Twinkle of Stars!

(In Sanskrit)

कर्मणये वाधिकारस्ते मां फलेषु कदाचन ।

मां कर्मफलहेतुर्भू: मांते संङगोस्त्वकर्मणि।।

(In Hindi)

कर्म किए चलो, फल की चिंता मत करो।

These were the teachings of Lord Krishna as narrated in Shrimad Bhagvat Gita, as he continued his preaching right in the middle of the battlefield of Kurukshetra to break Lord Arjuna free from his emotional dilemma and enable him to raise his weapon for good against his own cousins, the Kauravas.

These excerpts till date hold a significance beyond measure, an epitome of life in itself. They clearly state that it is a human's duty to execute his routine day to day activities without expecting anything in return, "Hard work always pays off! Doesn't matter when or where, but every work we do be it good or bad has a way of reflecting back unto us." Definitely a quote worthy to be followed conscientiously without faltering even once. But how often are we able to actually execute our duties without putting off our work for tomorrow?  Frankly speaking, "I'll finish this task tomorrow" is a thought which frequently passes through our minds and we simply obey it nonchalantly.

Then there are other times when we put all our efforts into one singular venture with an overzealous attitude and unparalleled passion, hoping against hope to succeed at least once. We may not know where the road leads to but we are aware of the fact that we need to give our best shot and patient WAIT, and that period of uncertainty exhausts all our brain cells in it's entirety.

Waiting for something is a hard process. You hope for a certain thing but you are not sure of the outcome in the end. Will you achieve it? Or will your hopes get shattered? Only the right moment reveals it to you.

It is a general rule, "To try numerous times and fail till you finally succeed in the end." But what if you lose all your motivation to persistently try along the way? Do your mental faculties allow you that much liberty to keep striving continually despite witnessing your dreams getting broken into fragments in a repetitive fashion, without letting that intense pain smolder your very core? Words are afterall merely an assembly of meaningless letters, quotes are merely the conclusive values derived from stories that lose all significance unless they are acted upon.

"What is the point of it all if you don't have what it takes to be who you aspire to be?", A question all of us have pondered upon by ourselves at least once in our lifetime, yet these are just hollow words thrown together to encourage ourselves to do everything in our power to fulfill our desires, be it scoring well in examinations, getting selected with top rank in entrances, getting through in a job interview or marrying the one you love. 'Nothing is impossible', yet at the same time 'Nothing is easy' if you think rationally. And the numerous obstacles faced along the way can either throw you off guard altogether or make you stronger till there is no fear left anymore. There is no in between. The emotional burden can tend to be so huge that you yourself may not know what to do with it. Be it despair, anger or envy at seeing your fellow colleagues or mates succeed whilst you lost a chance again; the effect of cumulative stress induced can be disastrous leading to a state of mental insufficiency that the individual may never recover from if not saved on time. You may have your parents alongside all through that phase of internal turmoil yet you may find yourself in the nadir of depression unbeknownst to your mother, father, relatives and friends.

Preparing for a career in the field of medicine is no different. It is a fact, "Once a student, always stays a student, no matter where he or she goes". But this aspect of an adult life holds especially true in the field of medicine. Once you truly start there's no stopping till you meet your maker. Infact you become a subject of examination for your juniors once you are in your grave. Thus, goes the saying " A doctor is born a scholar and dies a scholar."

So she believed. Born in a family of Doctors, afraid of ever becoming one herself, Prisha was terrified of the responsibility that came with this noble profession. The thought that one day she may end up murdering someone by accident while operating scared her immensely. Thus, she avoided each and every discussion her parents tried initiating about her future. She wanted to pursue space science and become an established scientist at NASA instead. She graduated from school with top marks in all science subjects be it biology, chemistry and physics yet  fell short of merit in Mathematics and thus lost her chances of getting into IISER. Her parents subsequently found an opening and convinced her to drop a year for medical coaching. She had no other choice but to accede to their demands and so, began her private coaching. She couldn't make it through with her desired college for the first two years and thus, dropped thrice. The third time she decided to change the coaching institute. Those 2 years had taught her of the virtue of patience that she was determined to carry throughout her life with her.

It was January 2030 when Prisha finally began taking regular coaching classes at Allen, Kota. That was the year that a major epidemic had hit major provinces of Japan. All the citizens of Kyoto and Tokyo had succumbed to the attack of a virulent strain of retrovirus RVHZ-1000 which had an additional capability to propagate via contact and aerosols as well. By December of 2030, around 10000 Japanese citizens had died of major respiratory and cardiac failure and a minor population, roughly around 2000 eliciting neuropsychiatric episodes of seizures and spinal paralysis which ultimately resulted in death. All the medical hospitals at Japan had failed at finding a possible cure and thus, research trials were still ongoing to find a secure vaccine against the recently evolved strain of HIV. Simultaneously, research trials were going in US, Great Britain, France, China and India; as the incidence rates seemed to be increasing with the passage of time and quarantine measures were an absolute requirement. Doctors had died in multitude after the sudden outbreak in Japan following contact with live cases. By the beginning of 2031 despite the immediate quarantine measures and extensive antiretroviral regime, the viral strain had spread through the neighbouring countries of Japan. For a few months some major antiretroviral medications like Efavirenz and Ritonavir seemed to be functioning quite effectively to atleast prolong the lives of the patients by a few months but by July 2031 patients started dying suddenly, the causes being varied, some of cardiac failure, a few of renal failure, maximum of respiratory distress and then there were others who had neural dysfunctions. But the pathogen detected in highest concentrations in all affected cells happened to be the antiretroviral strain RVHZ-1000.

Thus, by December 2031 more than 15 lakh people all over the South East Asian belt had died and WHO recorded it as the greatest pandemic to have effected the globe in over two centuries. Meanwhile in India, an insidious spread had already started, from West Bengal affecting all of the Eastern Coast and Deccan Plateau. Prisha by then had enrolled as a first year medical student in one of the renouned colleges in Delhi and was learning the basics of anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. She may not have aspired to be one yet she had great reverence for the profession in itself and the selfless work carried out by the doctors. Thus, she learnt to love the subjects as she went ahead with her semester examinations and clinical case discussions. All medical professionals, including Prisha's parents, all over Eastern Coast and the Deccan Plateau were recruited in major health camps and isolation centres especially constructed to treat RVHZ-1000 infected cases and simultaneously keep the further infectious spread among general population at bay.

In an era where the general population relied on smartphones and had grown sharp enough to refer Google for any health related advice. In a decade where the mistrust against Doctors grew stronger than ever before, these doctors were risking their own lives by exposing themselves to one of the most virulent strain of pathogen to have ever existed on the planet. This realisation in itself made Prisha feel prouder of her parents and their decision to push her into the medical field.

The government of India had started recruiting volunteers from amongst MBBS and PG students to work at ICMR centres all over India to conduct research on RVHZ-1000 strains in order to invent an effective vaccine before the advent of 2031. Prisha having the nature and spirit of a benevolent and caring doctor couldn't resist the call and consulted her parents to acquire their consent for the same. Although she knew that the risks were fatal and that innumerous students had already died after having contracted the infection from the laboratory strains, she knew she had to be a volunteer for the sake of the country and the entire world. Her parents didn't agree as they were petrified of losing her to the calamity like all others who lost their children to the viral strain. It took over a year for Prisha to finally convince her parents to allow her to be a part of the Eradication Research Programme. So she finally joined the ICMR centre at Pune in the year 2032 as a volunteer in the vaccine creation programme. The details of the programme had clearly been explained to her before she legally signed the contract and she exactly knew what she was signing into. She might have left the details out and twisted the truth somewhat to meet her needs in front of her parents but she was determined. She knew someone had to be sacrificed to protect the major chunk of the world population and she was ready to be the victim. She had toiled for years to reach that point and that had made her resolve stronger. If her death could give lives to others, she was prepared to face it and thus, began her rigorous training. There were 5 other subjects alongwith her in the programme. All of them were made to do routine exercises for 5 hours early in the morning, followed by their regular medical classes as per their semesters and they had to give sufficient amount of input into gaining knowledge related to all viral strains, classification, spread modalities, treatment procedures, antiviral medicines already available in market and the vaccines discovered till date. That regime had to be followed for the first 4 months, after which the mainscale operation was scheduled. The researchers were supposed to inject attenuated strains of the virus to record the immune responses against it. The previous batches of subjects couldn't survive the anaphylactic reactions triggered and thus, succumbed to death. But the researchers seemed to be hopeful that at least this time they would hit a major breakthrough. Prisha, on the other hand was both scared and hopeful. It was natural to be scared of her imminent chances of death, the thought that she may never be able to see her parents again frightened her to the core yet, she had that one tiny glimmer of hope that she may actually survive the procedure. She rationalised that even if she happened to die at least she was an active member of a noble initiative.

The official research trials began by October, 2032; unfortunately three of Prisha's new friends couldn't survive the reactions. Their parents were finally informed. Prisha never really met them but she did hear the rumours. Kairav's parents were extremely proud of his efforts for his nation and the entire earth. Both his parents were senior doctors in the army and so even though he was a single child they took the fall bravely. Samaira's parents were too shocked and thus, couldn't handle the terrible news. They had to take psychiatric help to handle the depression. Aarav was an orphan so his funeral was conducted within the institute's premises. Slowly but surely, the rest of the subjects started manifesting with the symptoms of respiratory distress, allergic reactions and more. It was a constellation of symptoms that had never been recorded in any medicine book. The researchers made sure to note each and every bit of progress minute wise. They had a diary for each of the subjects including Prisha. Sadly the rest of her mates, passed away one after the other. Hence, though she managed to survive all fatal reactions unscathed it was an unfortunate turn of events for her. Gradually she regressed to a depressive state recurrently thinking about the moments she spent with each of them, and that they didn't deserve to die. Frequently she found herself wondering why she was the sole survivor when all the others couldn't fight against the infection. Finally, the Supervisor conducted a counselling session to keep her mentally as well as physically stable so that her clinical symptoms don't aggravate. And thus, began stage 2 of the trials in India.

Meanwhile at Japan, the death toll kept on rising. A few cases were reported in United States as well and thus, they were quarantined. Off the Pacific Coast, an entire fleet of Navy had been strictly instructed not to step foot ashore as soon as the reports of outbreak of clinical symptoms similar to the one caused by that rare strain of virus reached the respective Governments. People were suffering all over the world. That was one irrevocable fact that Prisha had instilled within herself to continue ahead with her trials. She stayed updated with all the relevant news to ensure that her mind stays strong despite all the physical pain and mental torment.

The researchers finally conducted a thorough investigation of the blood samples, CSF samples, sputum samples and tissue biopsy samples collected from Prisha; compared the analysis data with the previously collected samples. They even conducted a genetic screening to pinpoint the exact pathophysiology of the disease and to find out the conclusive evidence as to why Prisha alone, managed to stay alive; sick yet the sole survivor till that moment.

Apparently, Prisha's respiratory cells lacked certain protein factors that aided the virion antigen to initiate the disease mechanism. The evasive mechanism was similar to the one which normally exists in few individuals who lack the co-receptors CXCR4 and CCR5 for HIV infections on CD4 T helper cells and thus, the HIV virus is unable to bind to the T lymphocytes.

Once the conclusion had been derived, the researchers had a basic clue as to how to formulate the vaccine. They sought out help from United Nations, WHO and the other governmental bodies by supplying the piece of information they had meticulously unearthed.

The Chief supervisor of Prisha's trial explained the results of the evaluation to her and asked her to convey the same to her parents. It was then that she disclosed her secret, that she hadn't explained the research protocol to her parents before joining the programme and was apprehensive that even though she had been officially declared as an immune subject her parents would feel devastated that they could have easily lost their one and only child. The Chief supervisor assured her that she would help her sort everything out with her parents. Both of them being renouned medicine physicians, their expertise was of paramount importance for the Eradication programme to fulfill its true objective.

Thus, the propaganda which began with a mere medical student helped provide hope to people whose future seemed bleak.

With the combined efforts of WHO, ICMR and the governments of Japan, US, China and France; the world's first antiviral drug against RVHZ-1000 was manufactured in 2034. By 2035, the first clinically effective vaccine against RVHZ-1000 came to the forefront. The credits were given to all the deceased students who had originally volunteered to be a part of the programme. An extensive vaccination drive revolutionised the medical field and the entire world in 2036 with a clear goal, to eradicate the evolved retroviral strain by 2045. Laws were formulated so that each and every citizen could be compulsorily vaccinated against the virus.

In the year 2040, a book was published which went on to become the bestseller within 2 weeks. It was authored by Dr. Prisha Dwivedi, an accomplished neurosurgeon working at AIIMS, Delhi in India. The title of the book, "Stars in the sky": Although, Stars are fiery celestial spheres which burn themselves out over a period of millenials they keep twinkling in the darkest of nights illuminating the pitch blackness of the sky as miniscule natural light bulbs till all of their fuel has been exhausted. Similarly, those deceased before Prisha joined the programme, gave their lives to protect others for as long as they could and as far as their breath would permit. It was a biography created as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for their profession, true Doctors till their hearts stopped beating and beyond; a beautiful chronicle of Prisha's journey starting from her childhood, an elaborate account of the struggles faced by a medical aspirant all through coaching till the day she got the news of having secured the relevant rank required to qualify for the medical college of her choice, her desperate efforts to study throughout nights just to barely pass in the semester examinations and finally finding her way as a practitioner, alongside realising what it actually means to be a doctor, the sacrifices demanded of her for the sake of the rest of the community, all of it in one voluminous novel; that was endeared by people far and wide within India as well as in abroad.