How to Wed A Devil

Chapter 1

Ananya Prasad

What is the one thing that you hate the most?

For me, it is the sound of the alarm urging, sorry, torturing you to wake up. It shatters all our dreams, fairy tales and brings us into our reality where we need to work our asses off when all anybody ever wants is to throw it at the wall and to continue our sleep.

But, as I said, it is our reality. So, I woke up begrudgingly, glaring at it. Then I realized that I don't have the time to glare and ran to the bathroom praying not to be late for the hospital and get caught by the devil himself.

As usual, luck was not on my side. I was 10 minutes late and he glared at me as if I took his entire property by force and asked me to get started with my rounds. You know, working together for the past two years, you would think he would be at least be lenient enough to overlook that I am just 10 minutes late.

But, no. He is not a generous person. We just have to bear him for another year. Why? Because he is applying for his fellowship in the United States. I sincerely pray that he gets an opportunity there and he leaves. He is the most unbending and authoritative chief resident among all the other chief residents in neurosurgery. Even attending doctors think before speaking to him. There is something on his face that makes people wary of him.

But, you should see him with the patients. You feel like you are seeing an entirely different person. You can even mistake him for an angel. But, once he is done with dealing with the patients, he will back as the devil. The rest of us all wonder what crawled and died up to his... um... you know what.

As I told you, luck and I will be never in the same room, he will be in shift with me until tomorrow afternoon when his shift ends but my shift ends by tomorrow at 9 PM. Yes. We all work 18 hours per shift on a normal day. It may extend up to 20 or more than that depending on the surgeries, emergencies. But that's one sacrifice you need to do to be in this wonderful profession.

I went to relieve my fellow senior resident, Nidhi from work and to collect information on the status of patients on whom I have to keep an eye. She told me that she, Hussain, and the devil assisted Prof. Acharya in tumor surgery and I just need to monitor him and the remaining patients are all in stable condition. She also told me that Samar and Joseph are in an aneurysm surgery with chief resident Natasha assisting Prof. Chadda.

Nidhi is all praises about the devil about how fast and accurate he was in closing up the surgery. She told me that Prof. Acharya let the devil do most of the surgery under his supervision and he also praised the devil for his capabilities.

Dr. Acharya is a great surgeon and to get praise from him is a big deal. I too bitterly accepted that the devil is best in surgeries. I don't want to praise him but the truth that he is a great surgeon won't change because I sulk.

He was a legend during his M.S. in General Surgery in our hospital. I just started my junior residency in neurosurgery when I first saw him. He was in his final year in his M. S. I practically worshipped him for his surgical skills for a year and hoped that I too can be like him.

Then after a year, he joined his senior residency in neurosurgery and I came to know the real him and started hating his guts. But, I admire his work. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. Go on....ask me why I hate him...

I still remember meeting him the first time. It was a week after he joined as a senior resident. I was in the 2nd year of my junior residency. He and I are on the same shift. I was excited that he took neurosurgery and that we will be working together for another 3 years. I was happy thinking that I can learn so much from him. I went and greeted him very excitedly.

"Hello Sir, Good afternoon."

"Afternoon. Dr....?"

I felt disappointed that he doesn't know my name. That's okay. It is his first day working with me.

"Ananya Prasad".

"Ok".

And then he continued studying the patient's charts. Me, being me did not understand his reluctance to interact, spoke:

"I heard a lot about your work sir. I am excited to work with you and learn from you".

He looked as if I disturbed him from doing his most important work and told,

"I have not heard anything about your work. So instead of wasting time, go and work so that I can hear about you too".

I was appalled. No one, I say no one ever spoke to me that rudely. And I did not even understand what mistake I did. Without knowing I replied, "I just thought to get acquainted with you since we'll be working together".

He coolly replied: "We did not come here to make friends Dr. Prasad. We came here to learn how to save people. So don't ever waste my time with this nonsense talk." And then he left.

I stood there shocked with my mouth open. Then Nidhi came to me and told me that I am 4th person to get scolded by him and Joseph, Tanya, and Samar were in line before me. Apparently, Hussain and Nidhi didn't speak with him after seeing them scolded.

Since then, I stopped talking with him except greeting him good morning and good night. I only speak with him regarding the cases and after that even if we are alone in the same room or elevator, I behave as if he is not there. I have never seen him being soft or being jovial with other residents except for his patients. He only interacts with Dr. Karthik Sharma, who is a resident in anesthesiology and apparently his best friend.

Ask me how I know this information?

Tanya told us. Apparently, she had a crush on him and stalked him. He did not even look at her. I observed sometimes that when he sees Tanya, he runs in the opposite direction. Tanya has that effect on people. She is that type of girl who is overly feminine and speaks in a sweet and sickly voice. She is also a gossip queen. After two years she got tired of him and has a boyfriend now in the pediatrics department.

In the latest news, Tanya told us that she saw him with a girl who is looking like a model, in the mall twice and she thinks that she is his girlfriend. Later Samar and Joseph confirmed that they have also seen him with a girl twice at movies. What a hypocrite right?

The person who thought just speaking politely with his colleague is a waste of time, is going to movies and doing shopping with his girlfriend. Isn't that a waste of time?

And that is why I hate him.

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Note:

There are two ways to join neurosurgery after M. B. B. S.

One is directly joining as a junior resident in neurosurgery after clearing an entrance examination after MBBS. This method involves 6 years of study in which, for 3 years you will be a junior resident, 2 years you will be a senior resident, and the final year you will be a chief resident. That's how Ananya got into neurosurgery.

The other way is to do M. S. in General surgery for 3 years and then take neurosurgery as a specialization for another 3 years, in which you will be a senior resident for 2 years and a chief resident as the final year. And our devil joined this way.