The sun came up in the east, spreading its blessings in the form of light in all the different directions. The rays even fell on Ridhima's face, making her squint her eyes and forcing her to start the day. She stretched her arm and forced herself to get out of bed.
Then she entered the balcony in her room to look at the beautiful sunrise. Joining her hands and she started muttering some prayers to Surya Dev (Sun god) . She had always been very religious.
Then she entered back in her room and finally drew the curtain to block the sunlight. She always left the curtain shut at night, so that she can wake up when the nature tells her too.
Then she went on with her daily routine, brushing her teeth, making her bed, cleaning the floor of her room, taking a bath and other important things.
She never allowed the servants to clean her room, unless she was super busy, a trait that she acquired from her parents. They were never too proud about being rich, and were very down to earth, unlike her uncles and aunts who enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and wanted everyone to know about it.
Finally after completing her work she headed for the dinning room in a comfortable pair of trousers and T-shirt.
Her parents were already sitting on the dinning table, waiting for her. She sat on the chair and without even wasting a moment she began to dig in the delicious food.
Her parents stared at her with eyes filled with confusion.
"What?" She asked not sure why they were looking at her.
"Beta why aren't you ready yet?" asked her father.
"Ready for what?" she asked him back, while stuffing her mouth with food.
"Ridhi, how can you forget. I already told you yesterday, about the meeting with Dr. Jha. How can you forget?" said her mother in an annoyed tone.
"Oh no maa, it completely escaped from my mind." She explained.
"Beta if you were ready right now we would have been able to come with you to the hospital too." Said her father in an disappointed tone.
To which she exclaimed "If you guys aren't going to be there, then I am not going through the surgery alone."
"No beta, Maa will be there it's just that we have some work in the office which requires her signatures. So she will go to the office first then to the hospital. Don't worry she will be there before the surgery starts." Explained her father in a calm voice.
"Now finish your food and get ready." Said her mother. After which they got up and left for the office but not before planting a kiss on her forehead.
She finished her food and got up, the servants took their plates for cleaning. She would generally wash the dishes but today she was just not in the mood.
Then got to her room to get ready, putting on a sleeveless top (so that the doctors can easily operate the burned area) and a oversized shirt over it to hide the scars (so that she could avoid unwanted attention and questions from people whom she will come across on her way to the hospital.)
Then she got in the car, in the back seat to be more specific, and sat quietly until she reached the hospital.
Arriving at the hospital the first thing she did was to call her mother to ask where she was. But to her dismay, she was stuck in the traffic and she asked Ridhima to go on with the surgery alone.
Having no other option she went inside the hospital.
Generally she would have to wait for a long time to take the elevator, but to her surprise the elevator was just standing there, about to leave.
She rushed toward the elevator door, holding her medical report in one hand.
While rushing inside the elevator her heel got stuck in the gap between the ground and the floor of the elevator and she was about to fall to her face.
But lucky for her a firm grip caught her waist saving her from the drastic fall. She took a look at the hand which saved her, a strong hand indeed, then she looked at the person who saved her, while the elevator door behind them shut closed.
It was a doctor, he looked rather young for his position and too handsome to be a doctor. She then smiled and thanked him, then took a step back and stood near the buttons panel of the elevator.
She pressed the button for the 15th floor on the panel.
Then all of a sudden the young doctor took a step close to her and stretched his arm in front of her, encaging her between him and the elevator wall.
She looked at him, in shock, not sure how to react. Not noticing when the medical report slipped from her hand. The sound of papers falling forced her to take her eyes off him and look at the fallen and scattered medical reports.
Before she could even bend to pick up the papers, the doctor got down on his knees and picked them up for her. She stood there motionless, looking at him while he was collecting the papers.
Then he gently tapped the bundle against his knee to align the papers and handed it to her. She thanked him and took the papers.
He got up and gently patted his pants to get rid of the dust. He then stopped and looked at Ridhima, who was already looking at him.
Trying to make it less awkward she looked away and saw the button panel, on which the button to the 14th floor was pressed.
In a moment or two the elevator came to a stop at the 14th floor. The doctor gave Ridhima a smile and then got off the elevator.
Right before the elevator door was about to be shut, he turned around and said while smiling "Bye, Ridhima"
The doors shut before she could even reply.
But she didn't understand one thing, how did he knew her name.
Then the elevator stopped at the 15th floor, she got off and headed straight to Dr. Jha's clinic. She got inside and Dr. Jha greeted her with a big smile on his face. Dr. Jha is the best doctor to cure burn marks and hypothetical scars in India, his family is also friends with that of Ridhima's. That's why he treats Ridhima as his own daughter.
She sat down and he asked how has she been and how her exam were, the usual. She replied while smiling, she would generally get bored due to the small talks but she didn't ever mind him.
"Where is your mother, Ridhima?" he asked looking around, hoping to see her in case he failed to notice her the first time.
"She'll be here. She is stuck in the traffic." She replied.
"Oh, I actually wanted to talk about something important" he said, he looked serious.
"What is it, is something wrong uncle?" She worriedly asked.
"Well you see..." he hesitantly said "Do you remember the last time we conducted some blood tests?"
She nodded.
"We got the reports back the day before yesterday. I had sent it to America to get properly tested." He explained. "Your reports shows that your scars have chances of expanding."
"But they have never showed any signs of expanding." She interrupted
"That's true, so we are not very concerned about that. What we are concerned about is that your scars have started to cause a disease and it will potentially effect your skin and blood and later your heart. We don't have any knowledge about this disease because you are the first one in the world to have this."
Ridhima eyes filled with tears "So I am going to die."
"Oh no, of course not. I told you, we know nothing about it and it's great that we noticed it when it was just starting. What we need to do now is to control it as soon as possible." He explained, trying to stop her from crying.
He continued "You see last week when I was giving my lecture at Harvard, I presented your case to the students to hear about their ideas to prevent it from expansion and to cure it. I really liked the idea of one of the student. His name is Yuvraj Singh Rajput. He is a second year Harvard Medical student and he is the topper of his class of a thousand students. Not only that, I am close friends with his family. Since the semester finals are over and session break is going on, I have asked him to do an internship for me and help me with your case. And he is originally from Patna, just like you. He should be here any moment."
Call it perfect timing but the young doctor entered the room in the exact second Dr. Jha was done speaking.
He smiled at Ridhima and said "Hey, Ridhima remember me?"
Ridhima smiled back at him and said "Of course sir you save me from falling in the elevator, thanks for that once again."
He looked at her with a confused look and said "Wait, do you even recognize me?"
She got even more confused and asked "Sorry, but do we know each other."
"Yes...we know each other very well."
"How? I have just met you in the elevator today."
Yuvraj looked at Ridhima in a way in which his eyes were saying 'Are you serious right now!'
Even Dr.Jha was confused at Yuvraj's reaction.
Then Ridhima's mother barged into the clinic.
Everyone turned to look at her. She gasped after seeing Yuvraj and exclaimed "Yuvraj beta, is that you!"
Yuvraj smiled and replied "yes Sumati aunty, it's so good to see you." While touching her toes.
Then he looked at Ridhima and said "That's how you are supposed to recognize your dear ones." While pointing at her mother .
Ridhima was still too confused about what was happening.
"Ridhi, please don't tell me you didn't recognize Yuvraj." Her mom exclaimed.
Ridhima raised her eyebrows as if she was waiting for her to continue to tell who he was.
"Beta, it's Yuvraj, he was our neighbour back in Patna. You guys used to be best friends when you were little." Her mother explained.
"oh..." the sound she produced indicating that she remembered.
She continued "I am so sorry, I didn't recognize you in the moment we first bumped into each other. It's just that it's been almost 7 years and you look really different now."
Before Yuvraj could say anything to that, Ridhima's mother interrupted and asked "What are you doing here beta?"
To which Dr. Jha said "He is doing an internship for me during his session break."
Sumati looked at him.
Yuvraj nodded while smiling but he was clearly annoyed by everyone interrupting him before he even has a chance to speak.
"Yuvraj take Ridhima to the other room and conduct the tests you wanted to. I will fill Mrs. Singh with the details." Dr. Jha Commanded.
Yuvraj open the door for Ridhima and they headed for the room right next to this one.
Dr. Jha began giving all the details about her condition to Sumati.
Hearing about the disease made her burst into tears. "Please do anything to save her doctor, she is my entire world." She said in a breaking voice.
Dr. Jha was trying his best to calm her down but she kept on crying.
The walls were thin and Ridhima could clearly hear her mother crying in the next room. This was breaking her heart.
She looked at Yuvraj with eyes filled with sorrow. He looked back at her trying to say something to make her feel better but failed.
So he just went on with the process, injected some medicine and said "The surgical procedure will start the day after tomorrow. There medicines are to loosen the muscles that are present in the area where the scars are, if you feel any pain just let me know."
She nodded.
He kept on precisely mixing the medicines and injecting them.
Ridhima was too focused on her mother's conversation with the doctor.
She listened carefully and finally after a moment or two, her mother stopped sobbing and understood the situation, and choose to be optimistic. She knew that her daughter was in good hands.
Ridhima felt a sense of relief knowing that her mother stopped crying.
Then after a minute or two, her mother entered the room. Ridhima looked at her and smiled.
Her mother said in a calm voice "Beta, something came up and I have to go back to the office. I am going to take your car."
"But what happened to your car maa" Ridhima said worriedly.
"I didn't take the car. I came here on rickshaw." She explained.
"So, I guess that I will take the bus back home." Ridhima said in a exhausted tone knowing the fact that she will have to stand all her way back to the house on the over crowded bus. She couldn't book a cab because she didn't recharged her network in order to stay off the internet during exams.
"Oh no, there's no need for that I have talked to Dr. Jha, Rajveer will drop you home." She explained.
"Oh, well that's great." Ridhima replied while smiling.
"Okay, then continue with the medications. I will see you back home. Bye Ridhi. Bye Yuvraj beta." Saying this she left the room.
"Bye" they both said while waving back at her.
Then Yuvraj went back to focusing on the medications while Ridhima was focusing on him.