Goutam Shaw is upset, worried and broken-down today after hearing the news. His one of the patients, Pabitra Basak, has committed suicide last night. This is not a new news for him, patients may have died but Gautam knew that Pabitra Basak died due to his blunder.
Goutam is a Phlebotomist. He is in his mid-age. He is well built with black complexion. He works for a reputed pathology lab. His job is to collect blood samples of patients from their respective homes and hand over their results to the patients after the test results examined by the lab come out.
He has two daughters and two sons. Even he has taken the responsibility of his old parents. Instead, he has three elder brothers. He is the only earning member of the family. Whatever money he earns from his job that hardly runs his family. His wife is very helpful. She is M.A pass. They committed a love marriage. They met in college. She teaches all her sons and daughters while doing house chores.
On 2nd June, Goutam was under excessive pressure. He had to collect blood samples of 20 patients from their respective homes. Each house was far away from each other. He could earn extra money if he attended all the estimated patients. In the morning, when Goutam kicked his bike to ride. It was not working. As a result, he used the buses for transportation. It took a long time and hard labour than usual. In spite of the difficult situation, he did his job efficiently. He was worried because of two reasons. Firstly, his younger son's school fees were owed for three months. If he could not pay it for the next two days, his son would probably be expelled from school until it was paid again. Secondly, his father was not well for quite some time. A huge amount of money had been transacted for his treatment. Therefore, sometimes he was absent-minded from his job.
He was supposed to submit all the samples before 9 pm. After collecting all the blood samples, he returned home at 8:30 pm. He had only 30 minutes to submit the samples to the pathology lab. At his final checkup, he noticed two bottles without the patient's name pasted on it. After a thorough search, he understood that only two names were left to paste on their bottles of the blood sample. It was difficult for Goutam to configure which bottle belongs to whom. So, he pasted the names on his random choice. He did only one mistake. He pasted Rakhal Sarkhel's name on the bottle of Pabitra Basak's blood sample and vice-versa.
Pabitra Basak was a pious man. He is an old man. His hair grew grey. He was always involved in worshipping God. His wife had died 3 years ago. He had two daughters. Elder daughter read in class twelve and younger one in class nine.
Rakhal Sarkhel was opposite of Pabitra Basak. He was a lecherous man. He was energetic for sleeping with prostitutes every night. He was unmarried as well as an atheist. He went to jail three times.
Goutam realised his mistake when the results came out. Pabitra Basak was diagnosed with HIV positive and Rakhal Sarkhel with sugar. He realised his blunder but didn't notify the concerned authorities in fear of losing his job.
When Pabitra Basak got the report, he guessed it might be a minor ailment. But after reading it, his eyes darkened in fear. He couldn't think. He fell down on the floor. His younger daughter ran to his bedroom hearing the falling sound. She picked her father up and lay him down on the bed. His father was in a semi-conscious state. She noticed the report. She picked up and read. She surprisingly took the report to her elder sister. Both of them broke in tears.
The news spread like a wildfire. Everyone began judging him. He came to be a devil from pious overnight. His daughters knew that his father was not at all lustful person. But they could not prove it to their neighbours because of the blood report.
Every day whenever Pabitra Basak went out to buy something for his home, people started mocking him. In school, his daughters also got mocked by other classmates. The situation became so miserable that the school authorities decided to expel them due to huge pressure from the guardians of the other classmates. Although, they concealed their expelling news from their father but Pabitra Babu got the news from somewhere. He determined to kill himself so that their daughters' future could be secured.
On the same night, Pabitra babu was tossing on the bed. He could not sleep. Only he remembered his wife, Chetana. They had a happy family. He worked in a government office. He got married in his middle age. That time, Chetana was very young. In the evening when he returned home, he found Chetana waiting for him behind the main door of his small room. Almost three years later Chetana gave birth to their first daughter. Their younger daughter was born in another two years gap. After his retirement, he with Chetana decided to visit various pilgrims. But within two months, Chetana died in an unknown fever. After her death, Pabitra babu involved himself to worship God. He became a pious man. Many people started following him. He never imagined, at the final phase of his life, he would be insulted such away. Tears spilt out of his eyes. He brought out a rope which he had bought from the market in the morning. He tied it with the ceiling fan and hanged till death.
Goutam comes to Pabitra's house to visit him for the last time. He sees his body has been taken for post mortem. He notices Pabitra babu's two daughters are crying bitterly. Tears roll out from Goutam's eyes. Before he tries to console them, his phone rings. He takes the phone out of his shirt pocket. His boss is calling.
"You have to collect the blood samples of 20 patients even today." The boss directs him.
He, wiping his tears, kick-starts his bike to accomplish his job.
We struggle every day to survive but at one point of time death knocks on your door to take us into the world of eternity. This is life.
