The hospital room was quiet, save for the ticking clock and hum of the air conditioner. Rohan Agarwal, a modest farmer from Nagpur, lay on the bed staring at the ceiling, waiting for the doctor to explain what the X-ray meant. A strange tension thickened the air.
Dr. Ajay Kumar stepped in, removed his glasses, and looked at Rohan with quiet dread. “I’m sorry, Mr. Agarwal,” he said, his voice low and steady. The words hit like a hammer, though their meaning remained unclear. Rohan’s eyes darted to the X-ray, searching for answers he couldn’t comprehend.
For years, Rohan had carried a mysterious bulge in his abdomen. It had been the butt of jokes and cruel nicknames in his village—”pregnant man,” they called him. But he’d always brushed it off, believing it to be just an odd quirk of his body. He learned to hide the pain, to live with the stares.