How Petty Can You Be? :)

She had pretty much made it clear what the “meeting” was about. They had been in a relationship for four years, and now the ‘dates’ had become ‘meetings’. "I guess that’s as good as a signal gets. She’s pretty mad!”He thought to himself.

So he got there and she was waiting for him (“wait that’s not where we usually sit”)-and looks almost as pretty as the day they had first met.

He sat down next to her, and she said “You know what this is about, don’t you?” “Sort of. This is about me ruining your car, isn’t it?” “I want to break up with you, Sid” she said at the same time. “Wait what? You’re breaking up with me over the car? How petty can you be?”

Paro continued to stare at the pizza all the while he was shouting. “Are you done shouting? It’s not about the car. It’s about the infidelity. You cheated on me, and I can’t be with you anymore.”

He said, “But that was ages ago! It was like a year ago or something and if I recall correctly, you forgave me for that.Heck, when I was in that accident in your car two weeks ago, you came running back to me and told me how you couldn’t imagine your life without me. What happened to all that romantic crap, Paro? Now suddenly, out of the blue, you decide I’m not good enough for you?”

Pause. The whole restaurant was staring at him. But he did not care. He wanted some answers and he wanted them now. Deep breath.

Paro said, “Ok.Listen carefully because this is the last time I’m going to bother explaining something to you. I’ve been thinking about the whole ‘I can’t imagine my life without you’ nonsense that I said to you. Yes, I meant that at the time. But then I realized that I need to have a life beyond you, I need to stop being so dependent on you and I think if we break up maybe I can figure out who I am  without you looming in the background. This is my life and I call the shots!”She said and got up to leave.

“Hey don’t you think you’re forgetting something?”He said. She turned. “Since we’re broken up, don’t you think you should pay your share of the bill?”She smiled and said, “Be grateful, darling that I’m not suing you for damages to my car!”And she left.

“I knew this was about the damn car!”Sid thought to himself..:P

The Hoarding

It just had to rain again didn’t it? Rishi had to make a quick run to the market because he was out of matches and the inverter would not start again. He didn’t have the cash to replace the battery since business was slow these days and he had been barely breaking even for the last few months. Painting hoardings was not as profitable as he had thought it would be. His workers were all sick this month. So he kept putting off the replacement of the inverter battery. And now it was pouring again. He hated the rain.

As he was standing at the shop, he saw the old lady again. She was always doing the same thing, gathering up all the broken glass bottles, even though it hurt her hands and the blood kept flowing. It made him squirm, but he couldn’t do anything to help her. He had tried to give her money once but she had declined saying, “Sahib! I do not beg nor ask for charity. Please remember that you should not encourage begging, the things they do to children and women is too horrible to narrate. I’d rather die an honest woman than beg or receive charity.” That was strange really, an old and apparently poor woman getting on the high moral ground when she was clearly in need of money. And that wasn’t all. She said the same thing to everyone who gave her money. It puzzled Rishi.

But today she came up to him. She said, “Son! I am a very old woman. I’m dying of tuberculosis. I need a favor from you.”

Rishi said, “Amma! You should have taken the money that time.” She said, “God bless you son, but I do not want money. I know you paint hoardings on the roads. I want you to design a hoarding for me before I die.”

And that was the last time he saw her. He had agreed to design the hoarding for her. He went to see her in the hut she lived in the next day. But she had already passed away. A note addressed to him said, “Thank you son! I can die in peace now!”

And he looks up at the sky, and the hoarding he had gotten painted for her that day. It said, “Prevent Begging. Do not give money to any one who begs, you will be doing them a huge favor. In the memory of a woman who spent her entire life fighting this evil. Please do not give alms to the poor.”

He had done something for free for the old woman and yet he felt like the richest man on earth. A single tear trickled down his cheek as he looked at his best work yet.

Fate will knock you over!

 Meera

She was rifling through "The Alchemist" and sipping her cold coffee, at the coffee shop across the street from where she worked. She’d taken her break time to catch up on the book. It seemed she never found time to read anymore-there were so many other things cluttering up her life that she savored this moment of quiet solitude just to read. And then the beats of "Love the way you lie" shattered the perfect moment as the phone flashed 'Boss calling. "How clichéd" She thought.
"Hullo! Meera I need you in the office right away”. Typical rich jerk behavior. “Handed the parent's empire on a platter as soon as he came of age-they think they rule the world. They just have it so easy!"-Her mental monologue continued.

 "Meera, are you there?" his voice shook her out of her reverie. "Yes sir, just coming. Will need ten minutes though. “Make it quick, Meera" he said.

Make it quick, Meera. She had succumbed to a life of monotony. All she had wanted was to work a year and get some money to finance her writing career." My dream is to write the greatest story ever told.” She’d said once. Her dream was not to do secretarial work; it was to ride on the wings of imagination. Well, that was one dream she wasn't sure she could achieve if Boss Man (Aka Rajat Singh) had his way.

Rajat

She was the most efficient and competent secretary he'd had. He had always admired the oddly detached way she had of handling things. Over the course of a year he'd realized his growing fondness for her. She, on the other hand, was as indifferent to him as she would have been to any rich, smooth talking, corporate robot, because she was not one of them. She had dreams and hopes, for a future beyond the glass doors of the multi-national company. He was aware of that and he respected it. So today, he had arranged for her to meet with someone he knew in the publishing business. His affection for her made him go out of his way for her.
"You wanted to see me, Sir” Meera said, as she entered the room.
"Ah, Meera! Meet Dhruv, from Panchi Publications, India. He’s agreed to take a look at your manuscript".

1 year later.
Rajat

Meera. He still missed her. After reading "Dedicated to Mr. Rajat Singh, the best boss ever" in her book "Corporate Snakes and Ladders”, his heart swelled twice his size. He had fallen for her. Ever since she left, he had missed her a lot. He had to tell her-she had a right to know his true feelings for her. So what if the press had announced that writer and publisher were betrothed?

So he had turned up at the launch party, to tell her. And then he saw her, dressed in a gorgeous white sari. Her face lit up when she saw him. "Did you read it? The dedication?" And the words tumbled out. “I love. I've  loved you since the day......."  "I met you??"She finished for him. "I've heard that line dozens of times, Rajat. Do you think I believe that to be true? “She said, mildly amused.

"Let me finish. No I haven't loved you since I met you,but from the moment you left I knew I loved you" Meera still had that annoying grin on her face, "And you think that's reason enough to be with me?You miss anything when it goes away from you,that's human nature. It doesn't mean anything.” She turned him down just like that. “How filmy girls are. I’m so done with them" He started walking away.
Just then a copy of her book came flying from the air and hit his head."Oww! What was that for?" He asked Meera. "That was because you gave up without a fight. I needed convincing.You couldn't do that. Which goes to show my initial statement was true."   Still so damned detached and analytical.
Feelings are as changeable as the weather. Rajat realized the truth of these words in that instant. In that instant, he realized something. He needed to be with someone with whom he didn't need to convince himself or her that they were perfect together. Meera was great, but it just wasn't meant to be .What he and Meera had wasn't real love, just a passing bug. "You're right.Bye.Have a good life, Meera."
She was still out there. He would find such a girl.

You've gotta be kidding me!!

(note:The following blog post also got published in my college's newspaper,The Oracle-Gargi College)

Today was her first job interview since she had quit a year ago to take care of the baby. Nothing could go wrong today, she was sure of it.Except, of course Delhi traffic. “Oh no! Not again.Dammit!”She clicked her tongue and slammed on the brakes as another mile-long traffic jam greeted her.

15 minutes  later, she heaved a sigh of relief and the weathered tyres of her  12 year old Esteem spring into motion.Now,after a year of being a housewife, she was awfully nervous about the interview. A friend had gotten her this job appointment, and it was a lot of pressure to handle.

“Take a deep breath. You can handle this, Nandini.Compose yourself.”She told herself as she walked on the smooth, marbled floor of the Crystal Hotel. She went up to the reception and told the receptionist about her appointment. “This way please, madam” She was ushered into the waiting lounge. Somewhere on the way, she stopped in her tracks. There he was, Sam Malhotra, still as good looking as the day they had first met at a friend’s party 5 years ago. They had dated for a few months and then he’d dumped her just when things were going so well between them. “Nandini, is that you?”He said and walked over to her. Still had that roguish grin on his face, but it failed to inspire the same emotions in her now. “It is you! How the hell have you been?”He said as he enveloped her in a bear hug. “I’m good, great actually! How are you? Listen I’ve got an interview here. I’ll talk to you later” She said and rushed off. The anger was coming back. She mustn’t let that happen. Deep breath. She went into the room. Ten minutes later she walked out of the room. She was hired and happy.

Sam was waiting outside. “Sam I have to get back home. My baby’s waiting for me” she said. “Nandi, I know you’re avoiding me. I know I was wrong. I know you didn’t get closure. I know and I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t be with you any longer. I couldn’t fool you. Nandi; I’d like you to meet my fiancée”

She turned around expecting to see a beautiful slim girl, someone way prettier than her. Instead she saw-the guy who’d just taken her interview, beaming at her. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me! You’re gay?”She turned to face Sam. “Yes, Nandi .I’m sorry” He said simply. “Ok.I’ve got to get home now” She mustered.

Later, in the evening, Dhruv got home and asked her,”Hey, how was your interview? Must have been great, you look thrilled” “You have NO IDEA!” was all she could say.

The Last Meeting

He was late today. She was meeting him for the last time anyway before going to pursue her job in Spain, as an architect. The last few months had been a blur filled with mixed emotions-joy, ecstasy, anger, resentment, helplessness-all most like a Bollywood movie one might say!

They had been arch enemies since third grade. She could still remember his voice booming at her, through the years, always saying the same thing-“Hey, Pimply Pinky what have you got for lunch today? Let me guess-Nothing?”And he’d always laughed alone. She had always loathed him and pitied him at the same time-she was better than this. She vowed never to tell him the truth.

Until one day, when he found out. He’d sneaked into her dorm-room to put a frog in her back pack, when he saw the letter. It was like the ground had evaporated beneath his feet. He walked out of the dorm-room and she never saw him again.20 years went by, when she met him again at the neighbourhood Barista.

He’d been waiting for her at the coffee shop, it seemed. “My goodness, you’ve changed a lot” was all he could muster. Trying to ignore the fact that he seemed restless and agitated, she asked him about his well being. It was true though-the duckling had become the swan. No reason to deviate from the issue at hand-why was he here?

And then he told her the story of what had transpired in those 20 years. After he’d found out that they were actually step-brother and step-sister, he didn’t have the courage to deal with it. After 20 years, he begged for reconciliation."Why now?” she’d asked, both indignant and pleased. “Because, sissy, you’re the only family I’ve got now, my wife passed away two months ago. I’m very lonely” Tears welled up in his eyes. She said she’d think it over.

However, things did not go as Alok wanted them to. He was being tried for his wife’s murder, and she thought a lot about supporting a possible murder suspect. After all, how could she be sure he was innocent? These things happened.

Anyway, he got acquitted after 4 months. And then she told him about the job in Spain. He didn’t say anything, just let out a huge sigh.

And today, they were meeting for the second time since that day at the Barista. He was late. And then, A waiter came up to her. He said “A Mr.Alok sent this note for you, madam”

It said “Dear Pinky. I can’t come to meet you. I’m terrible at goodbyes. It will be like this never happened. You live your life and I’ll live mine, what’s left of it. Sorry for all those years .Love Alok"

“It will be like this never happened" was all Pinky could think as her flight took off.

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