Closure: Tranquilize The Heart (OS)

Closure

Letting out a debilitated sigh Nandini placed her glasses on the study table as she had finally completed the topic 'Thyroid swellings: Treatment and surgical excisions'. The moment her eyes fell on the clock on her phone's display, locking her room, she immediately rushed to the common canteen.

A relieved expression spread over her somewhat tired face when she saw the canteen open, although there were very few doctors sitting on the tables. Pulling a chair for herself she sat in one corner, ordering two Aloo Parathas with Dahi and a cup of thick cold coffee which was her favorite combination to recharge herself and to throw away all the enervation.

 In a dark, muggy summer night, sitting under the rotating fans, as she was waiting for her order, her eyelids started feeling heavy. Folding her hands through her elbows, settling them on the table; she rested her head and closed her eyes without resisting the urge to get a quick nap, deliberately abandoning the very sense of her surroundings. 

A thud sound disturbed her slumber as she abruptly opened her eyes and grumpily followed the direction of the waiter's voice, "Here's your order, Dr. Nandini madam." 

He looked at her with a known concerned expression while she tried hard to maintain a straight face coming back to her senses, nodding at him. 

She had dozed off for fifteen long minutes and to compensate that she had to eat really fast as it was almost twenty past nine while nine-thirty was time for closing the canteen. Lights around most of the tables had already been switched off.

If not sleeping in the canteen what else was expected from her as she had slept for only three hours in the last forty-eight hours. 

Life was extremely exhausting working as a Resident doctor. 

She had a chance to complete her quota of sleep when she got a day off in the morning after her thirty-six hours long shift but she chose to sleep only for three hours while studying surgery books in the remaining time, knowing the fact that she had to get back to her busy schedule next morning.

Her eyes twinkled at the sight of hot Aloo parathas with icy cold frozen-yet-soft curd mixed with tiny perfectly transparent shining sugar crystals and thick creamy cold coffee with the two-enclosed-hearts-design on it. Without waiting for a second longer, she devoured the parathas. 

As she waited for the large pieces of crushed ice in her coffee to melt a little while shaking the cup, her phone rang with a call from her mother. 

She had missed her. It was almost thirteen months since she was staying at the hospital's resident' doctors' hostel without visiting her hometown for even once. 

Picking up the call she sauntered towards the window with the exhaust fan in one dark corner; already being well acquainted with the network issues in their canteen as it was an underground one. When she returned to her table sipping the last sip of her coffee after attending the call; she realized the only two remaining lights in the cafeteria had been switched off, too. Trying hard to tap the flashlight button on her phone, she made a dart for the exit door only to bang into something tall and hard. 

"Careful there.", a voice hissed while the flashlights from both their phones slowly made their surroundings visible once again.

Looking at each other within no reaction-time they both yawped, "You." 

In the next second lowering her eyes, Nandini moved towards the exit door. Her last hope was crushed when she found the door locked from outside while her eyes and ears perceived nothing but the dead silence in the outer corridor. 

Cursing her fate under her breath Nandini came back and sat on her previous chair which now faced him. Rolling her eyes, gritting her teeth she mumbled, "What's so interesting in this table that the Manik Malhotra graced its chair with his presence?".