The Internship – Part 7

Next day Archie went to Deepti and told her, “Look, we thought of doing something good for you.”

“Will you…… Errrrr Will you, marry?” Archie said hesitatingly.

Deepti gave a stern look and moved away from her.
“I feel disgusted to talk about men. All are lustful and moreover who’ll marry me? Leave me here. I’ll be happy as time passes,” Deepti said in a dejected tone.

Archie said in a calm tone trying to convince her, “But… think about your future.”

Deepti repeated again, “Who’ll marry me?”

Archie got a confidence seeing her reaction that Deepti was interested in having a life of her own after all that had happened to her. After all, all girls want to get settled. This girl had seen bad times at such a delicate age in her life. She deserved to be happy.

Archie said, “That’s the problem of the NGO. Don’t worry, we’ll help you.”

“Do you agree?”

“Yes. I do.”


They went to Ms Reena and sat there.

Ms Reena: How is it going?

Sunil: Yes ma’am we are doing well. They kids are bright.
AN: Errrrr ma’am… we’ve come here…
Ms Reena: Yes, what, tell me.
AN: That girl, Deepti ma’am…..
Ms Reena: Yes, poor girl. She suffered a lot.
AN: Can we do something for her?
Ms Reena: How?
AN: We can.
Then she nudged Ashu with her elbow to continue but in turn Ashu instructed her to continue.

We can… we can….get her married ma’am.

Ms Reena: What?
All 5 looked at Archie. She gulped her saliva down and she felt that she was loosing confidence.

Ms Reena: We have never thought of such a thing and it’s not that easy as you think.

Pri: Ma’am but we can try.

Archie felt happy that Pri spoke for her.

Ms Reena: You are very good and you’ll give ideas. We’ve to find a way to deal with it.

Sunil: Ma’am you can consult the nearby NGO’s and then ask for a suitable match and also ask Deepti. She is educated and she can earn her living if she gets a caring husband.

Archie looked at Sunil with a constant gaze.

She felt, “Was it Sunil who spoke?”

May be Sunil had thought that they could pave a way for the deprived girl.

Ms Reena: Okay. If you all insist, I’ll put it in front of the Board of Trustees. If they agree, I’ll talk to Deepti and then search for a match who agrees to marry her.

Hmmmm….. (She started thinking.)

We’ve lot of contact with other organizations. May be they would be of some help to us.

All 6 in chorus: Thank you ma’am.

Archie added, “Thanks a lot ma’am.”

Ms Reena: It’ll be our pleasure to give someone a new meaning in life. You youngsters portray the stronger part of our country. I am proud of you. Hope you all do well in life.

When they came out of the room, Archie held back Sunil with her hand and said, “Thanks Sunil.”

Sunil gave her a wink and smiled.

Another three days and their work got over at the NGO. The rest of the days were in the lab. In those three days, Archie came quite close to Deepti and Banu. The other 5 had also made individual friends there.

The lab work seemed hectic and tough for them as they had to take extra precautions. It was for a professional lab and not their college so they had to get accurate results be it with the blood grouping, streaking, plating, bio-chemical assays or handling instruments like the spectrophotometer, calorimeter, fermenter etc. Their hands trembled on the first day. They had guides to help them but it wasn’t that easy. One mistake and then one has to repeat the whole thing.

They didn’t stop arguing in the lab too.

“It has to be done this way dumbo,” Sherin shouted at Ashu.

“Okay, chill. I’m learning. I never did anything much in the lab. Thanks to Pri and Namu, he said looking at Pri and Namu.

They gave a wicked smile as they knew how difficult it was to finish the lab assignments on time when one partner was sitting in the lab doing nothing.

They didn’t even have time to freak out. They came home and referred online lab manuals and kept themselves updated. It was a matter of prestige for them as well as for the college whose tag they were bearing.