Quarry

I was born in a small town. I attended a little-known school. I was
lucky to perform well in the various examinations I took. I was also
fortunate to be able to study medicine in the best college in my
province. After I became a doctor I worked in a hospital briefly.
However I found this job monotonous with little scope for personal
excellence. That is when I decided to start my own practice. The odds
were entirely against me. I had very little money and knew practically
no one in the city. Besides I needed to find at least two rooms whose
rent I could afford, for my clinic. I also needed a house where I could
stay. I could live with friends for a while though. It was around this
time that I was introduced to Tom Sen. Tom had a three-storey house in
Lake Gardens in south Calcutta and many more houses in other places. He
was looking for a tenant for the Lake Gardens house. I met him and told
him what I was seeking. Tom was a happy-go-lucky kind of person who had
great respect for well-educated people. He had been thinking of setting
up a toddy joint on the ground floor of his house. When I told him that
I wanted to start a clinic he was more than willing to rent out the
ground floor. The rent he asked was really a pittance even in those
days when things were inexpensive. Thus I was able to start my clinic
in Lake Gardens.
I tried to pay the rent on time. To tell the truth I was not successful
in doing this always. But Tom was not bothered. He proudly told
everyone that an actual doctor was one of his tenants. He would come
visiting once in a while and I found him to be a friendly person. He
had a lot of property all over south Calcutta and the income from the
same was substantial. Tom had no living relatives and all he had to do
every month was collect rent. He seemed to feel very lonely and did all
he could to keep busy. He attended concerts, even promoted promising
artistes. He was a regular at the cricket matches in winter. He was
into innumerable social causes. Despite this he had a lot of free time.
One evening he visited me at about nine pm. He said his eyes were
watering. Though I am a neurologist by training I did have some
eye-testing equipment in my clinic. I performed a preliminary
examination of his eyes and found nothing wrong. To please him I sent
him to an ophthalmologist who was a friend. He too felt that Tom's eyes
were in great condition. I called Tom to my apartment one evening. In
the course of the chat we had I found the real reason for Tom's eye
problems. He wanted to wear spectacles because he felt that it made him
look intelligent. It was just like a child craving a toy. I had some
glasses with ordinary plastic fitted into the frame. I presented Tom
with these glasses and he was very happy.
Three years had passed since I began my clinic. Tom decided to visit a
friend in another city. When he came back to Calcutta, his bride was
with him. The story of Tom's marriage was unique too. His wife was
called Dolly. Now Dolly's father had a lot of debts. Things were so bad
that the family was about to lose the roof over their heads. Somebody
told Tom about the troubled family and he stepped in. He paid all the
creditors and gifted the family a spanking new house. In return for
this(so said the rumours) he married Dolly. When Tom visited me with
his wife he seemed the happiest person in the world. His wife, however,
smiled little, spoke even lesser. For their honeymoon the couple went
for a cruise around the world. I met Tom again about a year
later.
It was a Friday evening. Tom had always been healthy. He seemed to have
gained some more weight. It was just after sunset and my landlord
looked worried. He said to me, "Doctor, am I fat?" "No," I assured,
"you are healthy." This was certainly true. "Doctor," Tom said, "My
wife says that she will not speak to me unless I shed twenty pounds." I
explained to Tom that he did not need to lose any weight from a medical
point of view. He could always take exercises but for his height and
age he was not overweight. Tom went back a satisfied person.
I was thinking of converting my clinic into a full-fledged nursing
home(In Calcutta a nursing home is a private hospital without an
outdoor department). I would need the whole building in which my clinic
was situated. I was rich enough now to be able to buy the building from
Tom. When I told him about my plans he seemed pleased. He asked for
some time to consult lawyers before his building changed hands. He
contacted me a week later. He was ready to sell immediately but had one
condition. The nursing home would have to be named after his wife
Dolly. I had no option but to accept. To this day Dolly Nursing Home
stands at 21, Lake Gardens.
Tom died yesterday. It would be proper to say he was killed. Last
morning Tom's wife Dolly asked him to buy some tuberoses. That was okay
but the flowers had to be purchased from Belvedere. Dolly had warned
Tom that he would have to go to buy the flowers on foot. Meaning he had
to walk from Lake Gardens to Belvedere for three hours in the hot
morning sun. Tom had travelled in cars all his life. Walking was
unknown to him. Yet, he could not disobey his wife and started walking
at nine am. He died of sunstroke at nine fortyfive. Incidentally his
wife tested positive for a pregnancy test the same morning in my
nursing home.