Picture Perfect

Sandhya’s POV

“Sandhya, stop right there. You are not going anywhere without having breakfast. It is so unhealthy. For God’s sake, You are a dietician. Do I need to remind you that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?” My buaji (paternal aunt) was scolding me as she saw me going out of the house.

She is even worse than my mom. Always scolding me, for not taking care of myself. According to her, I am getting weak. Oh please! I have put in so many efforts to get the perfectly toned body but she is just a mom. Always thinking about feeding her children.

“Buaji, I am not weak, I am perfectly fine. I assure you I will eat something healthy. But I am getting late already. Where is Shubh? He said he would drop me, must be sleeping. It is my first day at the hospital, I can’t afford to be late.” I grabbed an apple and put it in my bag and then picked up a sandwich and started eating it while going out.

“Hey, Sandy! Wait for me, I will drop you today.” I stopped when I heard Shubh calling after me. My sweet overprotective elder cousin.

Well just two years older than me but always behaves as if he is my grandfather.

“Ok, but hurry up, I am already late.”

“Ya, I am coming. You eat something in the meanwhile.” He ordered and I ate another paper-thin cucumber sandwich. I was full now.

“Here take this, don’t eat anything from outside. I made Poha for you.” My aunt gave me a packed lunch. I took it and kept in my bag.

Shubh came out of his room and grabbed the keys of his car. We sat in the car and he drove to the hospital. It was a new multi-specialty hospital.

It was the first day of my internship as a dietician.

For the last 5 years, I have been living with my paternal aunt and her family in New Delhi. My parents are usually travelling around the world. They run a very lucrative travelling agency in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. They are enjoying their life.

My elder sister Sanvi lives in the USA with her husband Neeraj Chauhan. Sanvi is also helping my parents as she also has one branch there. I got admission in New Delhi and since then I am here. I just go home for vacations.

We reached the hospital, Shubh hugged me and wished me luck and said, “Just give me a call, whenever you want me to come and pick you up. And if any boy tries to be over-friendly, Just ignore him and let me know. I will fix all your problems.” I just grinned and nodded.

He has always been like this. He is so caring and protective for me as if I am his daughter. He thinks I am too young to handle anything on my own. I am 22 and he is 24.

He is just two years older than me and still, he thinks that he is a superman. He is doing MBA and once he completes it, he is planning to join uncle’s business. My crazy, funny, irritating brother.

I just reached the reception, when I saw two of my classmate, Ruchika and Pooja, who also joined this hospital for their internship.

I was really happy to meet them. Pooja is a beautiful shy girl. While Ruchika is outspoken and extrovert. But both are very good.

We all went to the room where we were instructed to be. There were more interns. There were two more girls from our college. We all said hello to each other. We waited for five minutes when a senior doctor came and we all greeted him.

We all gave our introductions. Some of the people were doctors, some of them were dieticians.

We were given a brief description of the hospital and then they showed us the whole hospital like all different departments, operation theatre, OPD section, ICU and all the necessary information was given. I really enjoyed it a lot.

Then after all the instructions that were given to us, we were to be assigned our duties.

So to be fair with all, they wrote the names of the doctors on the chits, to whom we had to assist for next month, and made all of us to choose one. So I picked one as well.

We had to write our personal information like name, phone number, specialty etc. I started writing all that when one of my old classmates came to me and asked, “Hey Sandhya, can you please tell me which doctor are you going to assist?”

I just smiled, opened my chit and after looking at it, I said, “Dr Aakash Khanna...” She closed her eyes for a few seconds and opened them.

She looked at me pleadingly and said, “Can you please change the chit with me? Actually, last month, I came to the hospital for my mom’s treatment and since then, I have a huge crush on him. So can you…?”

I smiled and said, “Of course, take it.”

“Are you sure? You see he is very handsome. You don’t mind, me assisting him? She asked me curiously.

“I am absolutely sure. It doesn’t matter to me, I am not interested in anyone.” I exchanged the chit with her. She hugged me and left.

I finished writing my personal information on the paper and submitted it. The doctor asked me, “Which doctor are you going to assist?” I realized that I didn’t even opened it. But how does that matter?

I handed that chit to him. He opened it and said, “So you are going to assist, Dr Vikram Singh Rathore.”

“Oh! Ok, sir.” But I was shocked to hear that name. It can’t be possible.

Oh, God! Please let it not happen. I can’t take it.

There are so many people with the same name. He won’t be the same person.

Well hoped so…