The Kabir Singh Story

Fix a heart-Priyanka

The day of Jaya's surgery Priyanka got up bright and early. She had a lot of work to do before she headed to the hospital at noon to assume the position of moral support and favourite aunt of Kabir and Rajan. It seemed strange to fawn over children whom she had no prior relation to but  all reservation vanished when she saw them and when she saw Jaya fawning over them. They had somehow become integral people in her life in the past week and only time would tell what their relationship was but regardless they had our names to remember the by. 

She cooked breakfast and lunch for Daada and did all the laundry and dishes by the time he woke up and was with him while the Nurse, whose name she learnt was Stephanie, came in to do some check-ups and exercises with him. She called Mrs. Reddy and made sure she was ready to come in to watch Daada and was ready to be out the door by 11:30, when a knock at the door brought her out of her schedule. Mrs. Reddy had already arrived and gotten comfortable with Daada on the sofa, she had planned for them to marathon a bunch of old movies she have never heard of. Opening the door she was surprised to see it was Kabir at the door. 

"Kabir, I mean Dr. Singh, what are you doing here?" she said shocked and embarrassed that Mrs. Reddy was looking over at him with untrusting eyes.

"I don't have a shift at the hospital today so I figured you might need a ride?" 

She smiled gratefully and after saying her goodbyes they made their way out and into his car on the way to the hospital. They spent the car ride in silence, that was neither comfortable nor uncomfortable. Something had changed in him on the way back home last night and it didn't feel right to pry. She couldn't understand what caused his mood to change so suddenly but he did make the gesture of offering her a ride so maybe she was reading too much into it-but she knew she wasn't. 

She was an investigative journalist and that meant that she knew that all my hunches and gut instincts were the result of clues my mind had recognized without comprehending the reason. If she was able to understand why she recognized the clues she'd be able to explain the causation of her gut instinct. It was cycle and it didn't fail her if she listened to it. 

He was still as well-dressed as ever today and his cologne was very strong. Did he normally wear cologne this strong? Maybe she'd never noticed because they'd never been in such close quarters before. Was it to cover up the stench of something? Like the stench of weed or a drunkard. His body seemed alert but his eyes were red and his lips were cracked. He had definitely gotten drunk last night and by the looks of it he had drunk a lot. Such a shame, he was doing so well.

And that's when she stopped herself. Why did she assume he hadn't been drinking, or smoking, or carrying on with any of his other usual habits just because he'd started to speak calmly to her and show genuine affection for Jaya. This was a man who clearly showed up to work, at his high stress and high risk job, hungover or even intoxicated and had had no reprimanding to show for it. She had no right to assume that he wanted to give up these habits let alone ask him too. It was a good reality check to have. She hadn't seen girls parading in and out of his apartment, the one she'd barged in on had been the last she saw and just thinking about made her blush. 

Its crazy what your body can power through in the midst of a crisis, on any other day she would have run out of his apartment screaming but instead because of the emergency going on across the hall she'd stayed long enough to see him pull out of the naked girl beneath him. She'd used her hands as a shield but she'd seen enough and couldn't lie and say she wasn't slightly impressed. Dr. Kabir Singh was hot and she could think that because they were friends and she knew there was no way anything could happen between them. Her life was a mess and he was still pining over his ex-girlfriend. She figured his broody demeanor had something to do with a girl but she'd never seen to this sort of state in her life. 

As they entered the hospital and made their way down the familiar route to Jaya's room, she smiled at all the familiar faces and greeted all the nurses that she knew by name. She knew they'd all heard about Dr.Patel and would want an update. Kabir charged forward  in front of her and reached the room a good five minutes before her. 

Inside the room Jaya was prepped for surgery and Mr.Grover was nowhere to be seen as they had expected. Dr. Patel smiled at her and she returned it as he resumed looking over charts with a nurse, everyone in the room was a buzz and they were getting ready to wheel Jaya out to the surgery theatre. 

A nurse approached her and Kabir and said to them "Ok I've got tasks for you two."

"What!" she exclaimed in a panic "I'm not a medical professional, there's got to be some sort of mistake I am the least qualified person in this room, probably on this entire floor". 

The nurse laughed so did some of the others who had overheard her outburst but Kabir's face was a straight as ever. 

"Nothing to complicated don't worry. See babies at this stage require lots of stimulation and understandably in this situation they aren't getting so much. You too will be keeping them company in the infant centre until the surgery is over. One of the nurses will page over to retrieve you guys and the babies if the mother has the energy to see them once the surgery is over".

And just like that, Jaya was wheeled out as they wished her good luck and she and Kabir were left in an empty hospital room.  

Silently he left the room and she followed as she correctly assumed he was going to the infant centre to see the twins. They entered the centre and she quickly realized it was a stimulation overboard. They had everything you could possibly think of plush toys, those rotating ceiling carousel things, baby instruments and so much more. 

She got a few of the toys and handed some to Kabir as they approached the twins when she realized they had unconsciously approached their respective namesakes.

"You know" she joked. "I think you have real obvious favouritism for little Kabir, it's why I have to even it out by showering some more love on Rajan, even though I love them both equal".

He didn't respond to the joke or even acknowledge the fact that she spoke. She let some time pass as they entertained the boys until she got antsy. 

"So, what's bothering you today"

"It's none of your business" he bit out harshly. He hadn't spoken to her like that for awhile but she guess all good things had to come to end and didn't push it. 

"You, know you can't just force yourself onto other people and feel entitled to all their thoughts. I don't owe you anything, Jaya doesn't owe you anything, heck your Daada doesn't owe you anything" he said scathingly and so loud that the little Kabir began to cry. 

She picked him up as Rajan seemed to deal with Kabir's volume just fine and stepped away from them so both Kabir and little Kabir could both calm down.