Arranged marriage was an age-old story that Khushi, the youngest of the infamous Gupta family, who revolutionized and dominated the trading market for generations, knew well.
For it was the only thing she heard growing up.
But that neither prepared...
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Dr. Awasti was a kind, but stern lady in her mid-thirties. Kind because she asked for no explanation about Khushi's abrupt resignation at her last hospital, stern because she reprimanded her for being a minute late.
But Khushi had no complaints. She had never dreamed, not even in her wildest and craziest dreams, that she would once again resume her practice. So really, she would have accepted even Hitler as her boss with wide open arms.
After being handed a map of the hospital, an ID card and a pager, Khushi followed Dr. Awasti to the emergency ward, where she was introduced to the on-call staff that morning, including a burly looking doctor.
"This is Dr. Ved Arora," Dr. Awasti introduced. "Also an intern here. You will be working with him for the next few days. Once you are comfortable with the hospital and our protocols, you will be assigned patients of your own."
Khushi smiled and held out her hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Pleasure is mine, Dr...?" Ved answered, shaking her hand.
"Gupta," Dr. Awasti answered. "Khushi Gupta, our newest intern. Take her on rounds, show her the infirmary, the usual."
Ved nodded. "So," he said, once they were alone. "New intern, huh?"
Khushi simply nodded.
"How come you joined so late? I thought interns are recruited during the summer."
"Family emergency," Khushi said confidently. Lying came so easily to her nowadays. "So, the hospital gave me permission to start a few months later."
"Oh... I hope everything is okay now?"
"Yes, it is. How about you? When did you start?"
"Last year," he answered. "I will be taking my exam in two months actually."
"That's amazing. So you will move on to be a resident doctor then?"
"That's the plan, unless Awasti screws me over."
Khushi didn't follow.
"She is the one who marks our practical exams," Ved explained, with a sigh. "And apparently she is brutal. She only passed six out of ten interns last year."
"What happened to the ones that didn't pass?"
"Most of them moved to another hospital. It's embarrassing to start all over again, you know?"
Khushi knew the feeling only too well. "I don't blame them... so, shouldn't we be on rounds?"
The rest of the morning passed by with Ved's incessant chatter, who knew everything about everyone, including patients and their families. Khushi didn't know how he managed to get so much gossip with the amount of work he had to do.
And the work was a lot. Despite knowing what to expect, Khushi felt she was thrown into a blazing tornado. Even before it was lunchtime, she was assigned to run labs on some oncology patients, blood work on some accident cases and complete a mountain of paperwork for discharged patients.
