The Whisper

"Maa, will I ever be fine again?", six year old Rishabh whispered in the ears of his mother, shivering out of pain and weakness. He was stuck on his mother's chest and his body was burning of fever.

"Of course you will.", Rakhi consoled him with a smile, an unsure smile. "C'mon now take medicines and try to sleep", said Rakhi reading the doctor's prescription. However, Rishabh did not leave his mother's warm embrace.

She held him tight trying to make him sleep going back and forth, staring at the wall for long. When he fell asleep, she saw him then stared at wall again and bursted out crying. She lost all her control throwing everything she could get her hands on.

Prabhat heard her screams and rushed to her. "Prabhat! Prabhat humara baccha Prabhat. I don't want him to go. He'll survive, alright? Yes, he'll survive. I know he will. My Rishu is strong.", and she started wailing.

"Of course he'll survive. We won't let anything happen to him. I'll take him to the best possible hospital."

Rakhi went numb. But after a few minutes, she broke the silence saying, "Will he die?"

"No, we'll save him."

"How? We hardly have any money to save him! We've already taken him to the best doctor of Jharkhand spending lacks. Don't you remember them demanding 10 lakhs more? There is no option to arrange such a huge amount, we've already spent our savings and have tried every possible arrangement."

"I promise. I'll even sell myself to save him.", saying this, Prabhat left the house.

Rakhi had to distract herself. She decided to dust her home. While doing that, she found a bunch of photographs.

The first photograph of Rishu, when she was blessed with an angelic child like him. How adorable he looked! However, she loved the fact how his eyes looked exactly like hers. She was quite proud of it. She had got a reason to live that day.

The next photograph was of the first time he smiled. She could still remember how he suddenly woke up and saw Rakhi looking at him. He gave the prettiest smirk. He was only two days old then. However, Rakhi could still remember the cute little smile of her Rishu.

There was a photo photo that Prabhat had secretly taken when she was making the baby sleep. It's been six years and everything had changed but she still makes him sleep the same way she made him sleep six years before. Patting his head and singing his favorite lullaby, she has mastered the trick to make him sleep.

When he was captured walking for the first time, she remember how he walked four steps, then fell down and started crying. Even that cry was adorable at that point of time.

And his first birthday party, when by their day means, Rakhi and Prabhat had thrown a get together party. They had bought him the best dress possible and even though their pockets didn't allow, they threw a grand celebration of one year completion of their child.

Their family picture. When they had to catch the two year old Rishabh from running away. He probably wanted to play with his new toy and hardly had interest in clicking the picture. His expression in the picture video clearly suggests how irritated he was when he was forced to be captured.

The first day of the school. She remembers how he was excited to wear his new uniform carrying the new bag with his first book inside. But on contrary he ended up crying the whole time because he didn't want to leave his mother and stay alone in the school. However, he looked really smart in the picture when he wore his uniform for the first time.

The day then his first ever result had to come in nursery. She was tensed to attend the PTM and had no idea how much proud her little Rishu will make her as he stood first in class. That day, she gifted him his bicycle which he was demanding since long.

And when he learnt to ride the bicycle after scores of cuts and bruises, it was a proud moment for Prabhat as well as he was the one who had taught him who do so. She remembers how she had cuts on his elbows but still looked happy, very happy.

And now, it seems as if all the problems have been served to only him. Rishabh has been detected with cancer and none of the doctors were ready to help unless charging huge amount of money was involved to give back his life.

Prabhat belonging to a lower middle class family still gave away all his savings to save his child. But now that doctors are demanding more, he didn't know what to do.

Rakhi was cherishing all the memories which made her escape the reality for a while unless Rishabh growled of pain and came back to senses.

"Maa..", he wispered. "Please, don't go by my side. Stay here, will you?"

"I'm here my love."

And then she sang his favorite lullaby to make him sleep and she kept on looking at him, smiling, remembering all the good old days in which her Rishabh had smiled. He still smiles though, but bravely in pain.

"Pack up the bags, we're leaving for Delhi.", Prabhat entered with tickets in his hand. "We'll take him to the best doctor of India."

"Delhi? Prabhat are you mad? How will we even afford Delhi and it's expensive hospital?"

"I don't know. My conscience says we'll find a solution to his illness there. Afterall the doctors here have given up and we need to think something else. And to the fact that we do not have money, I've sold my gold chains. We have approximately 2 lakhs in our pocket. Train will depart in four hours. Let's pack!"

And they left for Delhi. There they stayed at a cheap hotel, probably because they wanted to save as much money as they could. The next day they took Rishabh to the best government hospital but couldn't get an appointment. They returned back, ate some bread and slept off. The next day, they went to the hospital again. But couldn't get an appointment again. This continued for the next five days.

"I don't think coming to this city will do any good. It's been so many days yet we haven't even got an appointment. We're just wasting our money on hotel rent, that's it." Rakhi said frustratingly. The condition of Rishabh was getting worse, it was clearly observable and this was frustrating to another level.

"If we have come so far, we must give it a try at least. You never know if God is with us this time.", consoled Prabhat.

But five more days passed without getting an appointment until they finally got it for the next day. Their constant prayers had worked. They were called after yet another four days but at least they were given an appointment. At that point it of time even that was sufficient.

The next four days passed in prayers. And when they met the doctor theyalmost bursted out, "Doctor, our son, he has been detected with cancer. The doctors in Odisha have given up on him. They say he won't live for long. Even if we pay him lakhs and lakhs, there will be a little chance for his recovery. You are our last hope doctor. Please."

It took about two hours for the checkup. In those two hours, a series of countless prayers were chanted by the couple. And why not, those two hours were the most crucial moments for them.

"There's nothing to worry about, your child is on the first stage of cancer, he can easily be cured.", the doctor exclaimed. “Just make sure you have Rs.20,000 in your pocket. The treatment will obviously require bit of money but there won't be lakhs of expense. This made the couple almost cry, but somehow, they handled their feelings.

“Thank you doctor.”, whispered Prabhat.

“Thank you God.”, whispered Rakhi.

“Thank you Maa-Baba”, whispered Rishabh.

That wasn't all of it. This article is about how people are completely dependent on doctors for their ill fate health. Indeed doctors are considered next to God because if Gods give us life, doctors save our lives. But today's scenario has been a quite different.

The will to cure has been overpowered by greed. They flaunt the illness demanding more and more fees. And obviously people tend to give them as much money demanded because they need to live. Hence, the doctors have been cheating on the innocents.

Forgetting the fact that patients belong to different financial stratas, they risk the lives of patients just to satisfy their greed. There must be an eye on such people as they are not less than criminals. People trust doctors and they must not sell their faith doing frauds.