When friend proposes nature disposes

The night was getting long. The giant antique clock at the far end of the long room where Shailesh has his cabin chimed 1 am quietly. At the office reception foyer unopened dinner packets ordered by a few employees were lying unattended. The exceedingly sexually attractive receptionist with an appropriately seductive husky voice, over whom most men in the office would fantasise and wank at night, had left office at 6 pm, but no one missed her now. She was Shailesh's find. And Shailesh suspected that many men in the office settled for a lower pay simply because they were so enamoured with her. And those guys who left the company for a salary hike of even as low as Rs1-lakh were mostly gays. He could be partly right.

The expansive foyer was empty as retail and corporate customers were expected only during office hours. It's the frenetic pace with which deadlines and insurmountable targets were being met behind the reception area that could take a visitor's breath away. The buzz in the office even past midnight with bosses still at work would have really made a lot of competing foreign banks uncomfortable.

And the king who was overseeing his turnaround kingdom was Country Head Shailesh Kamdar. He did not show any kind of anxiety or fluster in most situations. At IIM Ahmedabad where he lectured on financial marketing he made it clear to students that he believed in a simple dictum and that is, "don't exhult in your success, even as you should not get too perturbed by your failures." But his foot soldiers were not as suave as him. They were vocal about their sleepless nights, stressful work pressures and unhealthy compulsions imposed by the their career in this foreign bank. That was, Shailesh knew, the most common topic at the coffee machine.

At the other end of the room was a cubicle that belonged to the most successful sales team chief Ravi Menon who was the secret behind the bank's incredible growth story in the last three years. Most people working with Shailesh would concur that Shailesh was just a cog in the wheel, Ravi was the star performer. Shailesh was only too aware of this and would treat Ravi with kid gloves. But today Ravi would have none if it. He was exuberant, and loudly so. He was speaking to someone on the phone when its about 01:16 am, and his colleagues wondered why would any of his friend be taking his calls at that hour. But Ravi's secret was far from the usual corporate gossip orbit, he was a bi and morally challenged at the same time, which was a dubious combination for any company to tolerate. Till now as the cat was still in the bag the board had not taken any objection, but there were a few higher ups in the company who were aware of his sexual predilections, because some of the IT team members had spilled the beans to the head office in Singapore over his internet browsing activities. Not that pornography was not the most popular pastime for people working in the bank's headquarters, it is simply his preference that was objectionable to many.

Ravi had a different take on these personal matters. His IT friend Vishwas Matre had over drinks explained to him that everything everyone would do on the internet was being tracked by the company for any deviant behaviour. But Ravi had this devil-may-care attitude that even rattled his seniors. Ravi knew well that his company cannot afford to lose him, and money makes the mare go!

When it was close to 3 am most people in the office were planning to go home and lay off for a full day. Shailesh had left office and Ravi sat in his reclining chair to take a nap. He closed his eyes and was having a strange dream of fighting for life in a ship that had capsized and another huge ship was about to overrun him in the water. Suddenly when his mobile phone on the desk rang he woke up with a start. He took some time to get accustomed to the strangeness of the place before he leaned forward to pick up his Blackberry. It was an unknown number calling him at 3:18 am. But he was not surprised. He picked up the call. The lady at the other end was speaking to him in Marathi.

"Is this Ravi Menon?"

"Yes, it is."

"Sir, your friend Vishwas Matre has got into an accident. I am calling from Sri Mohite hospital at Chakala, Amdheri. Can you come here quickly."

Ravi froze for a minute. Was this part of the bad dream that he was having and will he wake up from this soon, he thought.

"Yes, madam. I will be there in 10 minutes."

Ravi swung out of his chair, grabbed both his phones from the desk and scooted out of the place. No one in the office even noticed him disappear. It took less than 20 minutes for Ravi to reach Sri Mohite hospital. When Ravi reached the hospital he was met at the reception by a lady who was going through a thick pile of papers, which made Ravi wonder why should receptionists be rummaging through thick files. Those were the discharge papers, and she was doing the final round of checks. The young patient who was discharged was looking sprightly and eager to get out of hospital. Ravi looked at him for a long while and thought he must have been the hospital for at least a month. He had grown a lot of beard even though he was in his early 20s. The patient was still wearing the patient uniform which was light blue in colour. From the look of it, he was sure the patient was not wearing anything beneath the pyjamas and shirt. He wanted to fantasise over the young man who was recuperating but looked healthy and full of verve. A doctor along with two assistants walked towards him in quick strides and spoke in quiet considerate tones.

"Are you Ravi Menon?"

"Yeah, I am. How is Vishwas doing? Is he hurt badly?"

The doctors were used to these usual anxious questions and had standard replies.

"He is doing fine, except that he has lost a lot of blood. He is in the ICU, but there is nothing to worry, in about six hours he will come to and then you can speak to him. We are getting a MRI scan to check any brain damage. But I am sure he is fine. The police will be here soon to take his statement. The biker who brought him here told us that he was riding beside a truck and suddenly he saw your friend flying up in the air even as his bike crashed near Vile Parle highway. We don't know anything more than that. You can get in touch with Smita Deshpande, the head nurse in charge," the doctor said with some finality.

Ravi took some time to understand the import of what the doctor said. The doctor and his aides left and Ravi took his seat again. About a minute later he walked to the nurses' bay next to the receptionist's table.

"Can I see Vishwas who is in the ICU. I am his office colleague," he said with some reluctance.

The lady behind the counter didn't look up from what she was writing but spoke nonchalantly.

"Yes, you can. Actually Smita was looking for Vishwas's relations if they have come. You have to first sign these documents as your colleague might have to undergo surgery."

Ravi wanted to ask what was Vishwas' condition now though the doctor seemed confident that he will recover. But he signed the documents without asking anything.

"Kindly go the first landing and you will see the chief nurse's room. You can speak to her for all the details."

Ravi turned around to climb the flight of stairs for the first landing. The young patient who was getting discharged was alone at the reception area while he was holding a pair of shirt and trousers. Ravi looked at him and smiled. The young man smiled back. Without a second thought Ravi walked towards the young man and told him that there was a changing room at the end of the corridor and he could go there. Ravi extended his hand to help the young man get up from his seat. The young patient held Ravi's hand but he didn't seem to need it. The young patient who still had fresh signs of IV needle marks on his forehand walked with Ravi to the end of the corridor. Ravi put on the light inside the changing room which was just about 6 feet by 6 feet. There was a small table and a number of hooks on the wall. Ravi held the auto-closing doors open for the patient to enter the room. But before Ravi could get out of the room the young man spoke softly.

"Sir, can you help me wear my pant and shirt. I have POP on my left leg and it is difficult to pull up my pants alone."

Ravi looked at him for some time and then walked towards him and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt. Then he lifted his shirt. The young man had partially recovered from his illness, what ever it was as he was not looking lean. He had good amount of hair on the chest and back. Ravi then unbuttoned his pyjama without waiting for any signal and it dropped to the floor. The young man immediately covered his dick and balls with his hands and looked coy. Ravi noticed that his dick was not flaccid and he was trying to hide his erection. Ravi separated his hands and had good look at ther cock and balls and the beautiful body that the young man had. He touched the dick softly and held his balls with the other hand. The dick was now rising fast. He made the young man sit on the stool. Ravi quickly tuned and took the trouser from the table and made the guy wear it before it got uncomfortably sexual. The young man could slid into it without much difficulty. He seemed to have broken the left femur bone as the plaster covered that part. Ravi then made him wear the shirt. He then tousled the patient's hair as a show of concern and warmth. Ravi left him there in the room and quickly walked up the stairs to reach the head nurse's cabin.

At the mezzanine floor he spotted the head nurse-in-charge's room and entered after knocking it once. The tall lady in white attire looked imposing, but she was also quite soft spoken.

"Madam, my name is Ravi Menon. I am an office colleague of Vishwas Matre who is in the ICU after a bike accident. I just want to know how is he doing and what really..."

"Please sit down, Mr Menon. My name is Smita. Your friend was brought to the hospital by another biker who found him unconscious and bleeding in the bushes. Vishwas is stable now, but we need at least three bottles of blood that has to be replenished in the bank. We also need to plaster his right hand as he has a hair-line fracture," she said while lifting an x ray from the table. "He is lucky to have just managed to survive with the least damage all because he landed in the bushes," she added for good measure.

"I will make arrangements for the replenishment of blood in the bank. Can I see and talk to him?"

"Yes you can but he is under sedation as he was in lot of pain when he was brought in about an hour ago. And I need your help in changing his clothes to hospital uniform. The nurses have removed his shirt before x-ray. Can you change his pants."

Ravi stood there wondering if the nurse was suggesting something more than she said. It was the second time that he would be changing someone's hospital clothes.

"Yes, why not? Where is the ICU?"

"It is on the first floor at the west corner. You can't miss the pointers on the walls. Just make sure you don't shake his body as far as possible. He should only be wearing the hospital pyjama with no undergarments. Do you need a nurse to assist you?"

"Oh, not at all. I can handle that with ease."

Ravi left the head nurse's room and quickly climbed another flight of stairs. The ICU was, as the head nurse said, easily identifiable from the rest of the wards. It had two doors probably to maintain the temperature. Ravi walked up to the roster sheet hung on the second door which gave details of patients, doctors and nurses. Vishwas Matre was listed as bed number 18. When Ravi entered the ICU he could feel the chill. He could hear the signals from various monitoring machines as he passed the beds. He found that bed number 18 was at the end of the room. There were only a few medical professionals, and the nurses in the ICU were looking more alert as well as stressed than the ones on the ground floor. Each bed had a partition and curtains were draped around most beds. When he reached Vishwas' bed he first peered in between the curtains. Vishwas was awake though slightly drowsy. But he recognised Ravi and smiled. A nurse followed Ravi and placed a pyjama on the bed. 

"Just help him put on this‎," she said with practiced politeness. She left after drawing the curtain behind her. Ravi first went up to Vishwas and placed his palm on Vishwas forehead.

"Thank you for coming..."

Ravi moved his hand below to Vishwas' mouth before he could complete his sentence. Ravi kissed Vishwas' eyes and his cheek.

"I am happy to see that you are alive, darling. I have already lost a friend in a bike accident earlier. I wouldn't say this to my girlfriend but you are someone more important than girlfriends," Ravi was genuinely pleased to see Vishwas in good shape.