Attraction Is The Easy Part | ✓

Chapter 40 : Something Like Love

Nine Days Later:

"Thank you," Varun spoke as she handed him the cup of tea. She sat on the steps while he continued to segregate the patient reports. She glanced at her phone thinking about him. She was some three hundred kilometers away from but it felt like she was light-years away. He wasn't really happy to let her be a part of this medical camp. Anika was annoyed at his stuff resistance. It was just a matter of little more than three days. But Shivaay didn't want her to go as it was a long weekend- three days long. 

He hadn't even bid her a proper goodbye on Thursday morning. By the time she was home to leave he was still in office. They hadn't spoken the entire of Friday. It was Saturday evening now. She wondered if she should call. He was perhaps pissed that she left without meeting him. But he knew she'd be leaving and he didn't come home. She had waited for an hour more giving him the grace time just in case he was stuck in something important. She didn't want to call. He was supposed to call. 

"All okay, Anika?" She heard Varun's voice. She looked up at him. Coincidentally, Varun was one of the doctors on duty at the medical camp. It wasn't the first time they were together at a camp. 

"Yeah," she managed to smile. Varun was definitely a nice guy and a good friend to her. She had felt bad for disappointing him back when she had met Shivaay again at that reception party. They did stay friends though. Few random messages were exchanged nothing beyond that. 

He looked at her. "Is it your husband? You won't stop looking at that phone. Call him if you miss him!"

Anika shifted uncomfortably. "No, it's nothing. Anyway do you need help with that?" She asked and sipped on her tea.

"Not really, but there's something that's worrying me. Out of these hundred people who appeared today only ten were women. Even Nidhi was saying that."

Anika looked at her cup thoughtfully, "This village has very stingy norms for women. The women are not supposed to see a doctor unless they are carrying. I was talking to this girl in the afternoon, she cycles some hundred kilometers every day to attend the government school."

"Cycling a hundred kilometers, one way?"

Anika nodded in affirmation.

"That's messed up. I just don't understand why.."

"I know. We are doing our bit for their betterment." Anika answered glancing at her phone. A silence fell.

"I have an idea," Varun spoke up, "why don't we start educating the young girls about sexuality and periods. I mean there are ten women on our group, so the ten of you could start teaching them the basics. I understand that they won't use sanitary napkins and we can't change that overnight. But we can teach them how to do what they generally do in the right way."

"Well, we can do that. Through word of mouth it will spread from one woman to another."

"Exactly,"

"Cool, let's pitch the plan to everybody else," Anika suggested finishing her tea. 

"It's sad that we can't convince them to use contraceptives. You won't believe the average kids a man has is four. That's messed up. They keep making babies and treat their wives like mere carriers of their babies. I tried convincing ten men to use condoms. They bloody laughed about it and went away as though I was some kind of joker."

Anika smiled sadly, "I have seen still worse ways of life in other villages," 

"Jerks!" Varun muttered.