Beyond Destiny: Volume 2

By Khaleda Billah MD.

This book Beyond Destiny volume 2 is a tale of Era when an immigrant female came to USA alone to join her husband who was residing in New York.

It is a story, that vividly takes one to the past and present Era of changing world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798823019347

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.

Book preview

© 2024 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.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/04/2024

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1935-4 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1934-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023921760

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 1

T oday it seems like it would be a nice bright day.; Lila started her writing mentioning that.

"I remembered this kind of day when I was busy in my practice.

As I retired from Hospital in Brooklyn, I joined this place located in Queens.

I was there for four years with my busy practice

I met many nice staff while I was there.

Alim was one of those people I met. He is about 35 years old. He always has 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 professional exam to become a physician in USA

He was content with the present job at medical office. He usually started his day early morning by opening the office.

Front desk secretaries arrive later, so he used to pick up the telephone calls and received patients. He was very courteous to them.

Those patients were mostly Bangladeshi origin, Alim was able to help them with their questions and his experience as a medical person was of great help.

When I begin my working as a Radiologist, he became very happy. He would come to me whenever he had any problem with patients or own family member.

There were Spanish speaking patient who were taken care of by Spanish secretary Melinda and three other girls

This office had two floors.

My office was at the basement and other rooms for the procedures were up stair in the main floor.

I got few essential items for the center at the beginning; I got a wall clock which I asked Alim to put on the wall of front desk area. 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 blood pressure few occasions.

He was always going by the staircases.

and. used to carry patients’ charts and insurance cards to down stair secretaries and technologists unlimited times a day.

Standing next to the fax machine. he would converse with the patients and patients relatives.

I had to park the car behind the office building daily.

Parking in that area at Jackson Heights was big problem.

It had a acute curve of the drive way and quite difficult for me to go there without hitting the side fence

Alim used to help me to park once I was at 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 calling him from next door for getting approval papers for the CT scan and same time he was busy with barium bottle for another patient prior to the CT scan of Abdomen.

Jose, the maintenance man was there too asking for supplies.

.Alim rarely had time to sit.

He does not have a desk to sit.

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

There were coffee pots ready to in both upstairs and downstairs.

The smell of coffee filled the office premises.

Sahina, the sonographer is, quite expert in making coffee. It was her domain to keep the supply constantly. It was her who kept my daily morning coffee ready for me at my table.

In addition, she prepares crunchy bagel toast or other snacks and brought to my desk.

I liked the way she made coffee with milk and Splenda I used to keep Splenda sweetener in my desk drawer myself for use.

(until I found mice eaten packets of Splenda in the drawer)

Soon I called Jose who put a few rat killer devices in my room.

I stopped putting Splenda and other snacks like chips in my drawer afterward.

Mice and Rat is problem in that area; .I saw squirrel size rats in backyard where was the parking lot.

Those rats moving near the garbage can which were also placed in backyard.

The office building was in four storied apartment building and garbage was a constant problem.

Rainy days were bad day for us.

Despite various roof works always some rainwater was dripping inside the building and Jose was mopping constantly,

Flooding was problem; there any time it rains.

The Building Inspectos were busy too.

Alim was never sad face he tried to help the situation.

The Management tried to intervene sometime only.

My room was not big but comfortable!

. Heater was no problem in winter.

But some of the front desk area was cold for constant opening of door by patients’ entrance,

They had small heater next to the secretaries Some time electric power failure was a problem and Alim had to go downstairs and turn on the power again at sub-basement.

There was more than dozen staffs. never a dull moment for me.

While I was reading my diagnostic cases on the office computer, I needed some quite time.

I was always asked to talk to patients regarding their procedures, pick up telephone calls by the referring physician or technicians asking me to help them about the procedure’s protocols.

Some days there would be birthday parties for the employees, so I must not only contribute but join their parties!

Then of course, there was Valentine’s day, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day parties

Those occasions I needed to Party with the employees., I used to buy gifts for them.

These secretaries loved me so much that I used to get various gifts from them.

I am still wearing them on occasions

Tabitha my smart secretary prompt with every aspects of

Medical practice, she is computer expert as well as picks up telephone calls and answers them very effectively

She studied in English medium in school in Bangladesh

She speaks several languages

She is. in her thirties but looks much younger.

She was married once but did not work out Now she has a child to care, who is growing fast.

Tabitha would order food for staffs from nearby Bangladeshi Restaurant and 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 has a teenager son who keeps her busy at home.

She is a good cook and knows various ethnic cooking.

Some time I ask her for cooking recipes.

Some time I took the secretaries out for lunch.

My lunch breaks were short, but it made me to understand my employees better, while I spend time with them.

I learned about their problems and tried to help them.

Jackson heights is a place with numerous restaurants of various ethnicity

Some time I used to order Indian food for the employees at lunch time, other time I took food for home

My son Mazed likes those Indian food specially Biryani

Alim or Sahina used to bring food from the restaurant ITTADI, a known Bengali restaurant, for me to take my home.

I used to leave office by 3:30 p.m.

After last contrast injection, I asked Alim to bring my red car AUDI to driveway.

I took Queens Boulevard to come home from my work Although there are traffic lights, I prefer this way.

I could see the sky and people, going to Malls; while sitting in the car waiting at the red lights.

Sometime I take photo at that time {not while driving}

Once I was at the Grand Central Parkway, I see the traffic crawling towards Long Island

I take Utopia exit so not too long I had to wait

I see beautiful trees and houses of Jamaica estates as I pass through

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

After changing my cloths, I go to kitchen to prepare snacks for my husband and me.

We had teatime together every day after I came back from work.

Usually, I cook some dinner or if I brought food from Indian Restaurant, we warm it up in microwave and I serve dinner for two.

Weekend Mazed visited us and I save food for him what I brought from Jackson Heights restaurant.

Sahina, a tall healthy looking fair skinned women of thirties.

She became my caretaker at the clinic whenever she had any difficult ultrasound case, she would come to my room

Dr. can you come to my room to see the patient

She had some request with special voice of her.

If 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 women, born in Pakistan and then migrated to USA along with her family.

She was married later to a doctor from Pakistan who travelled back to Pakistan and temporarily got settled there with his new family.

Sahina was left alone for few years with her only son while she got her training and begin job at this medical center.

She used to take train to come to the job. 12 -year-old son, a school going student was her sole responsibility.

She told me about her life event, 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 helped her who are living in New York.

She completed her license for ultrasound technologist and seemed incredibly happy the day she told me.

I kept her certificate in my file.

She prayed everyday noon time in her room. Same time I used to pray in my office.

She used to cook various food at home and brought for me almost every day. I wonder how she did it because by train she comes to work, it must be difficult to carry foods while taking train.

I told her many times not to bring such treats, but she would not stop.

Now since last three month because of Corona Pandemic the medical center is closed

I miss all my employees.

Dr. Deangelo an Italian physician was my associate in the practice for many years.

He has great personality. He gives me good advices whenever needed

,We discussed difficult case quite often.

He has another radiology facility and 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 they were on vacation or their time off on holidays.

Dr, Deangelo hires employees of multi nationality and treats them well. Specially salary and bonuses paid to them are very substantial amount.

I noticed he managed his practice efficiently with many staff who are very cordial to him

Christy, the office manager and Simon, the internet expert were his main assisting personnel.

In short time both became my close acquaintance too.

Christy smart beautiful women of early thirties, she has nice smile on her face.

She can make one comfortable in any situation.

Felix is extremely helpful individual with computer knowledge. He is slim and tall guy of Hispanic descent

On few occasions he came to my home to set up my home computer for private practice.

My husband was introduced to him at that time.

He has a son who also came to my home with him once. We had dinner together.

His son was fond of music and was practicing getting into a music related career

After Corona (COVID19)virus Pandemic; he joined army.

After February 2020 I had only home-based practice.

I had to stop going to the medical centers.

Corona virus pandemic started.

I was mostly home with my homebound husband who is also a semi-retired senior citizen.

He rarely goes to his office in Brooklyn

There was construction going on nearby in