The evil within us BY Amar Jaleel

[niazikhan2]

This world is slippery,

Drowned in darkness,

Stride carefully_

Peep, who lives within you?

-Bulleh Shah



More than three decades ago a brilliant surgeon taught and practiced at Dow Medical College, Karachi. I fail to recall his name. However, his story is more captivating than his name. For the sake of narrative let us give him a name. Let us call him Professor Dr Ahmed.

Bestowed with an attractive personality, Professor Dr Ahmed was a soft-spoken gentleman. He took personal interest in the patients operated upon by him. Their rehabilitation was his immediate concern. It was generally whispered that he financially helped the needy once they were discharge from the hospital. What actually was mind-boggling for his colleagues was the success ratio of his operations. Not once had he faltered in carrying out some of the most complicated operations he performed! It was incredible. It was amazing that an earthly person could be so perfect in his professional performance. But Professor Dr Ahmed was like that. Perfection, commitment, and dedication to duty were the hallmark of his fame.

One ominous day, to everyone's shock and dismay a police party arrived and whisked Professor Dr Ahmed away. He was known for his integrity and steadfastness. He had not embezzled funds nor had he extracted gratifications from his patients. In short he had never ever misused his authority. Then, what was the cause of his apprehension at the hands of the police! Professor Dr Ahmed's arrest was bewildering for his colleagues and his former patients alike. His detention became an enigma, a riddle, a jigsaw puzzle.

Professor Dr Ahmed's friends and well-wishers promptly intervened. In return they received a stunning revelation of their life-time. There was nothing wrong with his qualifications. Dr Ahmed's degrees, certificates, and testimonials were genuine. The blunder that landed him in trouble was that he was an imposter. He was not Dr Ahmed. The degrees, the certificates and the testimonials did not belong to him. The testimonials and the degrees belonged to a doctor by the name of Dr Ahmed who had once practiced at Lyallpur now called Faisalabad. He was no more alive. He had passed away a long time ago. The imposter, then called Ibrahim, was a male nurse who assisted Dr Ahmed in his private practice. He won the heart of Dr Ahmed with his dedication and devotion towards his duty. He stood by the side of Dr Ahmed in the operation theatre for years.

As providence would have it, one day the issueless Dr Ahmed passed away. Ibrahim, otherwise a conscientious person, was besieged by greed. He collected the framed degrees, certificates and testimonials of Dr Ahmed displayed on the walls of his clinic, and absconded. He proverbially vanished. The clinic of Dr Ahmed was closed, and at its place emerged a grocery shop. After some time Dr Ahmed was forgotten by the people of Lyallpur. His chapter was closed, once and for all.

The male nurse/assistant Ibrahim changed his name to Dr Ahmed. He greased the palm of the concerned officials, and easily obtained a National Identity Card. He opened clinics in far-off villages. After practicing surgery in the villages, and gaining confidence, he moved to smaller towns. In about ten years he had cultivated immense confidence in undertaking complicated operations. However, he refrained from practicing in the cities. One day Ibrahim (who had become Dr Ahmed by then) caught sight of an advertisement in the newspapers for the appointment of doctors in Sindh. He applied, appeared in the interview, impressed the selection board, and was given the job in Dow Medical College, Karachi.

How the male nurse Ibrahim alias Dr Ahmed was identified as an imposter is another incredible story. It leaves you caught in the cobweb of intriguing thoughts.

A family from Layallpur had brought a critically wounded boy in his teens to Karachi for treatment. The boy was left almost dead in a car crash. Not being satisfied with the treatment the boy received in the various hospitals of Punjab, his parents brought the injured boy to Karachi. Ibrahim alias Dr Ahmed left no stone unturned in the treatment of the boy. He proverbially performed a miracle. He snatched the boy from the jaws of death, and brought him back to life. The happiness of the parents knew no bounds. They felt overtly grateful to Dr Ahmed. They were surprised when the doctor refused to accept a penny over and above what was due to him. He instead advised them to donate the gifts and the huge amount they intended to give him to Dow Medical College. What he accepted was an invitation to join them in a farewell dinner before their journey back home. Dr Ahmed accepted the invitation.

The grandfather of the boy kept watching Dr Ahmed during the dinner. In fact, the old man had kept an eye on Dr Ahmed from the day he had arrived along with his family for the treatment of his wounded grandson. In Dr Ahmed he perceived the image of a young male nurse Ibrahim he had always seen during his visits to the clinic of Dr Ahmed in Lyallpur decades ago. After the dinner the old man sat by the side of Ibrahim alias Dr Ahmed, and asked, "Do you know me?"

"No sir," was the soft, but prompt reply the old man received.

While seeing him off along with his family the old man took Ibrahim alias Dr Ahmed aside, held his hand, and said, "I shall always remain grateful to you for taking special care of my grandson. But, I shall always lament that he was treated by an imposter."

Before leaving, the old man dismissed the pleadings from his family, and lodged an FIR stating that Dr Ahmed was an imposter and in reality he was a male nurse Ibrahim who worked at the clinic of the late Dr Ahmed who had practiced at Lyallpur a long time ago.



The writer is a creative columnist and a short-story writer.