Torched To Death

I was tied to a wooden pole, roped from head to toe, cloth stuffed in my mouth. Around me stood a group of tribals shouting "Torch her...torch her..she's an evil witch". 

I couldn't even answer back, to tell them I was a certified Ayurvedic doctor, my mission to heal those poor villagers, living far away from civilization with no access to medical facilities, nor could afford any.

My purpose was to give them free medicines to protect them from dengue, malaria, seasonal fever that took away the very young and the very old unable to fight the diseases. 

This time, however, I couldn't resuscitate an ailing child who passed away in my arms. And for that one failure, I was being branded as a witch. However much I tried freeing myself, I couldn't succeed. They kept coming closer and closer, with lighted torches in their hands. The heat was reaching me and then the burning smell of skin as the first torch touched my feet.

"Wake up madam. It's over." I heard faintly as the anesthesiologist whispered into my ears, pulling out the tubes from my throat.

I was being rolled out of the OT into the recovery room after an operation to remove kidney stones.

OMG! wasn't I thankful being strapped on a hospital bed than to the pole in my dreams awaiting death by torching. I made sure to stay awake rather than slip back into that tribal forest.