An Ordinary Life

It was 9pm. Radha was sipping on the second cup of tea in the doctor's duty room. She was too exhausted after the marathon surgery. To her luck the patient responded well to her maneuvers and could come alive out of the OT. Sunil, the anaesthetist walked out of the changing room.

"You should be really proud of what you did. It was a commendable job."

"Thank you, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to do it!"

"Always a pleasure to be part of your team! The patient would be taken care of by the ICU team now. You don't want to go home? It's already late. Should I drop you?"

"Yeh! I'll change and leave in a few minutes, thank you for the offer though."

"Good night and take care"

"Good night Sunil"

Sunil was a thorough gentleman. Always caring about everyone in the OT. He was an exceptional anaesthetist which made any surgery easy. 

She looked at her scrubs. She loved them so much, much more than the designer dresses in her wardrobe she had paid heavily for. She always felt a sense of pride creep in whenever she was wearing them, afterall very few women got to wear them. Her husband, Kunal, would call them the prisoner's dress, but she always ignored.

She got up and changed. While she was walking out towards the hospital exit, the patient's relatives walked upto her and thanked her for saving her life. She felt humbled and asked them to pray so that she comes out of ICU soon. It was moments like these that kept her going inspite of all the resistance and hardships.

Just as she reached the parking, she spotted her car among the few that were still there at this hour. She didn't feel like going home. It was a mandatory task for her. Everyone goes home at the end of the day so should she. She started the car and moved out of the hospital. Her house was just 20 minutes drive from the hospital but she took longer as she was in no hurry and was driving mechanically.

She opened the door and as expected saw Kunal in front of the TV in the living room. He didn't bother to look at her or greet her. She didn't feel the need for it either because she knew very soon the bickering would start. She went to her room, took out her night clothes and went for a shower. When she came back to the living room, Kunal was still watching a match.

"Did you have your dinner?"

"Yes, I had!"

She went to the kitchen to fetch her food. Just as she was pouring her daal, Kunal finally went off

"The daal is awful, why can't you supervise the cook. You keep lying in the bed while she cooks. As it is you are not home the whole day, can't you look after just one thing?"

She ignored his remarks and sat on the table having her food. This didn't go well with Kunal who got up from the couch and came and sat on the dinning with her and shot out again.

"You need to be more responsible, afterall this is your home too."

"Hmmm, I'll be"

Totally disappointed with her lack of retaliation, Kunal went away. She gulped her tasteless food and went off to bed.

Another day ended, another ordinary day. She was judged all through it, commendable, dedicated, life saver, beautiful were the few adjectives she earned among others like lazy, useless and irresponsible. She wanted none, absolutely none. All that she needed was someone to hug her and tell her that she was loved. She hugged her pillow and waited for the sleep to fall upon her!