The Girl Who Had No Pulse
In the temples of Varanasi, when a child is born during an eclipse, they say the gods mark her in silence.
Ritika was one of those children.
Her grandmother swore she was blessed.
Her mother feared she was cursed.
“She never cried loudly as a baby,” her mother said.
“But she watched everything.”
Act I — A Fire Without Fever
At 21, Ritika had just started college in Pune.
She loved running, sketching temples, and reading Bengali horror stories.
One winter, she developed fevers — long, low, strange.
Her joints ached. Her fingers went numb in the cold.
She’d feel flushed in the face, dizzy after climbing stairs.
Doctors said it was probably a mild viral illness. Or stress. Or a vitamin deficiency.
She tried paracetamol, turmeric milk, yoga.
Nothing worked.
Act II — The Disappearing Pulse
One morning, while testing her newly bought smartwatch, she noticed:
No pulse.
She laughed it off. Maybe the strap was loose? Maybe the smartwatch was broken?
But it happened again.
And again.
When she finally saw the college doctor, he raised an eyebrow.
Left radial pulse? Barely palpable.
Right arm BP? Undetectable.
Left arm? 90/60.
The doctor repeated the readings.
“Must be an error,” he said—but his voice faltered.
A carotid bruit sang beneath her neck like a warning.
She had lost weight. Her ESR was 98.
Act III — The Whisper of Arteries
A Doppler study showed narrowed subclavian arteries.
CT angiogram painted a map of war — stenosis, irregular walls, and turbulence like a storm inside her chest.
Yet she never complained much.
“It’s just… my arms feel tired sometimes,” she said.
“And there’s a thunder in my ears at night.”
No heart murmur. No rash.
Just a girl who used to run through mango orchards now struggling to hold a sketch pencil.
Final Clues
- Young woman, <40 years
- Low-grade fever, malaise
- Asymmetric blood pressure
- Weak/absent pulses
- Carotid/subclavian bruits
- Raised ESR/CRP
- Angiographic evidence of large vessel involvement
So, what’s Ritika carrying in her blood?
The gods’ mark?
Or something far more human… and inflammatory
Keep it up 
