19. Sagar's first step & Karan's revival

Sagar had been doing really nice. But he also had to face many difficulties and adverse kind of situations. Sagar and Anjali, after doing their specialization, had joined a hospital and were working under a senior doctor who himself was pretty much involved in helping poor people with cheap and proper treatment. And he had met both of them during a medical camp which Sagar and Anjali helped to organise and was in contact with them ever since. He had been working on this for a long time, and was old now. He saw a new beginning and strength in Sagar and Anjali and hoped that they may take his work to a much greater heights and reach out to every needy person anywhere and everywhere.

Sagar received a lot of help from him and had got a more precise idea of how to go about doing all those things he wished to do. Both of them were inspired greatly by his commitment to his work, all the selfless attitude and the way he made his patients comfortable and feel at home. There was so much to learn from this old man, who had spent his whole life for this and his wife who stood by him always. They didn’t have a lot of money and lived in a small house but what they had was much-much bigger, a heart which cared for others whose motto was ‘Service before Self’.

Sagar got charged-up whenever he saw his mentor. He started working with him and like him. Slowly he took all the responsibility over his shoulders, worked all night and just made sure that no patient was left unattended. He hired more people, increased their salary, got sponsorship for his hospital, arranged funds and soon made every modern medical facilty available in his hospital. He had totally changed the infrastructure of the hospital, gave it a new modern look, but at the same, when he charged all the people who could afford fees reasonably and tried to minimise charge for poor people.

He was a friend first and then a doctor. His patients didn’t really felt being in a hospital, he made the atmosphere of hospital so lively that a place which is one of the most hateful place, where one would never like to go, was no more the same (by this I didn’t mean people liked to come to hospital, but just that they didn’t feel bad now). He paid all of the nurses and attendants a nice sum only because he wanted them to be nice to patients and address their concerns at the earliest. As his demand and popularity began to increase he had to hire other specialists and physicians to get work done smoothly.

He remembered one thing that his mentor said ‘with big steps come big responsibilities’. He knew that and worked to the best of his abilities to handle all those. There were some more things that he felt were important to make a patient feel better and recover fast. He planned to build a park and some small rides for children which would have definitely helped. He used to spend time with his patients listening to them, especially old ones who felt lonely at times. He was their son and Anjali their daughter. They worked for them, smiled at their jokes, cared for them as a son/daughter to take medicines on time and try to fight their weakness, helped them walk to the park.

But amidst of all these, his earnings began to decline, he had to pay his doctors, nurses, and also the loan he took from bank for getting all those facilities available. He had never bothered to make any personal saving out of these all this time. Now he himself didn’t have enough money to sustain the normal proceedings. Sagar and Anjali had done a great job till then, but now things had begun to change. Due to sudden recession, companies started backing out and the sponsorships that Sagar and Anjali managed were also on a decline. Sagar really needed funds to sustain the research works going on, and for various other basic needs of a hospital but he couldn’t find any help. He tried to cheer-up Anjali saying everything will be all-right, but somewhere within himself knew that things were going to worsen with time.

This was one point of life when things were not going as we all wanted them to. Everything seemed to blur, our all efforts seemed to have lost their way in the hurricane of our daily life. Karan’s so long effort of convincing his boss went in vein, Arsh was now not able to walk, Sagar had been facing some serious financial troubles, I had lost my way in the politics and business, none of which appeared to be going smooth and for Disha it was the most difficult time having lost a person whom she loved most in this world.

Karan tried to control his emotions to a lot extent but one day while he was talking to his dad on phone, he broke up. He started crying on phone and said ‘Dad, everything’s over. After coming here, every moment, every day I felt, I dreamt, I worked so that one day I would go back with something great that would change the existing situation there. I did my best to do everything I could but landed up nowhere. I see no path dad, I’m just blocked. If I come to India like this then I will have to start all over again and if I stay here then again I’ll be just working for the same people, making already rich people more wealthy. I lost dad..., I lost.’ His dad had never seen Karan cry like this. He was always a jolly person who never used to show his emotional side to people but that day he did. His dad knew that this time it was very serious.

His dad said ‘Karan, just this much..., was only this much required to break you, son. I thought I saw something bigger in your eyes. The Dream!!! which took you so far and now when for the first time you facing the biggest challenge in your life, you are crying like this, you broke up!!! This was not what my son was supposed to do.’

‘Dad, I tried I did whatever I could but people here are not ready to accept my proposal, they are just….. not ready.’

‘Karan one thing that I always wanted to tell you but somehow thought that with so high aspirations, you won’t need anything of that sort from my side. Just one piece of advice, and if even after this you think that you won’t be able to do anything now, then come back.'

'See, I never tried to come between you and your dreams. They were big, very big, so I always tried to be your strength and not stop you from doing whatever you wanted. But somewhere in my heart I always felt that things are not going be as easy for you as you proceed. I knew that some or the other day, a big sharp turn will come your way that would shake you up from top to bottom. When you are on a rough path, you shouldn’t expect things to go smooth for long. And this turn, did the same to you.’

Then both were silent for some time.

His Dad again spoke ‘ Now, what should I make of your silence son? Is everything over, I leave this upto you to decide, one side is your dream, your country, the place you always wanted it to be and on the other is just accepting what has happened and become one of those who try once and for the whole life say in louder words that,--- I tried but things didn’t go as planned so I also started living my own life !!! Take care, son.’

Saying this he kept the phone, and left everything on Karan to decide as to which category he belonged to.

After listening all this from his Dad, he realized what he and his dream meant to all those related to him. Karan thought that what he had done till now and what Arsh did, who ended up being paralyzed for the sake of his country. He couldn’t stop... he couldn't and he didn’t. He got all charged up once again, to approach his boss once again, with some new facts and proposals. And this time he made sure that when he does, he does it in a way that would leave no option on his boss’s side to rethink twice.

He took a nice sleep that day leaving all his worries and concerns aside and next day started planning for the new proposal. After one week he had to give a presentation on the new product going to be launched, he planned to keep his proposals in front of the board of directors the same day. Finally, the big day arrived. He had been waiting for this day restlessly. Before leaving for presentation he called-up his home and took the blessings of his parents and grandmother, which gave him a new strength and confidence everytime he went for something big.

He was really confident this time, did no mistake whatsoever for things to go as planned and presentation went really great. The people appreciated his efforts a lot and then he decided to make use of this opportunity, after people over there stopped applauding he continued ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, with all due respect I would like to thank you for your appreciation and encouragement. I would like to request all of you to stay with me fir 10 more minutes. Sir (turning his eyes towards his boss), as you had told me that the decision does not entirely lie in your hand, so I would like to use this opportunity to introduce you all to a new proposal of mine which I thought would be really beneficial for our whole organisation and reaching out to new markets.’

‘As you all know that the only reason for increased demand of our products, which uses solar energy, is the increasing awareness among people about the side effects of the traditionally used resources and also their limited availability. In west, we already have a great market share, and now we should try to explore new markets in the east too. Sir, I being from India know that the thinking of people over there has changed drastically over past few years. They have become very much aware of the need of better source of energy. And till now, no other company has been able to dominate the market in this aspect, but as far as I know there are companies which are trying to enter into those products. And this being a fact, that Indian market is the biggest potential market of all, if any of you don’t agree then you may check the history of many well-known companies which went there and got the dream-market-share. And best of all, we can set-up India as our base and exporting our products from there would be much-much cheaper than what it is right now. This file in my hand has all the data and informantion about what I said just now. I would be really glad if you consider this and give your suggestions. Thank you’

He passed on the copy to everyone sitting there.

Karan did this really well in a very impressive manner. After this, people of the board inquired about some necessary details from Karan and then everybody left, leaving the decision to be taken in the next meeting.