ONSET OF WINTER - SARGAM GUPTA

ONSET OF WINTER
By Sargam Gupta

It was difficult to stand up, but Bani could no longer curb the urge to throw up, and rushed to the bathroom. She felt completely drained of energy, and turned to the mirror to see how much the deterioration of her health showed on her appearance. But to her utter disbelief she could not have looked healthier. She felt confused. She noticed that the slight discolouration of skin that she had had since childhood had vanished. Nervously she brushed off imaginary dust from her arms. With great effort she made it to the living room where she had stationed herself right next to the window. Parth would be here any minute now, and she would be saved. She didn’t want to die. She was barely twenty eight years old. Her thoughts wandered to the morning where all of this had begun. It had been exactly one week ago.
Being a typical Dehradun morning, there was a slight mist outside, confirming the onset of an early winter. Bani grabbed a shawl from her cupboard and made her way to the door, the carpeted floor subduing the sound of her brisk footsteps. Casting one last look at the sparsely furnished living room, she went out of the house, wrapping her shawl tightly around her tiny waist.
It had been two years since she had been working for BRAT, which was a humorously tweaked acronym for the Botanical Research and Technology Centre. It was a government funded company dedicated to the development of herbal medicine using upcoming technology.
BRAT had been testing the extraordinary strengths of carbon at nano scale, which meant that the size they were dealing with was less than one-fifth the diameter of a hair. The carbon nanotubes were being developed as vessels to carry herbal drugs to specific destinations in cancer affected patients. However, recent reports had revealed the toxicity of the nanotubes and the progress had come to a halt. This is where her contribution came in.
She reached the fading BRAT signboard which had cracked in parts, revealing the tube light beneath. She walked past it to the small building that was her office, with brick walls and slanting roofs blending perfectly with its surrounding architecture. Had she not been working there, she would never been able to imagine what was inside.

A single elevator stood in the far end of the hall inside the building. She walked towards it and placed her thumb on an inconspicuous screen next to the elevator. The doors automatically slid open and she stepped inside. Just when the doors were closing, they reopened to let in a tall lanky man she didn’t know. He gave her a brief nod, glancing at his watch. They were both silent. As the elevator moved down, they were both engulfed by a strong wind was circulating upwards. Bani was used to this, but her new companion seemed to have been taken in by surprise. He held onto a railing for support. “WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT?” he yelled over the deafening sound of the air suction. Looking sceptical she said noncommittally, “It is a cleaning up routine, to get rid of dust particles and dirt.” He joked about having had a bath in the morning, but she ignored him.

The elevator came to a halt and as soon as the doors slid open, the man rushed out, heaving a sigh of relief. The man looked at the lab in absolute awe. She did not blame him, the same had happened to her two years ago when she had first come here.

The basement was a huge hall, with countless passageways and steel pipelines covering every nook and corner of the ceiling. A wall projected the view outside, and the whole office was buzzing with activity and energy that is seldom seen in Dehradun. There were several compartments separated by double line perforated glass walls, with vacuum ducts inside for air circulation and suction. Few knew of the basement’s existence since the lab dealt with a lot of hazardous material, and it was best left alone.

“Parth! Here you are! How do you like the lab?” Yuvan greeted the tall lanky man and turned his gaze on Bani. “So you have already met one of our finest employees have you? Mind you she is not easy to please.” He laughed at his own sense of humour. Bani shot him a disdainful look which wiped the lopsided grin off his face. “Erm...Bani this is Parth, he is here to give us some insight on emergent behaviour in nanoparticles, and will be joining us from today.” Yuvan was her immediate senior who was rather pompous in his demeanour and usually strutted around the lab giving uncalled for input that rarely anyone paid heed to. Yet, nothing could go forward without his approval. He continued, “So, should we meet in my cabin in fifteen minutes and see what we have got so far?” “Sure Yuvan, we will be ready in fifteen minutes.”

Bani had been working with the increasingly popular concept of emergent behaviour in nanoparticles and her efforts went into looking for possibilities in nature itself. This made coding and computer processing much simpler, and there were lesser rules to define. Mimicking nature was exciting, and gave room for unexpected and innovative behaviour. In Africa codes have been applied to thermostats in buildings that mimicked the way termites divide their labour and build cool temperature homes.
Bani clicked on her headset and said, “Subhi...Subhi are you there? Have you got the nano tube samples ready?” A squeaky voice responded, “Yes. Presentation at Yuvan’s office?”
“Right. In fifteen minutes.”
“Ok. See you there.”
It was by far her worst meeting. All the hard work they had put in together for the last one month was dismissed in the most insolent fashion. Parth turned out to be just the way she thought him to be. He was a good for nothing arrogant jerk that had nothing constructive to say, and treated everyone else around him in an almost condescending manner. Yuvan was livid because they had failed to impress him. Bani had never seen him so angry. Apparently Parth was one of the top microbiologists in the country with an extensive knowledge of computer programming and BRAT’s reputation rested in his hands.
Feeling miserable, she sat in her cabin alone, her head tilted slightly to the right. However much she detested Parth, she could now see clearly how their propositions could not work. She needed to use something that would not harm the human body but would completely destroy the toxic particles emitted by the carbon nanotubes. But then what? Her thoughts were interrupted by weight conscious Subhi who walked in with a big tub of curd. “Bani, have some probiotic curd, it is supposed to be really healthy,” For a few moments, Bani stared at it disbelievingly. “Bani..? Why you staring at this tub like that?” Bani looked up at her, her face glowing with excitement. “I got it! That is it!” “What did you get?” Subhi looked utterly bewildered, her eyebrows knitted together. Bani went on impatiently, “The probiotic bacteria are perfect for making carbon nanotubes perfectly safe! Subhi, do you realise what this means?” Reaslisation dawned on Subhi which resulted in a tiny yelp. “This is brilliant! I will go fetch Yuvan right away!” Bani lifted up her hand, motioning her to stop. “No, I want to be completely sure before we propose this. Can you ask Bhumika to come here immediately? I may need some technical help.”
With that she put on her gloves and mask, and bent down over a microscope, testing various samples, and accessing the database for all the information required on probiotic bacterium. She looked quite comical with her tongue half stuck out when she was concentrating on something. The next few hours flew in developing sample nanoparticles that mimicked these bacteria. The code was not foolproof yet, but it would do for now. “Bhumika, take these samples to the biomimicry lab for retesting. I will just take this test tube...”
She was so unaware of where she was going that she walked right into Parth who was standing at the doorway with an amused expression on his face. She lost her balance, and as she was trying to hold on to something was support, the test tube filled with the bacterium nanoparticles broke, and a piece of broken glass cut through her glove. Suppressing a cry of pain, she steadied herself, looking at Parth incredulously. With swift and experienced movements, Parth took out the piece of glass from her finger and cleaned up the wound with his handkerchief. Bani tried to resist, but Parth did not let go. She was taken aback by his firmness.
She would have to do everything all over again, she thought miserably. Parth finished cleaning the mess and said “I think the probiotic bacteria could definitely be the solution here. I went through the code. It just needs a little more detail in terms of curbing self reproduction and some minor details, and who knows, you have brought yourself much closer to a breakthrough that everyone has been waiting for...” He smiled. Reluctantly, Bani reciprocated.
Little had she known then what was to ensue. Could the consequence of one accident be of so paramount? Now, as she sat alone in the living room, trying to overcome restlessness and avoid the thought of death, she realised how everything had come crashing down with that sneeze.

A few days after she met Parth, Bani was losing her appetite, but she ignored it under the pretext of being a side effect of stress. She had barely slept in the last few days. Parth turned out to be as much of a workaholic as her and she had become rather fond of him, and contrary to her initial impression of him, she saw just how intelligent he was, and how accurately and curiosity driven his scientific inferences were. They had both been sitting together discussing the developments of the bacteria nanoparticles, when she sneezed.

Bani looked at her handkerchief in disbelief. She had just let out black nanoparticles in her phlegm. The reason was clear. She must have infected herself with the nanoparticles when she had cut her finger. What petrified her was the fact that the coding was semi-done, and had not provided for curbing self production of the bacteria nanoparticles. These nano particles in her body could be doubling up by the second now, and the effects of that could be lethal.

She looked at Parth helplessly who took the handkerchief from her and carefully put it under the microscope. He then turned to face her with a grim expression on his face. “Bani...you” unable to say anything more, he stopped mid-sentence. Sounding braver than she felt she said, “What is it Parth? Just tell me, I will have to face it sometime or the other.” Taking a deep breath he continued, “The nanoparticles are self reproducing at an alarmingly fast rate. If this continues, you could...Bani you could d-d- die.” Pausing for a brief moment before he continued, “I think there is a solution. I do not know if it will work, but it is the only chance we have got. The river Ganges has healing powers...”
“ARE YOU OUT SERIOUS? You think that holy waters will heal this infection?”
“Of course not. The Ganges has healing powers because its water has a variety of phages that destroy bacteria. I will have to go to Rishikesh and bring a sample, study it, and make a swarm of nanoparticles that mimic it. They will act like an antibiotic, and kill the excess probiotic nanoparticles in your body. I think I should leave for Rishikesh right away. You go back home and rest. I will be back in a couple of hours.”

In the few hours that had elapsed, Bani’s condition had changed drastically. No one in her office except Parth knew what had happened. They had both decided it was for the best. She felt really weak, and threw up nanoparticles every now and then, but nothing in her appearance betrayed that. On the contrary, she had never looked better. Her face had a faint reddish glow, and the dark circles and bags around her eyes had reduced. Her features looked sharper, and her skin felt soft. What kind of an absurd situation had she got herself into? She looked healthier than ever, but the insides of her body were slowly being gnawed by a swarm of self reproducing bacteria.

It was quite late into the night when Parth reached her house with the sample of water from the Ganges. He looked bewildered at the sight of her. “Bani, you look way too healthy and beautiful to be under the threat of death... I do not understand...”
“I don’t either. I feel so unwell, but it’s having an opposite reaction to my physical appearance. I don’t know what is happening Parth. Please, I want to be normal again. How long will it take to develop the phage?It has only been a week since I met you, but I cannot think of anyone else I caould rely on.” But Parth looked distracted. He was barely listening to her, and it seemed as if he was trying to solve a mathematical problem. “But how is this possible? We need to find out...maybe we should wait. Maybe you will be fine. Maybe we should do some tests and find out why this is happening the way it is...It could be a miracle, and I could see further into this new development.”

Bani was losing her patience. “ARE YOU OUT OF YOU MIND? I could die Parth! Am I a mere experiment to you? What are the chances that I will survive by tomorrow? ” She had exhausted all the energy she had, and sat down on the carpet.
“I am so sorry. I do not know what got into me. It kills me when I cannot reach the root of a problem. I will go prepare the phage right away. It will take about two hours.”
“I will be waiting”

__________


Bani saw her reflection on the window pane. Her features were as sharp as ever, her face glowing. The only thing that gave away the pain that she was experiencing was her eyes. She had been waiting for four hours now, and she could feel her life slowly slipping away. Events of the last few hours kept flashing in her mind like a badly edited film. She could not stop thinking about Parth. She loved it when he took responsibility and showed concern. She loved his obsession over science, and how he prioritised science over everything. He had said that it killed him if he didn’t reach the root of the problem. He had wanted to wait. His scientific mind had wanted to experiment. She imagined herself dead, being cut open in the pathology lab. She dismissed that thought with a shiver. She felt alone. No one knew what was wrong with her. No one knew she was dying. No one knew, except for Parth. She did not want to die.

Why was he not coming? Where was he? She tried calling him, but his phone was switched off. He should have been back with the phage more than an hour ago. She lost track of time. Should she call Subhi? She was going to call her but at that very moment her battery went out of charge. By the time she could charge it, it would be too late.

She dragged herself out of the house, and sat down on the steps that led to the door. She reassured herself that he would be here any moment now. The mist was denser. The cold chill of winter felt nice. She rested her head on the damp wall behind her. Taking one last deep breath, she closed her eyes.

(end)