Clash Of Cultures

5. Newbie 1

Salman

I woke up with a headache again, something I had gotten used to. Usually, I would stay in bed for a few minutes wallowing in my own gloom and inevitably, or fashionably, be 5-10 minutes late. But today the new interns were starting and I believed in setting a high standard for them. Especially, for one of them who I knew would follow the desi standard time. 

I bet she'll be late on her first day! Or get lost somewhere. 

Maybe the bigger question is why am I so irritated by her, when I've said all of ten words to her

Half and hour later I entered the hospital at the same time as Mark, still unable to answer my own question from earlier in the day. 

"You're early...", he remarked, with a smirk. 

I rolled my eyes at him, "Just trying to get my act together as a senior resident"

"Which interns did you get stuck with?"

"Noor and some guy", I replied to him as we both got into the elevator and pressed the button for different floors. 

"Isn't Noor the prudish one?", he made a disgusted face. 

I was about to tell him to watch his mouth when the elevator door opened and he stepped out but not before saying, "Well...don't turn into some religious freak"

"She isn't a religious freak...", I shot back at him, even though the doors had already closed and I was alone in the elevator. 

Why am I defending her? It's not like I know her at all

Yet the second I saw her in the residents room, I knew that many of her own colleagues would think about her the same way that Mark was. In that room full of people, she stood out like a magnolia tree in the middle of a barren desert. Her innocent makeup-less face, the neat but messy hairdo, the way she bit her lower lip as she looked up intently at the man standing next to her and smiled meekly at him, none of that allowed her to blend into the crowd around her. 

And it was making me feel something strange and uncomfortable, and honestly I hated it. Whatever, it was...was making me lose focus. Which is something I realized when one of the second year residents mocked me and asked if I was feeling lost among so many new faces. 

"Nah man...I am good", I retorted. 

I put my bag down and walked towards the two new interns who were on my service this month. My eyes involuntarily honing on to the one face that I hadn't been able to put out of my mind since yesterday morning when I had first seen her, but also represented everything I despised. And I made a decision right then to nip her in the bud. 

Oh Noor...you are going to absolutely hate me by the end of this month. Just like I want you to!

Noor

I got off the blue elevators on the 20th floor, aka, Dino floor. The caffeine hadn't kicked in yet, but the colorful murals of prehistoric animals in the hallway put a spring in my step. I wondered why anyone would choose adult medicine and willingly work in a hospital with drab grey walls, where every floor looked the same.

I tried to retrace my steps from yesterday's tour, but the hallway looked the same in either direction. I decided to start walking towards a woman in a grey uniform, holding a food tray, hoping she would know how to get to the residents room.