CHAPTER 2
10 days later...
To a by-stander it appeared that Dr. Ashutosh Mathur was in an extremely foul mood and to top it in a big rush too that morning. He had turned in sharply at the gate and even parked in his usual spot with a screeching push on the brakes. For a brief second Ashu thought of Nidhi's reaction to this driving and even smiled to himself as he recollected the time she had laid into him when he had met with a minor accident and had to be bed-ridden for a few days. But now no one could guess the real reason behind this perceived rashness. When he alighted from the car and stepped into KGH Ashu felt as if it was his first day. He remembered being this nervous when he entered KGH for the first time as a fresh intern and was about to meet the then Chief Dr. Dubey. But today was different. Today his nervousness, the urgency in his step was because of Nidhi. Today Nidhi's fate would be decided.
When he made up his mind to mentor Nidhi he knew crossing the first step was like winning half the battle, the first step being getting the management to squash the old dismissal and reinstate Nidhi back as in intern. He was well aware that his case in defense of Nidhi had to be fool proof without making it seem like nepotism. A herculean task indeed! And so for the last ten days he had been preparing for this. With great difficulty he had managed to get all the board members to personally attend and today was the first available date. Then he had summoned Dr. Ranganath and had requested all the details that was on file along with the copy of that hated dismissal letter. Upon probing by the ever curious Dr. Ranganath he had confessed his intentions. At first Dr. Ranganth had done a double take as if he could not believe his ears, and then stammered that this had never been accomplished in the history of KGH. Ashu had only turned away and looked out the window in reply with a determination to try his level best and make the impossible happen. Now as he walked into his cabin Dr. Ranganath was already there waiting. He had wordlessly handed him a final copy of the meeting agenda and had quietly retreated.
Nidhi watched Dr. Ashutosh's retreating back as he had silently consumed his tea and toast and with a wave to BB drove away to KGH. She knew the reason as Dr. Ashutosh had informed her of the meeting. Since the last week all she had got out of Dr. Ashutosh were mono-syllable answers to her questions. She was very curious to know what Dr. Ashutosh was planning especially after he had enlightened her about organizing a meeting to discuss her case. She wanted to find out how he was going to proceed but everytime her attempts had been stone walled. She had used every trick in the trade to make Dr. Ashutosh cough up his plans, but to no avail. She was thoroughly irked by his secrecy and a couple of days back she had even made his favorite HCKKMM to soften him and get a response but nothing! And finally in her frustration she had come out and directly asked what he had in mind and all she had received in response was 'His' dreaded glare, the same one that was rumored to have turned other interns to stone, that is until she had come along in his life. And that had irritated her even more, it was her life and she had a right to know!
Things had come to a head last night when Nidhi had returned from a shopping expedition with her best friend and confidante Anji, who had invited Nidhi to help with her final wedding shopping. And when they spotted the latest iPad Nidhi had impulsively bought it along with the latest iPhone, both for Dr.Ashutosh. It was impulsive but not completely unreasonable from her viewpoint. Ever since she had expressed her desire to go back to work she had also been searching and applying for vacancies in other hospitals in Lucknow and she had been monopolizing their common laptop with her job search related stuff and preparing for an interview. And she had realized how much she missed all this!! The thrill, anticipation and adrenaline rush thinking about the prospect of completing her studies! In this enthusiasm she had neglected to consult with him and just before handing over her credit card at the stone she also had felt a juvenile satisfaction that finally she would get 'His' attention. But she had not anticipated his level of anger.
He had fumed and shouted, absolutely refusing to listen to her logic. And for her part she was saying all the wrong things, things like he could not live without these gadgets and the worst was her nonchalant statement that they had enough money to be frivolous sometimes. To say he had not taken these statements kindly would be an understatement. Even as she was uttering these words she knew they were the wrong things to say and she could see his eyes getting larger and his face getting redder at every word. Finally his dam had burst and he had blamed her irresponsible behavior on her unemployed status. He gone on to say that had she been a responsible earning member of their household she would have known the value of money and would not have spent it like so. And he had walked off without a backward glance.
Oh! How she had wanted to follow him and retort that if she was not working then she had only him to thank for it. But had held her tongue back, something had stopped her. Though she was frustrated by the unfairness of it all she had decided to yet again give him some benefit of doubt, some breathing space. At this moment he was after all trying his level best to get her back to work and she did not want to jeopardize that by reminding him of her dismissal. And she also knew that he had been unusually overly tense because of the meeting the next day, even more so than he would be before a major surgery. So she had bit her tongue and held her peace. And they had been at an impasse since then. But the thought was now deeply entrenched in her mind. And she knew that one day, one day soon she would gently probe and ask him this question. She badly wanted to know the real reason behind her dismissal and she was beginning to suspect that that very reason was at the bottom of Dr. Ashutosh's behavior in the last 10 days. But not yet, the time for that would definitely come...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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