Chapter 3 – Masty
When Armaan Malik walked into Sanjeevani Institute, it was hard not to stare.
Dressed in casual jeans and a white T-shirt, he had his iPod plugged in his ears, his movements being very eye-catching. He'd be tapping his foot, moving his head, or snapping his fingers. Even as he stood waiting for the elevator, he didn't stand still for a moment. It was very addictive, and it made everyone move, even if it was the slightest movement of their hands.
Soon, he was traveling up to the second floor of the institute. Ignoring the curious stares from doctors and nurses, he looked around until he spotted what appeared to be the locker rooms. Walking in, he frowned upon finding it empty. He got his answer once he checked his watch. "2 more minutes! Crap!" He quickly found his locker and tried his luck at the lock. Darn. He couldn't even remember what he did with the combination. He put on his lab coat and began to walk away when he noticed a pin on the floor.
He grinned in delight and quickly grabbed the pin to push it into the lock. Once he'd achieved his goal, he threw the pin aside and quickly stuffed his locker. "45 seconds" he murmured as he looked at his clock again. This time, he made a mad dash towards nowhere.
He found himself bumping into a pretty middle-aged lady. "Ah! I'm soo sorry ma'am!" he said politely, quickly getting down on his knees to help pick up the utensils he'd made the poor lady drop. "It's okay beta" the lady replied. Her warm smile made him smile back, and he couldn't help himself from saying his next few words, "You have a beautiful smile"
Surprised at first, the lady giggled and politely thanked him in response. This handsome young boy seemed very sweet and mischievous. His beautiful eyes held a special glint that made one feel warm inside.
"You seemed in a hurry? Is everything all right?" she inquired. He then realized where he was headed and muttered something incorrigible while slamming his forehead with his palm. The lady finally noticed the lab coat and badge he had on. Armaan Malik. Ah, he's one of the new interns. She smiled and put a hand on his shoulders. "You're a new intern na? Here, come with me." She seemed really sweet, and so without asking anything, he quietly followed her.
As they walked, she introduced herself. "I'm Padma Gupta." Not recognizing the name at all, Armaan politely smiled back. "Armaan Malik." They exchanged a few more words until they were standing right in front of a conference room. Padma paused and knocked on the door. "Come in" someone snapped. The sharp voice startled them. Padma gently opened the door and entered. The owner of the sharp voice was apparently a pretty, short lady standing at the head of the table while the rest of the interns sat there. Her frown turned into a warm smile as Padma walked in. "Good morning ma'am." Padma smiled back and returned the greeting. "Dr. Kirti, may I speak with you for a minute?" she asked. The short lady excused herself and headed towards Padma, making Armaan realize that Dr. Kirti was the senior doctor in charge of them.
Padma and Kirti exchanged a few silent words, and then, after giving Armaan a subtle 'thumb up', Padma left the room. Dr. Kirti gave Armaan an annoyed look and asked him to take a seat. "You must be Armaan Malik then?" she asked. "Yes ma'am" Armaan replied, taking a seat next to a tall young man. He could tell he'd get in big trouble if he tried to flirt with this one. "Good" She made some marks on her tablet PC and then turned her attention towards the rest of the interns.
"Welcome to Sanjeevani Medical Institute. I am Dr. Kirti, the senior doctor and intern monitor. I will assign you your duties and monitor your progress over the year. You will be contacted with the pagers that are being passed around. You should always keep your pagers with you in case of an emergency. If you loose these pagers or don't respond to any pages, there will be high consequences. So I expect you to keep them with you at all times." The interns passed the pagers around. Armaan took this opportunity to look around at his fellow interns. They were all unfamiliar faces. Near Dr. Kirti sat a tall slender girl. She was pretty, but there wasn't much softness to her face. She appeared very sharp and conceited. A pretty, innocent-looking woman was seated next to her. His eyes fell upon her face. She had this simplicity to her, and her face seemed to be glowing as she conversed with Dr. Kirti. He slowly moved his eyes to the people sitting next to him. The tall young man seemed quite familiar. But he wasn't able to get a good look at him for he was conversing with the beautiful young woman sitting next to him.
This lady really caught Armaan's eyes. She was dressed in a simple white shalwar kameez, and her skin seemed to be glowing as well. Armaan rubbed his eyes and looked at her again. Wow, seems like female doctors aren't that bad after all. The chicks here are quite hot. He turned to Dr. Kirti and thought again. Minus Mrs. Gabbar Singh. .
***
Ridhimma was really excited to meet the patients and start working. As her fellow interns conversed among themselves, she choose to opt out and get friendly with Dr. Kirti instead. Even though it seemed as if she were listening to Kirti and her lecture the whole time, she'd also been looking around at the people she had to work with. Besides her and Anjali, there were three other interns; two being males and one being female. The female, like herself, was dressed in a conservative shalwar-suit, and was amiably chatting with the handsome young man next to her. The handsome young man was the one she'd seen in the locker room earlier. He'd seemed pretty absent-minded, and she'd been too nervous to chat with anyone. Next to him sat the guy that had walked in late. Armaan Malik.
She'd heard her parents discussing the new interns to Sanjeevani, and she recalled her dad's praises on Armaan's impressive profile. As good as he might be, he seemed like a pretty careless guy. His eyes met hers and she quickly blinked and looked away. Way to space out on his face Ridhimma.
A knock on the door silenced everyone. The door opened, and in walked her father, Shashank Gupta. She proudly watched her father authoritatively walk in and stand at the podium placed at the head of the table. He stood there and introduced himself before starting on a speech on the existence of Sanjeevani and the work atmosphere. He closed off his speech with staff expectations. Warmly welcoming the interns to the hospital again, he excused himself for a surgery.
Kirti gave the interns a stern look as they began to chat again. She began assigning the duties, and the interns finally got to know each other's name. The tall gentleman was Azaan Khan, and the lady seated next to him was Afreen Hasan. Once the duties were assigned, the interns all stood up to follow Kirti as she gave them a tour of the hospital.
***
Ridhimma and Anjali had taken the tour several times before, and so both didn't pay much attention and chose to interact with others instead. Ridhimma walked closer to Afreen, and warmed up to her as soon as she gave her a warm smile and greeted her. Both girls hit it off well, while poor Azaan felt left out as he was sandwiched between the two girls newfound friendship. He spotted Armaan walking ahead of him and slowly moved forward to walk by his side.
Armaan took off his iPod headphones once he was greeted by Azaan. "Hi, I'm Azaan" Armaan smiled back, "Armaan" Azaan asked him about the music he was listening to, and soon they were chatting about their favorite music and similar interests.
Anjali looked around to notice the two boys and two girls chatting attentively. She narrowed her eyes and decided to stick up to Kirti in the meantime.
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Bade Achche Lagte Hain Naya Season
