A Fictional Doctor #9

Well, If you had told me a year ago that I would cook myself, I would have laughed at it, but after two waves and a couple of lockdowns, here I am, from cooking veggies to grilling chicken, of course, thanks to the lockdown, of all the damages it has done, it has taught me the self-care, and yes the survival.

I classify cooking as self-care, not for the right amount of oil and hygiene we could control, but it does something more than that; here is something I would like to quote from that Reddit user posted.

        "Self-care should not be something we resort to because we are so absolutely exhausted that we need some reprieve from our own relentless internal pressure. True self-care is not salt baths and chocolate cake, it is making the choice to build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from. And that often takes doing the thing you least want to do."

Cooking is not something I learned quickly, and it took a fair amount of time to get things right. However, YouTube helped me with the recipes, and thanks to my understanding of thermodynamics, I can reasonably estimate how much heat to be applied.

Okay, Let me break it down, we have three modes of heat conduction, convection, and radiation. For example, take a potato and fry it on a pan with oil; its conduction. You boil it with water; its the convection. You air fry it; its radiation. So there you go, you have Fry, kurma and french fries.

Point being, heat plays a significant role, and you should be ready to plug in the parameters and play with the stove knob to make a perfect dish, okay at least to save the dish from getting roasted.

Roonie is here, what do I call this, a ‘food date’, a ‘house party’, ‘our Time’, I don't know, spending time with her is all I need.

I welcomed her with a veggie vase, and a flower vase seemed boring, so you know, I made this. I placed the cauliflower in the middle and surrounded it with a few green veggie leaves and diced capsicum, splurged with spring onions and grated carrot.

She giggled at my pleasantries and asked, "you seriously invited me to a vegetarian dish? if yes, I wouldn’t even hesitate to return right at the doorstep”.

“Nope, actually I placed the chicken in the middle, but it flew and sat in the bowl”, I said, and I pointed to the boiling chicken on the stove.

She laughed and stepped inside.

“So what’s on the menu, Mr Patient”, she asked curiously.

“Well, it’s a surprise”, I said, hiding the veggie leaves.

“Okay, I can figure out the combination you are up to; besides, you are not that good at hiding things”, she said, mocking.

I shyly giggled and resumed my cooking. By the way, I am cooking her favourite Gongura chicken. This is the only third time I am doing this dish. I experimented on my roommates the last two times, and it didn't go well, but hopefully, I corrected this time.

I showed her my WFH setup, reading corner, and book collection. She is not a big fan of reading, but I wish she is; anyway, she is a good listener. She patiently listens when I tell her about the latest book I read and how it fascinated me.

I stepped back and watched her while she was surfing through my book collection. This distance between us allows me to appreciate her in this world of mine. My fictional Doctor is standing for real right in front of the gateway to the library of my fictional world.

“Are you gonna keep staring at me like that and make me starve or go and make preparations for lunch”, she questioned, holding my favourite book, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

“Oops, yes, of course, sorry girl”, I excused myself and left to arrange the meal.

Years ago, when I was at this costliest restaurant, a woman in her 40s, seated beside me, taught me what a Gentleman’s treat should be; first the soup, then the starter, the main course and followed by dessert. I haven’t thought that it would ever be helpful for me, but now I guess I will put those lessons to use.

“Ahh, that’s quite a lot Mr Patient. You are determined to attack my diet plans, don’t you? “, she asked, surprised at the number of dishes.

“No, but we could burn out the calories if you wish to after lunch”, I said flirtatiously.

“Stfu”, she grimaced.

“Jk, let’s eat”, I said and served her the dishes. She devoured the food; a visual sign that she enjoyed each bite gave me an immense pleasure which faded my hours of toil in making those dishes.

“So good at it, Mr.Patient, quite impressive indeed”.

“Hey, tell me the recipe, yarr”, she added pleasingly.

“That’s very routine with a magic twist”, I said.

“I'm all ears. Let me know your magic”.

“Well, I added two extra ingredients- Love and affection”.

“Very funny, how many times you have used that same dialogue to hit someone”, she mocked.

I turned my face pale and sighed like a child would pout.

“How cute, come here”, she said and leaned forward.

She pinched my cheek and kissed me on the forehead, and said, “God, thank you for giving this boy to me”. We laughed and finished our lunch.

“Do you believe in destiny”, she asked while doing the dishes.

Whenever Roonie asks a question, there will be a follow-up question, so this time I thought for a while, shut the faucet and answered, “my tryst with destiny, NO, certainly there weren’t any instances that made me believe so, nor did it happen yet I guess”.

“You go to the Trackx Gym, right?'' she asked a follow-up question.

I still couldn’t figure out what she suggested, so I paused and said “yes”.

“Actually, before joining the Dance class, I thought of enrolling in the same Gym, so even if we hadn't met in dance class, we would have met anyway”, she said, her eyes misted.

This very moment my whole construct of abstract terms like destiny, soul mate felt unfolded, this very connection which I felt unheard of got answered, I kissed her on the forehead and cuddled her.

You know what is the one thing men never tell women, Cuddle us. Just wrap yourself around us and stay there. Stroke the hair, pat the chest, etc. We love it. 

Roonie and I spent the rest of the evening just sitting at the corner closer to each other, and I laid my head on Roonie while she caressed my hair; every time I talk to her, it will be an anti-Eureka moment to me for the fact that how much I don’t know about her.

My phone chimed with notifications, and I opened my phone to check, “PM has just announced the Lockdown, which will be effective from tomorrow”, read the headline from Times of India. The third wave with new variants has been rampant for the past few days and the Government resorted to the same old strategy ‘the lockdown’ , no wonder.

Roonie received a call from her senior doctor, she left the balcony to attend the call, we both stared at each other before she took the call and we knew what that call meant. 

She has to attend the COVID duties meaning we won't be able to meet for the next few weeks, perhaps months, god forbid, we never knew. The only sentence I overheard from her call is “yes sir, I will be right away”.

We drove to her place, we didn't speak a word along the way. I was just flooded with thoughts, can I stop her, ‘NO’. can I be along with her at the hospital, ‘NO’. what is this silence called, what should I even wish for her. 

Finally, she got down the car and looked back, I quickly got down and hugged her and said "please come back soon". She embraced tight and said, “I wish and hope”.

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