Munni–Ben D.G.O.
Scene-1:
*Munnu is running for his
life followed by his angry older sister, Munni, who is brandishing a big syringe
and needle, ready to inject into her brother’s bum.
Munnu is calling out for
their mother,
Munnu: ‘Mummy!! Mummyyyyyyy!!’
Munni: ‘Wait you good for
nothing, I’ll teach you not to touch my things ever again. Just wait till I
catch u.’
Munnu: ‘Mummyyyyyyyy save
meeee!!’
*Mummy appears screaming:
‘Whats going on, you naughty pair. What happened?’
Munnu: ‘Mummy please save me,
didi is poking me with this bigg needle. She will kill me.’
Munni: ‘No Maa, he is a liar.
He has taken and lost my pencil box. I am going to be a Doctor naa, I’ll cure
him of his naughtiness. Wait till I get you, you brat.’
*Munni resumes her chase as
Munnu slouches behind their mum.
Mummy restrained Munni
laughing and said, ‘don’t worry beta, I’ll find your box.’
Mummy slaps Munnu gently,
scolding, ‘if you do not behave from now on, ill have you admitted in hostel.
Go search for didi’s box.’
Munni sits morose, with her
mum.
Mummy tries to cheer her up
saying,
‘Beta, its such a good idea
that you want to be a doctor. It’s the most noble profession. I wont have to go
anywhere else, I’d be treated by my own daughter. But to achieve this goal in
life you have to work very hard. Are you ready for all the struggles and
hardships?’
‘Munni stands up: ‘Yes Maa, I
very much am’
Scene - 2
*Munni is determined. She buries
herself heart and soul into studies. Day and night, months and years didn’t
matter to her any more.
Finally, the day came when her
dream realized. She got her D G O
·
Song…
Scene – 3
Munni joins a big hospital as
Obs Gynaec consultant. Her mother is the happiest. She sat in her own cabin,
taking selfies with her mother and childhood friends. Hailing from a small town
with meagre resources, this was a day of greatest pride for her family.
Munnu teases her, ‘Now you
can’t bully me with injections di, you have pledged to treat only the feminine gender.’
They all laugh.
Munni starts her work in all
sincerity. She had to deal with all
kinds of patients.
*Entry of patient no-1:
Doctor I am very troubled,
Gas goes up my head, there’s singing sensation in my lower limbs and something
bounces in my stomach up-down, right-left, up-down, right-left.
Munni: Don’t worry, get the
investigations and scans as I have advised then we’ll plan up your treatment
protocol.
Patient 1: ‘But Doctor, I am
allergic to all Allopathic medicines.’ She smiled
Munni [shocked]: ‘ok we’ll
give you medicines for allergy also.’
*Entry of Patient no-2:
Saas-sasur and a lean bahu:
They place a file on her
table.
Munni [after studying the
file]: ‘Congratulations, your daughter in law is pregnant. How is she?’
Saas: ‘Oye keep your wishes
to yourself, she already has two daughters.’
Sasur: ‘We want you to abort
this child.’
Munni [again shocked
expression]: ‘But she is already 16 weeks antenatal and the baby according to
the reports is fine. You cant abort it.’
Sasur [standing up]: O
Doctor, you do as I say or be ready for the consequences.’
Munni: ‘Sirjee, this is not
possible. My apologies. I am here to save lives not take them’ She stood up
with folded hands.
Sasur [stomping out throwing
out the papers from the table] Huh! This hospital should be burnt down.’
Munni sighed.
Scene-4 Labour room
Munni is rushing into the LR
only to find a parturient standing on the labour table screaming like someone
possessed,
‘I want to go home. Let me go
home. I’ll die in pain. You are all heartless demons. Don’t you dare come near
me, any of you, or I’ll jump. O maa…!’
Munni stood a little away
from the table and said, ‘Please calm down, no one will trouble you. You just
get down carefully. We’ll do whatever you want. Please get down.’
The patient shouts, ‘Stay
away you blood suckers. Don’t you dare come near me. I want to go home….’ She
wails as a fresh episode of pain grips her.
Munni requests, ‘Please try
to understand, we’ll give you medicines to allay your pain. Get down or you’ll
hurt your baby, your own baby, that you have been rearing inside your womb for
9 months now. Would you allow it to get harmed? Please get down.’
The woman calmed a bit and
slowly tried to sit. They rushed to help her sit.
Munni again started
counselling her, holding her one hand in her own and caressing her forehead
with the other.
‘Have patience, the
anaesthetist is on his way, you don’t have to endure this pain for long.’
The patient started crying,
‘Do whatever you want but faaaast, or I’ll die.’
Scene- 5
Munni is sitting in her cabin
when an intimidating old couple enters, ‘She explains, the baby is getting
struck. We’ll have to operate her to save both of them.’
The Sasur shouts,
‘Whats this rubbish. We have
been consulting you for the last 9 months, you never told this before. Listen
Doctor, take whatever money you want but the delivery should be normal. Its
only for this that we came to you or else we would have gone to the Govt
Hospital. Now after looting so much money from us for months, you say she cant
deliver normally?’
‘Do whatever it takes but
deliver her normally, or we are not going to leave you nor this bloody
hospital. Bloody money grubbers.’
Munni sits mum all this
while. Then she asks the old man,
‘Sir please have a seat.’ She
offers him a glass of water.
She continues, ‘Sir, I
understand your perspective completely. You and I both have the same purpose in
our minds, that the mother and the baby both should be fine. We did try for
hours now, till the labour progressed smoothly, but now the baby is getting
struck. If we wait, it might be possible that she delivers maybe after another
6-7 hours, but by then you’ll agree that there’s a grave possibility the baby
might be harmed, remaining struck for that long. There is danger of her uterus
getting ruptured too. We cant take such huge risks with our loved ones can we?
Years back with our grand and
great grand parents, we used to be helpless.10-15 children would be born and
maybe 7-8 would survive. Many a time the mother would also suffer serious
complications with no way out.
Parents today want only one
or two children, but healthy and thriving.
Thus we need to be sensible
and handle these problems with an open mind.’
The old man sits awhile then
says, disheartened, looking down, ‘Surgery will cripple her. She will be bed
ridden.’
Munni says, ‘Sir these days
surgeries are very safe and our patient will be walking right from the third
day. Please stop worrying and wish me luck as I go to operate and bring you a
healthy grandchild.’
The old man sighs, ‘alright
do as you wish.’
Munni goes away and comes
with a healthy baby, giving her in the man’s arms. They all smile.
Scene -6
Munni is sitting in her
cabin. Attendants are sitting in front. She explains,
‘Our patient Janki here, is a
case of Eclampsia. Her BP is uncontrolled, she has thrown convulsions, she is
semiconscious, her whole body is oedematous, her liver, kidneys and brain functions
all are progressively getting compromised. The heart beats of the baby too are
just 60-70 bpm. There is no liquor inside and the baby is highly growth
restricted and compromised. It can succumb anytime. We are taking her for
surgery because that’s the only option to save her. During and after the
surgery too, we can’t be sure of the well being of either. But to try to save
her, we have to take her as soon as possible.’
The attendants kept mum for
some time then said,
‘So Doctor, isme koi khatre ki baat toh nahi hai naa?’
Munni was aghast.
‘The situation is life
threatening for both the mother and the child, more so if we delay in operating
her.’
They say, ‘OK ma’am, do
whatever you have to.’
Scene – 7
Munni comes out of the OT and
informs them,
‘We could save the patient
but she is still critical. The child unfortunately, could not survive.’
The attendants start
screaming, ‘Doctor you are a demon, you have killed our unborn child’
Many people appear from
nowhere and start ransacking the hospital. The guards try but fail to restrain.
Munni stood rooted to the
place. The nurses forcibly try to pull her inside lest she gets injured.
Munni slumps into her chair
in her cabin. She picks up her mother’s photo frame in her hands. She is in
tears. She addresses the frame,
‘Maa we couldn’t save the
baby. I do not even know whether my patient will recover fully or not. People
no longer have faith in me. I can’t continue obstetrics. How can anyone hate me
so much that they want to hit me, abuse me with disrespectful words? No, I
can’t take it. I don’t deserve this. I would rather pursue Laparoscopy or
Infertility where I don’t have to endure all this. Help me maa.’
She puts her head down on the
desk and cries.
Her mother’s apparition
appears,
‘Rise my darling.’
Munni lifts up her head with
a jerk and looks at her mom.
Her mother continues,
‘I have never known any one
as brave as my Munni, nor as sensible. You did your best for your patient. But
beta, you cannot be God, can you? There are things, not in your hands. You have
to have faith in God.
And darling the people who
are abusing are not abusing Munni, they are abusing their ill fate. Its their
despair and frustration that comes out on you. If you too disown them then what
will happen to them? Who will help them in their need? My Munni is not so
insensitive.
You have to believe in
yourself whatever the adversities, because I believe in you.
Get up,
Follow your conscience,
Face the devil,
Fight till the end….Finish
the game.’
Mother disappears.
Munni sighs and wipes her
tears. She kisses the frame and places it back on the table.
Munni emerges into the chaos.
Enraged people are destroying the hospital furniture.
She presses on a fire alarm
on the wall nearby. A shrill horn blows. Everyone stops short looking at the
source.
Taking advantage of the momentary
silence, Munni boldly comes forward and says loudly, ‘Bheemsingh, please bring
the Husband and first relatives of Janki to my cabin. I have to talk to them.’
Saying this she goes inside.
Scene – 8
Munni is sitting in her
cabin. Bheemsingh enters with 4 more people. Munni asks them to sit. She starts
playing an audio message in her mobile. It was the recorded counselling that
was done with the attendants before.
She asks when the audio
stops,
‘Now tell me what did I do
wrong with you.
Didn’t I tell you about the
grave condition of the baby beforehand?
Are the rates not clearly
displayed? Were they not explained to you prior to admission?
They nod in agreement.
Was there any delay or
mismanagement with your patient?’
Did someone pester you for
money before admitting or treating your patient?’
They turned their heads in
negative.
Munni addresses the man,
‘Bheem singh, why did you
bring the patient here?
Because you believed I would
do best for her.
Because I have delivered your
child.
Because your wife calls me
Bhabhi.
What would I think of Bheemsingh’s
village now?
A village where I reach on
every 9th to see around 70 patients for free,
a village that I think as my
own,
a village which comes to me
in all faith and love.
And this is what this village
is doing to the hospital, the hospital which they say is their temple?
And our job is not yet done.
The patient is in ICU, receiving critical care management.
If you ransack the hospital,
how will we treat her?
After all this, even now if
you think any one else would treat her with more sincerity and care than me,
then please do me a favour and take her away wherever you think right.
And what do your people want?
To kill me? Do so then. If this is what I get for trying to save my patients,
then so be it. I have to answer my own conscience for my deeds, if morons like
you do not understand, then I care not. But how will that help you or your
patient, I fail to understand.’
Bheemsingh looks at the
husband annoyingly.
The husband bends down on his
knees and says, ‘Sorry ma’am, we committed a grave mistake, forgive us. Please
continue the treatment as you wish. We shall comply.’
Bheemsingh stands up with
folded hands,
‘I am the culprit ma’am, I
brought them here and they caused you so much trouble. Please forgive me.’
Munni stands up.
‘Now calm yourself and your
people and tell them not a single scratch should befall this hospital.’
They leave.
She calls up the ICU and
inquires about the patient.
‘Sisterji, how is our eclampsia patient Janaki? <pause>
ok, I’ll be there right
away.’ She leaves with sure steps.
Scene – 9
Munni is a successful and eminent
Gynaecologist now. She is sitting in her living room.
Ramu kaka enters, ‘Ma’am, 2
ladies have come. They want to meet you. I asked them to consult you in the
hospital tomorrow but they say they are not patients.’
Munni said, ‘Bring them in.’
A woman and a young girl in
uniform enters. They both come and touch Munni’s feet. They place a packet of
sweets on the tea table. The older one says, ‘Ma’am you might not remember me.
I was your patient years back when my in laws forced you to abort my baby, but
you refused.
This is that child. She is
now a Fighter Pilot. She owes her life and success to you ma’am, bless her for
her future.’
The girl stands in attention.
Munni stands speechless for
some time, then hugs the girl saying,
‘Conquer the skies my child.
May God always be with you.’ She kissed her forehead.
They leave. Munni picks up
the same photo frame from the side table wipes her eyes, smiles and says to it,
’Thank you Maa’.
At that moment Munni’s
daughter barges in, screaming,
‘Maaaa…. NEET Pre PG results
are out. I have attained more than 95th percentile. I can get my
choice of subject.
She rushes and jumps on Munni.
They hug each other tightly.
Both laugh and dance in
happiness. Munni calls out to Ramu Kaka,
‘Ramu Kaka, please get the
Dairymilk from the refrigerator’.
She then faces her daughter
and says,
‘Betu we should now carefully
decide upon the subject for you. You can go for Radiodiagnosis, Ophthalmo,
Surgery or…….’
Her daughter cut her mid way,
‘Of course not Maa, I have
always dreamt of being like you, none other. Its only Ob-Gyn for me.’
Munni tried to dissuade,
‘But beta you have seen my
struggles and difficulties…’
Daughter again cuts her mid
way,
‘…….and I have also seen you
win over them.’
She then faces the audience
and says firmly,
‘I want a life which is worthwhile Maa, not easy….’
…..Curtain…..
