it’s just a thought. Sometimes, it’s just nothingness. Often it’s imagining what he could have said to someone in a situation and how that someone would have reacted, and how Apurva would have said something really witty to make his point. And an imaginary audience would have clapped at his sense of timing.

A week goes by. Apurva has been drinking every day. The one litre bottle of single malt whiskey is almost over. By the time it’s 8 pm, Apurva is wasted. The other day he was slurring when his sister had called to check on him. It was embarrassing. He could not focus on work. Since the time Dr. Desai has called, he had been feeling anxious. He was scared of the unknown.

He decided to drive to the hospital all by himself and confront the nurse. This is kind of out of character for Apurva. He doesn’t like confrontations. Being a cancerian, he is used to attacking problems sideways. Like a crab. And then charge at the very end. That’s why he confronts the nurse and not the doctor.

“What was it that you guys wanted to talk to me about?”, Apurva couldn’t hold himself back anymore. He was frustrated for the past week with strange thoughts piling up. Plus the whiskey has not been helping either. The nurse looked a little intimidated, but gathered her composure to lead Apurva to Dr. Desai, who was seeing another patient.

“He is here”, the nurse let Dr. Desai know. As Apurva was waiting outside Dr. Desai’s chambers, he was spacing out again. When he was twelve, just before going to his English tuition class, he had got bitten by his pet dog and he had thought he was going to die. He was remembering the trauma he had to go through during the entire tuition class till the time he came back home and started crying, and his Grandfather had laughed at him as their pet dog was vaccinated.

“Dr. Desai will see you now”, the nurse ushered in Apurva to the cabin. Dr. Desai was in her mid forties, with a roundish face. She wore glasses and had a composed personality. She stared at Apurva for a few seconds, and put her glasses on the desk, next to the sanitizer bottle. She took a deep breath and started speaking.

“The reason I had called you last week was to inform you about something important Mr. Mitra. And I wanted to let you know this in person”, Dr. Desai set the context. A thousand thoughts were going through Apurva’s head. From getting his affairs in place to thinking about his Family. His friends whom he had not been in touch with. He knew he had not been fair to Aparna for the last few years of their marriage. His work was his central piece of attention.

“Mr. Mitra, I must say when I went through your reports, I got extremely concerned.” Apurva was staring at Dr. Desai. He was still zoned out. “When we looked at your reports, after you came for the check up last week, we thought it was kind of over”. Continued Dr. Desai with her surgical voice. “Your blood sample showed signs of a rare variation of the UCD-10 virus which you may have contracted over the last month. We suspect you could have been in close contact with someone from whom you would have contracted this virus. It starts with severe headache and body pain, and that explains why you were here last week. The worst part is that the virus dupes the brain into thinking it’s harmless after the first few days. You could easily think you have recovered and go out and about with your daily routine. But that does even more damage as it gives the virus time to multiply without alerting anyone.”

“Are you with me Mr. Mitra?”, Dr. Desai had to claim back Apurva’s attention. “This is important.”

“How many days do we have realistically?”, Apurva’s question sounded more like he was clarifying for a project timeline. “ We have found something really interesting in your reports”. The virus is bad news, there’s no doubt about that. But there is a set of anti bodies present in your immune system which are proving to be extremely effective on this virus. We may have discovered a rare plasma type in your blood that may prove to be effective for countering this virus.” Dr. Desai’s eyes were glowing. But her voice was still surgical, and had the same flat intonation.

“So does that mean I will live?”, asked Apurva meekly. “If the development of the anti bodies continues as we are seeing today, we have hope Mr. Mitra, and probably a bit more than that”. For the first time, Apurva saw a hint of smile in Dr. Desai’s eyes.

Apurva was driving back from the gym, when he got a call from Aparna. “Can you pick up some groceries on your way back? I have sent you the list.” After spending about two hours in the gym, Apurva was not tired. He was looking for more work and was kind of excited when Aparna called with the grocery list. He picked up the groceries, parked his new BMW on the porch and went inside his home.

“Happy B’Day!!!” — The voice of 10 people echoed together in the living room when Apurva entered with the groceries on one hand and his gym bag on the other. Aparna had invited Apurva’s cousins and close friends to celebrate the special day. Apurva looked the youngest in the room with a perfectly toned body. There was a big chocolate cake with a candle in the middle of it. The icing on the cake said, “Happy 60th B’Day Apurva!”.