The Symphony of Raindrops AR-New Version ch4-1/27 - Page 2

Chapter 4: First Meetings and Rivals

Armaan drove out of Nikki's house, half frustrated and half disheartened. He didn't know what else to do. His brain couldn't take the frustration and pain anymore and demanded him to do something to make it stop. So he drove out, so the one place he knew could offer him some refuge.

The man at the bar counter looked up surprised as he heard the sound if someone enter the bar, wondering who could be here at eight o' clock in the morning. He looked up to see a disheveled Armaan walk in through the doors after so many months. "Nana, Could you give me two strong shots, please", he requested sitting on the bar stool. Nana looked at him apprehensively for a moment, "Arre Apple, what are you doing here man and that too early in the morning? Don't you have to go to Sanjeevani", he asked while picking up the vodka bottle. "Nahi jaana hai mujhe", he replied stubbornly and gulping down the shots that nana gave him. "Kya", he asked, his eyes widening as he saw Armaan gulping down another round of shots. "Kya bulbul ko pata hai kit u yaha hai", he tried again when Armaan stopped answering him. He saw Armaan stop drinking for a moment when he heard Riddhima's name before he gulped another glass down. Nana started getting worried now. This wasn't like Armaan to gulp down so many drinks in one day, especially during broad daylight, he must be really troubled to come down here. He grabbed the liquor bottle before Armaan started to pour another round. "Bas that's enough. If you drink more you'll get drunk", he said taking away the glasses from Armaan. "Pleasseee Nana, I won't get drunk, please just one more", he said exaggerating his words. Nana knew he was too late in stopping him, he had already started to get drunk, "Arre, ye tho bahut gadbad ho gaya, should I call bulbul", he thought but decided against it. He saw Armaan stop protesting and lost in his thought, he really felt bad for him. Armaan was always more than a customer for him, he always treated him more of a friend than a customer and today he saw his friend drowning and he couldn't take that.

"Oh Doctor! Get up!" Nana said as he saw Armaan falling asleep with his head on the bar counter. When he saw Armaan not reply, he sighed assuming he must have fallen asleep, he slowly carried Armaan to the lounge sofa that was a few feet away and went to turn the 'open' sign off outside his bar. He went inside to the kitchen to make something to eat and waited for Armaan to get up. After a couple of hours, he slowly saw Armaan stirring to wake up, as he was working on his bar's accounts. He went in and came out with a coffee cup as he saw Armaan sit up. "Lo, Drink this. The headache will go away". Armaan looked up at the coffee and shook his head, "Nahi I need more alcohol", he said trying to get up. Nana pushed him down and gave him the cup, "dekho zayada naatak math karo. Don't forget you are talking to the king of naatak, pachis filme aur ikhis naatak ka experience hai. Achha who sab bhul jaa, bata kya problem hai ha? Bulbul ke sat kuch hua? Ha..", he asked leading him on to answer. Armaan just sighed as at that, what should he tell him? "Dekh tu itna math soch, kuch bolega tho maan halka ho jaayega. Bata de, kya hua", he told him. Armaan smiled a little at his concern for him. "What should I tell you Nana? Where do I start? I'm so lost I don't even know where I am today!", he said looking down at the coffee cup. "Start from the beginning then", he encouraged him. "The beginning?", Armaan thought as he thought where it all first started, recollecting all those memories.

"I was just promoted as a second year Resident at Sanjeevani, when she first came into my life as a first year intern. I was the senior doctor for her batch of interns and she was the most troublesome of the lot", he chuckled remembering what a shaky start they first had. It was pouring that day when he was rushing to get to Sanjeevani so that he could prep up to meet his new interns, as he was driving he saw a dark figure crossing the road in front of his car and jerked to a stop before he could run over the person. As his windshield cleared up the rain making it more visible to see, it was there he first saw her. She was angry and yelling at him about almost running her over, even though it was her fault she was there, running in the middle of the road, in the first place. She spoke so quickly that he didn't have a chance to reciprocate and left before he could utter a single word. And for the first time, Dr. Armaan Mallik was tongue trapped by a girl. Irritated by being yelled at her, he rushed to Sanjeevani. "We both started off on the wrong foot that day, she was annoyed I almost ran her over and I was irritated that I got yelled at by a girl for the first time. Usually girls never yelled at me, they were always too flattered by me to have any kind of serious conversation, but then she came and put all that to an end", he said lost off in a memory. Nana listened to him as he talked about Riddhima with so much devotion in his voice. He knew they were married and eventually fell in love with each other and whenever Armaan came over he gave him some casual advice, but never got the opportunity to hear where it all started. Intrigued, he listened on as Armaan continued again. "She was late that day to reporting for duty and I was very angry to see an intern come late on the first day, but when it turned out to be her. I took all my frustration on her, and she listened quietly in front of everybody, but took her revenge later", he said while he recalled what happened that day. Riddhima was very angry that day at him for insulting her on the first day of her internship, so she decided to do something about it. During those days, he was called the hitler of the hospital, so much that even Dr. Kirti used to become uncomfortable with his discipline and he did not tolerate any pranks what so ever at all. So to reduce his ego, she sneaked into his cabin before their briefing session and mixed some powder into the coffee that was waiting for him in the cabin. He went to his cabin that day in the morning and had his coffee, and five minutes after he had his coffee, he received a call from one of his patients. "Haa. Mr. Raj. I looked over your reports, everything is fine.Just continue your medicine….", and as he said that, his voice changed into a squeaky girly voice. "Hello", he said again and became mortified at what he heard after he repeated a couple more hellos. He immediately got off the phone and went up to a mirror and examined his throat which was completely red and foggy. And he check the smell of his coffee and realized it was mixed with a certain chemical. He fumed as he considered which human being would have the guts to do this to him. Riddhima on the other hand, who was sneakily watching him from outside was having a gala looking at his confused and mortified expressions. . Mean while a nurse came in to ask him a question, and he instinctly answered, forgetting about his girly voice and the nurse's eyes widened at that. "Sir, what happened to your voice", she asked as she heard his squeaky girly voive. Armaan's face turned red at that question, half embarrassed and half angered, and signaled her it was nothing and told her to leave. And Riddhima had to stop herself from bursting out of laughter by covering her mouth, but she couldn't stop shaking from looking at his mortified face. Armaan who was pacing around angrily in his room saw someone move near his door. He caught sight of someone's eyes , which widened as they realized they were caught. He instantly caught on who it was that second having seen the same widened eyed expression earlier on the road and everything fell into place. Armaan stepped out fuming to follow Riddhima, who ran to the nurse station to get her duties. Armaan on the verge of anger forgot about the fact he had to assign duties and talk to his interns stepped into the nurse station. "Good morning Sir", an intern wished him and that's when he realized where he was. Riddhima hid behind one of the interns and tried to control her laughter as what would happen when he speaks. So she stepped out and boldly said, "Good Morning Sir. I'm very sorry about what happened yesterday. I think we got off on a wrong note. I hope you can forgive me for my careless", she went for the kill, by instigating him to respond. He glared at her murderously and walked away to his cabin. He took a remedy pill, wrote a note and gave it to a nurse to give it to dr. kirti and rushed out of Sanjeevani. And as he rushed out, he saw an uncontrollably giggling Riddhima who was holding onto the table to avoid falling down as three other interns looked up at her, wondering what she was on about. She caught sight of him as he sneaked out, trying to avoid people and their eyes locked. One look at each other and they knew that this War was ON!

As Armaan finished narrating this incident, Nana's eyes widened and he was shocked. He had met Riddhima twice before, but never even in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined Riddhima to be a brat. Armaan read his expression and shook his head. "Never imagined Riddhima to be such a prankster huh? Well this is nothing compared to what followed after", he said reminiscing all those memories as he got lost in his world again as Nana watched over.