Beyond Destiny: Volume 2

By Khaleda Billah MD.

Human beings are subject to unlimited changes in their lifetime.

Every society needed to progress by their timely acts which can determine their future destiny

New generation are very smart in many ways but has some major short comings too.

Generation Gap is major aspect of this book Beyond Destiny Volume 2; which depicts first generation immigrant in United States of America and subsequent up bringing of future generation of Bangladeshi origin.

Lila, our heroin of the book, a physician of Bangladeshi origin and her story is an unique work of diversity and brings inspiration to many others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665518048

Khaleda Billah MD.

Author Khaleda Billah MD, is a physician, practicing for many years in New York and writing short stories and medical articles in various news papers and published few books. All her life she is busy taking care of her family and profession same time. She is known to the community well and she has many college friends living an Bangladesh, as well as living in various countries of the world. The author now resides in New York and her two sons are in close relations with her and husband is also a popular face in New York.

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© 2022 Khaleda Billah MD.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue

in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-6655-1803-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-1804-8 (e)

Published by AuthorHouse 01/28/2022

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CONTENTS

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

May 13, 2020

Beyond Destiny (Volume Two)

CHAPTER 1

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T oday seems as if it will be a nice bright day. A good day to begin my writing.

I remember this kind of day when I was busy in my practice. When I left the hospital in Brooklyn, New York, I joined a practice located in Jackson Heights, Queens. I was there for four years with my busy practice. I met many nice staff members while I was there.

Alim was one of those people I met. He was about thirty-five years old. He always had a smile on his face. He used to work as a manager of the facility. Although he was a doctor from Bangladesh, he did not take any qualification exams to become a physician in the United States. He was content with his present job at the medical office.

He usually started his day in the early morning when he opened the office. The front desk secretaries arrived later, so he used to pick up the telephone calls and receive patients. He was very courteous to them. Those patients were mostly of Bangladeshi origin. Alim was able to help them with their questions, and his experience as a medical person was of great help.

When I began my work as a radiologist, he was very happy. He would come to me whenever he had a problem with patients or his own family members.

There were Spanish-speaking patients who were taken care of by a Spanish secretary called Melinda and three other girls.

This office had two floors. My office was in the basement; rooms for the procedures were upstairs on the main floor.

I had only a few essential items in my office in the beginning. I got a wall clock, and I asked Alim to put it on the wall in front of my desk. It was battery operated, and he had to change the battery later several times by standing on a chair.

I bought a blood pressure measuring kit for the office, and he asked me to measure his pressure on few occasions.

He was always going up and down the stairs, and he used to carry patients’ charts and insurance cards to the downstairs secretaries and technologists. On any day, it seemed the number of trips was unlimited. Standing next to the fax machine, he would converse with the patients and the patients’ relatives.

I had to park my car behind the office building daily. Parking in that area in Jackson Heights was big problem. There was an acute curve in the driveway, and I found it quite difficult to drive along the driveway without hitting the side fence. Alim used to help me to park once I was in the driveway. It was a great relief for me.

All the time, office girls were calling him for help with various errands. Alim Bhai, someone called him from next door asking him to get approval papers for the CT scan. At the same time, he was busy with a barium bottle for another patient who was going to have a CT scan of the abdomen. Jose, the maintenance man, was there too, asking for supplies. Alim rarely had time to sit, and he did not even have a desk to sit at.

Rehana, the secretary, was giggling downstairs while talking about toilet paper in the bathroom.

There were coffee pots ready in both upstairs and downstairs. The smell of coffee filled the office premises. Sahina, the sonographer, was quite an expert in making coffee. It was her domain to keep a constant supply. It was she who had my daily morning coffee ready for me at my table. In addition, she prepared crunchy bagel toast and other snacks and brought them to my desk. I liked the way she made coffee with milk and Splenda.

I used to keep Splenda sweetener in my desk drawer for my personal use until I found mouse-eaten packets of Splenda. Soon I called Jose who put a few rat-killing devices in my room. I stopped putting Splenda and other snacks like chips in my drawer after that.

Mice and rats were a problem in that area. I saw squirrel-sized rats in the backyard where the parking lot was. Those rats were always near the garbage cans, which were also placed in the backyard. The office was in a four-story apartment building, and garbage was a constant problem.

Rainy days were bad for us. Despite various roof repairs, some rainwater always dripped inside the building, and Jose was constantly mopping. Flooding was a problem there any time it rained.

Building inspectors were busy toobut Alim was never discouraged; he tried to help the situation. The management company only occasionally tried to intervene.

My room was not big, but it was comfortable. The heater was not a problem in winter, but the front desk area was cold because of the constant opening of the door by patients who were arriving and leaving. There was a small heater next to the secretaries’ desk. Sometimes electric power failures were a problem, and Alim would have to go downstairs and turn on the power again in the subbasement.

There were more than a dozen staff members, so there was never a dull moment for me.

When I was reading my diagnostic cases on the office computer, I needed some quiet time. I was always asked to talk to patients regarding their procedures, and I had to pick up telephone calls from referring physicians or technicians asking me to help them with procedure protocols.

Some days there would be birthday parties for the employees, so I not only had to contribute, I also had to join their parties. Then, of course, we had Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas parties. On those occasions, I was expected to party with the employees. I used to buy gifts for them.

The secretaries loved me so much that I used to get various gifts from them. I still wear them on special occasions.

Tabitha was a smart secretary. She was prompt with every aspect of the medical practice. She was a computer expert and could answer telephone calls effectively. She had studied in English medium in school in Bangladesh, and she spoke several languages. She was in her thirties but looked much younger. She was married once, but it did not work out. She had a child to care for, who was growing fast.

Tabitha would order food for staff members from a nearby Bangladeshi restaurant, and she would give me the bill to pay. She used to ask me what my favorite food was. Always she has smile on her face. She had a teenage son who kept her busy at home. She was a good cook and made various ethnic foods. Sometimes I asked her for a recipe.

Sometimes I took the secretaries out for lunch. My lunch breaks were short, but spending time with my employees helped me to understand them better. I learned about their problems and tried to help them.

Jackson Heights is a place with numerous restaurants of various ethnicities. Sometimes I would order Indian food for the employees at lunchtime; other times, I ordered food to take home. My son, Mazed, liked Indian food, especially biryani.

Alim or Sahina used to bring food from the restaurant Ittadi, a well-known Bengali restaurant, for me to take home.

I used to leave the office by 3:30 in the afternoon.

One day, after my last contrast injection, I asked Alim to bring my red Audi to the driveway. I took Queens Boulevard to get home after work. Although there are traffic lights, I prefer this way. I could see the sky. While sitting in the car at a red light, I watched people going to the malls. I sometimes took pictures of the city, but not while driving.

Once I was on the Grand Central Parkway, I saw that traffic was crawling towards Long Island. I took the Utopia exit so I did not have to wait too long. I saw beautiful trees and the houses of Jamaica Estates as I passed through.

Once I was home, I carried my bag and apron and opened the door using my key. My husband was not home yet.

After changing my clothes, I went to the kitchen to prepare snacks for my husband and me. We had teatime together every day after I came back from work. Usually I cooked some dinner. Or, if I had brought food from an Indian Restaurant, we would warm it up in the microwave, and I would serve dinner for two.

On weekends, Mazed visited us, and I would save food for him that I had brought from Jackson Heights restaurants.

Sahina was a tall, healthy-looking, fair-skinned woman in her thirties. She became my caretaker at the clinic. Whenever she had a difficult ultrasound case, she would come to my room. Doctor, can you come to my room to see the patient? She had some request with that special voice of hers. If, at any time, she was unsure during her work, she would be very nervous. I had to convince her that everything would be all right by going with her to her procedure room.

She was hard working strong woman. She was born in Pakistan and then migrated to America along with her family. She was married later to a doctor from Pakistan who traveled back to Pakistan and temporarily got settled there with his own family. Sahina was left alone for few years with her only son while she got her training and began her job at this medical center. She used to take the train to work. Her thirteen-year-old son, who was a student, was her sole responsibility.

She told me about her life events, and I tried to give her consolation. For several years, her husband visited her few times. She started to change emotionally. Sahina never went back to Pakistan. Her brother and relatives, who were living in New York, helped her. She completed her ultrasound technologist license and seemed incredibly happy the day she told me about it. I kept her certificate in my file.

She prayed every day at noontime in her room. In the same way, I used to pray in my office.

She used to cook various food at home, and she brought some for me almost every day. I wonder how she did it because she traveled to work by train; it must have been difficult to carry food on the train. I told her many times not to bring such treats, but she would not stop.

Now, for the past three months, the medical center is closed because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. I miss all my employees.

Dr. Deangelo an Italian physician was my associate in the practice for many years. He has great personality. He has given me good advice whenever I needed it. We discuss difficult case quite often. He has another radiology facility not far from our facility. He had another radiologist, Dr. Coop, with him in the practice. Dr. Coop retired recently.

I used to go to their clinic to help them whenever their staff members were on vacation or taking time off on holidays. Dr. Deangelo hires employees of multiple nationalities and treats them well. Especially the salaries and bonuses he pays them are substantial.

I noticed he manages his practice efficiently with many staff members who are very cordial to him. Christy, the office manager, and Felix, the computer expert, are his main assisting personnel. In a short time, they both became my close acquaintances too.

Christy is a smart and beautiful women in her early thirties. She has a nice smile and can make anyone comfortable in any situation.

Felix is an extremely helpful individual and is well versed in computer knowledge. He is a slim and tall guy of Hispanic descent On a few occasions he came to my home to set up my home computer for my private practice. I introduced my husband to him at that time. He has a son who also came to my home with him once. We had dinner together. His son is fond of music and is practicing getting into a music-related career. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, he joined army.

After February 2020, I have