big apple

Prologue

‘Big Apple’ is a story about two friends Aditya and Ashwin, they both are engineers and they have a common dream that is going to US. Ashwin want to study there and Aditya want to work there. Aditya falls in love with a girl named Priya. Will Aditya and Ashwin would be able to make it?

INTERVIEW

I had a glance at the wall clock it’s 5.50 am, it’s still 10 minutes to go, I said to myself and closed my left eye again. Ting – a – Tong the doorbell rung. This must be the milkman; I will kill this guy some day for coming so early. It was almost every day since my parents went to Delhi for attending a wedding that I requested the milkman Vijay to come late. I snatched the packets of milk from Vijay and by then the 10 minutes that I had planned to sleep were gone. The second hand of the clock was mercilessly moving towards the 12 mark, 5..4..3..2..1 ‘jingle bell jingle bell jingle on the way ‘ the wall clock bell started ringing. No this wasn’t my dream but this time the bell rung for 7.00 am.

Get ready for the interview, I said to myself. Dressed formally I left the building. I don’t know but why I gave a glance at my building and I saw Anju aunty with her beautiful daughter ‘Priya’ staring at me. I am going to be kicked out of the interview, I said to myself. I remembered my days of engineering as i screwed my subject whenever I saw this couple before I left for my examination. ‘Look how clothes change the personality of a person’, Anju aunty made a remark to her astonishingly beautiful daughter.

To my surprise I got into the 8.02 Am local to CST with lot of ease and even got a 4^th seat to sit. These local timings are such a pain; I mean what difference it will make if the train starts at 8.05 Am instead of the usual unusual timing. I put my head down and started reading the newspaper trying to remember the headlines and the matter on which I can speak in the personal interview.

‘hehehehehehehe………… you are so funny’, I heard a sweet voice from the other side of the compartment.  I tried to find the source of this voice and I saw a beautiful chick oops girl with a not so good looking guy. Why do good looking girls go around with guys who can be potentially termed as ‘losers’? As it was in my case when I dated Priya. Okay more about Priya later now concentrate on my interview. I reached the interview place MORGAN CONSULTANCY SERVICES, MCS as it was popularly known in the field of Information Technology. I saw almost 10 to 15 guys dressed neatly and getting ready for the interview doing some final checks on their appearance. Someone combing his hair, someone figuring out whether his tie is in proper place it was almost a live drama for me. I controlled my laughter and started looking around.

‘Welcome to Morgan consultancy services, how can I help you sir?’ I heard a voice that would melt all the hearts on this tiny planet. I turned around and saw this remarkably pretty girl dressed neatly in red saree with headphones on her head and a speaking with a charming smile on the mike. Instinctively, I went towards her and by then her call was over. I gave a quick glance at her photo id card to get her name ‘Seema Singh’. ‘Hi Seema, I am Aditya Gavaskar I have been called for an interview for the position of a software engineer’, I said. She went through the list of candidates and replied back with a spark in her eyes, ‘Aditya you are next’. ‘What!’ I said with a big question mark and surprise on my face. ‘Aditi is in and you are next’, Seema said. Why did my parents gave me a name which will always put me in roll number 1 position wherever I go, why didn’t they call me Zorro or any damn name starting from Z, I said to myself with almost disgust. Forgetting Seema, I started gearing up for the interview. Is my hairstyle correct; is my tie in proper position? I started doing the cross verification in the mirror next to the reception where Seema was sitting. Closing her eyes she gave me a very warm smile, for a second I thought that my heart has skipped a beat. I replied back with a very childish smile and started looking at the door. As time passed my heart had started beating as loud as Harley Davidson bike VROD when in full swing.

In some time a girl came out of the room with expression as if she had captured the hearts of the interview panel. A guy in his late 20’s called up my name ‘Aditya Gavaskar’ and as soon as he called up my name there were giggles in the entire lobby as with my name they would have imagined a guy with cricket pads, helmet and gloves on who’s getting ready for his batting turn.

I followed the guy who called out my name, he took me to the room where the interview panel was sitting ‘best of luck’, he wished me and went back. It was really a nice gesture of that guy to wish me; the interview panel consisted of three people. One by one they introduced themselves. ‘Hi, I am Ram Sharma senior consultant at MCS’, Ram said. ‘Hi, I am Madhuri Iyer from human resources at MCS’, Madhuri said. ‘Hi, I am Piyush Purohit senior technical lead at MCS’, Piyush said. Piyush was a typical IIT guy with thick framed spectacles and glasses in it were so thick that they resembled magnifying glass or glass bottle of an aerated drink. His head had exactly couple of tablespoons of coconut oil and his face had a look which said that any non-IITian is a waste. ‘Pleasure meeting all of you’, I replied. ‘Let me introduce myself to you, I am Aditya Gavaskar and I have completed my BE electronics from Mumbai university’, I said. ‘Which college?’ Said an IIT return Piyush. ‘G.C.Deshmukh college of engineering in Navi Mumbai, I replied’. I don’t why but Piyush suddenly lost interest in me. May be my college name didn’t attract him. Technical questions that I answered pretty well really impressed Ram.

Then came the big test that is the HR interview. I don’t know why but I was pretty scared of HR guys because in my earlier interviews I was kicked out in HR interviews. ‘Aditya, why software engineering when you come from an electronics background?’ Madhuri asked me. ‘Wow! Jackpot of a question’, I said to myself, a question for which I had a ready-made answer. Practically speaking there was recession in the electronics industry when it came to jobs even Madhuri knew about it but being politically correct is a major thumb rule in HR interviews. ‘I always had interest in coding so I took electronics engineering with a perspective in assembly language programming but I found that assembly language had a limited spectrum as compared to software development languages’, I said. ‘That’s right’, Ram replied back as he came from an electronics background too.

Few more questions and the interview came to its final stages. ‘Do you want to ask us anything?’ Piyush asked with a very tiring voice as if he wanted me to leave that place as early as possible. ‘Yes!’ I said. ‘Shoot!’ Piyush replied back as if the IIT return guy was ready for any question which a non-IIT guy would throw at him. ‘What is the company’s expansion plan abroad?’ I asked. ‘What has made you ask this question?’ Piyush asked as if I have stamped on his big IIT tail. ‘MCS is almost the number 1 company in India when it comes to information technology so is the company planning to spread its wings abroad’, I replied back to Piyush (IIT Delhi). ‘Good question’, Ram replied back. I somehow felt that Ram had soft corner for me. Ram gave me a very satisfactory answer for the question.

‘We will get back to you in about a week’s time’, Madhuri said with a smile on her face. I shook hands with all of them and left out of the interview room. It was almost an hour of interview and I was feeling bit relieved so I headed towards the office canteen to have a cup of coffee. ‘How was the interview?’ A familiar voice asked me from my back. Trying to figure out the voice, I looked back and to my surprise I saw Seema with a cup of coffee in her hand. ‘Cool’, I replied back inviting her to sit with me. ‘Hi, I am Aditya Gavaskar’, I said. Controlling her laughter she replied back, ‘I know you as we were in the same school’. ‘Oh! I didn’t figure you out’, I said with a big surprise on my face as if I remembered each and every face. ‘I expected it out of you’, she said. ‘I never saw you speaking with anyone in the school’, Seema said. ‘That’s true’, I replied, ‘I was among the gang which used to play pranks with you’, she said. ‘What!’ I said with the same question mark as Piyush had it on his face. ‘Who do you think would take the air out of your bicycle tyre, put dead cockroaches in your bag; it was me who had painted your shirt with blue ink when I pretended it to have accidentally fallen on you’, Seema replied back with a very mischievous smile on her face.

‘Oh! It was you’, I said remembering how much I hated her set of friends in school. I never thought a lizard like looking girl in school would turn out to be bombshell at MCS, she took my contact number and I left MCS. ‘Bye and by the way you still stay at Sai Villa nah?’ She asked ‘Yes’, I said. ‘That’s great, I would see you in sometime around in your building’, she said.

I somehow got feeling that I would make it this time around but I don’t want to dream anything as whatever I dreamt of it remained as a dream. It was about 3 pm when I reached back to my house, now if you are thinking how I took so long to reach home, then my answer would be none of your business. Relax! I just hanged around with my friend at a smokers joint.

HOME

Oops! In this entire interview mess I forgot that my parents along with my younger sister Pinky A.K.A Pico were supposed to reach today at 2.30 pm train from Delhi. They were out to attend a wedding of one my cousin in a plush area of Delhi. God has never been kind with me as the train that is normally late by minimum two or three hours had reached before time that day. As soon as I entered the building lobby I saw a giant figure looping towards me, relax its Pico.

‘Dada’, we are back you know we had so much fun over there and I really missed you a lot’, she said. I hugged her and carrying her on my back and I climbed the building stairs listening to her silliest things. ‘Here you are?’ My mom said in a very cheerful voice. ‘So how was your interview?’ ‘Will you make this time?’ ‘How much they will pay you?’ ‘Will you be placed in the same city?’ And the series of questions that were thrown at me continued for next 5 minutes. ‘Chill!’ I said with a very deep voice as I threw away my bag in my normal style and I relaxed on the sofa.

There was stunned silence in the entire room. ‘Yes! The interview was good and they will let me know in few days about my selection’, I said. It was very pleasing to see the kind of excitement on everybody’s face. By this time you must have got what kind of person I am, if not let me introduce myself to you. I am Aditya Gavaskar, BE electronics from Mumbai university, a distinction holder in final year, surprised with the last statement. Yes, I was a topper in the final year from my college and this wasn’t at all acceptable to the neatly dressed good boys with well oiled hair that stinked, who were always found with or around professors discussing their silliest doubts. ‘What? Aditya topped this time’, said a surprised Sumit to Rakesh. Sumit and Rakesh were the toppers in our college for last three years. ‘How can this happen?’ Rakesh replied back. My result wasn’t at all acceptable to Rakesh and Sumit as it was for almost the rest of the class to see a guy with rock star like image with the smell of cigarettes around him and torn jeans to top the college. This was the main topic of debate that day but only person who was happy was my one time buddy Ashwin A.K.A Ash.

It was about 6 Pm and mom was in no mood to cook some snacks for hungry dad, Pico and of course me. So I decided to buy some hot samosa’s, just when I was about to leave the house bell rung. No it wasn’t the milkman Vijay this time. I opened the door and to my surprise I saw Priya with a bowl of some snacks. She was looking as beautiful as she ever did and she was wearing pink top with blue jeans, I remember this was the same top that I had gifted her. ‘Are you done with the snacks?’ she asked. ‘Mom had prepared some dhokla’s and she wants you to taste it’, Priya added. ‘Pri, tuzhe toh bhagwan ne bheja hai mere liye’, Pico said almost pouncing on the bowl full of dhokla’s. ‘Come in’, I reluctantly said. ‘No, I have to go on the terrace Pooja is waiting for me’, she said with a spark in her eyes. I remembered that this was her punch line indicating me to reach at Pooja’s in 15 minutes. By the way Pooja’s is a restaurant at Park Street around 15 minutes away from Sai Villa.

I was in two minds whether to go or not as I had already broken our relationship and heart of a very sweet girl, as Priya was my only friend apart from Ashwin with whom I shared everything. Within 20 minutes I reached Pooja’s and there I saw Priya anxiously waiting for me. Turning the chair by 180 degrees I sat on it in my normal style. ‘Stop this and sit properly’, Priya said almost biting her tongue as she knew that she had no business to scold me anymore. She smiled as I responded back with the same smile.

‘So how was your interview?’ she asked. ‘It was good; they were impressed’, I replied back with a very firm voice. ‘Usual?’ The waiter at Pooja’s interrupted us. ‘Yes’, I said closing down my eyes as if this guy had interrupted a big business deal. ‘Remember Adi this was one of our hangout places’, Priya said. ‘Not bad you remember everything’, I said. ‘Look, we are coming back to the same argument’, she said as if she really meant business. We both started laughing as once I bit her finger when she was pointing it at me. It was one of the most beautiful evenings that I had spent for a long time. I didn’t have a clue that it was 9.00 pm as we were so much into our flashback. ‘So how is Ash?’ She asked. She didn’t know that Ash and I weren’t exactly in talking terms with each other. ‘Good’, I replied back pointing towards the waiter to get the bill. We paid the bill and went to the building in our own different ways. ‘Bye, when can we meet again?’ Priya asked with innocence in her eyes. ‘I will give u a call’, I said. Boss! I still love her, I used to love her innocent eyes and her naïve voice, no doubt she was beautiful. I wondered that how come she fell in love with me as I was a big time loser.

We shook hands and I almost fell on her as a big figure lunged on my back and it was no other than Pico. ‘Hey darling what are you doing here?’ She asked Priya with a very naughty smile. I grabbed Pico and put my hand on her tunnel like mouth. ‘Dada, she is really sweet, even mom likes her, she cooks well, she dresses up neatly and she is very stylish’, Pico said and her vote for Priya continued until we reached our door. ‘Dada, trust me I won’t tell anything to mom’, she said. ‘Tell what?’ I asked. ‘You want to test me out then watch the fun’, Pico said in a warning tone. ‘Relax Pico’, I said with my right hand in air as if I was swearing before a judge. Mom opened the door and saw me swearing in front of Pico. ‘No chocolates for Pico’, mom alarmed me.

It was a Tuesday afternoon and mom was busy gossiping with Anju aunty. Pico was watching as usual cartoon network and giggling on the silliest jokes of Dexter and his idiot little sister Didi. I sometimes thought if the picture of my house was filmed as cartoon but relax I am not as genius as that kid. ‘We will we will rock you’ my cell phone started ringing and I picked up the phone. ‘Am I speaking with Aditya Gavaskar?’ A soft-spoken voice said from the other end. ‘Yes!’ I said. ‘I am Shalini from Morgan consultancy service, how are doing Aditya?’ Is this the right time to speak?’ she asked. For a moment I couldn’t believe my ears and lost my concentration. For a moment Pico stopped relishing on her favorite potato chips. ‘Yes’, I replied back. ‘Congratulations Aditya you have made it through your interview and we offer you the position of trainee software engineer and we will be sending you the offer letter by post, it has all the details in it’, she said. ‘Can I please confirm your mailing address? She asked. Upon conforming the address I hung up the phone. The world in front of me started getting a bit misty and I couldn’t see anything in front of me as drops of tears ran down from my eyes. I couldn’t believe myself that finally I had made it through, a career which was under lot of threats and doubt was finally on track.

I rubbed my eyes and went towards mom, ‘mom, I have made it through MCS’, I said. ‘Anju, pinch me’, my mom said to Anju aunty who would have asked the same question to herself. No one could believe that I have made it through ‘congratulations Adi’, mom said with her eyes moistened. Mom is a very emotional when it comes to me and my life. ‘Congratulations Adi, so how much are they offering you?’ Anju aunty asked, she was still surprised that I had made it through. They will post me the offer letter which has all the details. Now till then it was real suspense as the offer letter had every answer to everyone’s question.

By Friday the offer letter arrived at my doorstep it straight away went in the hands of Pico who bargained a chocolate in favor of the letter. I was in no mood to bargain that’s why I straight away gave her my favorite menthol candy and hushed her around. I carefully read the offer letter

Salary: 2,30,000 per anum (not bad)

Location: Mumbai (icing on the cake)

Joining date: 1^st April 2006…(was this an April fool’s joke).

Dad came late in the evening and I showed him the offer letter. With delight he put his hand in his briefcase and pulled out a brand new pen, ‘sign on the offer letter with this pen’, he said.

FIRST DAY AT OFFICE

Finally the big day had come 1^st April. It was around 6 Am and I surprisingly got up early that day, well to be frank I didn’t sleep at all.  There was a mixture of emotions going through me. I was excited with the fact that I would be standing up on my own feet from tomorrow and bit nervous with a thought that how long would I be standing on my feet?

Though I never doubted my ability and capability but Priya once had told me a story about her friend who had fallen prey to silly company politics. Vijay was surprised to see me opening the door with a smile. I bet even he must have thought if it was an April fool’s joke. It was my first day in the office and I should reach well before time so I picked up the best clothes that I had used for the interview. Dressed neatly I was about to leave home. I stopped as I saw a small box wrapped with gift paper on my desk. It must be Pico as she loves to fool me and I love to get fooled by her. I tore away the gift paper and was surprised to see a beautiful pen. I came out of my room and saw mom and dad waiting for me. They wished me best of luck and I left my house.

As I reached the parking lobby I saw Priya waiting for me. I remember that I had told her that I would be leaving early in the morning. She had a small box in her hand, she smiled at me and put her hand in front of me. I remember whenever she bought something for me she used to gift it in the same way. ‘Open it once you reach the office’, she said. I felt as if her eyes said that everything good would happen nice to you from now on. ‘Best of luck Adi and have a great day and don’t forget to tell me about your day’, she said.  All the way in the train I was thinking what would be in the box.

It was 8.55 Am when I was at the gate of Morgan consultancy services. I closed my eyes and wished that all my dreams would come true. My heart was beating in its usual thumping way such that I could hear every thump of it but I felt a bit relaxed when I saw Seema at the reception with her headgear on. I straight away went to her and she greeted me with a big smile. ‘Congratulations, so you made it through’, she said and she brought her hand forward to congratulate me. ‘Yeah I kind of got lucky’, I said, ‘You haven’t changed at all, still the same old Adi’, she said. ‘Have a seat there Madhuri will guide you through the next process’, she added. I somehow managed to find a place on the sofa; generally a mumbaikar can adjust even in small space where bacteria would find it difficult to adjust.

I looked around and found a girl continuously talking with someone and giving her updates about the activities that she did from the morning. There was a sardar who was continuously looking at the girl with his mouth open. ‘Boss!’ A gigantic figure said to me with gestures to shift a little so that he can manage a seat on the sofa. He made himself comfortable leaving me cramped between two baby dinosaurs and I was struggling to rediscover my comfort.

‘If I have not mistaken you are some kind of cricketer right?’ The guy who sat next to me asked me. ‘Some Tendulkar or Gavaskar?’ he asked. ‘Yes, I am Aditya Gavaskar but how do you know about my name? I asked. ‘We had interviews on the same day,’ replied the guy who asked me. ‘I heard when your name was called out for the interview, Gavaskar is a famous surname and very hard to forget’, he said. ‘Hi, I am Christopher Joseph’, he said while shaking his hand with me. I somehow realized that I could not take my right hand back as the dinosaur on my right had occupied that tiny little space.

‘Good morning everyone’, I heard a familiar voice who has greeted us and it was Madhuri. In some time she hushed all of us to a small classroom and we introduced ourselves and obviously there were giggles when the name “Gavaskar” popped out. In the next two months we were taught something which we would never use in rest of our lives but I am a firm believer in the fact that everything has a purpose. Though I would never accept it but the training gave me the much needed self-confidence. Give me work and I will finish it in above your expectations this is what I said to myself after I successfully completed my training at MCS.

In last two months Chris and I had developed a strong friendship someone I very much needed after Ash. Chris was a very nice guy someone who was pretty much the hunk of our class. ‘Man this is unreal’, was his dialogue whenever he had any issues in his developed code. He used to be the loudest guy on the entire floor. Sometimes it helped as many other senior pros used to rush to him and he would smartly get all his work done from them. Smart guy, I used to call him as he exactly knew the trick to get his things done and something which I lacked.

Soon I got my first assignment, my first live project. I was asked by the project resource allocation team often called as P.R.A.T to report to Rajesh Kumar, project manager for Glenn Morgan bank project an American investment bank. ‘Can you please tell me where does Mr. Rajesh Kumar sit?’ I asked a techie who was busy admiring his computer screen and simultaneously munching on his pen cap. ‘Last cube in the corner’, he said. The nerd did not realize that a room has four corners. ‘Which corner?’ I asked him again. ‘That corner!’ he said .The look on his face was pretty disgusted as if he thought that I had brought his admiration to a standstill.

As I was moving towards the corner I imagined how Rajesh would look like tall, body builder, uncle types, grey hair. As I neared the corner cube I hesitantly moved forward with a hope that my shoes won’t make noise while I walked but however hard I tried they made noise. Rajesh was quick to notice me. ‘Hello Mr. Rajesh, I am Aditya Gavaskar’, I said as I forwarded my right hand. ‘Hi Aditya, Rajesh here’, Rajesh said.

He was different than I had imagined him a pretty simple man and with ordinary built but his face had tremendous confidence and a very friendly smile. ‘Lesson number 1, never call someone as Mr. xyz as first name culture holds true at MCS’, he said. In fact I would always promote the first name culture as I hate to call someone as sir as the word ‘sir’ existed only in school, high school and college.

Rajesh asked me to go and sit in the small meeting room in the opposite corner. ‘Ravi, Ajay, Hari and Sarita team meeting’, Rajesh said as he pointed to the meeting room. In about five minutes the meeting room was filled up with about 15 people. ‘We have a new member joining our team and Aditya would be working in Sarita’s team for IL’, Rajesh said. It wasn’t hard for me to find Sarita as she was the only girl in the meeting room. Sarita welcomed me in the team with a smile. I briefly introduced myself to the entire team and soon everyone was on their way to work. I was the second last to leave the room.

‘Aditya!’ Rajesh said as I looked back, ‘make yourself comfortable, if you need any help from me then feel free to talk to me’, he said. These few words really calmed down my jittery nerves. ‘Thanks Rajesh’, I said. Sarita knew well in advance that I would be joining her team. So she had time to arrange for my workstation and getting all needed access. I was very impressed by her efficient work. ‘Aditya, welcome to IL team, you would be sitting here’, she said and I logged in the system for the first time, the feeling was really nice as this could be the machine which could very well make all my dreams come true. I took the Ganesha idol from my bag and placed it near my machine. It was a gift from Priya she had gifted me this idol on my first day. Although Priya knew that I was an atheist but still she gifted me this idol as she had an extreme faith in god. We had lot of arguments over me being an atheist. Vikram, Kartik, Avni, Rohan and Venkat were the other offshore team members while Shruti and Vikas were the onsite members of the IL team. Outsourcing was the latest trend in the global IT industry. Americans almost outsourced their entire work to India, not because we are intelligent or genius, it’s because we are cheap resources. A small work will take at least 6 Americans to work on it with a combined salary which would be no less than $50,000 a month, where as similar work when outsourced to India will cost them $20,000, a profit of $30,000.

‘So sexy, you got a place to relax your butt’, Chris said. His voice almost got the entire floor staring at him; I thought that sometimes Chris loved to be noticed. Although with such a heavily built body who wouldn’t notice a mini dinosaur speaking like human. ‘Shhhhh’, I said putting my index finger on my lips. I heard lots of giggles. Sarita, Venkat and Kartik were trying their best to ignore Chris’s comments, I somehow felt that they tried to control their laughter but they couldn’t control their laughter. I however didn’t realize that for rest of my life in MCS I would remain as ‘sexy’. Chris pulled me out of my chair signaling at his watch he said ‘lunch time’. Lunch time used to be our longest hour of my entire day. Chris would eat less and speak more; in fact he spoke less and irritated more. He had all kind of stories right from his first kiss to his first bungee jump, from his first sixer to his first crush. But yes he was a good orator. ‘Hey Adi’, a familiar voice called out my name from behind so I looked back and it was Seema; she was looking as beautiful as she did on the day of my interview. I had quick glance at Chris, his mouth was wide open.

‘So we meet again’, I said, ‘yes, it has been almost a month, I mean 2 months’, she said. ‘You know I had been to the Delhi office for last 3 days, it’s really pathetic; it’s very hot in there’, she added. I thought that Chris was waiting for an opportunity to enter our conversation but somehow he couldn’t. ‘So see you in the evening’, Seema said as she left the canteen.

‘Man she is so beautiful, How come you know her?’ Chris asked me with a spark in eyes. I sometimes felt Chris was just like a child whose eyes lit up after seeing a new toy in the town. Of course Seema was not a toy and Chris was far away from being a child. ‘She is my old school mate in fact my class mate’, I said. ‘How come all the beautiful chicks in town are your school mates? he asked.’ ‘Stop the non-sense Chris, next time I will introduce you with her’, I said. ‘I don’t need you to get me introduced with her, I can do it on my own’, he said patting his own back.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

11^th September midnight and I was about to sleep, it was a very hectic day for me and I was very tired. Suddenly my mobile phone rung, as my phone didn’t have a caller id so I didn’t have a clue that who had called me. ‘Hello, may I know who is speaking?’ I asked. ‘Open the door I am waiting outside’, a girl said. My tired brain somehow refused to recognize a very familiar voice. Rubbing my eyes I opened the door. ‘Happy birthday to you’, there was big chorus. It was Pico and Priya with Pico with her eyes on the cake and Priya with her eyes on me. It is amazing that how well girls remember days and dates as I had forgotten about my birthday. The first piece from the cake and I was looking around. It didn’t take me long to ask Priya to have it. The cake finished in no time with Pico around as she didn’t gave a chance for the cake to survive after 12.10 am.

It was usual morning and I reached office as usual. The first thing that I do every morning is to check my personal e-mails. Many birthday wishes but one mail stood out was a mail from Ash. I deleted it without reading as I still couldn’t take that day out of my mind. I had already decided not to let anyone in the office know about my birthday. I still remember celebrating my birthday with Seema in school as we have same birth date. So I rushed to the reception looking out for Seema. She was dressed in her usual saree; she was looking very beautiful that day and I simply couldn’t take my eyes off her. ‘Wish you many happy returns of the day’, I said. ‘Same to you Adi, so you remember my birthday’, she said. ‘Of course, I still remember distributing birthday sweets in school with you’, I said. ‘So what’s your plan for today?’ She asked. ‘Nothing much, usual’, I replied back. ‘Good let’s go together in evening, so at what time do you leave?’ Seema asked. ‘I am not sure as you know a software engineer’s life’, I replied. ‘Oh c’mon Adi don’t give me that reason and especially on your birthday’, she said. ‘I am sure that no one is going ask you to stay back today’, she added. ‘They don’t know about my birthday as I haven’t told them about it’, I said. ‘Are you crazy?‘ I mean what’s the matter with you,’ Seema almost yelled at me. ‘Nothing, have a nice day Seema’, I said  and I left to my work station. ‘Are you crazy I mean what’s the matter with you’, these words of Seema haunted me for the entire day. ‘So sexy you were born exactly 23 years back’, I heard a voice from behind; I turned back and it was Chris.

‘Now how the hell you got to know about it’, I said. ‘That’s a nice way of saying thanks,’ Chris remarked. ‘Shhhh, no one knows about it, let’s go out and talk’, I said. ‘You know I have many sources in this company and most of them beautiful’, he said. ‘I know, it must have been Seema’, I said. ‘Yes, you weirdo, I didn’t knew that you shared your birthday with her’, he said. I have done it! Was written all over his face. ‘Yes strange things happen’, I said. ‘Let’s go for lunch at Ramada’s’, Chris said as he pulled me away, ‘Ramada’s!’ I exclaimed.

Ramada’s was a costliest restaurant around our company’s area. With me and Chris the bill would be no less than 1000 rupees. After all I will be with a monster who I felt was hungry from past few days. ‘Brother, your birthday comes once in a year, so let’s celebrate it in style man’, he said. ‘What do you mean by your birthday?’ I asked. ‘Well good looking guys like me have birthday almost every month you know, you can see today that how good I am at birthday parties’, Chris said, that kiddish smile was all over his face and I surrendered, as it was pointless to have an argument with Chris as he never looses. ‘Hey Sarita, I am going out for lunch today, I may get a bit late’, I said. ‘Oh! We were all thinking to go out for lunch, oh great, lets go out together’, she said. ‘If 2 = 1000 then 6=????’, I murmured doing some math. ‘Even Chris is coming out with me I hope you guys won’t mind’, I said. I really hoped that they dropped their plan on hearing Chris’s name. ‘Oh not a problem, I hope he doesn’t mind’, Sarita replied. Doesn’t mind? this guy doesn’t have mind, I said to myself. In some time we all left for Ramada’s. I saw Chris waiting for me with Seema, ‘if 2 = 1000 then 7=?’, I murmured. ‘Adi is giving us a treat why don’t you join us for lunch’, Venkat and Sarita remarked. Chris of course overheard us and he was usually feeling proud that Seema was standing with him and laughing at his silly jokes. Throughout our lunch only two things came to mind.

‘Bill please’, I said. ‘Not so soon Aditya’, Sarita said and in no time the waiter came out with a cake. It was a chocolate cake, I really liked this surprise, ‘happy birthday Aditya,’ Sarita wished me. ‘It’s her birthday too’, I said pointing at Seema. ‘Then you both should cut the cake together’, Venkat said. The word both didn’t go down well with Chris. As we both cut the cake, Chris was getting restless and he was in pieces when Seema offered the first piece of the cake to me. Poor Chris, he would have thought about this moment throughout the lunch.

‘So how did you come to know it was my birthday?’ I asked Sarita and Venkat. ‘Chris had mailed us, even Kartik wanted to join us but he got caught up in some work’, Sarita said. ‘Typical Kartik, he works hell lot’, I said. I happily paid the bill and left, by then the thought of 7=? Had vanished away from my mind as I was very happy and it was a good gesture from Sarita and Chris. ‘So we can go from office together?’ Seema asked me, poor Chris. ‘Yes, see you at 6.30 pm’ I said, Seema smiled and we all left for our work.

‘I will be a bit late today’, I heard Seema saying to someone on her phone, as she was waiting for me in the office lobby. As soon as she saw me she gave me a smile and glanced at her wristwatch. Yes, I was a bit late. ‘Sorry I am late; I got caught up with some work’, I apologized. ‘So can we leave, we would go by bus as trains are very crowded these days’, Seema said. ‘As if few years back they were not crowded’, I remarked. ‘How rude is that Adi,’ Seema said as she was disgusted by my comment. ‘Hey chill!’, I said as it was second apology of the evening. ‘So what’s the plan?’ Seema asked. ‘Well nothing’, I said. ‘I have promised Pico to take her out,’ I added. ‘Who is Pico?’ Seema asked. ‘She is the most important girl in my life and she is my younger sister’, I replied, it was fun to see how a girl’s expression change within minutes or rather seconds.

‘Oh wow! So you are not inviting me for the party’, she said. ‘Of course you are invited’, I said. By the time we reached the bus stop it was almost 7.00 pm, fortunately we got place to sit in the bus maybe it was my birthday luck. ‘So tell me how is Priya? Last time I met her in café coffee day she was with some guy, I forgot his name; she introduced him as your friend’, Seema said trying to recollect his name. I very well knew whom she was referring to, in fact I can even tell her on which date she met Priya. How can I forget him and that dreadful day? When things I treasured the most just went miles away from me. ‘So Seema, what’s up in your life, any boyfriend’? I asked. ‘Sorry, that’s none of my business to ask you about your personal life’, I said. Third apology of the evening. ‘Hey Adi its okay, you don’t have to be so formal with me’, she said. ‘Yes there was a guy in my life but we broke up, stupid guy’, she added. ‘I am so sorry’, I said. ‘Not again Adi, Seema said’. Seema was a complete chatterbox perfectly suited to her job at MCS. ‘Hey, we have to get down next at next stop; I didn’t realize how time passed by because normally it’s so boring to travel alone’, she said.

That evening I along with Pico and Priya went to a hotel called Tasty bites. Priya got a greeting card and a pen for me as she knew that I loved pens. Pico had got Dairy milk for me; it was the sweetest gift which I received that day. They placed the cake before me and sang ‘happy birthday’ for me. Customers at other table looked at me as if I was given life sentence. I ordered butter chicken and rotis. Priya and Pico were pure vegetarian so they didn’t allowed me to come near them. I wondered if after marriage Priya would have made me sleep in other room if I had non-veg outside. Pico asked, ‘so whose birthday is next?’ I quickly answered, ‘Priya’s’. Priya was amazed by this answer.

ASH

Next day Chris came towards my desk and said ‘Adi there’s a new batch of freshers, let’s go there and have some fun’, he said. I said, ‘it is against my principles, let’s go for lunch’. Chris said, ‘you go I’ll come in five minutes’. I knew it very well that those five minutes were for what. It was such young age to have diabetes which meant no sweets or rice in fact anything which had sugar in it. While I was going I heard ‘filmy, very filmy’, someone from behind called me and I looked back, it was Ash. ‘Hi Adi, nice to see you here’, he said as I shook hands with him and said, ‘yes indeed’. ‘We are going for lunch, why don’t you join us?’ I asked. ‘What do you mean by us? Ash asked.’ ‘Ash, I have made a friend here and his name is Chris’, I replied. ‘No, you go ahead I’ll go with my teammates’, Ash said.

 I came back after lunch and sat at my desk and started thinking. My thought took me to our first day of engineering. Jeetendra, Kishen, Deepak, Hitesh, Sarika and Mamta came for ragging. Jeetendra came near me and said ‘introduce yourself’. ‘I am Aditya Gavaskar first year electronics engineering’, I said. ‘Look at second button of shirt’, Jeetendra said. Somebody came running and said, ‘Jeetu, look the water cooler is overflowing’ and I looked up and Jeetendra slapped me and said, ‘never look up until your seniors are around’. That Einstein didn’t realize that how I would come to know whether he is gone until I don’t raise my head. Jeetendra moved to next guy and said, ‘introduce yourself’? ‘I am Ashwin Joshi first Year electronics engineering’, he said. ‘Look at second button of your shirt’, Jeetu said. Ash pushed Jeetendra back and Jeetendra almost lost his balance. Ash screamed, ‘don’t you dare to touch me’. His scream was loud enough for other seniors to back off. I reached my building and I was too tired to take steps. My mom insisted me of using steps instead of lift as I was bit on a heavy side, that’s a polite way of calling yourself fat. I opened the door of the lift. ‘Which floor?’ a girl asked me. I said, ‘second floor’. ‘You are Verma aunty’s son?’ she asked. I took my hand forward to shake, ‘hi, I am Aditya Gavaskar’, I said. ‘Hi, I am Priya Kulkarni. So you are Gavaskar aunty’s son’, she said. Priya was short, fair, had hair that ran till her shoulder, she was beautiful and she had a doctor like appearance. She had a wonderful dressing sense and top of that she was beautiful, she had worn a pink dress and she had applied light pink lipstick, it made her look like an actress.  

By that time second floor arrived. ‘Nice meeting you’, I said. ‘Same here’, she said. ‘Adi, I heard lifts noise, you used the lift’, mom said as I got in. ‘Mom, I was tired to climb the stairs’, I said. ‘I have made upama for you, eat it and you will feel energetic’, mom said and she came out with a dish of upama. ‘So tell me how was your first day? She asked.’ ‘It was good, mom, I met a girl named Priya in the lift’, I said. ‘Oh you met Priya, she is Anju’s daughter and she is becoming a doctor, Anju will be so proud of her’, mom said. ‘So you will be, after all your son is also becoming an engineer’, I said. ‘Yes, I am, after all your PCB marks were good enough to get you in a medical college but I know you hated that field’, mom said.

Ash was very good at programming, you give him any task and he would write a program for it. We took part in a cricket match. Ash was very good at bowling and I was a good batsman. Bowled Ashwin caught Aditya became a familiar sight in the scorecard. I became hero when I scored the winning run by hitting six. That day we went to place called ‘Hut’ to have some beer, to celebrate our victory. Hut was a nice place and it suited our pocket, we said cheers to our victory and started drinking. Ash took a photograph and transferred it to my mobile and said ‘always keep this photograph with you; we will remember today’s day as victory day’, Ash said.

 I met Priya every now and then. I was playing cricket in my building and Priya was watching from her balcony. I dived to catch the ball when I fell down and blood oozed from elbow. Priya saw this and called me to her house and asked, ‘How come you guys don’t get hurt by this?’ ‘Wait I will apply some medicine’, Priya said. Priya cleaned the wound and applied soframycin with her soft hands on it. I thought of daily getting hurt so that she would daily apply medicine on it. Ash and I took part in carom doubles competition. Ash completed the game from start to finish, we were left only to mere spectators. Ash didn’t need me to win the match but he wanted me to win as well.

One day Priya came at my house and we saw a movie named ‘Choti si baat’, in that movie the hero tries very hard to tell the heroine about his feelings but the more hard he tries, he lands only in soup. Finally he seeks advice of a man to help him and finally the hero says those magical three words. ‘What rubbish, no girl would like that. Why can’t he say directly?’ She said totally disgusted. ‘Priya, it’s not as simple as you think’, I said. ‘The girl is not going to kill you’, she added. ‘But Priya there’s a risk of loosing her’, I said. ‘Adi, what’s the need of such a girl who does care a damn about your feelings’, she said. Priya had a point. ‘Adi, do you have a girlfriend?’ Priya asked. ‘No Priya, but I like a girl but I am afraid to tell her’, I said. ‘That’s bullshit Adi’, she said. ‘What about you Priya?’ I asked ‘No Adi, I don’t have a boyfriend but I do believe in love’, Priya said.

FUN WITH ASH

Ash was good in carom and equally bad in chess. He played chess aggressively, not tactically. Even after getting checkmate for three times, he felt chess as battlefield rather than strategy game. Even after weeks of chess Ash didn’t get better.

I bought a pink greeting card and red rose to propose Priya. I choose roof as place to propose, so that nobody would come to know if Priya slapped me. I kept a bottle of champagne and two glasses to celebrate the event. Priya arrived; she looked more beautiful in evening sunlight. I locked the door from inside so that no one would come inside and I proposed Priya by singing ‘the smile on your face lets me know that you love me, theirs truth in eyes saying you need me, the touch of your hand says catch me whenever I fall, you say it best when you say nothing at all’, Priya couldn’t hold her tears and she hugged me. I had made a girlfriend; I opened the bottle of champagne. I felt proud as solider feels when he is awarded a medal. Next day I told Ash entire story. He said, ‘Adi you are quite lucky to have love in your life, look at me in spite of everything; I don’t have soul mate in my life’.

Priya had a pink scooty, she had pink cycle, I wondered that if has a she pink bra as well. I thought that she called her dog gulabo at home; I wondered that Priya liked my sister because her name was pinky. She went daily at 5 am wearing a pink track suit so my dad said to me, ‘Priya daily gets up at 5 am’. I was a late starter, on weekends getting up at 9 am was supposed to be early for me.

A day before the result, I felt very nervous and Priya helped me to get over it. I scored 65% and Ash got 66% , while going to the house we went to smoking joint named Mogambo. We asked for two cigarettes and two Mirinda and we sat at the adjoining footpath to smoke. We bought Mirinda to subside the smell as we knew that chewing gum wouldn’t solve the purpose. I bought a pack of sweets on my way back. Mom was very happy to know my percentage. I gifted Priya a pink top and we went to Pooja’s to have something to eat. I turned a chair to sit, Priya shouted and said, ‘sit properly’. We ordered Masala Dosa. After finishing it Priya ordered a strawberry ice cream. Man there is something about Priya and pink colour.

I was good at engineering drawing or ED. I could draw isometric or 3D drawing of anything. There was a problem in our paper which I could only solve. After the paper Ash asked me, ‘Adi, were you able to solve that problem’? ‘Yes’, I said and drew the solution, Ash said, ‘Adi, you are good in ED’. After my exams I went with Priya to eat pani puri. Priya asked the vendor to give her small pani puri because her mouth was small. The vendor was surprised at this because most of the people ask him to give big pani puris.

Pico had this stupid assignment of showing a state with its dance form, like lavani in Maharashtra, bharat natyam in Tamilnadu etc. For that she used my computer, she saw the photo of me drinking with Ash, which he took on victory day. ‘What’s this?’ She said. ‘Okay, you will give me dairy milk every week’, Pico said. Pico often blackmailed me not because I was a soft target but because I was her favorite prey. I thought dairy milk would be much cheaper than mom’s melodrama. Mom came in my room with tray of tea, she said, ‘Pico, you are lucky he lets you use his computer otherwise he doesn’t let us use his computer’. Pico smiled at me because she knew the reason. ‘Adi, what are you going to do after engineering?’ Mom asked me. ‘I will take a job after studies’, I said. ‘Adi, are you sure? You don’t want to study further?’ Mom asked me.

Priya had a dog named Pumpkin. Whenever he saw me, he always barked at me. I was playing cricket in my building and Priya took Pumpkin for a walk. It took me hours to clean my bike and that idiot Pumpkin urinated on my bike, my effort had gone to waste. One day Priya, uncle and aunty had to go for a wedding so they left Pumpkin at our house. It is quite agonizing to see your enemy sitting on the slippers which you have planned to hit. I thought of mixing poison in his milk or give him electric shocks on his ass, but I retreated back from the idea as he was Priya’s dog.

It was a similar story about future plans at Ash’s home. ‘What are you going to do after engineering?’ Swati, Ash’s sister asked him. ‘I will do MS after engineering’, Ash replied. ‘So you will do programming? She asked him. ‘I don’t know?’ Ash replied. Ash’s father was a sr. branch manager; his sister was an accountant, his mother worked as an accountant until she left the job after Ash’s birth. I wondered how this electronics embryo was born in the family of bankers.

TITANIC

I went with Priya to see a movie named ‘Titanic’. Priya had worn high heel sandals and they made tapping sound in the theatre. As we entered the movie hall everyone starred us, such was the sound. She held my hand, as it was cold in the theatre. She started to cry while munching on her popcorn as she saw the hero drown, as if she saw me drowning because I didn’t knew swimming as I had fear of water also called aqua phobia. So Priya took me for swimming; ‘Priya are you crazy?’ I said. Priya took me in 4 feet deep water and taught me to swim. I clearly knew that I won’t drown in the water but the fear had completely taken over me.

We had heard from our seniors that Prof Mukherjee was an asshole. He didn’t like anybody talking in the class. Once a student asked him a doubt and he tore his assignment. Prof Mukherjee taught us electronic circuit analysis and design or ECAD. One day he was teaching us rectifiers. Ash asked him, ‘in a full wave rectifier if we connect a capacitor parallel to the load, it will solve the same purpose and it will reduce cost of a diode’, Prof came near Ash’s desk and asked for his assignment and he took the assignment and tore it. That day when we sat in hut for beer. I said, ‘I feel sorry for your assignment’. Ash showed me a middle finger and said, ‘it’s ok until I get answers to my question’. This attitude of Ash separated him from rest of the class, though he never came first but this attitude was more than the toppers. We ordered beer and chicken lollypop, after few sips of beer Ash asked, ‘Adi, do you think chicken is tasty here?’ I said, ‘you hardly care for the taste when beer is down in your stomach’ and Ash laughed at it. ‘Ash, I really feel sorry for your assignment’, I said. ‘It’s ok, I just have to spend few hours but right now I have to concentrate on my MS, Ash said’. ‘So which college are you targeting’? I asked.  ‘MIT’, he replied. I raised my eyebrow at the mention of MIT, ‘Ash, it’s pretty ambitious’, I said. Ash said. ‘you aim for the stars then you reach the moon’. I wondered if I had aimed for Madhuri Dixit for Priya.

HIDE AND SEEK

I had few guests coming to my house and to avoid them I gave mom a reason and stayed out of the house because they were real boring. I came out of my house and called Priya, she opened the door and asked me, ‘Adi, what’s the problem’. ‘Priya, few guests are coming to my house and I want to avoid them as their son is very irritating’, I replied. Aunty came out and was surprised to see me at her place. ‘Aunty, please don’t tell mom about it as I had told her that I am going to Ash’s house for project work as I want to avoid few guests’, I said.

From past few days Priya’s father looked in tense mood. So I asked him the reason. ‘My company has asked me to prepare a new business idea but I didn’t get any idea’, he said. ‘Uncle, why don’t you ask you ask your company to manufacture baking soda, you can use it in toothpaste, air fresheners and carpet fresheners plus you can also sell baking soda’, I said. ‘Companies manufacturing such items can become your clients and the sale of baking soda would boost up your company’s revenue’, I added ‘Adi, that’s a great idea’, he excitedly said. Uncle liked the idea. ‘Adi, you have a brilliant mind, what are you going to do after engineering?’ He asked. ‘Uncle, I will take a job after that’, I replied. ‘I thought that you would do MBA’, he said. I thought of saying that I wanted to take a job to make some money and marry your daughter so laughed loudly. ‘what’s the matter?’ uncle asked. ‘Nothing’, I replied

‘What will you do in future’ this question came a lot in my mind so one day while me and Ash were having conversation I asked him about his future plans and the same day in the evening his dad asked, ‘so Ashwin what will you do after engineering?’ ‘Dad, I will do MS’, Ash said. ‘It was your wish so we made you an engineer otherwise I wanted to make you CA, now I want you to do MBA’, he said. ‘Dad, I am a technical guy I don’t want to be a manager and boss around. Anyways you don’t train a horse to run fast when he is supposed for a horse cart’, Ash said. Ash took less time to convince his father.

I and Priya went to a lake and we sat on the parapet which was actually meant for couples. The lake was near a gymnasium, what a place to take your girlfriend with hundreds of testosterone charged men around us in the gym. Suddenly Priya started to cry, ‘Priya, what’s the matter?’ I asked. ‘Adi, I have never sat with a guy like that before so never break my heart’, she said. Priya kept her head on my shoulder and we sat there till the evening, I bought two kulfis to eat. Next day I was smoking with Ash at Mogambo with our usual Mirinda, as we were into so much ‘what will you in future’ game that he asked ‘Adi, what are you doing after engineering?’ ‘Will you marry Priya?’ ‘No Ash, I would take a job make some money and then marry Priya’, I said. ‘Priya is a nice girl and she is intelligent too never break her heart’, Ash said. Within span of two days I was hearing same sentence. Whole world thinks it is the boy who breaks the heart; nobody gives the guy a chance.

Whenever I went with Priya on a date, she always bought strawberry ice cream. After few months I started to hate strawberry ice cream. I went with Priya to a stationary shop to buy scissor. While she bought it, I looked at pens. There was one pen with velvet on top of it; it would give an amazing feeling to write with that pen. Priya saw me looking at those pens, on our way back Priya asked, ‘Adi, do you like pens?’ ‘Priya, I love them’, I replied.

CAREER PLANNING

We had a lecture on career choice in our college. The career orientation was held in our college ground. The lecture was taken by lady named Rohita. She had a firm in Ghatkopar on career consultancy for students like us. Rohita gave us vital information on different careers which helped us a lot. She gave us information on careers like IT, advertising, engineering industry etc. She gave us information about post-graduation options like MS, MBA, MTech etc. After her session ended everyone in ground left, only we stayed backs with our hands on our chin and our eyes were glued to the empty stage. There was a stunned silence finally after 15 minutes we spoke. Ash said, ‘Adi, I want do MS’ and I said, ‘Ash, I want to take up a job in IT’.      

Ash left his bike in the college and instead we went by bus as we needed cool head to think. There was a pin drop silence among us as we were introspecting.

DEBATE

I and Ash took part in debate competition in our college and we reached in its finals. The topic was brain drain. We were supposed to say for it though actually I was against it. Our competitors in the final were Madhavi and Kavita. ‘Tell me is brain drain justified as government spends so much money on your education’, Kavita said. ‘Government does not do it for free as my father pays tax every month’, Ash said. ‘What will happen to our country?’ Kavita said. Ash replied, ‘there are crores of students in India, at least there would be one student who will stay back’. ‘What will happen to our country if everyone thinks like you?’ Madhavi asked. Ash replied, ‘it would be good for them, as this country is he heading only towards corruption and rising inflation, by staying abroad at least they will make better life for themselves’. ‘What about your talent and scope?’ Madhavi asked. ‘Your superior always push you down he always tries to suppress your talent and he does not gives you opportunity to expand, at least they will earn in foreign currency’, Ash said. ‘What will they get here?’ Ash asked. ‘Peace of mind’, Madhavi replied. ‘Will they cook food from peace of mind’, I said. Madhavi and Kavita fell silent. After few minutes, the judges announced their decision and we had won. The judges gave us certificates. After we came off from the stage, I said, ‘thanks Ash for the debate competition’. ‘C’mon Adi, it’s not a big deal’, Ash said. ‘Ash, this award means a lot for me’, I said. ‘Adi, I should thank you. Your question made them speechless’, Ash said. That day, I realized what does doing MS meant for Ash. Ash used to drive bike very fast, normally it used to take 30 minutes to reach my home but Ash took just 20 minutes. at Pooja’s when I showed my certificate to Priya she was happy to see my certificate ‘now you will win all our arguments’, Priya said, ‘Priya, it is impossible to win with you’, I said.

Ash called a birthday party, since I had a test in my microprocessor class so I couldn’t attend his party. I was sharpening my pencil in the balcony and I heard few giggles downstairs, I looked below and found Priya and Ash. Ash told her a joke and she giggled on it. It felt like my heart was stabbed with a sharp knife. I swallowed the pain with a smile.

LONAVALA

I and Priya went to Lonavala for picnic. We went to a hotel and Priya ordered food for us. She bought jelly chocolates. We went to Mulshi dam; though I feared water but I must admit that it was beautiful. We then went to a rose garden as Priya loved roses. She thought roses were the most beautiful flowers in the world and I loved roses too. Priya popped in strawberry flavored chocolate in her mouth. We walked on the road along the mountains. It was cold and there was no one around us for 10 kilometers. Priya kissed me. The flavor of strawberry lingered on my lips. While returning, Priya slept on shoulder and I slept on her head. Priya gave Anju aunty a box of chikki. ‘Where had you gone?’ Aunty asked her. ‘I went to Lonavala with Adi’s friends’, Priya replied. My name pacified Anju aunty a bit but she would faint if she knew what was going in my mind. I narrated the whole Lonavala trip to Ash after our maths class. He said, ‘filmy, very filmy’. It was Ash’s favorite line. Ash decided to drop me home and as usual he drove very fast, by now I got used to it. On reaching home, I said ,‘thanks Ash’ to which Ash replied, ‘so, tomorrow you are going to wash my bike or gift me a new seat cover’. ‘Why Ash?’ I asked. ‘So, never say thanks again’, he said.

I was good at a subject called electrical networks or EN and I didn’t study well for that paper. The paper went very tough for me and I thought that I might fail in that paper. In the evening I told Priya about paper, She realized that how nervous I was, so she took me to Pooja’s to change my mood. We ordered masala dosa. She had finished her chutney so she took it from my plate. ‘What are you doing, its mine?’ I said loudly. ‘So what, whatever is yours its mine now’, Priya replied. After few days from our exam the results were out and like all nightmares come true, I had failed in EN. I was very sad that day and even Ash was sad though he got good marks. Later that evening I told Priya about it. We went to Pooja’s and we ordered our usual. As we were waiting for our order tears dropped from my eyes. ‘Relax Adi, no need to cry’, Priya said. Why don’t you think that you will get one more opportunity to score well in that paper and good percentage is always better than second class’, she added.

 

CYCLE

I bought a cycle and on it I used to go till station everyday on my cycle. I was 85 kgs and in a month I cut down my weight to 80 kgs so with this rate I would be 70 kgs in about two months. I sat with Priya on the roof and locked the door from inside, so that no one could come inside. I sat with Priya. As wind blew through her hair, a tiny lock of her hair brushed against my face, though it irritated me but I felt nice ‘Adi, your cycle is very macho how does it tolerates your weight?’ she asked me funnily. ‘Priya, I ride that cycle’, I said angryly. ‘Adi, you get angry so fast I was just kidding’, she said and kissed on my cheek. If she continued to kiss me then I will get angry after every five minutes. We laid back on the water tank facing the sky. Priya kept her head on my extended arm. ‘Adi, whenever I see a plane in the sky I think of going to US, she said’.

It was Diwali time so Anju aunty brought dish full of Diwali items like chiwda, shev, laddo etc. Mom also gave her dish of Diwali items and I greeted her. In the afternoon dad gave uncle box of dry fruit’s and uncle returned the wishes with a dry fruit box and Priya wished him. In the evening our families met at our building ground to burst crackers. Priya had worn a cream coloured saree with net border. She looked just beautiful; in fact beautiful is an understatement. She didn’t wear her spectacles; instead she had put contact lenses. She didn’t look like a doctor, in fact I felt like a heart patient who had given his heart to a pretty doctor. Her cream coloured saree perfectly matched with my light blue coloured kurta payjama. I brought crackers like bomb, red fort etc while Priya stuck to less noisy ones like sparkles, pencil, flower pot etc. ‘Adi, don’t you feel scared while lighting these crackers?’ Priya asked. ‘No Priya, its fun but don’t you get bored with these crackers?’ I asked. ‘No Adi, I don’t spread pollution like you’, she replied. ‘I wish that I could light a cracker near Pumpkin’, I said amd laughed. ‘And you think he will be good boy and not bite you’, Priya said.

I went with mom to Pune for attending a wedding. We stayed in an area called Kothrud at Nisha masi’s home. The weather in Pune was cold so I wrapped myself in sweater and blanket. Late that morning I went for jog to make myself warm in the sun. Kothrud had a nice ground and few boys played cricket in the ground. I stood nearby and watched the game. I was so engrossed in the game, that I read the bowler’s mind and anticipated the next delivery that was bowled so perfectly that the boy standing near me was amazed. A catch ballooned towards me and I caught it cleanly, it was as clean as a whistle, I took the catch in a typical reverse cup way of catching with my fingers pointing towards the sky. The boy standing near me said, ‘that was neat’ and he brought his hand forward to shake and said, ‘hi, I am Amit. ‘Hi dude, I am Adi', I said’. ‘Adi, why don’t you play with us,’ Amit said.

I played cricket with them and our team was supposed to bat first. I opened the batting at my regular position which was to open the innings. My batting style was like Sehwag which was to go and blast the ball from the word go. I didn’t believe in getting settled first, I believed that during my stay at the crease I should make an impact. I was an impact player and everyone was stunned with my style of batting and they didn’t expect a hurricane coming their way. I was finally caught at long on. By then our team made a respectable score of 72 in 10 overs.

I wasn’t a bowler so I fielded at covers as I was a good fielder. No one was able to get the ball past me, the only way to get the ball past me was over my head as I was short. In the process to get over me the batsman mistimed the shot thus giving me a simple catch. We won the match by a huge margin. While we were sitting, Amit took a yawn thus flexing his muscles and his biceps bulged out. Oh boy! He must have been spending lot of time in the gym. They celebrated my batting adventure by having pepsi cola.

I wanted to say my day’s adventure to Priya so I called her but I got an engage tone. 15 minutes later I tried again but the result was the same, I again tried but the result was the same. So I called Ash but result was the same so I called up Pico. Fortunately, I didn’t get engage tone this time.

She was excited to hear my voice and she was doubly pleased when I told her about my day’s activity. Later that when Priya called me and I was pleased to hear her voice. ‘Priya, did you the keep receiver of the phone properly; I had tried to call you so many times?’ I asked. ‘I was speaking with Ash and we didn’t have a clue when time passed by’, she replied. ‘Bang’ I kept the phone down. She tried to call me on my mobile phone but I didn’t pick up her phone. I was so angry that I turned on my phone on silent mode. She sent me a SMS saying ‘baby what’s wrong with you’, but I didn’t reply.

Masi had a nice terrace in her building and since Pune had less skyscrapers so sunrise could be clearly seen from her terrace and I saw an Orange ball rising in the sky. How could Priya do this with me? The girl who promises to be faithful, cheats me? I said to myself and how could Ash to stab in my back. I looked at orange sun rise until it got bright. My eyes got a bit wet as I cried a bit. I couldn’t see the sun anymore so I turned in the opposite direction and my fat shadow fell on the ground. I looked at it and said to myself maybe this was the reason. No one could come near my turmoil. When I reached Mumbai I just gave Priya a pleasantry smile every time we crossed each other. I was clearly upset.      
                               ACCIDENT

I was going with Ash on bike from college and as usual he was driving at the speed of knots, the road work was going on there. Suddenly our bike slipped on gravel and Ash’s leg was stuck between the gear and bike while I slipped till a considerable distance. Ash moaned loudly, I had never seen Ash moan so loudly, my jeans had blood stains on it. I took Ash to a nearby orthopedic doctor; he took XRAY of Ash’s feet and confirmed that it was fracture. He wrapped a bandage around Ash’s leg and applied plaster of paris to it. ‘You also look injured’, he said and the doctor looked at it and said, ‘you have hurt your knee’. He cleaned the wound and applied a medicine and tied bandage to it. ‘Ash, don’t tell mom that we met with an accident otherwise she would object our going on bike’, I said. ‘I will tell mom that I fell while playing cricket and you took me to the doctor’, I added. ‘She would bless you and after all you need blessings’, I further added. I took Ash to his home, his mom opened the door. ‘Oh my god! What has happened to you?’ She said. ‘Nothing aunty, our bike slipped and we had an accident’, I replied. ‘Adi, your jeans seem to be gone with these blood stains. Wait a minute I will make turmeric milk for both of you’, aunty said and she got turmeric milk for us. ‘Aunty, please don’t tell it to mom about our accident otherwise she will object going on bike’, I said. One evening I and Priya went to see Ash. Aunty opened the door. ‘We have come to see Ashwin’, Priya said. ‘He is in his room’, aunty replied. We went in his room his leg was wrapped in plaster and beside was a GRE book. Priya gave him flowers and said, ‘get well soon’. Priya said, ‘Ash, you must take calcium pills twice a day and drink coconut water’. I said, ‘Ash, take those pills else she would give you injection, I hope to give an injection to Pumpkin as well’. ‘See Ash, he hates Pumpkin that much’, Priya said and Ash smiled at me; he knew why I hated him. ‘So Ash, how do you pass your time?’ Priya asked. ‘I read GRE notes’, Ash replied. ‘See Adi, he is studying even now’, Priya said. In the college I spoke with the head of our department, ‘sir, Ash has met with an accident and he has fractured his leg’, I said. ‘Oh my god! Is he fine?’ He asked. ‘He is sad because he will miss your class’, I said. ‘Don’t worry I will take care of his attendance and ask him to read this list of books’, he said.

One day I and Priya went to a theme park as Priya liked adventure rides. I call them terror rides. Priya took me in a ride called roller coaster. Frankly, it was death ride. I took safe rides like dashing car. Priya then took to me to the ride named ‘rainbow’, when it goes to the top, you get the entire view of the theme park, I must tell you that it was amazing. We then went to take a drive named ‘aquadive’, it’s a drive where a car shaped ride goes in water from height splashing water. We then went to a ride named ‘monster’. It was a cup shaped ride which rotated 360 degrees in the air. Even after getting off the ride my head was still spinning. We then went to a ride named ‘cyclone’. It was like merry go round which rotated 360 degrees upside down in the air, the look of it scared me so I didn’t dare to go in that ride. We went to eat food. Priya’s tongue and lips turned orange because of Mirinda. My tongue turned less orange as I was used to it. I took a photo and showed it to Priya. Looking at it she started laughing and gave a kiss on my cheeks. ‘Priya, my cheeks would turn orange because of your lips’, I said. We then went to tunnel of love; inside the boat we kissed each other. Priya kept her head on my shoulder and I kept my arms around her shoulder. I wished that the tunnel of love would last for long time not because Priya’s head was on my shoulder but because it was cool and shady in here as compared to outside. We then went to play some indoor games like water cannon which flipped toys. I played bowling while Priya didn’t play it as she didn’t knew to play it.

THE DAY WHEN ASH PISSEED ME OFF

Submission One day I went to meet Priya, Anju aunty told me that she had gone to meet Ash. My blood boiled, how could she do this? Was a question that stuck in my mind like it had been by an adhesive. One day I was playing cricket, with my building friends, I was batting when I saw Priya on bike with Ash. My blood boiled from inside and I lost my focus and concentration so I lost my wicket. I did lot of silly mistakes while fielding and I dropped a dolly of a catch. Certainly my mind wasn’t in playing cricket, ‘guys I am not feeling well can I leave?’ I said. One of them said, ‘don’t worry Adi, Priya is with you’. What an irony of a situation, I said to myself. Once I had gone with mom to Delhi. I called Priya every day to speak with her. One day, when I called Priya she didn’t pick up my call. Later when she called me, I said, ‘Priya, where the hell were you?’ She replied, ‘I had gone with Ash for dinner’. ‘Bang’ I kept my phone down; Priya didn’t attempt to call me again. Another instance when Ash pissed me off. 

BLACK FRIDAY

It was a Friday; I spent my day in college. As usual in the evening, I went to meet Priya. She cried while saying, ‘how you can forget birthday of someone you love? Look at Ash he called in the morning’. ‘Priya, you know that I have a problem of remembering birthdates’, I said. That evening, when I went out to buy pen, I saw Priya sitting with Ash in a coffee shop. Priya was sobbing as they drank coffee. I met Priya in the lift and said, ‘it seems that you don’t like me anymore’. ‘Finally Adi, you broke my heart,’ she said as if Nostradamus prophecy came true. ‘Adi, you are heartless’, she said. I met Ash in the evening and asked him ‘Ash, are you in love with Priya? I don’t want to see my girlfriend going with my best friend’, I said. Ash slapped me and went away.

PRESENT DAY

‘Adi, wake up’, Sarita said. Thinking about your girlfriend?’ Sarita said. She asked me, ‘what happened to the program that I gave you last week?’ ‘It’s complete, I have tested it’, I said. Sarita analyzed the program for few minutes. ‘Adi, it’s perfect’, she said.

Glenn Morgan bank gave us a new project to include some data in data warehouse. Such that data of several years back could be easily retrieved otherwise system consists of only a year backs data. Sarita called us in the meeting room to discuss the same. ‘As you know that our client is giving us a new project to include some valuable data in data warehouse, they going to use Business Objects a software to develop strategies as they have its license’, she said. ‘They gave us the responsibility to select the data, can you suggest something?’ Sarita asked. ‘Sarita, why don’t we keep account balance as a field, so that we can classify the accounts based on its balance such that we can classify the accounts as premium or non-premium’, I said. ‘We can also include the data which includes the number of transaction so that we can classify the accounts as a revolving account or non-revolving account’, I added. ‘Sarita, why don’t we add a field which specifies the bank’s profit or loss’, Venkat said. ‘Sarita, why don’t we have a field that specifies the linking of trading account with any other bank account’, Vikram said. Few more suggestions and Sarita said, ‘thanks everyone I would get bank’s approval on it’ and she finished the meeting.

One day Seema invited me to her house to have evening snacks. Aunty had made cutlets, she served them with tomato ketchup. The cutlets were made up of potato, ‘aunty, I don’t eat potato as I am dieting’, I said. ‘Adi, stop behaving like a figure conscious girl’, Seema said and I was left with only one option that was to eat. ‘Aunty, I was in the same school with Seema, she used to play lot of pranks with me’, I said. ‘Beta, then you didn’t say to anyone else’, aunty said. ‘Aunty, I didn’t had friends in school as I was a loner’, I said. ‘Beta, did Seema harass you lot?’ Aunty asked. ‘Yes aunty’, I replied. ‘Poor boy,’ she said. ‘Mom, that’s the right adjective that you used for Adi’, Seema said.

One day I was coming back with Seema in the bus. We sat side by side so that we could talk with each other. While we talked, time passed quickly and Seema slept and she kept her head on my shoulder. ‘Seema what’s this?’ ‘This isn’t right’, I said. ‘Why Adi, don’t you like me?’ Seema asked. ‘Seema it’s not that, I am in love with another girl’, I said. ‘Who is she?’ Seema loudly said such that other passengers looked at me as if I had committed a crime. ‘Promise me Seema that you won’t tell it to anyone’, I said. ‘Promise Adi’, Seema said. ‘It’s Priya’, I said and heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Priya is a nice girl and she perfectly suits you’, Seema said. ‘Seema, we had a small argument and we aren’t in talking terms with each other’, I said. ‘Such things are bound to happen’, Seema said. We completed the journey as friends. Once I received a message on our office internal messenger, ‘coffee at 4 pm in the canteen’, from Seema. We met at 4 in the canteen and we bought coffee and sandwiches. While taking sip of coffee, I said, ‘Seema, Chris likes you; he is a nice guy and would always take care of you’. ‘I need some time to think Adi’, she said and we went away.

On the way back I remembered the black day of my life. I thought I was a fool to break Priya’s heart, at midnight I went to wish Priya carrying a cake, the colour of the cake was pink, given that Priya liked pink colour. I rung the bell and uncle opened the door. He was surprised to see me at that time of the night as I was an unexpected guest. ‘Uncle, I have come to wish Priya’, I said. ‘Come inside have a seat I will call Priya’, he said. Priya came out; she was wearing pink t-shirt and a payjama. Girls look more beautiful when they just wake up. She put her hands with surprise on her face. ‘Adi you had remembered my birthday’, Priya said. Uncle brought a pink coloured laptop from inside and gifted it to Priya. Now the laptop was a surprise but its colour was not. Priya cut the cake and gave its first piece to me, idiot Pumpkin was sleeping on the floor. That evening we went to Priya’s house for a small party, I bought pink greeting card, earlier I had thought to buy red rose but later I thought that I would look stupid. Pico gave her handmade greeting card, Priya hugged Pico; I wished that I was in place of Pico. Idiot Pumpkin was sitting on floor. I thought of splashing the entire cake on his face but it would be too costly. Anju aunty gave us piece of cake along with pav bhaji.

TICKET TO HOLLYWOOD

Sarita called me at her desk and said ‘Adi, I want you to go onsite, I can’t go because of my pregnancy, Venkat has marriage next month, Kartik does not want to go because of health concerns, Rohan doesn’t know IL that well and Avni is new, so she won’t know much’, she said. ‘It will be a one year assignment’, she added. I was very excited as I went to my desk and I messaged Chris on messenger. ‘I am coming to your desk’, he said. ‘Adi, let’s go to the canteen and celebrate this event’, he said. As we were going to canteen we saw Ash at his desk. He called us and said, ‘Adi I have got admission to do MS’ and I congratulated Ash. I introduced Chris to Ash and they shook hands and Chris congratulated Ash. ‘Adi, hut today evening’, he said.  ‘No Ash, I have to prepare an essay for Pico’, I said. ‘Ashwin, we are going to the canteen why don’t you join us?’ I said. ‘I have lot of work to do’, Ash said. We went to the canteen and I brought two club sandwiches and a Pepsi and a pack of wafers for us. Our canteen didn’t served beer as this was ideal occasion for beer. ‘Chris, I have told Seema that you like her’, I said. ‘What did she say?’ Chris asked curiously. ‘She said she needs time to think’, I replied. I didn’t feel that nervous even during my results, Chris said, ‘I owe a treat to you buddy’.

I told Priya about the onsite news; she very excited and congratulated me. ‘Adi, I need treat from you’, she said. That evening we went out for dinner.  As usual Priya ordered the food. I said Priya, ‘will you help me with shopping, you know how confused I am when it comes to selecting clothes’. ‘Of course I will help you’, she said. Dhawal from our building was getting married. He invited my family and Priya’s family for the wedding. Priya wore a light yellow salwwar kameez. I must admit that she was looking absolutely gorgeous that day. We all reached there on time. The moment bride and groom exchanged garlands it was very romantic. I imagined myself and Priya exchanging the garlands but the memories of black Friday flashed in front of me. We had our buffet lunch. I and Priya went to have ice cream and I said, ‘Priya, I want to marry you; I have realized that how much I love you and how much you love me’. Priya was stunned by this, for a minute the ice-cream in her hand stopped melting. ‘Priya, I will marry you on one condition that you don’t bring Pumpkin along with you’, I said. ‘Adi you are nuts’, she said. ‘We will tell our parents in the evening’, I said.

In the evening while having tea, I said, ‘mom and dad; I want to speak something important with you’. They heard with full attention, ‘mom, would you like your daughter in law to be a doctor?’ I asked. ‘Do you mean to say Priya?’ she said with delight in her eyes, .Of course, I would love to have her as my daughter in law’, mom said. At Piya’s home she made her parents sit and said, ‘Mom and dad would you like Adi to be your son in law?’ ‘Of course Priya, Adi is a good boy’, her dad said. ‘I would love to have him as my son in law’, Anju aunty said. ‘Adi is a brilliant boy, so when are you thinking to get married? Her dad asked’. ‘Dad, first Adi has to go to US’, Priya said. ‘Now I understood now why did he took job ahead of his MBA’, uncle said. Few minutes later Priya called me and said ‘Adi, mom and dad doesn’t have problem for our marriage’, she said. ‘Congratulations Priya, even my mom and dad doesn’t have any problem, I will tell Pico about this’, I said. I told Pico about my marriage with Priya and she was very excited.

I was about to leave for US, I called Priya to meet me at terrace. She met me and hugged me; I noticed that my t-shirt shoulder turned a bit wet. When I saw Priya, I noticed that she was crying. ‘Adi, I am going to miss you’, she said. When I said that I will chat with her daily, it pacified her. Uncle, aunty and Priya wished me and I checked my bag to see if all my things were alright. My flight to New York was at 1 am. Mom, dad and Pico came to drop me at the airport in the taxi. I was thinking that finally, I had made it to the big apple. While checking in, the lady at the counter to give me seat number. ‘Seat number 13’, I said as 13 was lucky for me. She looked at me as if I have asked her that if they showed porn movies in the plane. I took seat number 13B as 13A was already occupied. Boarding the flight had started half hour before as I entered the plane and I was surprised to see Ash on 13A. He said, ‘filmy, very filmy

FINAL DESTINATION

Adi worked in US for a year. Upon coming back, he got married with Priya. Ash completed his MS in US and he has got a job there and now he has settled there. He fell in love with a girl named Jigyasa and he has married with her. Chris got married with Seema but his eyes still lit up upon seeing a beautiful girl. Pico is still the same. She still blackmails Adi and now she has got one more bakra (prey) i.e. Priya. In spite of loving Priya so much still Adi hates Pumpkin.