The Inanimate Series
Part 5: An Inanimate Holi
The patient red scarf was no where; he had been missing since the day before. Last heard, the missing patient aka love guru had been seen invoking the artificial sprinkler, the revered inanimate rain gods at the normally abandoned hospital backyard with his own version of the inanimate tribal dance on the morning of Holi. After the demigods granted his wish, grinning he ran inside the hospital leaving muddy footmarks as his trail, saying 'Let's see who stops me from playing holi with my soni now…I'm coming Stethoscope Keerti....hear my heart beats!!!!!!!'. As a result, the normally clean and highly hygienic corridors of the great hospital had been plastered with size seven muddy footmarks.
It was holi and everyone at Sanjeevani was looking forward to some fun at Sanjeevani's field which incidentally suffered from a multiple-personality disorder. It had hosted everything from basketball matches, kickboxing fights and now holi events! Although, it was customary for the inanimates to play holi on mud, obtained through investing large amounts of natural rainwater on a normal loamy soil base – but since the Head Scrub a self-proclaimed thorough professional had secretly stolen the hospital's mops for home use – fearing his unethical secret would be out, he had declared holi to be a mud free day. Despite his attempts, there was a freak rain that afternoon resulting in the miraculous resurrection of the holi-mud, natural justice perhaps; the implications were to be severe but for now no one cared.
As a result, the normally decent, dedicated and well behaved doctors and interns were sliding on the holi mud! All the Sanjeevani inanimates like the tables, chairs, lockers, coffee mugs alongside the lockers and plants had been taken in by the spirit of holi. As the shiny Locker Anjali showed off her yoga prowess by somersaulting through the muddy field…she sang 'From tomorrow all I'll say is …Riiiiight! ....But today I'm aliveeee!!' with the electrifyingly charming Locker Atul running behind her hoping to catch her if she ever fell. At this. Maya the Cactus moved her prickly nose expressing dissatisfaction over Locker Atul's blind devotion to the somersaulting locker. Just a few paces away, the visibly un-intoxicated Doctor Cardiac was asking everyone, 'umm….have you seen my yellow sari?' as he danced away his worries.
Sadly missing from the event were the golden Intern Kada who was finally advised bed rest for life to cure the hairline fracture incurred during Ammy and Rimmy's fist fight and the charismatic Intern Payal who was on leave to find her lost twin sister who had run away fearing a similar fate. The most notable absentee was of course none other than the ravishing Stethoscope Keerti- who had stayed away perhaps fearing damage to her metallic sheen.
The normally quiet, soft-spoken and extremely likeable Intern Red Dupatta, made of the finest fabric the land had ever weaved, had been observing the holi proceedings under the shade of the big pepal tree fearing the acidic rain would excite the dormant ions of her fabric causing irreversible damages to its elasticity. But strange are the divine designs, she was unexpectedly thrown to the center of the muddy field, when the tree, who incidentally suffered from a rare fabric allergy, sneezed. Once under the effects of the mysterious holi mud, the real Dupatta emerged from its self-imposed confines and fluttered in the wind, although it danced out of tune it was boisterously cute shedding all inhibitions with almost a childlike abandon.
As the winds picked up, the Dupatta fluttered far and wide across the length and breadth of the field, clouding the visions of the other inanimate before it finally fell upon an admirer – who had already been charmed by the depth of the saucewala red hue that it possessed, something that he did not have himself. The jaded Intern White Kurta had once dreamt of adding the color red to his monotonous world. But upon learning about the elastic nature of this kind of fabric had vouched loudly every Thursday to keep away from the elastic Dupatta only to see it broken on very next day each time. Seeing how she was losing her sense however he could not control it longer, he flew across the field swaying on sides as he tried to escape the flying colors mainly since the dry cleaning costs in his area was getting exorbitant and he wished to save himself for the next big event. He zoomed to her rescue scooping her delicate frame at once. He zoomed her off to the safety of her ground floor room flying in through her balcony on the third floor and flying down through the majestic spiral staircase. As he placed her gently on the bed making sure she did not fall on the invisible river that flowed under her bed, streams of sweat ran down the sides of his face, he looked around the room to see if he could find something to wipe his face clean. The caring Dupatta noticed it, and it magically came closer to his face surprising him with her new found boldness. But just as he raised his hands to get hold of the Dupatta, it sprang back on to the bed and let out an evil laugh, 'muhahahaha…gussa aya kya?'
Meanwhile, in the hospital terrace, the missing patient, the red scarf was dancing with the StethoscopeKeerti.
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