Amar is walking back home with a gift for his wife, its their marriage anniversary today (its 2025). Old memories are running through his mind as just a few minutes back he met someone from the past whom he never expected to meet in life again. World is a small place, they say. This is his story, lets go back in time and start from the beginning (
2010). Amar is a young educated guy from a middle class family in India. His father runs a small business in his native place - a small place with simple people and simple life which is still untouched by the advances in the digital world, people don't own iPhones or iPads and they are not on Facebook. Contrary to what one may expect, Amar has been fortunate to have a good education - he is convent educated (his small town have a few), did his engineering, mostly because everyone around him seemed to be doing the same. That as the common belief runs is first of the stepping stones to success in this country and a way to transcend the boundaries of the middle class. If only degrees are not confused with education. As Mark Twain famously said -
Amar is a fine lad, has a charasmatic personality, is witty with a carefree attitude. His friends love him as he's a lot of fun to hang out with and can be trusted with anything. He is loved and well respected at the workplace and sometimes feared too due to his unorthodox, dead-honest methods of dealing with things. That last characteristic alienates him from a few but he knows that it must be the price to pay for being honest to yourself and to others. Like most others in the professional world, work has encroached on his personal life and there is little time left after doing justice to the demands of professional life. He doesn't seem to be mindful of it as he is still single, doesn't have many hobbies, and above all wants to earn money fast. That is his deal with the devil. He dreams of taking a long break at some point in life to travel and visit places, go fishing, lie on a beach on an idle day, but all that when he has made enough money. He has heard
but like most others, acknowledgement of the truth is all he could do. His life has been pretty linear so far. Little does he know, that linearity of his life is not going to last long.
Enter Miss Ishita. Ishita joined the marketing team in the company Amar works for, a few weeks back and has ever since been the topic of discussion among most single male employees, whether over the water cooler or in the cafeteria. She is an epitome of a metropolitan girl - classy, stylish and modern. Self-assured and confident, she seems to know exatly what she wants in life. She likes talking on...just about everything and is always surrounded by people. Amar has noticed and ignored her. He keeps away from girls who seem to be too showy. He has always admired simplicity in women more than any other quality...sans that, they all appeared the same to him. He goes for lunch in the office cafeteria usually late at 2:30 pm when there are fewer people and today as he is walking towards the food counter, he notices a lady walking off the counter and towards him, dressed in a purple
salwar kameez and looked beautiful. Getting closer he recognises she is Ishita and as they pass by each other, still looking at her, she gives a faint smile. He looks back, she doesn't. That was as if
cupid's first arrow grazed his heart leaving a faint mark. For the first time he liked her today. From then on he had a special interest in office, he would reach office early and wait for her to arrive...trying to finish some work meanwhile, but he rarely gets done much during that time. Someday, he thinks, he would go straight to her and ask her out.
Everything comes to him who waits. So he gets his opportunity, finally - It was 10:30 am and she was there but without her usual accomplices, and Amar knew it was her time for the usual coffee break. Its time to strike he thought and walked upto her and said
"Hello Ishita!".
"Hi, good morning" she replies. He continues
"Good morning, Hey, I'm headed for a coffee at the coffee day, do you want to join?" She was too metropolitan to say a polite no...said
"yeah sure" with a faint smile. And so they walked across the corridor outside office introducing each other formally right to their destination. They walk up to the counter and he asks for the catalogue (he is slightly nervous by now). Sifting through the list he orders a
Caffe Latte and turns to her with - and you?
"Make it two" comes the reply and the order is placed. But he smiles to himself and thinks - women and their subtle ways, now I will probably have to take a
Black Forest (he hated chocolate in anything) the day she orders first, for a woman's liking for the chocolate and the cream is all to well known. He takes out his wallet to pay but there is that usual
'me pay' thing the lady insists on...he doesn't have to try too hard, comes up with something clever and says - "
some other day please, I just got my bonus". While putting his card back, he realizes for the first time that his wallet looked pretty old, having lost its sheen and some leather on the edges and corners - it has always been a nice little contrivance that holds his money. He just hoped she didn't notice it.
Its an irony that more often than not, we are judged by the things we own rather than by what we are!
They settle down and she asks -
"so what do you do here?"
"Well, my main job here is to make sure people actually work in office...even the marketing folks" he says jokingly...winks and smiles.
She laughs and says
"wow, that sounds like an interesting job profile...and how do you do that?" knowing well he is joking.
"That's a secret...I don't reveal secrets over coffee" comes the reply.
"Marketing folks have contacts you see...secrets will not be secrets for long" she says smiling.
"Now that scares me a bit...I need to watch whom I talk to" he says, smiling back.
...and so they talk for a short while, mostly about the people and practices in office before she finally says -
"I have a meeting in 10 mins...have to rush"
"Sure, I too have to rush to my monitoring room" says he. Both laugh and and head back to office.
Perchance, they meet the next day again in cafeteria and greet each other with a smile and a hello. She was just leaving and Amar was at his usual time which is late for people to have lunch.
"How is it going?" asks he.
"Crazy busy!!" cometh the reply.
"Take a break" says he smiling.
"Wish I could...see you around, got lotsa work pending" she says and leaves in a hurry. He wonders how he could break into her world. His interactions with the marketing team increased...he walks by them and quips -
"How is it going guys...working hard or hardly working?", they laugh and she says
"everyone knows marketing folks here don't work"...smiling.
"Well then, I guess this is the ideal team for me to be in" says he smiling back. Everyone laughs! They would meet more often in the office, sometimes would go for a coffee outside...she would do most of the talking, he would mostly listen and throw funny one liners in between whenever opportunity came. He liked to make her laugh and the fact that she has opinions of her own on most things. She liked his wit and his carefree attitude.
So it continues until one Friday he invites her to the movie he was going (he had planned it, booked two tickets instead of one), walks upto her and says
"Hey Ishita, what are you doing today evening?". She hesitates a bit sensing what may be coming but says
"Nothing much, don't have any plans as of now, why?".
"Well, I'm going for a movie in the evening...was won-de-ring if you would like to join...I've got an extra ticket...we can have a quick dinner before that too" says he...he has always been direct with people, knew no other way! She looks around...the lady co-worker sitting across was smiling at her (as if saying GO) and the rest of the team seemed to just have gotten busy with work as if ignoring what they just heard.
"OK" is all she says hesitatingly.
"Ok then, catch you at 6" says he and walks off triumphantly...straight to his desk. So they meet at 6 pm, she suggests a restaurant near the theatre and they drive off in their cars. He offered to drive her and drop her at home post the movie but she politely refused saying
"Will you be leaving your car at my home too, I got to come to office on Monday you see?" He laughs and says
"I can...nothing like walking back home late night".
"No need for all that trouble...let's go in our own cars" says she, smiling - by nature, her independence is something she wouldn't forgo easily. They are at the restaurant and sitting across each other and its not candle lit. They place the order quickly. But there is an uncomfortable silence between the two today. They would look at each other occasionally and smile but words are hard to come. She is not the usual talketive girl today...as if a million thoughts are racing her mind.
"How was the day?" he asks to break the silence.
"Not very eventful...hope the movie is good" she says with a faint smile. He smiles and says
"I hope so...read good reviews about it". It was a romantic movie and he was sure she would like it - all girls like romantics and if its very emotional, icing on the cake, he thought. He made sure to carry an extra clean handkerchief just in case it gets too emotional.
"Btw, you look very pretty in salwaar kameez" he adds, smiling. She was wearing it again, the one that he liked her in the first time.
"Thank you!, I feel very comfortable in this after all those days of wearing business attire". It was time for the movie, so they rushed to the hall and took seats besides each other. Many times he looked at her, she looked emotionally absorbed. Sometimes she too looked at him. They didn't talk much though. When it was over, she said
"Thank you, it was a very nice movie" looking him in the eyes and smiling.
"My pleasure miss!". He was surprised at how he lasted the whole movie without realizing the time, he never liked the romantics, maybe it was the company, he thought. He drove behind her car to her house, she parks it and comes to him and asks
"So you like walking at night?".
"Anytime of the night" he quips. Smiling, she says
"There is a icecream shop about half a kilometer from here, lets go check that out". So they are walking together discussing the movie for a short while, the lighter moments, she looked happy, it was bliss for him! Then she pops up a question -
"Amar, what is your plan for life?". That is one perennial question every guy gets asked -
What is your grand plan for life? He thinks a bit and as always brute honesty wins over, says
"Hell, I don't know...I live it as it comes, maybe make a lot of money!" Laughing she says
"That is a nice goal". They talk more about life until they reach the icecream shop - she places her order,
"one strawberry chocolate please" - and you? He smiles to himself and thinks - payback time buddy, from the old coffee-day days. Says
"make it two". They walk back, it all appeared so beautiful to him as if the night is dancing in celebration of a cosmic event, the air smelled sweet! When they reach her home, she says
"Thanks for a beautiful evening".
"Anytime" he says smiling.
"Have a good night". He drives back home, elated. Thereafter they met more often outside office - would have dinner together on working days, go out for a movie or shopping over weekends. They were coming closer, he was having the most eventful days of his life so far.
Life can be pretty surreal at times.
It's her birthday today and he is invited along with a few from her team to a small party she is hosting at her home. He reached on time with a bouquet, walked straight to her and said
"Many many happy returns of the day!" presenting the gift.
"Thank you very much" she says with a smile.
"What's special tonight?" asks he.
"Suspense...you'll see" she quips.
"Well then, should I start shooting the proceedings...may make a nice little suspense movie" he says smiling. Laughing she says
"Come on...no". Smiling, he moves aside to give other guests a chance to greet her. Little did he know that the said suspense may not be so pleasant to him afterall. The cake cutting happens accompanied by the usual
"Happy birthday to..." chants. Soon after it subsides, she had an anouncement -
"People meet Rahul, we worked together in my last company and we were good friends. He moved to the city last week. I'm so happy he is here" she says pointing to a guy standing besides her. Everyone says hello to Rahul. As Rahul and Ishita talked on the side, Amar noticed they have more chemistry between them than he ever had with her. He barely got a chance to talk to her alone as she was mostly busy entertaining guests.
"What a nice surprise!" he thinks while driving back from the party. He just hopes they are only good friends. Hope is a good thing!
Among others, one thing that can be said with certainty about life is - You will always be greeted by unexpected surprises.
Rahul is a metrosexual man and has passion for fast bikes. He was born to an affluent family and enjoyed the comforts of life that most Indian kids can only dream of. He works for fun, changing jobs and cities often. His friendship with Ishita started in their last company where they worked together. She liked him as a suave gentleman with an upscale lifestyle. If there was one thing she hated about him, it was his occasional overbearing arrogance. He too liked her as a woman who shared most of his tastes. Their growing relationship was curtailed by Ishita's departure from the company to join the current one. They are back in the same city now and he works not far away from Ishita's company. She goes out for lunch with him whenever the work is not too much. He was more fun and had class. And he had money to buy just about anything. One afternoon while she was going for lunch with Rahul, invited Amar too. He went. While they talked, he noticed Rahul's gentle and articulated ways of putting things. Rahul talked incessantly about all the things he owns and how proud he is of them...and the polite small talk Ishita seemed to enjoy a lot. His thinking seemed shallow to Amar. Sometimes, manner matters more than matter matters, Amar thinks to himself and smiles. She made her choice, she was always fast at it and too sure about herself for any intent deliberation. Time passed and she met less often to Amar. All his attempts to restore the old days were in vain, she seemed to be unusually busy in office and afterwards. She left the company soon after to join the company Rahul worked for.
He thought about her more times a day than he realized, and he knew why.
He was not broken, he has seen the harsher side of life ever since his childhood through his adult life and has been hardened. Then he got busy with work, too busy by choice and the pain subsided. Time heals everything, just leaving a slight bitterness in the heart. He would listen to 'Stairway to heaven' by Led Zepplin whenever her memories came back -
...he would smile, sometimes feel sorry for her, as he let her memories vanish. 'Stairway to Heaven' can be interpreted in a few different ways, he had his own interpretation. At times it all seemed confusing to him, as to how she made her choices while she was with him and how it all changed...so swiftly!
Many years have passed (its 2025) and Amar now heads a company. He is still to take a sabbatical and travel, go fishing, lie on a beach on an idle day, and all that he used to dream of. Life just gets busier as you go through it. He has a loving wife and two kids. Not surprisingly, his kids are hooked to a new generation of social networking software - facebook has been superseded by the new kid on the block! All his attempts to prevent the kids from wasting too much time in the 'soft' world have failed. Every now and then his son walks over to him and demonstrates a cool new feature and asks - Dad did you know this? He smiles with a no...and chuckles to himself as he thinks the kids these days are pretty smart but if only they can be that wise. That, only life can teach you. He walks down the memory lane and recounts incidents with his Dad, when he was young and rebellious (and that still holds...you never grow up enough for parents) to listen to his Dad in matters of conflict between the two...only to realize later how right Dad was!
Today is his marriage anivarsary and he is already late for home. So he quiclky rushes into the nearest gift store to buy a bouquet for his wife and something for kids. As he enters he sees a lady with a kid coming towards him, the face strikes him familiar but he is not able to map it to anyone from the past. Closer they get, and he is still looking at the lady, the lady looking at him as if they are both looking through each others faces...without recognizing. He can't get his eyes of her face and walks past her. A voice from behind calls 'Amar'! He turns around, its the same lady...they walk towards each other again and when he stops she asks -
She laughs..
She has gotten a bit old too...from a bubbly young girl to a slightly tired looking woman with a few grey hairs...life is definitely harder on women he thinks to himself.
