5 years later…

Nidhi – now Dr. Nidhi Verma – entered Kotnish General Hospital to report for the first day of her internship. At the reception she was given a temporary badge and shown the way to a conference room. She went in and sat down on a seat in the front row, but in a corner. More people came in and she could identify those who were likely to be interns like her. Others must be the hospital staff and doctors, she reckoned.

All the murmuring stopped and there was a pin-drop silence as Dr. Ashutosh Mathur entered the room. He mumbled a good morning in response to the people who recognized and greeted him and then surveyed the room with cold eyes.

“You,” he suddenly pointed to Nidhi startling her, “Are you an intern?”

“Y… Yes Sir,” she said nervously.

“Why are you sitting separately then and not with other interns?”

“I am sorry, Sir. I didn’t know who else was an intern.”

“You don’t know your batchmates?” he asked sharply.

“Sir,” a doctor, whom she would later recognize as Dr. Rangnath, intervened, “She is not from Kotnis Medical College.”

“What do you mean? Why is she here for the internship then?”

“We have made an exception this time, Sir.”

“Why? Have we started succumbing to influence and pressure now? Which minister’s daughter is she?”

“Not influence, Sir. She had very good performance and recommendations.”

“Really?” Dr. Ashutosh was skpetcial, “We will see. Come now. Sit here with others.”

“Y… Yes Sir,” Nidhi said and came to the the seat he had indicated to.

“All right. So, doctors! As you all probably know that this internship is a requirement for your MBBS course. It is a rotating internship, which means you will work in four different departments, for a trimester each. For this group, the first trimester will be in the pediatrics department and I am the in-charge of this department. With this internship, your real life test starts. And to see how prepared you all are for this, we will have a quick test of 20 questions. Dr. Rangnath…”

“Yes Sir,” Rangnath distributed papers to all the interns.

“You have thirty minutes. Real life allows no cheating. So, better not try to do that.”

Everyone watched on as the new interns struggled with the questions for the next thirty minutes.

“All right! Time is up. Ye koi research questions nahin hain. Agar aapne ab tak answer nahin kiye hain to ye sure hai ki aap aage bhi nahin kar payenge. Now pass your answers to the fourth person on your right. If you are the right most in your row, then start counting the fourth person from the next row and so on. Let’s do it quickly. Now I am going to write the answers on the board and you have to grade the paper you have in your hands and total the marks. One for each right answer.”

It took about five minutes to do the grading.

“Anybody has a paper with 20 marks. 19? 18?”

“Sir!” someone got up and handed him the paper, “Whose is this? Nidhi Verma… Dr. Nidhi Verma.” He looked at the interns. Nidhi got up gingerly. Ashutosh looked visibly surprised, but he didn’t say anything. Just nodded and indicated with his hands asking her to sit down.

“17 anyone? 16? 15? 14? 13? 12?”

Several people stood up at 12 and handed him the paper. Between 11 and 10, rest of the papers were also finished. There was no surprise there. This was usual statistics, whenever he tested interns on their first day. 18 was definitely an abberation. He told the interns that the first day would mostly go in the administrative work and introduction with rest of the staff. The duties will be assigned from the next day. He wished them luck and left the room leaving Rangnath and other doctors and staff to handle the rest of the formalities with the interns.

They were done by 4 ‘o clock in the afternoon and were free to go home.Nidhi was about to leave when a group of female interns came to her.

“Hi,” one of them came forward, “Nidhi? Right? I am Priyanka.”

“Hi Priyanka.”

“Yaar tumne to kamaal kar diya. Dr. Hardstone ke test mein 18…”

“Kamaal ki koi baat nahin hai. I guess main lucky thi. Lekin Dr. Hardstone?”

“Tum KMC se nahin ho na. Isliye tumhein nahin pata. Lekin pata chal jayega. Tumne unhein ek baar bhi hanste hue ya smile karte hue dekha?”

“Kise?”

“Dr. Ashutosh ko.”

“Oh! Nahin…”

“Aur dekhogi bhi nahin. Isliye Dr. Hardstone. Unhein bas kaam se matlab hai. Hamari to kismat kharaab hai, jo pahle hi trimester mein unke saath kaam karna pad raha hai.”

Nidhi smiled nervously, she did not know what to say. Other interns, Sonali and Namrata also made acquaintance with her. They were about to leave, when Dr. Rangnath came running.

“Dr. Nidhi Verma.”

“Ji Dr. Rangnath.”

“Aapse thoda kaam tha. Aap please mere saath aaiye.”

“Tum log jao. Main chali jaungi,” Nidhi told other interns and came with him.

“Kya hua? Koi extra formality hai kya?” Nidhi asked wondering if her not being from KMC was going to be an administrative issue.

“Nahin nahin. Formality nahin, Aapke oopar bahut bada informal bam girne waala hai.”

“Ji?”

“Ji. Dr. Hardstone… I mean Dr. Ashutosh Mathur aapse milna chahte hain.”

“Unka nickname to mujhe pata hai, lekin woh mujhse kyon milna chahte hain?”

“Main unka koi jigari yaar to hoon nahin ki apne man ki baat mujhe batayenge. Waise bhi unke man ki baat kissi ko nahin pata hoti.”

“Dr. Mathur ka bada terror hai yahan lagta hai.”

“Unka terror nahin hai, woh khud terror hain.”

“Come on Dr. Rangnath…”

“Lijiye… Morgue… I mean Dr. Ashutosh ka office aa gaya. Ab aage aap jaaniye aur aapke ghar waale. Unhein inform karne ki zaroorat padegi to main kar doonga. Aapne contacts to sahi se bhare the na?”

“You are too much Dr. Rangnath,” Nidhi could not help feeling amused.

“Apni muskurahat dho-pochh lijiye, andar jaane se pahle. Behtar hoga. Main apne office mein aapke liye dua karoonga.”

Although Nidhi had rubbished Rangnath’s concern before him, but when he left and she knocked on the door, she did feel terrorized remembering Ashutosh’ strict demeanour from the morning.

“May I come in, Sir?”

“Yes.”

“Good evening, Sir. Dr. Rangnath kah rahe the ki aapne mujhe…”

“Yes. Please sit down Dr. Verma.”

“Thank you, Sir. Sir, mujhse… koi galti… ho gayi kya? Woh darasal main KMC se nahin hoon to mujhe bahut kuchh pata nahin hai, lekin main jaldi hi sab seekh jaungi…So, Sir…”

“Maine ye kab kaha ki aapse koi galti hui hai…”

“Oh! Phir aapne mujhe kyon bulaya, Sir?”

Ashutosh sighed in exasperation. “This is ridiculous,” he mumbled.

“Ji Sir?”

“Kuchh nahin. Maine…” he rubbed his forehead trying to remember what he wanted to say, “Yeah. Maine aapko ye kahne ke liye bulaya tha ki you did a good job in the test this morning. Main abhi aapka paper dekh raha tha. Aapne sahi answers diye hain, aur explanations bhi.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Lekin ek baat meri samajh mein nahin aayi. Jin do questions mein aapko marks nahin mile, unka aapne andaaze se bhi koi jawaab nahin likha. Kyon? Negative marking nahin ho rahi thi yahan. Log attempt to karte hi hain…”

“Yes Sir,” she said with a nervous smile, “Medical ke entrance exams mein, aur board exams mein to maine bhi kiya tha. Lekin doctor banne ke baad mahsoos hua ki patients ka ilaaj hum tukka maar kar to nahin kar sakte. Agar mujhe surity nahin hogi to I will prefer taking help of seniors or books, rather than putting a life to risk. Isliye maine test mein bhi andaaza lagane ki koshish nahin ki.”

Ashutosh looked at her curiously, “Interesting. Theek hai. Aap ja sakti hain. I hope aapka performance aage bhi test ki tarah hi achchha rahe.”

“I will try my best, Sir. Thank you, Sir.”

—

To be continued