Virman-ff-two left feet - part 18-ii - Page 76

There days were mainly spent in the campus. They would work all day and in the evenings they hung out at their old home - where they had started their life together. Virat studied with Rahul and Priya there and Manvi tagged along with him most of the times.

It was morning time and Virat was on his daily rounds with his interns - Manvi, Sneha, Amit and Krish.

"That's a really good diagnosis Manvi. You can join me in the discussion with Dr.Mehra in the afternoon."

"Really? Awesome!" Manvi beamed and starting working on the patient. That was the group thing - whoever made an accurate diagnosis of the patient based on his symptoms and vitals got to work with the doctors on that case - that was their reward. It was the third day in a row that Manvi had gotten the best case. 

Virat smiled at her proudly seeing her excitedly fill her charts. The rest of them dropped their head groaning. 

"This is so unfair. Your wife squeezes out all the answers from you the previous night. Doesn't she?" Sneha asked Virat irritated, looking at Manvi.

Virat raised his brows and looked at Sneha from over his charts. "Get out." He commanded calmly. 

"What? Listen..okay. I am sorry. I know I am not supposed to talk to you out of turn. Please...please...please. Don't send me home. I will fail."

"How difficult is to watch the monitor and page me when the number reaches 6.0. A first grader could do that - you are a doctor for Godsakes! I don't even know where to begin with you. LEAVE!"

"Bu..."

Virat looked at her like he would blow her apart and she ran out of there. Sneha, Manvi's friend had been having a hard time coping with clinical duty unlike Manvi.

"Now, let's check on 403 and 551." Virat said jotting down something on his notepad. Krish followed Virat as he was walking out of the room.

"How is the student athlete in 403?" Virat asked Amit. She was his patient. 

"She is doing great. Just amazing." Amit replied. Virat looked at Amit staring at Manvi while saying those words. Manvi was chatting with her patient cheerfully, inquiring how she was feeling. Krish was looking at the scene terrified about how it is going to blow apart any minute. You do not mess with Dr.Virat under an circumstance and you certainly do not want to be caught staring at his wife - that is just plain suicide. 

"Is she? Maybe she shouldn't be in the hospital then." Virat glowered at him, threateningly.

"Um..Sorry Dr.Virat..." Amit reeled back into the present.  "I was just looking at how Manvi is so smooth at interacting with patients. I always have a hard time getting them to talk to me about how they are feeling."

"Right." Virat eyed him suspiciously but let it pass.

~

Later in the afternoon, the group was having lunch in the lounge.

"Manvi, please tell him to give me a chance. Dr. Pritham is evil. You know we had this pop-up quiz while doing rounds with him and he awards negative points if you don't answer his questions. I only had accumulated 20 points in the whole of last month and you know what I have now?"

"What?"

"Negative 40." Sneha started crying. "My mom will kill me."

"Awww...arey tu dar math yaar..it will be fine. There is three more months to go."

"How will it be fine Manvi? Will you talk to Virat for me...pleaaase."

"Sorry Sneha. I cannot do that. He is doing his job and I don't want to meddle with it. I will mention it to him but I cannot promise anything."

"Okay...something is better that nothing. What is wrong with you by the way? You are always studying these days." Sneha asked.

"I like it." Manvi shrugged.

Sneha raised her eye-brow. "I miss when we would dance and shout in the lounge. It was so much fun. It is so boring these days."

"Yeaaah...no more fun for us." the guys agreed. "Study hard...fall flat." Krish commiserated with Sneha.

"What do mean? We can still do that." Manvi disagreed.

"Right!"

"We can have fun anytime we want to...we have earned it." Manvi waved her hand.

"Remember last years charity event. Manvi, you danced on that Aishwarya Rai number right..."

"Yeah..that was fun. You know what we should do right now. We should get our juniors to dance for us..." Manvi told them with an evil smirk looking at the bunch of newbies who just joined the campus.

"Hey you wonderful peeps...come over here." Manvi called the new set of lost puppies over to their table. It was the college culture. The new students who enter every semester were like the entertainment for the seasoned lot. They would be subjected to jokes, parades and endless humor which mostly translated into plain humiliation. But, everybody had gone through it - it was something professors knew about and conveniently ignored. It was Manvi's turn to have fun today. She had lined them up into a line and choreographed them to dance for lat lagaye - a hindi item number which comprised of a lot of not so decent moves. All the students in the lounge assembled around the dancing item/doctor crowd which consisted of both girls and boys.

Manvi was being pure evil and Amit, Krish and Sneha were all her partners in crime - they were all laughing rolling on the floor laughing - looking at their puppets dance and sway to the moves. And so were everyone around them. Priya, Rahul and Virat walked into the lounge but could not see what was going on inside the huddle of the people circled around the dancing troupe. 

"Seniors this year are so rowdy..." Rahul commented.

"Oh please..." Priya rolled her eyes. "You were so nasty when you were a senior. Virat was toh -pucho math! This doesn't even come close. They are just having fun. Nice song.."

"Yeah..you know Manvi was humming that song last night...it is so annoying." Virat commented reading through his file that he had not put down since he had walked in there.

"Aha?" Priya commented narrowing her eyes. She turned around and tried to see who was in that huddle. Manvi was a senior now, afterall. At this point, the juniors were made to stand on the tables for everyone to see.

It didn't take Priya more than a minute to figure out who was behind the whole thing. "I think I know the choreographer. I am friends with her." she whistled as Manvi and her troupe came into their plane of vision.

"What the!! IS SHE CRAZY?" Virat freaked out. He stormed into the gathering before Priya could stop him. Manvi and Sneha were showing them a move and Amit and Krish were making the juniors follow them.

"Manvi!" Virat yelled at her and dragged her out of the lounge. Priya and Rahul hid their faces.

"WHAT? Where are you taking me!" Manvi asked him. She looked behind her and the whole show has stopped. They were all watching this show-within-the-show where she had become the main spectacle.

"Just when I thought you were making some progress!!!" he screamed at her once they were outside.

"What is it? What did I do now? All my cases are updated. My research on the non-invasive surgery for 401 is on your desk. I have filled in the charts twice since morning and I aced the general physio paper. What are you mad at?"

Virat looked at her angrily with his hands on his hips.

"You are asking me what I am mad at?" 

"Yes Virat. What are you mad at? Apparently, you can never be happy with me - how much ever I try."

He looked at her shocked and Rahul, Priya, Sneha, Amit and Krish had all gathered around them worried. "This is not about that and you know it." he whispered and left angrily. Priya looked at Manvi and the tears forming in her eyes. She shook her head disapprovingly at Virat.

~

"Heeey..." Priya called her lovingly as she caught her in the girls locker, crying. "Do you need a hug?"

"He should have married a robot - like him..." she told Priya wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"You know how he is Manvi. He is very stressed out these days."

"I know he is doing all this for us to be together and for our future careers but he is always scolding me and pointing out my mistakes. I can only take so much criticism in a day Priya...I am barely twenty. Am I not allowed to have a little bit of fun? " Manvi blurted out, her eyes getting filled up again.

"Manvi, you have no idea how proud he is of you."

"Well, it doesn't seem like it..."

"I know it doesn't honey...but trust me he is."

"I don't know anymore. Coming to college used to be fun once upon a time."

The rest of the evening went about as if nothing happened. They had a tissue engineering lab and Virat was the one showing them how to prepare regenerative tissues from human patient cells.

"You know Manvi, that dance thing was so much fun. I don't know the last time I laughed so much. You are really something." Amit whispered to Manvi while they were working in the lab.

Manvi looked at him surprised. "I know." she shrugged off the compliment smiling. Virat looked up from his work to see Manvi smiling at Amit. 

"Manvi.." Virat called her. 

She walked over to his desk looking into his petri dish. "Wow!! that looks so perfect" she looked at the sample he had harvested in his plate. They were going to use that in the brain surgery they were supposed to do next morning.

"I am sorry I yelled at you." he whispered.

"That's ok." Manvi replied too readily, shrugging.

He smiled at her softly. "Good. Because I was thinking we could both go out today, take it a little easy. I know all this has been very stressful to you. Dinner and Movie?" 

Manvi looked up at him suppressing a smile. "Dr.Virat, are you asking me out?"

"Yes, I am. Pick you up at 7?"

"I will think about it." Manvi smiled going back to her desk.

~

"Manvi, can you pleaaase help me out with the cases tomorrow morning. I cannot afford to lose anymore points." Sneha asked Manvi after their lab in the locker room.

"Sorry Sne...I have plans with Virat tonight. Let's study together tomorrow evening." Manvi replied.

"Hmphhh...if I am still in the class. Your husband kicked out Krish for two days coz he messed up with the physical exam in the clinic a few minutes ago.

"Maybe he should have been more attentive then." Manvi replied packing.

What? 

Sneha looked at Manvi shocked. "You know you are turning into quite a bitch. I know you grasp things  more than we do and you have a hotshot doctor husband but we are still friends you know - a little bit of empathy won't kill you."

"That's not fair Sne.."

"No, what is not fair is you are not being my friend anymore. We used to make fun of professors and crib about exams all the time. No matter how hard it was, we would study and laugh it out and manage to get by. Now, it is like you have forgotten how to have fun and the one time you do manage to have fun, your DAD of a HUSBAND comes and drags you away from us. I just hope he knows what he is doing with you!" Sne yells and leaves.

Yes! Everybody yell at me! - Manvi sighs, looking at the door.

~

"Hey.." Virat smiles as Manvi knocks at his office door. "I will be done in five minutes." he saying looking at the watch. It was half past six. Manvi walks inside and stands in front of his desk.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

"Virat, Sneha is having a hard time with studying. I want to help her. Can we go out tomorrow instead?" 

"Um..sure. I have a surgery tomorrow evening but we can do it later, maybe this Sunday."

"Yeah..raincheck."

"Raincheck." Virat smiled. "By the way, I got a confirmation from the hospital in New York. Their official offer for me to join them. It is good pay too." he shows her a letter.

"Wow!!! How does it feel to finally hold your dream in your hands?" Manvi looked at the letter and at Virat's face. It was beaming and full of relief. 

"Pretty phenomenal. Top of the world." 

"We should celebrate this, Virat. Throw a party."

"Not yet...we got something else in mail today.." he gave her another letter.

"My exam schedule?" Manvi says, reading it. "Yay!" she rolls her eyes.

"It is coming up pretty soon."

"Two more months." she fakes excitement.

"Yep. Are you going to be ready."

Manvi smiled looking at Virat. "Piece of cake." she looks at him confidently.

He nods with a smile. "Thats what I thought. Our dream is in your hands Dr.Manvi."

~

"Let's go study, Sne. I am free for studying now." Manvi calls Sneha on her phone.

"Really? Thanks Mannu. I am sorry I yelled at you."

"Naaah...it's fine. It is just one of those days I guess. Do you want me and Virat to pick you up? We are going to our old house. Virat studies there in the evenings with Rahul and Priya."

"Ah! You get bored sitting by yourself and so you open your books too. Got it! that's why you've been scoring so well."

"Whatever you say pagal."

"Ya..ya. Listen, I have made plans with Amit and Krish to study. So, is it okay of they come too? We can finish the material for the exam and then go over the cases for tomorrow morning.

"Sure. I will see you in a bit." Manvi hung up.

~

So all four of them were studying at their old house. 

"Hey guys..how is it going?" Virat pops inside their room.

"We sure can use coffee..." Sneha smiled.

"You are going to get your pretty feet in the kitchen for that hon." Virat smiles.

"Wu! Dr.Virat can sweet talk!" Sneha says to Manvi. She gets up with Krish to fix themselves a coffee.

"I like mine with lots of sugar." Virat smiles.

"Nice try. You ain't my boss at my friends home hon." Sneha retorts. "We all hate you. You know, there was a point in time where I considered you my Jijaji - a hot one at that. But, now you are just arghhh! repulsive. I disowned you a long back.." she shudders in horror walking past him.

"I can feel the love sweetheart. And you will be reciprocated tomorrow morning."

"Not FUNNY! You tyrant!"  

Virat goes and sits beside Manvi. "So?"

"So? I am tiaaared. I want to sleep."

"Hmm...I always study psychology when I am sleepy. It  works 90% of the time."

"I always sleep when I am sleepy. That works 100% of the time."

"Very funny..Rahul ordered pizza. We've ordered for you guys too. I am going to pick it up."

"Thanks. I love you." she cuddles on his hand.

"Love you too, baby." he puts his hand around her pecking her cheek. He looks sideways to find Amit staring at them.

"Do you mind?" 

"Um..sorry.." Amit coughs, getting up.

"Just kidding. I gotta go." Virat gets up and leaves.

"Is he always like that?" Amit asks after Virat leaves.

"Like how?" Manvi looks at him confused.

"I don't know...dominating?"

"Dominating?" Manvi laughs. "Virat is not dominating. He is just Virat."

"I don't understand Manvi. You are so much  fun and he is always goading you about doing things that you don't like. I mean I get that he is good at what he does but  he is older.. you know. It is different with him. I feel like he forgets that you are young and just want to chill out sometime."

"You don't know him."

 "How can you be happy with him?"

"Amit! That is really none of your business."

"He cannot even see you joke and smile with other people. You know what he just did right? He marked his territory. He is jealous of me and the fact that I can make you laugh."

"What?" Manvi laughed. "You got that right. You are ridiculous"

"You got to get out of this den, Manvi. We were having such a blast at lunch and he could not take it. Don't you care that he embarrassed you before the whole college. How can you take this crap? He is like a middle-aged, dominating, old-fashioned husband. You need to be with someone who appreciates the amazing person you are and treat you like a princess. "

"Ok. Stop. Stop right there. First of all, I will punch you in the face if you call my husband old again. He is not much older than you and I but he is mature, focused and ambitious. It will take you 20 or more years to get where he is right now. He had yelled at me at lunch because he is also responsible, protective and a wonderful father of our unborn baby. It was my fault. And STOP poking your nose into my affairs. Please leave - I cannot have you here."

  

 

...will continue tomorrow. Sorry for typos I did not have time to proof read...

  

 

continue soon...