Love at the time of dentistry

Chapter-12

Manya had just finished with her last patient of the day and was hurrying out of the department. Today was a big day for her family. It was her sister Shanaya's engagement today and she had to reach her parent's home in an hour. The event was special for one more reason. Her youngest sister, Phalguni had just started her event planning business and this was her first event. She had managed the whole party herself single-handedly. Just as she was passing the reception area she heard someone call her name. She was not in the mood for any interruptions now. She turned around to see who called her- it was their new receptionist, Laxmi Iyer. She was a fresh out of nursing school, bumbling, nervous girl who managed to do her work properly when she was not nervous, which was not that often. "Doctor, your patient is waiting in the examination room. He has been there for almost 10 minutes now", she said in her distinctive South Indian accent. Manya frowned in confusion; she was finished for the day, who was this patient. "My patient? But I have no appointments for the day, did he say his name?" "Yes Doctor, he showed me his appointment card, it was written clearly there -Dr. Anaya 4 pm". Manya looked towards the heavens for help; this was becoming a daily routine. 3 months into the job and Laxmi still got her and Anaya's name confused. What was wrong with the girl; were their names so confusing? "Laxmi Laxmi I am Dr.Manya, that patient is for Dr.Anaya-remember she is the short one with the longer hair, wears specs, remember?" Realization dawned on Laxmi and she started to get worked up, "Aiyyo, I send him to the wrong examination room, Aiyyo Dr.Anaya is not going to let me go easily on this one", she started rambling, her South Indian accent more pronounced. She hurried over to the poor patient while Manya made her way out of the hospital. This was so silly, how can anyone hire a nurse who can't even get the doctors' names right. She was just outside the gates when she heard someone call her name again. This was getting very annoying, she turned around, ready to snap at whoever was calling her, "what n..." she stopped in mid-sentence when she saw Ronit coming towards her, " You look in a cheerful mood, what happened?" "It was nothing, I am in a hurry and there was a mix-up, just regular stuff; so I'll see you at the party?" Manya asked, smiling up at him. "Yeah, I am looking forward to it, if you're headed that way I can give you a lift?" "Oh, it's okay, I have to go home first and change then I'll go for the party but thanks anyways" "its fine, so I'll see you there", he said and turned to go in the opposite direction as hers after chatting a while about some cases. Surprised? Don't be. This has been the case for the past 6 months she had been working at Fortis. Yeah, sure she was quite apprehensive when she started but slowly and surely her fears were unfounded and baseless. Anaya was right- Ronit was professional to the core. All the interactions there had been between them had been about their respective patients and patients only. She was left feeling a little foolish for thinking all sorts of scenarios. Gradually she began to relax in his presence, even talk normally with him without snapping. She knew now that Ronit was an excellent surgeon and she felt privileged to work under him. She was happy in a way that she was proved wrong, now she could work at her dream job without any worries. She reached her home in record time, rushing inside to shower and change as quickly as possible. She was wearing one of Shanaya's creations today. It was a beautiful anarkali dress in deep red color with designs on its border in silver sequins. Her mother had sent her matching jewellery for it- she just had to put everything on and reach the event before time. After getting ready she hurried out towards her car, driving at a record speed. Her parents' house was beautifully decked from outside. If the outside decorations were anything to go by, Phalguni had done an excellent job. As she entered the house, all she could see was chaos. Her sister's assistants were running here and there, looking and arranging every detail, looking for any potential time bombs. She spotted Phalguni in a corner, giving instructions on the flower arrangements. "Hey, Ms.Planner, great job honey, everything looks divine", she said coming from behind her and hugging her sister. Phalguni was as tall as her but she looked nothing like any of them. She was wearing a Ritu Kumar creation. She was always wearing other designer's creation just to tease Shanaya. "Thanks di, waise mujhe koi doubt nahin tha, I am the best you know", she said jokingly. "Well, can the best wedding planner use some help from her humble sister", Manya said taking a bow in front of her. "Oh no no no, you will stay out of my way, if you know what's good for you; I have everything under control here and I don't want any interferences from any of you people, I already have sent mom and dad away, Shanaya is getting ready and Roma has still not arrived; so you go upstairs and help Shanaya get ready, she's taking more than her usual time." "More than her usual?! That's got to be some sort of a record", Manya said while climbing the stairs. Shanaya was getting engaged to her long time boyfriend, Aarav. He was a fashion photographer, one of the best in the field and they had met through mutual friends. 2 years of dating and now they were finally getting married. Manya couldn't be happier for her sister.

Celebrations were way under way by now. A DJ was playing all the latest hits while the youngsters in the party were going wild on the makeshift dance floor, Phalguni had arranged. The rings had been exchanged and the happy couple was accepting congratulations from the guests. Manya watched from her corner while her little sister basked in the glory of her day. She couldn't have looked more radiant and happy. Did love really do that to you? As she was lost in her own thoughts, Roma came and stood beside her, "That should have been either of us". Startled she looked at her and blinked in confusion at her, "what were you saying". "I said it should be either you or me there." "Is the feminist of the year really thinking of marriage or is her age creeping up on her?" Manya teased her sister, keeping a mock shocked expression on her face. "Oh stop it, there's nothing anti-feminist in thinking about your marriage especially when there are such fine specimen of male species on display tonight; God! Shano never told me she knew such gorgeous hunky models", Roma said looking at Shanaya's model friends. "You do know you sound like a female chauvinist right now and don't start with me on equal female rights right now", Manya said, a little surprised hearing her normally uptight sister talk this way. "Arre aaj toh sab chalta hai, aaj nahin masti karung to kya apni shadi mein karungi." Just then the opening tunes of 'Munni badnaam hui' filled the air. Roma turned towards her with a mischievous expression, "They are playing your song di, you have to dance on it", she said tugging her towards the dance floor. "Are you mad, what 'my song', I don't have any songs and I am certainly not going to dance on 'Munni badnaam hui' besides I can't dance", Manya said in vain trying to release her hand from Roma's death grip. "Arre behan ki engagement par toh nacho, kya sochenge log hamare bare mein". Like always Manya failed to understand Roma's logic behind her sister's statements and like always she let it go. She knew fighting her sister is going to be an exercise in futility. She let Roma lead her to the dance floor and started her impromptu dance routine on the item number. She looked so happy and cheerful while dancing that Manya couldn't help but start dancing with her and once started there was no stopping her. Before she knew it, both of them were dancing like crazy, doing crazy dance steps- doing the latkas and the jhatkas, not to forget all the thumkas. She could have given Malaika a serious run for her money right now. When the song finished, neither of them were in a mood to stop. Manya was slowly dancing the Amitabh style going in circles when she spotted Ronit looking at her from across the dance floor with the most amused expression on his face. He was wearing a black Armani suit which fitted him like a second skin and as usual he was looking absolutely sexy. He looked more handsome than most of Shanaya's male models. She wished from the bottom of her heart that Ronit had not seen her performance from hell right now but she knew it wasn't that easy. She could easily say from the delighted smile on his face that he had seen everything and he was coming towards her right now. Oh this was not going to be good. She looked around for an escape route but Roma had mysteriously disappeared from her side. There was no escaping what was coming her way. She better prepare herself for it. She could act all nonchalant about it, like it's no big deal which it wasn't. Ronit came up to her by then, "Hello Dr.Roy, you are a vision tonight." Surprised at this unexpected compliment, it took Manya a few seconds to get her bearing. It was alright; he hadn't seen her dancing. He was just here to talk. "Well thank you Dr.Raheja, you don't look half bad yourself." Understatement of the year. "Your sister's looking very beautiful today, Aarav is a lucky man." Manya looked at the newly engaged lovebirds and said, "Yeah he is, they both are; it's so nice to see 2 people in love." "You are quite the romantic Manya." "And a hopeless one at that, Dr.Raheja", she said smiling for the first time at him. "Please drop the Dr.Raheja, at least outside the hospital grounds- I do have a nice name, you know." This was a different side to Ronit she was seeing- the fun, laidback, making jokes one, and she definitely liked it from the sneering, making snide remarks one. She didn't know she would ever see this day when she would be talking so casually with Ronit Raheja. Strange things do happen. "Fine, then Ronit it is." As she was about to say something, one of Phalguni's assistant came up to her and said that they were calling her for the photographs. "You'll have to excuse me Ronit, I'll just be a minute." She turned to go when Ronit said from behind her, "By the way, I liked your jhatkas way better than Malaika's, you looked way sexier than she ever could." She turned back towards him shocked, so he had seen her dancing but before she could reply he strolled away from there, leaving her with comically shocked expression on her face. Oh this was not good, not good at all.