Week 3 Storytelling: Hanuman and the Mountain

It's a generally accepted rule that traffic in the city will always be at its worst precisely when you need to get somewhere in a hurry. This was certainly the case for Dr. Han Uman, the newest resident physician at Sacred Flower Hospital, one of the largest medical facilities in Uptown Manhattan. It was his first day on the job; fresh-faced and just out of med school, he couldn't wait to begin practicing. Of course, being the lowest on the metaphorical totem pole made him, in a practical sense, less of a doctor and more of an intern. His first task was unequivocally mundane: a shipment of medications meant for Sacred Flower had been incorrectly delivered to St. Himalaya's Hospital on the other side of the city, and no one else could be bothered to go pick it up. He hopped in his car, an old pick-up truck he had been given by his father, and started making his way downtown. After maybe four or five minutes, his phone started ringing; it was the hospital.

"Hello? This is Dr. Uman."

A woman's voice spoke, textured by age "Han, this is Vibi, I run the pharmacy. I've been told by the director that there are some time-sensitive materials in the delivery. We had missed it the first time we looked through the shipping statement, and we need you to hurry back as soon as you can." She took a breath, hesitant, "Without those medications, some of our patients' conditions could dramatically worsen. I don't mean to alarm you but this is a rather critical situation."

The urgency in her voice washed over Han like a cold wave. "Understood. I'll make it back on time"

The drive to St. Himalaya's was entirely uneventful. It was early morning and the city was still waking up. He walked into the lobby, talked to the secretary at the desk, and made a beeline to the pharmacy. The old man at the desk was less expedient than Han would have liked, but he didn't have time to complain. He rushed back to his truck just in time to find it being towed away. Unbeknownst to Han, the parking attendant had assumed the elderly vehicle had died in the parking lot and was forsaken by its owner. Han, being someone who had always struggled with the idea of keeping calm in the face of adversity, spotted an EMT heading towards one of the parked ambulances, and ran over to him. It had never occurred to Han to try explaining the situation; rather, he took the keys out of the man's hands, jumped in the ambulance and never stopped to look back.

At this time, most of the city's commuters were making their way to work (or more commonly, coffee and then work) and the roads were packed with cars. In theory, an ambulance should be able to make to maneuver through traffic with relative ease; in practice, this cannot be done when hundreds of cars are bumper-to-bumper in every lane. Han, after briefly considering driving on the sidewalk, jumped out of his stolen vehicle and began bobbing and weaving through the cars, carrying the medicine in a bag slung over his shoulder.

(To be continued)

 

Hanuman and the mountain; Source: wikimedia

   Author's note: This is a retelling of "Hanuman and the Mountain," as taken from Myths of Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita in 1914. This story immediately reminded me of the medical dramas on TV so I thought I would give it a new modern twist. I tried to incorporate some references to the original story with the names of the hospitals and characters, and I tried to preserve Hanuman's characteristic rashness. The essence of the story is the same: Hanuman has to overcome a number of obstacles to get some sort of medicine to heal the troops of Rama (or in this case, the patients at the hospital) and manages to do so with a mix of skill and well-placed frustration. I chose this image less so because it relates to my story and more because the huge monument shows the importance and popularity of this tale within India. I wanted to make this fantastic, almost absurd story and its supernatural elements more easily relatable to a contemporary audience. Also, I decided to leave the story on a cliff hanger because it seemed really fitting for the medical drama setting...also I was going to go over the word limit for this assigment, and thought it was a good place to break off the story.