|| PART 18 ||
Sunday evening, in their room
"Virat chodo." Manvi pushes Virat's hands away
"Arey dekhne toh doh - I think there is a small bump." Virat says, lifting up her shirt and examining her belly.
"aaisa koi dekhtha hai hai?" Manvi asks pulling her shirt down.
"Jaan na le lu? koi tumhe aaise dekhe toh? Kal tumhari ultrasound hai na?" Virat asks, removing her hands and looking at her belly again.
"Haan, 12' O clock." Manvi says, giving up and looking away blushing.
"Arey, itna kyu sharmarahi ho? I am doctor, I see patients like this all the time." Virat says.
"Like this?"
"YES!"
"Shut up Virat! That's just physical and professional."
"tumhari bhi clinical duty shuru honi wali hai kal se. Get used to it." Virat reminds her.
"Clinical duty toh time pass hota hai. Main toh masti karne wali hu." Manvi exclaims.
"Masti? Do you do anything other than having fun in college? I seriously don't understand how you pass your exams - I never see you studying at home." Virat scolds her.
"I am born smart." Manvi chuckles.
"Acha? baki hum sab bewkoof hai jo itna padte rehte hai? Get serious Manvi. A thing worth doing is worth doing well. You will have to be an extremely responsible person to be a good doctor."
"Hogaya aaj ka lecture? I hope you will not ask me to open my books and study now." Manvi says turning away from him on the bed and covering herself with a duvet.
"Pagal ho kya? This is my time, come here you." Virat removes the duvet and cuddles close to her, slowly turning her around.
Manvi smiles, she decided to tease him. So, gets up and sits on the bed, moving away from his embrace. "Nahi, main ja kar padai karungi. I will become a responsible, good doctor." She states with fake sincerity.
Virat pulls her onto him "kal ban jana woh sab, abhi meri biwi ban jao." He starts playing with her hair with his fingers and slowly pulls her into his arms. Manvi looks down and starts blushing sweetly. He lifts her chin up and takes her lips into his.
~~~
Sneha and Manvi enter the University hospital, they were going to intern there for the next three months. They look at the list with the room number they had to go to and they both get excited seeing that they were assigned to the same person.
"Mannu, I am really scared. I don't know how it is going to turn out. I hope I don't get assigned to Dr.Sheena. I heard she is real bad ass. She fails all her interns irrespective of how they work. And Pritam Sir toh pucho math, Nilu was saying he makes all the interns cry atleast once every day.
"Sneha chill. Aaisa kuch nahi hoga. Virat works here, so I am sure he will tell them to go light on us." Manvi pacifies her.
"Us? Me too? You will tell Virat jiju to do that for me?" Sneha asks super-excited.
"Haan, ofcourse. Pata hai Virat always listens to whatever I say. Haan, he argues and fights and cries but he always ends up doing whatever I want." Manvi tells Sneha proudly.
"Awww! you are so lucky Mannu. Kash, mujhe bhi aaisa koi mil jaye." Sneha replies dreamily.
Both of them enter the cabin that they were assigned to on the list displayed. They wasn't a name of the doctor displayed on the list or the door. When they both enter the cabin, to their wildest surprise they see Virat sitting in there, talking with two other guys who were their classmates.
"Sneha, Manvi, Get in, you both are late!!!!!" Virat states indifferently. Virat doesn't even acknowledge Manvi. They was no resemblance or any kind of indication that they were related in any way.
"This will not work from tomorrow. You are expected to be here at 8:00 AM sharp, you come at 8:01, I will send you home. And for each day missed, you will have to make it up with either Dr.Pritham or Dr.Sheena at the end of your three months period. I hope you know how that generally ends."
"Virat?..." Manvi was about to say something.
Virat cuts her short. "Its 'Dr. Virat' or 'doctor' or 'sir.' And did I ask you a question?" he stares at Manvi coldly.
Manvi looks at Virat shocked. "No." She mumbles.
"No what?"
Manvi looks at Sneha who was trying with all her life not to laugh. "No Dr. Virat." Manvi replies glaring at Virat.
Virat looks away from her and continues his announcements. "I talk, you listen. I ask, you answer. When I walk, you walk with me. You will not speak unless spoken to. If you have any questions, go to the library and research to find an answer. If you cannot find it, then you may ask me. Here are your pagers. When you are paged, you are expected to be here in five min max. If you are not, you need not show me your face again." Virat gets up and starts walking. Both the guys readily follow him.
What the f**k! Sneha and Manvi stare at each other in shock. They quickly realize the magnitude of their ill-fate and catch-up with the rest of them.
"Every morning, we go on rounds, we go and do a check up of all the patients in the in-patient ward and you guys will update the charts with the new information. I will check the charts randomly and if I find any carelessness, you are off the case immediately."
And the torture goes on and on and on. Manvi was silently following everyone - she was in a daze. She didn't understand why he was being like this with her. 'Arey, I don't understand anything. Yeh ho kya raha hai? Virat ne mujh se divorce kar liya hai kya? Aaisa kyu baat kar raha hai? Sach main mera boss ban gaya! And the duffer I am, I told him I was going to have fun in clinic duty. Mera toh solid band bajne wali hai."
"MANVI!!!" Virat yells bringing her out of her zillions stray thoughts in her head.
"Haan?"
"Haan?" Virat repeats her tone.
"I mean yes, yes...Dr. Virat?"
"Am I boring you? If you have to sleep, go do it at your own expense, not at my patients. We are working with actual lives here, not replicas not cadavers!!! So?"
"So?"
"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION!" Virat howls at her.
Manvi looks at Sneha and Sneha looks down. Manvi didn't hear any question, she was lost in her thoughts before.
God! She started cursing, looking all over for hints to the question.
Virat gives her a few seconds and then simply says "OUT!!!"
"What?" Manvi asks shocked.
"GET OUT!" Virat repeats without looking at her.
"I want you guys focused 100% here. If you have any other distractions here, you have no right to be handling my patient's life. Now, coming back to my question, what is the most sensitive sign for pneumonia in a child. You - Amit?"
"Tachypnea. Tachypnea is the most sensitive physical examination sign of pneumonia: most patients with pneumonia have tachypnea on physical exam." Manvi replies, out of turn, finally hearing the question.
Virat turns to her. "What did I tell you to do?" Virat asks holding her stare icily.
Manvi looks at Virat narrowly, hunching back, with pleading eyes and a but-I-answered-it-now expression "You asked me to leave..sir." Manvi mumbles.
"Then why the hell are you still here?" Virat asks point blank and goes back to attend the patient. His tone was calm but it was cold and brutal.
Manvi looks at rest of the people in the group and the little boy who was on the patient bed with his parents.
They were all staring at her.
Tears started rolling down her cheek.
She looked at Virat for one last time. He was looking at the other intern, Amit, who repeated Manvi's answer word to word.
"Good. Do the exam." Virat tells Amit. Manvi turns around and wipes her cheek with the back of her hand and storms out of there.
~~~
"Arey Mannu, what are you doing here?" Priya comes and sits with Manvi on the stairs behind the canteen. Manvi has been sitting there since the last two hours waiting for Sneha. She doesn't reply anything.
"I heard you are working with Virat." Priya asks.
And immediately Manvi starts crying loudly.
"Arey Mannu tu ro rahi hai?""
"Virat nahi..Dr. Virat...nahi nahi Sirji..mahaaan Sri Sri Virat Singh Vadhera saaab..hadh hai!!!!!!!.. koi apni biwi se aaise baat karta hai kya? aaise baat kar raha tha jaise he doesn't even know me. Can you believe it? He threw me out in less than five minutes. He screamed at me so loudly in front of everyone. Aur woh copycat Amit - gadha, jisne meri answer copy ki, usko 'good! Good!' bol raha tha.." Manvi started sobbing dramatically.
Priya started laughing. "Arey Mannu. This is the first year Virat is made incharge. He takes his job very seriously, you know that, and he is answerable to his boss. Actually we all are trained to be nasty and mean because it is a very risky job. We cannot have our interns make any mistakes."
"Toh pyaaar se bhi bol sakta tha!!" Manvi replies sniffing.
In between Manvi's phone rings. It was Virat. "Abhi phone kar raha hai. Jao, main lift nahi karungi.." Manvi looks away from the phone.
He calls again.
Manvi looks at Priya. "baat karlo..sorry wagera bolna hoga..." Priya teases.
"I am never going to forgive him." Manvi replies and lifts her phone. "Yes Dr. Virat?" Manvi answers sarcastically.
Priya shakes her head laughing, and goes to find Rahul.
"Manvi, where are you? We have an appointment with the gynecologist at 12." Virat asks.
"Manvi nahi hai. Her boss sent her home!!!!!"
"Nakre math karo. Come to ward C immediately." He hangs up.
You! You! You hung up on me? Tumare aaj kal itne baav badgaye hai na. Abhi rukho tum, dekho main kya karthi hu.
~~~
In doctors office,
"Baaat nahi karogi?" Virat asks suppressing his smile.
"Nahi." Manvi looks away folding her hands, pouting.
"Mr. and Mrs. Vadhera." The doctor enters.
"Hello Dr. Sheetal." Virat gives his hand.
Manvi is changed into a gown and was sitting silently. "Hello Manvi. How far are you now?"
"Twelve weeks." Manvi replies.
"That's good!" and Dr. Sheetal does all her exams and finally does an ultra-sound.
"Everything is perfect." she tells them. She shows Virat a small little dot on the screen. "That's your baby. We cannot really see much right now, maybe in the next exam, we can see the head."
"I can't see him." Manvi interrupts.
"Him?" Virat looks at Manvi with raised eye-brows.
She ignores his question.
"Here Manvi. Can you see now?" Dr. Sheetal pulls the screen closer. Manvi nods her head and looks into the screen, with burrowed eye-brows, with all her concentration.
"I will give you both a few minutes." Dr. Sheetal leaves the room.
As soon as Dr. Sheetal leaves the room, Manvi starts crying loudly.
"Arey, ab kya huva?" Virat asks her puzzled.
"I cannot see my baby.."
Virat points out."yehi toh hai!!"
She still looks with a forlorn face.
"Abhi bhi nahi?"
She shakes her head sadly. He sits beside her, pulls the screen closer and points in out in the screen. "Next time, we will see a head here, two limbs here" he explains.
"OHHH YAAA!!!!!! I SEE HIM!!!" Manvi exclaims loudly.
"Thank god!"
"Awww...Virat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's our baybeee!!" Manvi smiles beautifully and her eyes become wet again.
Virat smiles and kisses her head softly, putting his hand around her. She looks at the screen, mesmerized and sighs deeply, cuddling onto Virat's hand and then after a little bit, she moves away.
"My sweet little baby.." she kisses the screen. "You better come out really fast, daddy is being so mean to mommy. He yelled at her in front of everyone today." Manvi tells the tiny little dot on the screen.
Virat rolls his eyes.
"No offense buddy, your mom deserved much more. I was very easy on her. Don't listen to her natak!"
"EASY ON ME!!!!! in which part?? ask him baby - In the 'get out of here part?' or 'why the hell are you still showing me your face part?'"
"You guys need more time?" Dr. Sheetal comes in.
"No doc, we are done." Virat stands up.
"No, we are not! I am not done talking?!" Manvi looks at Virat confused.
"We are done." Virat shakes her head smiling. "More like complaining...Leave the baby alone." He adds to Manvi.
~~~
"Rahul, why are all your interns girls?" Priya asks Rahul in the canteen.
"Mujhe kya patha yaar? they were assigned to me like that, main thodi ja kar girls-only special request kar ke aya tha. Hadh hai!" Rahul looks at Priya with an innocent-until-proven-guilty look.
Manvi was staring at the ultrasound image that Dr.Sheetal gave them lovingly with a small smile. Virat looks at her and shakes his head "Eat your food darling." Virat tells her, taking a spoonful of rice to her mouth.
"Darling??" Manvi stares at him and his hand holding her hand. She wiggles it out from his grasp. "Cosying up with your intern is sexual harassment Dr. Virat. Abhi ja kar complaint karti hu!" Rahul and Priya start cracking up in laughs looking at Virat's face.
"Sit!" Virat pulls her down holding her hand. "Dramebaaz! I don't think I did anything wrong. I am not talking about this anymore. And why were you crying? Bacchi ho kya? Daant diya toh rone lag jao! Par you do NOT want to think even for a second about WHY I scolded you. Abhi chup chap khana khalo."
Virat was chatting about some case with Rahul and Priya. Manvi looks at Virat's hand still holding hers and suddenly a really bright bulb lights up in her head. "I am sorry Virat, please don't let me go to that Sheena, Pritham people. I will make up the lost time today and I will be very attentive." She says sincerely.
Virat looks at her with raised eyebrow, cautiously, so do Rahul and Priya. "Okay, you can come back after lunch." Virat says.
Manvi inwardly smiles an evil laugh.
~~~
