Ik Mulakat...

XXXIV

1st March, Manali, Himachal Pradesh

"Ooooh, that's cold." Mishti shrieked as the gel was rubbed onto her protruding belly.

"Oh toughen up Sweety." Ronobir joked.

"You're more than welcome to swap places with me." She fumed. Mishti thought after three months Ronobir should have known better than to mess with a pregnant woman but not. He leaned down and dropped a sweet kiss on her forehead. Mishti smiled immediately; he certainly had that calming effect on her.

"Now Mishti this isn't going to hurt, we're just going to look at your baby and see how she or he is doing." Dr. Verma said, smiling at her. Given their wedding coincided with the first trimester of her pregnancy she had decided she wanted her childhood doctor to perform her first ultrasound.

"I can't believe I delivered you all those years ago and now you're going to be a mother yourself." Dr. Verma said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Please don't say you're making me feel old, Dr. Verma." She cried.

"You feel old?" He laughed. "Okay, now we're just going to check everything is developing just as it should." Mishti looked over at the monitor, suddenly feeling apprehensive. She knew there was probably no reason to be nervous but there was something niggling at the back of her mind. Ronobir seemed to sense her unrest and placed his hand inside hers, sending Mishti a reassuring smile. She looked back at the monitor trying to pick out her baby within the grainy black image on the screen.

"So how does everything look Doctor?" Ronobir asked.

"Yes, it all looks about right." He murmured his attention fixed on something on the screen.

"Why doesn't that fill me with a lot of confidence?" Mishti said quietly.

"Oh sorry, Mishti it's fine I promise, see there's the embryo." He said pointing at the monitor.

"Where?" Ronobir asked, squinting his eyes to see what he was referring to. "Seriously it's like one of those 3D pictures; I can never see them either."

"There." He said pointing at the image again. "But what you'll notice is there's more than one embryo if you look closely."

"What!" Mishti cried, squeezing Ronobir's hand tightly without noticing.

"Ouch, sweety." He moaned, pulling his hand away to try and gain back some of his circulations. "So what exactly are you saying, Doctor Verma."

"There are two embryos in the womb which means you're having twins Mishti."

Mishti was in shock, the thought of having one baby was overwhelming, how the hell was she going to deal with two of them at the same time? She turned to look at Ronobir to see how he was dealing with the news, noticing him swaying slightly his face ashen.

"Oh my god, Ronny!" She cried as he keeled over onto the floor. Doctor Verma walked over to check on him. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Yes Mishti he'll be fine, honestly this happens a lot." He gestured to the nurse to come over and assist. "He's just fainted, we'll get some smelling salts and he should wake up shortly."

"Great I find out I'm having twins and he faints." She muttered. "I mean I'm the one who has to get two babies out of me somehow." She could feel her heart racing trying to process the news she was having twins. Doctor Verma laughed.

"If anyone can do it I know you can do Mishti. A lot of it comes down to the breathing and given you're an accomplished singer I don't think you'll have any problems with that."

"Yes, well maybe but I'm not holding out much hope for my birthing partner here." She cried gesturing towards her passed-out husband. "I mean this is only the ultrasound, imagine what he's going to be like during labor." She heard some groaning sounds noticing her husband was rousing. The nurse helped him up and he stumbled towards her rubbing the back of his head.