"Sorojini Devi" a voice called out from inside the small OPD room. Akash went inside with his mother. He greeted the much-awaited doctor. He was a tall man with the shoulders little stooping. He had a very charming face and smiled at them.

He remarked, "So, Dr. NB sent you from Manipur."
He then asked in detail how the whole disease had started and what treatment they had already undertaken until then they came to the Institute. Akash told the events exactly as it happened: how could he forget even a single event. Now and then Akash's mother told the exact dates. Surprisingly she could remember all the dates exactly. Dr. Nandy then examined the patient and wrote slowly on the OPD card. He wrote some letters after a triangle sign. Akash by then knew that the triangle sign stood for the diagnosis. However, the letters baffled him: NCPF.

The doctor then looked up and said, "So you are the medical student. Your mother needs surgery. You report to me after 2 weeks." "Oh! my God! The AIIMS thing is happening with us too," thought Akash.

Back home everybody aspired to go for treatment in AIIMS but was scared of this delay in treatment. These doctors, they believed, would just call the patient after one or two months. If they wait in a dingy room in Yusuf Sarai, it meant they spend thousands on food and lodging for the whole team. If they go back and come again after three months, it was a mammoth task all over again. It was not just money. Travel from that remote corner of the country was not easy. One had to travel to Gauhati the nearest big rail station by an overnight bus-journey and then catch a train to Delhi, a journey for almost 36 hours. Therefore, they were all scared to hear what Akash was hearing then. "Sir, could you please do it earlier. Sir I am missing my Medical College too," Akash just blurted out.

"You need leave for the Medical school. Boy patient first, we need to consider the patient first. We need to build her up and pump up her Haemoglobin. After two weeks, meet me," the kind doctor said soberly.

Akash had no more to say. His fears were gone. The doctor really meant business and it was not just another "come-after-three months" case.

Akash stood up and asked, "Sir, in case of emergency what should we do!"

"You can always come here," the doctor answered and took out the next patient's OPD card.

Akash, Jay, Anil and Akash's aunt all stood in one corner of the OPD floor and discussed the matter and what the doctor had told them. They had all expected that she would be admitted that day but it turned out to be otherwise. Only Akash could understand what the doctor had meant.

That night he took out his books on Anatomy and physiology: he could not find what the doctor wrote on his mother's card: the NCPF. How would he find the disease in them ? The books still dealt with the normal anatomy and functioning of the human body. The pathology and how the body functioned in a diseased state was one year away for Akash to learn. Moreover, that too was only if he could return in time and study enough to read all those already taught, all by himself.

The fear inside, the anguish and the urge to join back the Medical College back home made Akash restless. How he wished his mother were admitted that day! His fear would easily have been under control. He had started enjoying an uncanny feeling of security when they were under the roof of this esteemed Institute. Even though they could easily rush there in case of emergency, for two weeks from then they had to wait somewhere and count the days keeping all fingers crossed and praying that his mother did not vomit out blood.

They the all went back to the Manipur Bhavan room. The booking for one week was soon to be over. They had to find out another accommodation near AIIMS.

The days went on without any unwanted event. Akash's mother gained weight and somehow she fed well on the breakfast, lunch and the dinner served in the Bhavan. Akash's volcano inside him still loomed at his psyche. He could not step out of the room for more than an hour.

Whatever the diagnosis might be, Akash was happy that the Doctor knew what they needed to do with his mother. However, the letters NCPF plagued him for the days. He wished he could ask somebody. But he was in Delhi, in the midst of strangers.

He wished he knew what they stood for.NCPF….NCPF…..

To be continued....