Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 172 - Collapsed

Shehnaaz followed Sidharth out of his official residence. She took the opportunity to have a good look at her surroundings.

It was always freezing cold during winter in the Indian Capital; thanks to the low temperature, the heavy snowfall from Christmas Eve had not fully melted.

Shehnaaz looked appreciatively about her. The contrast between the black topsoil and the scattered islands of white snow was pretty to look at.

The road leading to Sidharth’s official residence was entirely devoid of snow, however. There was probably a snowmelt system buried beneath the road.

They had not been outside for long when they saw a motorcade enter the grounds.

“Sir, Senior Colonel Sandeep has arrived!”

Sidharth nodded. He stood beside Shehnaaz, his hands clasped behind his back, as he watched the motorcade come to a halt before his residence.

The rear door of the front-most car opened. Sandeep stepped out with a large box.

His face, nose, and eyes were still as round as Shehnaaz
remembered them to be. Everything about him was round, in fact: his black-rimmed glasses were round, and his figure seemed even rounder and balloon-like than before. He had
put on quite a few pounds in the last few months.

Shehnaaz could not help herself. She walked over with open arms and hugged him. “Brother Sandeep, I’m so glad to see you!”

Sandeep smiled as he patted her on the back. “I missed you too. How have you been, Sana?”

“This isn’t the place to chat. We should go inside.” Sidharth pulled Shehnaaz over to him, and steered her towards the main entrance of his residence.

Sandeep grinned. He ran after them with his box, and said loudly, “Hey now, what’s with the attitude? I’m here because you asked me to help, you know. It’s been months since I last saw Sana, what’s wrong with a little hug?! Look at you, storming off in a huff the moment something
upsets you—what are you, some kind of diva?”

Sidharth glared at him. “Hurry up and get ready to operate. We don’t have much time.”

Sandeep frowned. He said petulantly, “What do you mean,
we don’t have much time? Are you saying my surgical skills
aren’t good enough for you? Bring it then, let’s have a showdown in the operating room: we’ll see which one of us is better with a scalpel!”

Shehnaaz turned around and made a funny face at Sandeep. “That’s silly, Brother Sandeep. It makes no sense for Sidharth to compare surgical skills with you. I mean, would you dare get into a shooting competition with Sidharth?”

“Bah, you always side with your Uncle Sid…” Sandeep wriggled his eyebrows at Sidharth, before he realized what Shehnaaz had said. He did a double-take. “Wait, aren’t you supposed to call him Uncle? Watch out, he’ll box your ears if you don’t behave.”

“Sidharth would never do that.” Shehnaaz’s expression was smug. “Heh, there’s no point explaining it to you, Brother Sandeep. You won’t understand…”

“Oh suuure, I don’t get it, but you two obviously do. Well, as a poet once said, ‘we may not have wings on our backs, but our hearts are connected’—keep it up, I’m sure the two of you will be reading each other’s minds soon enough.” Sandeep sensed the subtle shift in the relationship between Shehnaaz and Sidharth, and leapt at the chance to tease
them.

Sandeep knew his suspicions were correct when Sidharth ignored him entirely: he nonchalantly continued walking, without turning to look at Sandeep. The old Sidharth would have glowered at Sandeep and told him off by now.