Manan - A beat to my Heart

1. One Shot. Mere Naam Tu

Helloo lovelies,

This is my first attempt at a short story. Hope you all love it 💕

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It's been 4 months since her MBA course started. Thank God Nandini was continuing in the same city post her graduation, and her grades and entrance exam results helped her get into the National Institute of Management. At least it didn't take her extra time to settle down in a new house and shift, unlike her other friends.

Initially, Nandini was thrilled to be part of the course, college, and this place. New friends, new environment, new learnings, and experiences in the same city. However, it was a kind of relief that none of her friends wanted to shift from core science to management. It gave her a blank slate to transform herself personally and professionally.

Today was bad. Her lectures started early at 7:30 am, which made her skip breakfast as she was late to wake up. She hadn't been getting good sleep for the last few months, and she knew the reason very well.

"Nandini, focus yaar. If you're not attentive in this lecture, you'll have trouble during practice. Anyway, it's difficult to understand these financial terms due to our non-commerce background, and tumhe pata nahi dyan kahan hai tumhara," her friend Navya nudged her to make her attentive.

Being an extrovert, Nandini managed to gather good friends and quite a bit of attention from the boys in her batch.

"Yaar, Aryaman texted me this morning asking if I wanted a ride to college," Nandini said irritably to Navya and heard a chuckle from her other side.

Shikha, her other close friend, chuckled at her friend getting extra attention from boys in the college in the initial months.

"It's good, na. Remember Dean sir joked about people in MBA usually coming single but never leaving single from our college. We offer a degree, job, and a partner here," Shikha mimicked their Dean, and their front and back rows giggled.

Their class was like an audiovisual room with amphitheatre-style seating arrangements. All her friends used to sit in 3 consecutive front rows for better access to each other and the lectures, considering the backbenchers and their timepass. Nandini's irritating groan made others control their giggles.

With that, the 3-hour torture ended, and before they all went out for a tea break, their class representative came on stage to stop everyone from dispersing.

"Hello, guys, I know we all need a break, but before we disperse, I have two announcements to make," he said, almost breathless from sprinting.

"What now," an echo came from the entire classroom with a few irritating noises followed.

"Arey, both announcements will benefit and excite you, I swear," he said, controlling his own excitement.

"Aisa kya hone wala hai bhai?" Dipti, her friend from the front row, turned towards them, raising one eyebrow.

Soooo, our seniors are back in college today from their internships of 4 months, and our placement head ma'am wants us to meet the student heads of the placement committee to understand their experiences and procedures too if you want to apply on your own for internships as well." He explained and heard an excited gasp from the entire class.

"That's an interesting turn of events," Navya stated, looking at Nandini who was not interested in all this chaos.

My internship is sorted. I am going for a core Pharma-specific internship, which our college, I don't think, can manage since healthcare management includes everything. They will force us to take whatever comes first, which I am not ready for right now," Nandini stated assertively, making Navya go silent in her place.