Ria had never expected to meet Nancy again. Even though they had spent a short time with each other before and had an eventful day, they almost landed up in trouble for it.
Together along with Nazia and Nancy, Ria sat inside the Hyundai Creta of another girl named Anusha.
Anusha and Nancy were cousins, who accidentally ended up in the same medical college. Unlike Nancy, Anusha was very fashionable. Though she was short, she wore rings and her nails were covered with various nail arts.
She wore a black Kurti on top of black leggings. She wore red heels and carried a matching red purse along with her.
Nancy sat beside Anusha, while Ria and Nazia sat in the back of the car. Throughout the journey, they kept blabbering about Manisha. Ria and Nazia told them how they first met Manisha. They also told them how they got her arrested.
" That must have been such an insult for her," said Nancy.
After eating their lunch, Ria and her friends divided the money and paid equally for it. Though Ria was worried about the competition, she was glad that she was able to eat good food this time. Together with her friends, she went back to the college in the same Hyundai car. They all went back to their class and sat inside. Ria and Nancy sat on the second bench in the middle of the class while Anusha and Nazia sat in the front of them. A few minutes later a tall woman with grey hair walked inside. She wore a blue sari and she was so tall that everyone had to crane their necks. All the students got up to wish her good morning. Ria too stood along with them. "Everyone please sit down. My name is Doctor Indira Devi and I am the head of the biochemistry department. I will be teaching some of the topics. You will also have classes from the other teachers in this department. However, I have to warn you something. Those who are not inte
Ria showed the interns and requested them to make a fake prescription for her. Though they hesitated initially, they finally agreed and one of them was able to sign almost exactly like the head of the department.Ria could not believe her luck when this work was finally done. She and her friends went back to the hostel where they sat down in their room, watching a Hindi movie called Race on Nazia's laptop. Ria who had hardly seen any Hindi movie was surprised to see a movie like this. Though music and dance were expected in any Bollywood movie, she didn't know any good thrilling movies in Hollywood. The only star she ever heard of was Shah Rukh Khan, who was known as the king of Bollywood and almost everyone loved him in her family. The name Shah Rukh Khan was so popular that all dumb kids in the family thought he was the president of India.An hour later, Nancy left the campus along with her cousin. Ria and Nazia walked to Vinodna's hoste
The next morning, after breakfast Nazia and Ria headed straight to the dissection hall. Doctor Vijaykanth showed the method of dissection for the first time after asking everyone questions. Few of them managed to answer correctly and many didn't. Nazia and Ria both gave the perfect answers."You all have touched and felt those three landmarks yesterday. These three are important for the dissection on the back. Now we have to take the scalpel and make a midline incision up to the level of iliac crest up to the occipital bone." he said as he began to use the scalpel.All the students around the stretcher began to push hard to get a better view. Some like Nazia who were short stood on a stool to see everything. Those who were tall had no problems at all."Now we have to make horizontal incisions to this midline incision."Ria who was the nearest couldn't breathe properly because of the people pushing behind her. Her chest was almost attached to the cor
After lunch, they all walked to their class for biochemistry class. Professor Indira Devi took the class again. This time both Nancy and Ria did not even try listening to her.Nancy put her earphones in one ear. Her hair was open and it covered the earphones very well. Looking at her, Ria cursed her ponytail. She removed a book and pretended to write notes. Nancy laughed when her eyes fell over what she was doing. She drew Professor Vijaykanth with an abnormally large nose.Nancy laughed so loudly that everyone turned and looked at her. Ria looked at her annoyed. Doctor Indira Devi narrowed her eyes at them. She turned away from the blackboard and looked at them. Pure anger was visible on her face. She kept her hands on her hips and looked at Nancy. Nancy suddenly realized what had just happened. She slowly turned and looked at Ria, who was now furious with her friend."What the hell, Nancy?" whispered Ria."Sorry.""Yes, the girl
Life at Lakshmi Narayan Medical College was very different for Ria. Unlike before she never had to live in a hostel before and she never had to eat a soft diet for such a long time. She felt like her taste buds have already died. The campus wasn't as clean as compared to her schools in America either and she was occasionally greeted by rats in her hostel room or washroom.The anatomy dissection which she was supposed to do for the hand did not go well at all. Despite precaution from her, she ended up cutting many nerves by mistake. Professor Vijaykanth scolded Ria and her partner for their mistakes."How will you do any surgery? You cannot cut nerves and tendons. It is good that this is a dead body and such a mistake while dissection is fine now but you both will do it tomorrow as well on the upper limb. I will make you both do it again until you are perfect." said Doctor Vijaykanth.Nazia on the other hand did her work pe
Finally, it was the day where the students were supposed to elect two persons, one boy and one girl as class representatives. From taking attendance to sorting out conflicts between their batch and the other batches, class representatives were supposed to play an important role for their batch. The representatives are also supposed to be involved in organizing the cultural events of the batch like fresher's day or college festivals. They even have to show their anchor skills on the stage. Not only this, post their internship they all would be guided by them for the permanent license from the state council to practice. Important notices about holidays or any notes or important points sent by a teacher for their subjects will be sent out to the students by these representatives. Any student having any kind of trouble whether in ragging or being harassed by a professor can talk to the representatives of their batch, who in turn can take the
Ria and Nancy returned exactly an hour later with a huge smile on their face. It wasn't a happy smile but Nazia felt that they had done something which was not good. She wanted to win the elections but not by using the wrong path and she wondered what her friends were up to. She knew that Ria and Nancy were very bold but their boldness often got them in trouble. Ria did not believe in compromising any situation. She would often go too far to show someone that they were wrong. Although she did not like it yet she could never stop her from it."What is with that smile on your face?" asked Nazia, concerned."Yes, that smile looks creepy," said Anusha."Oh, girls! Please relax and enjoy the show," said Nancy, as she and Ria sat down on their bench."Nancy, if you did something wrong then be ready to get scolded at home. I will call your mother and tell you everything," said Anusha."Anusha dear, there is no foul play here. Just a reaction to an action
After Nazia's speech, two more students gave their speeches. One of them was from Ria's stretcher. He was very tall and had curly hair that almost covered his eyes. His name was Sai Kumar. Ria wondered how could see anything with that hair over his eyes. The other boy was neither tall nor short. He wore simple shoes and clothes. Ria almost felt that she had never seen him before. His name was Abhijeet Sehgal. Doctor Shruti left the room saying that she would come back again."I am going to vote for Nazia but I am confused about the guys," said Ria."I am going to vote for Sai. He sounds very serious about his work," said Anusha."Yes, so serious that his eyes got covered with his hair," said Ria.Anusha scowled at Ria but Ria continued to smile. Anusha rolled her eyes at Ria's attitude."He looks as though someone broke his heart and he is still suffering from that pain. He decided to grow more hair in the front so that he would not see any g
Do people face unfortunate events regularly in life? Of course, everyone does occasionally. In Ria's case, that unfortunate event came in form of a fracture of her cousin on whom she pranked. She wore makeup and a costume to look like a ghost. Her cousin slipped on the stairs while running and ended up with a fracture. Luckily it wasn't his head that got affected but since he fell more than three flights of stairs, he ended up with a fracture in his right elbow. This unfortunate event changed Ria's life suddenly. Her parents were so upset by this that they decided to send her to India for her bachelor's in medicine and surgery. A couple of other events troubled Ria's stay in India but none were unfortunate because she managed to shine in those events among her peers. She thought she could manage her walk wearing a sari on the stage in front of her batchmate
Ria and her friends quickly rushed out of their hostel. The auditorium was in the building next to the second year building. The ground floor had two huge rooms opposite each other. This was where the third and final year MBBS students had their classes. The auditorium was upstairs. It was very huge with several ceiling fans. The auditorium also had a very huge platform. Several girls who wore sarees stood in a corner near the stairs of the platform in a queue. Ria rushed forward and stood last in the line. Her palms and soles began to sweat due to nervousness but she was relieved at the fact that the contest hadn't started. Clenching her lips, she turned her neck and looked for her friends. They were in the second row on the left side of the hall. A cooler was right next to them. Nancy and Nazia both gave her a thumbs-up as they sat down on a white plastic chair.
What is a beauty pageant? Is it just a public entertainment where judges select a girl whom they find to be the most beautiful? Or is it a contest beyond physical appeal? Pageants were platforms for showcasing women's empowerment, diversity, intelligence and leadership.Women who take part in pageants have utilized the platform to empower other women, others have also used pageants as a way to advance their careers. Although this was the meaning of a beauty pageant, it also somehow became a medium for fame for several young ladies but Miss Fresher was nothing at all compared to this.Ria realized that neither it gave any fame nor it would help her in her career. It looked like a contest meant only for popularity. Perhaps this was the reason why many of her batchmates weren't interested in participating. It would only boost her image among the students b
Ria thought all the students would be excited for fresher's day but she was wrong. Her classmates did not show much excitement. Apart from the girls who stayed at the hostel and the students who participated no one was excited. This shocked Ria. Back in America, at her school, the situation was quite different. Any competition would be something everyone would talk about and watch. Whether it was sports, singing, dancing, debate or quiz, many participated as per their interest and many would be excited about it. The hype for fresher's day here was not even remotely similar to that.The girls from the hostel who were rude to Ria now became quiet. Their acne was still visible. Few of them were so embarrassed about it that they sat at the back almost away from many. They only stood up for their attendance covering their faces with a cloth. Ria did feel sorry for them until she rememb
Finally tomorrow, the first-year students would have their fresher's day which was being organized by the second year students of their medical college. Many girls were already excited to see how the event would go but unfortunately, the girls who stayed at the hostel had a different story. Most of the girls from the hostel participated in the event and just a day before the event many of them had severe acne on their faces. They suspected that someone mixed something in the water of the washrooms. The hostel's warden asked the affected girls to freshen themselves and visit the dermatology department of the hospital. She also assured everyone that everything will be fine by evening but until then all students in the hostel will have to use water from the washrooms of the college. This almost made Ria throw up. The unfortunate moments she had with a rat appeared in her mind. Nazia too wasn't happy with this news because she disliked the
There was never a time in Ria's life when she thought someday she would wear a sari. She happily paraded showing off her Indo western clothes at weddings and festivals. Her mother made sure that she wore something that didn't offend anyone yet somehow her typical Indian aunties always found a way to complain something about her. Often they complained about her attitude and called it ego issues because she didn't talk much to them. At times they openly made fun of the way she stood and the way she sat.Ria remembered how her relatives made fun of her in one of the Indian weddings. She wore a very beautiful long skirt which had embroidery on a matching blouse. It was called ghagra choli. Though Ria wore a similar dress for various weddings, this time the blouse was heavy. Her relatives who saw her at the wedding did not appreciate her dress. Instead, they made fun of the way s
Finally, Sunday came, which meant that Ria could spend some hours away from her books to practice how to wear and walk in Sari. Dinesh would bring the sari for her and she would have to try it. He would show her how to wear the Nauvari style of sari. Nazia also agreed to come along to help her. Ria felt nervous because if she messed up something today, she would look like an idiot in front of Dinesh. This was a very important day for her because she wanted to show Manisha that she is up for any challenge and there was nothing Ria couldn't do.However, by Sunday, many first-year girls suddenly became hostile to them. Many of them were very rude and few even dared to ask her if she could walk in a sari."Don't worry about that. This would probably last until the competition. Many girls from hostel are participating for fresher's day and they think you already have an edge." said Nazia as she and Ria sat on in the corner of their hostel canteen."I don't get you,"
Nazia's continuous rude behaviour with Dinesh made him so upset that he began to make more demands. Ria is now supposed to do the physiology homework's that Professor Shruti assigned them. Ria tried to hide everything from her roommate Nazia's vulture eyes but she was exposed. Nazia, who was the female class representative, was given the task to collect homework. She immediately recognized Ria's handwriting, though Dinesh submitted the papers along with his friend. Her vulture eyes looked at Dinesh furiously and before she could say anything further, he pelted across the benches quickly."Ria, he is crossing his limit. Just stop asking him for help.""Nazia, we are only helping each other now. Once the fresher's day is over, I won't need to do anything.""Please just think once again."
Dinesh agreed to show Ria how to wear the Nauvari sari. It had a typical Maharashtrian saree draping which Ria's mother often wore in Indian weddings. Ria decided to contest for fresher's day. This wanted to show Manisha that she isn't afraid of anything and no one can challenge her. This was going to be a tough task for Ria because she had never done it before. The sari that she borrowed from Nazia was torn while she tried to walk in it but this time she was determined to do her best. Luckily, their fresher's day was postponed to the next week and this gave Ria some more time to practice. Since Dinesh did not stay in the hostel, he could bring a sari for her. Ria was very careful while selecting the sari because she didn't want to look like a clown. Of all the photos Dinesh showed her which he saw online, Ria selected a red silk sari with a green blouse. Dinesh agreed to meet her