"How is she? Ibungo?" his aunt asked Akash. With tears of joy in his eyes he told, "She is fine and conscious."

All of them then sat down exhausted. None of them had lunch that day and the puri that jyotir bought from the nearby dhaba was wearing out.

Every one of them hugged Akash and they all understood each others pain and heaviness and the sudden relief they were experiencing then.

They Akash started planning again, he said, "Aunty and I will stay back. Uncle, you may please have lunch (though it was already about 4 in the afternoon). Jay, Anil and Jyotir, thanks for coming and it is all because of all your best wishes that my mother is Ok now and I am really grateful. Thanks once again."

But before they went away all of them wanted to see Akash's mother inside the recovery room, so each of them went inside to greet her. After all of them finished the ritual they left one by on.

And Akash's thoughts rushed back to the campus of RIMS, his medical college and the other fear gripped him again, "Its two months now that I have missed the classes and as per schedule the anatomy classes must have progressed from the thorax region and headed towards the head and neck.

The dissection classes must have been through and how to make up then..." But Akash consoled himself. His mother is alive today through this ordeal and at the cost of his classes. What, on this earth was more worth than his mother's life."

That night at the same spot in the corridor where they waited for the operation they made a temporary bed on the floor and he and his aunt stayed throughout the night along many other patient parties. The October night was cool and once after many months they slept well and with a secure heart.

His mother had been carried through the ordeal. The cool breeze creeping through the parapet of the sixth floor corridor of AIIMS woke them up and Akash went back to their Yusuf Sarai rented accommodation and he took bath and went across the street to the mandir wali gali where there was a small temple and Akash quietly prayed and than the Lord above.

He called home through his friends who had telephone connection and conveyed the much awaited news to the Akash family. The lull that had covered the small hamlet in Bhadralok machin leikai on the bank of Imphal was soon lifted off by a divine hand.

The neighbours who, a few months ago dropped in to share the helplessness with the Akash's family, were visiting them with to share the good news of the successful operation. Everybody had given up hope on her. Soon the news reached the faculty of RIMS, who all helped Akash in whichever way they could.

Every body was happy and Dr. Samiran Nundy who was once a stranger became a household name in the few families and the medical college. As usual Akash's grandmother prayed every day with the distant sounds of the artis of the nearby Govindajee temple.

While in Delhi, Akash sat near his recovering mother.than he started planning his days ahead….how he would cope up with the different metabo;isms of Biochemistry, the different systems of Physiology and the dissections of the Anatomy classes. These thoughts now sent shivers down his spine.

That night from the sixth floor makeshift bed in AIIMS under the dim lights of corridor he wrote a letter to Melie, "...I really do not know how I would fare. I really do not know how far I may have to go. One uncertainty is gone but many other uncertainties still surround me. That God is with me and that you are with me is what is pushing me one...I must be blessed...I must be lucky that I met you"

To be continued....