Words Count- 3490
Attached Song- Kesi Remix.
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[ Surfraaz Mehta ]

A sharp hiss left my lips as a heavy object launched on my back. Just then, a loud and clear laughter echoed in the background. It seemed to be my doll's voice. The brightness was messing up with my sleep, so I pressed my face more into the soft pillow and covered my head more into the dark cave of the blanket. A groan left my lips as I felt a certain dense object jumping on my back.

"Let me sleep." I mumbled, drowsily.

"Ugh, Stop beating me." I yelled as I felt punches landing on my back at regular intervals. What the heck is the problem?

I sat grumpily to glare at the one, who disturbed my precious sleep. I saw Urvi sitting on my extreme right side on the bed, waving her palm at me. I could've dangled her upside down the bed, if not for the fact that her tiny fingers can't wake me up with the power packed punches, I received a minute before.

"Who is it?" I grumbled. Was it Neha, avenging me for my last night's behaviour?

"Don't disturb me anymore. I am sleeping." I lazily slumped on the bed again, inside the warm fuzzy blanket.

"Shay." Someone shouted, snatching the warm blanket away from my body. I so wanted to bury the person alive.

"See, I am back." I heard an energetic squeal.

"Saanvi, let me sleep." I whined.

"Baby, see. Your Pa is such a lazy boy. Let's wake him up." She mumbled to my doll as I slept languidly holding onto the blanket firmly.

"Neha." She shouted. I still slept listlessly, trying to understand an inch of her impeccable plan to wake me up.

"Coming !" I heard her answer.

"Yes, Saanvi." I heard as I felt her footsteps, coming closer.

"Neha, I wanted to tell you something." The way she started the sentence stretching Neha's name, alerted my ears of the impending danger ahead.

"Shay has brought something for you. That's there in that drawer of the cupboard." I peeked at the drawer that she was pointing through the edge of the blanket.

Oh holy shit!

"For me?" She hesitated as she strolled towards the drawer.

"No." My abrupt voice stopped her movement as I hurriedly locked the drawer in less than a second.

While Neha stared at me in confusion, Saanvi winked at me as Urvi clapped seeing me standing upright, out of the bed.

I sighed as I gazed at the drawer. God! I need to keep that somewhere else.

"Don't mind displacing it somewhere else. They are going to be used soon." Heat crept up my cheeks as I registered her words. She struck out her tongue and laughed her heart out.

"I thought, you would've planned something great for my arrival. But, you didn't even give me a hug till now. I am disappointed." She whined. She is another baby, I ought to handle.

"Aww, my big baby is back." I pinched her cheeks as she puffed them like the pumpkin's pout. I hugged her and ruffled her hair.

"Shay, let's go out for a picnic today." She chimed.

"Okay, princess." I fake saluted and asked her to get herself and doll ready. I saw Neha standing awkwardly near the window.

"Go and get ready, Neha." I patted her shoulder in order to gain her distracted attention.

"I need to go to the hospital." She replied. But I knew, she wanted to go out too.

"I guess, you have not taken any off day this month. Is it?" I asked, to which she nodded.

"Don't worry. I will ask PB to adjust today." I stated.

"PB?" She inquired, puzzled.

"Dr. Puravi Bannerjee." I responded as I dialled Puravi.

"How do you know about Puravi mam?" She again questioned.

"She is my old friend."

" Oh, from how long do you know her? "

"Three years."

"That long! You never told me before. How did you meet her?"

"She was my colleague in the hospital, I was working earlier." I answered curtly as I was getting annoyed by her abrupt questionnaire and the dialled number was unreachable.

"Are you interested in her?" I heard her ask after a long silence.

And, here I thought her questionnaire finally ended.

"Seriously?" I gazed at her in pure disbelief.

"Neha! For god's sake, she is happily married and is a mother of two children." I added, still looking at her.

I shook my head and received the call as my phone buzzed. Asking her to adjust just for today, I hung up the call after asking her well being.

"What happened?" I questioned, annoyed, seeing her still standing there.

My eyes softened seeing her squirm in her position.

"Do you still have any questions?" I asked softly and she shook her head in no.

"I- I wanted to ask what should I wear today?"

"Huh? Wear anything you are comfortable in." I casually said, while folding the blanket and putting it again in its place.

"I meant, can you choose a dress for- uhm- for me?" She muttered in a go, as her fingers fidgeted with her saree.

I was amazed at her bizarre request, but nonetheless nodded and followed her till her room. The whole cupboard was a complete mess as if a thunder struck it last night. Was she playing volleyball in there?

"Uh that, last night I was not getting my night suit. So, it just got messed up. I will clean it soon." She whispered as redness crept up her cheeks. She looked extra radiant for some reason.

I admired her as her hands worked on arranging the ransacked cloth heap. I lent her a hand and we were doing it together when I glimpsed a short yellow georgette frock with red floral prints all over it. I could imagine, how cute she would look in that short frock with a denim jacket over it.

I handed her the dress. Her eyes were shining, giving me satisfaction of choosing what she wished for.

"It looks good. Thank you. I literally forgot I have this one." She rambled on and I kept laughing at her, until she stopped.

I took a glimpse at her and found her staring at me instead. We awkwardly detached our eyes from each other and I came back to my room.

I slipped into my blue polo neck t-shirt and paired it with a cream coloured trouser. Taking my car keys and brown leather wallet, I walked out to see both the girls ready as Urmi jumped up and down the single seater sofa.

Three of them were wearing yellow. Saanvi had her hair tied up in a high ponytail, while Neha had her hair, freely flowing down. I picked up my doll in my arms and was greeted by her sloppy, wet kiss on my cheek instantly. I combed her unruly hairs into her single pony. She flapped her tiny fingers on my cheek to draw my attention.

"Yes, doll." I cooed. She pouted, giving me a show of the red lipstick on her tiny lips. I laughed as I saw her and kissed her nose.

"My doll looks so beautiful." I appraised in a baby voice and there came a long smile on her rosy lips. Her whole face was red already.

"Really, Pa?" She squealed as I held her chin in two of my fingers.

My shy doll!

"Papa loves you." I kissed her red chubby cheeks as she hugged me more. I hummed to her and spread my arms to accommodate Saanvi, who stood there beside me watching us. Kissing her crown, I felt at peace with my family in my arms.

A hand slid and wound around my stomach as another body pressed onto my back and a head on the arm, that held urvi. I tilted my face to see Neha, gazing at me with her glossy eyes. I felt her lips on my left cheek and I leaned forward to feather a kiss on her watery eyes as my head rested over her head, that was lazily placed on my arm. With closed eyes, I soaked in this moment of pure bliss with unshed tears in my eyes. I never wanted anything more.

"Let's go." Saanvi's call interrupted our moment.

[ Neha Mehra ]

After hours of driving and singing along with the blasting tune of the radio, we reached our first destination.

Jim Corbett National Park.

We skimmed through the dense forests with lively wildlife. Saanvi and I, enjoyed the curvy movements of the elephant safari, while Raaz along with Urvi went for a jeep safari. We walked through the Dhikala zone in the park to see the exemplary valley views. We played in the minuscule corbett falls, basked in the noon-green glory of the national park as we saw elephants and hippos passing by. Thereby, Raaz drove us to Deer Park. The brawny, rustic yellow tempered horned herd of deers welcomed us. We bought our tickets and Raaz stayed with a baby deer the whole time as Urvi refused to move from there. She only got distracted when Saanvi showed her a running cat.

We kept laughing as our cutie kept running wobbly behind the poor scared cat. She was tugging at her tail, when Raaz brought her back, before the cat could scratch her cheeks. After all her dramas and tantrums, we reached Darwan Singh Regional Museum.

Munching on crackers, biscuits, dark chocolates and doritos, we roamed around the museum. This time, I was holding our doll in my arms and showing her different types of swords and weapons. I looked to my side as I felt a sharp pain, I saw an angry red-faced Urvi pulling my hair.

Seems like history doesn't fascinate her!

"Doll, be a good girl and leave your aunt's hair." I breathed hard as Raaz's hot breath fanned over my neck. My body hair stood straight, soon enough spreading over my whole body. He was busy pinching doll's cheeks, unaware of his effect on me.

"Come to me." I heard him say to our doll. But, the stubborn girl in my arms hugged me more tightly and I felt ticklish. I laughed out a little loud as her puny paws were creating midget sensations on my skin. Raaz was tying my hair in a messy bun as our doll's pygmy fingers were tangled with my hair, pulling it harshly.

Raaz's palm glided over the surface of the thin material of my dress and rested on my waist as his face came forward to peck doll's nose through the curve of my neck from behind. That resulted in our doll gaping at him innocently with her round eyes. The back of my body was stamped to his front as his arms hugged my body from the backside to pick up our doll, out of my hold and throw her in the air gently. Her cute chuckles were felt in the the whole museum, as people stopped to admire our display.

Raaz held her in his arms and made distance between us. I missed his warmth and his lavender blended with a hint of citrus fragrance that had seized my senses. The scene of his moving lips brought me out of my dreamy reverie.

"What say?" He asked me, as Saanvi joined us. She was literally drinking in all the written notes near every artefact.

She is one heck of a history geek, I tell you.

"Huh?" I questioned dumbly, as they stared at me.

"Should we head for lunch or another destination?" He repeated.

"We just had snacks so, it would be better if we go for lunch after another destination. The more hungry we would be, the more we can eat." I mumbled, to which we nodded. Settling in the car, we reached Sahastradhara Natural spring, a sulphur water pond which is deemed to heal skin ailments with its medicinal properties. It was a natural beauty with caves all over guarding it. Raaz and Saanvi discarded doll's clothes and dipped her inside the pond and instantly wrapped her in a fluffy pink towel.

Doll seemed to have enjoyed the experience so much that she kept on insisting on doing several more dips with her giggles splitting on each dip into the water. Raaz dipped his hands inside the water as Saanvi helped out doll in wearing her clothes. I saw him sprinkling some of the water on Saanvi and me. We dropped coins into the natural spring and headed to Pangot to the bird sanctuary. Seeing the fluttering colourful birds was really scenic. It was a halting point for a short and sweet getaway.

Famished, we all set out on a ride to a restaurant and cherished the famous local Savor Pahari Cuisine. They were really yummy with the hint of taste of nostalgia from the ancient uttarakhand tribes.

Tired of over-feeding our tummies, we rode to Kalap Village to sit and relish the unprecedented green-beauty of this minute yet soothing village. My phone was blasting with messages on the official insta-group of our batch. The prime topic of discussion being the newly transferred hot senior of our medical college.

"Girls, A newly transferred hotshot senior will be in our med college from tomorrow."
~ Dr. Tara

"Yes, I saw him on our floor yesterday. He is so freaking dashing, man."
~ Dr. Asmita.

"He seems to be not that rude. I pray, he doesn't have that favouritism trait like some of our seniors."
~ Dr. Arush

"All of you have one or another senior to do a pet-ship of. I hope I can hit on this hotshot senior."
~ Dr. Parul.

"Is he married? If not, I am going to wrap his heart around my fingers."
~ Dr. Anaya.

                     "Girls, calm down. If you
              wanna do something, plan it in
                  seclusion."
                  ~ Dr. Neha

I wonder if these girls have no work left in this world. We met and waved at some of the tribes in the real traditional clothes of Uttarakhand. We strolled around the seven lakes of Bhimtal. Our bodies had already started to show the symptoms of our exhausting sight-seeing.

We decided to cut-short our travel time as Urvi was already asleep in Saanvi's arms, worn out. We were shopping at Paltan Bazaar. There were beautiful sweaters and scarves. Angora wools shawls were one of their specialties too, that is so thin that it can trespass in the hole of a finger ring and even, keeps the body warmer than any other material-made shawls.

"We will skip skiing at Auli." Raaz informed.

"I was the most excited about skiing." I complained.

"Understand the matter, Neha. It's already almost 5 pm. And, even if we go for Auli, Doll will cry to go with us. We can't take her there, so we will come here some other day alone." He explained and I reluctantly nodded hearing the word 'alone'.

We gave a visit to a mindrolling monastery and were ushered with utter calmness and peace out of the hustle-bustle of the market. We bowed to the life-like statue of Lord Buddha. We were mesmerised by long stupas and arts. We were fortunate enough to bump into some Buddhist ceremonies and got to taste tibetan cuisine. I even enjoyed reading some books related to their religion. At last, Saanvi and I, being the foodies of all time, ambled to the side by stalls to eat the mouth-watering chowmin. We roamed around the clement town and glimpsed the majestic 220 feet stupa, that stood tall in pride being the largest in asia.

At the length, we decided to ride towards our last destination. The Bright end point. The best place to sight the sunset in Uttarakhand. We leaned against the cool silver metalled car as we saw the divine picturesque scenario. Urvi was feasting on her pink candy floss as we saw the clear sky scattering into a tiny of saffron, that grew reddish orange. As if hues were thrown on a canvas, a plethora of colours peeked through the orange amber as the purple and violets started to dominate the race of colours by overshadowing the others. I could see a pair of married couples sitting holding hands and some couples kissing each other fervently in a passionate sync. While a lone pair stood in a corner with their newborn snuggled into their chests as they hugged dearly soaking in the ambiance of the purest forms of love.

I was tempted to feel those emotions with the person beside me. Feel all of it. Involuntarily, my hand slipped in the closed curve of his arm as a soft smile kissed my lips tenderly. We drove back home as it was already our supper-time.

All of us retired to bed early, as we had to join our daily duties from the next day.

×× ××

The whole hospital was in chaos. All my batchmates were flocked around a certain room with heart eyes.

"Don't they have any work?" I whispered, shaking my head as I wore my white coat and entered inside. Even some of my senior girls were there in the crowd.

"Neh, why are you always late on special occasions?" I heard Tara mumbling.

"Why, what significant happened in the two minutes, I reached late?" I whispered.

"Such a fool you are. You missed the sight of a greek god, trapped in a human body. The way he walks, talks, smiles, folds his sleeves and sets his hair. Everything about him screams hotness. He is perfectly named as a hotshot." She sighed dreamily, while narrating me about the so-called hotshot senior of the campus.

"Though you are married, I think you will fall in love with him at the first sight itself." She added, with a look that suggested you-will-see.

"Impossible." I declared in a firm tone and left from there to the patients ward to check upon their status.

I and Asmita rushed to the OPD to handle an emergency. The 35 year old malnourished pregnant woman had her heart enlarged and improper supply of blood to her body. She was in her second trimester, this being her third issue. I could hear cracking sounds and abnormal sounds through the stethoscope. It was a clear case of Peripartum Cardiomyopathy.

We rushed her to run ECG, CT scan and X-ray. She had palpitations but the severity wasn't that intense, or else, we had to perform a heart transplant. Still, the survival ratio is quite low till the baby pops out. She was injected digitalis drugs to strengthen her heart. As I was walking out of the room after this stressful situation of stabilising the woman, I bumped into someone. The other person held my hand, preventing me from a fall as a gasp left my lips seeing the papers of the file, I held earlier flying in the air now.

"Stand straight now." I heard the other person say. Wait, why did it sound familiar?

As I stared at the face of my saviour, my feet failed to grip the ground and resulted in my fall along with my familiar sounding stranger, Raaz.

I was flat on the ground with him over me in the position of a plank. In a minute or so, he fell on me breathless.

"Will you mind standing up, doctor?" I heard him hiss as I continued gawking at him. I meekly withdrew my gaze away from him and we both stood upright.

Thereby, we heard a cough of Dr. Rakesh Das, one of our hospital's board members along with Dr. Kshiraj.

"Dr. Mehta, this is Dr. Neha Mehra, one of our most dedicated doctors. And, Dr. Neha, he is one of my all time favourite students and a diligent doctor." He introduced us to each other and we awkwardly nodded.

Being introduced to my own husband felt a little too awkward.

I turned to see Dr. Kshiraj and Dr. Asmita smirking at us. But, for different reasons. Just a little away, I saw a herd of girls gathered eyeing my hubby-bubby.

And, I was seriously done with their antics.

Dr. Neha Surfraaz Mehta, time to get rid of these vultures!
_________

Hey peeps,
    Hope you are all good.

Okay, so, how is the update? Pleaseee give a feedback. Don't I deserve a single comment, boss.

I know, it can come a little confusing. But, everything will be clear as the upcoming characters come up. Btw, how's Saanvi?

I will try to update soon. So, please vote, comment and share.

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Love,
B❤