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Hello dear readers,
Before you read on, a small note. I am not PMing anymore. If you want to know when I am updating, you have to PM me your email ID, so I can send you a note, or just stalk. And thanks to everyone who already sent me their IDs. You've made my life much easier. Many thanks!
Chapter 6: Arnav in Khushi-Land-Part 1
"Coffee at 9 and decaf at 11.30am. Lunch at 1pm. Yoga at 6pm on Mondays and Thursdays. She leaves early from work on those days. Other days she usually works till 8pm," Sally rattled out the bare bones of Khushi's schedule to Arnav.
"And what does she do in between meals?" asked Arnav, tongue-in-cheek.
"Ma'am works very hard. You'll find out once you work with her for a week or two," said Sally stiffly. "She had asked that you bring her coffee and do what ever errands she needs for the next 2 months. You're to intern with her personally. Lots of people would kill for that job!" said Sally.
"I'd kill to get out of it," said Arnav drily. "I guess I should take her coffee in now. It's almost 9," he sighed.
"Here, I made it for you this morning. I'll show you how to work the machine this afternoon. She takes it black. No cream or sugar," said Sally handing him a tray.
"Figures, sour puss that she is!" Arnav said.
"Ma'am is not sour. She's just careful about what she eats. You don't know anything about her, so shut it!" snapped Sally. Arnav realized that Sally liked Khushi and decided to take her advice. He took the coffee silently and knocked on the door to Khushi's cabin. Khushi bade him to enter and he pushed the door open and went in.
"Your coffee Miss Gupta," he set the tray down quietly on her desk.
"Thanks. Come back in with Sally in 10 minutes. I want to go over my day's schedule and have you shadow me for what ever part you are able," said Khushi, sounding preoccupied.
"You have a meeting with Mr.Jayanthinathan at 10am. Then there's the Singapore Clients. They'll be in at 11.30. Miss Arora from Accounts wanted a word with you, I've penciled her in at 1.45. You wanted me to remind you to call the trustees today. I thought you could do that after 2pm. And Dr.Saxena's office called. You've canceled your appointment twice. He really wants to see you this week, preferably today," Sally spoke quickly, but efficiently.
"OK to everything but Dr.Saxena. I have too much on my plate this week. Make an appointment with them next week Sally," said Khushi. "And did Mr.Roy call today?"
Sally frowned with disapproval. "Ma'am, you simply cannot ignore Dr.Saxena anymore. It's important. I'll have to tell Madhumati Ma'am if you do," she said challengingly.
"Sally, do you work for me or my Aunt?" asked Khushi, eyes narrowed.
"You. But your Aunt would have my skin if she knew I was letting you wriggle out of your appointments with the cardiologist. Please Ma'am," Sally pleaded. She'd worked for Khushi for 3 years now and Khushi liked and respected her. She knew she could push the envelope a little.
Khushi sighed heavily. "OK, try for tomorrow. Not today. I have too much to do. I want after 3pm to myself. I have a bunch of emails to get through and a business plan to draw up for some new clients."
"Will do Ma'am!" smiled Sally.
"Mr.Raizada, you can sit in on the meeting with Mr.Jayantinathan. He's my Chief Scientist. I'm sure he'd love to meet the person responsible for screwing up 5 years of his life's work. You obviously can't sit in on the rest of the meetings. But I have an assignment for you." She handed him a thick stack of files. "This is the raw data from the projects your team destroyed. I want you to read it, understand the work they were doing and write a report. 10,000 words each. Have it my desk 9am tomorrow. And my driver is feeling slightly unwell today. So after our meeting, I want you to go to my home and pick my lunch up for me. Sally will give you directions. Also, I need you to drive me to Yoga today. That'll be all," she said dismissively.
Arnav opened and closed his mouth like a fish. It sounded worse than Boot Camp to him. And God knows he'd hated Boot Camp.
"You can leave Sally. You have something to say Mr.Raizada?" she asked, raising a single eyebrow in that supercilious way he hated.
He took refuge in comedy. "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder what you're at," he quipped.
"Your fault Mr.Raizada. You pronounced the sentence first. I delivered the verdict afterwards. Have fun!" she said looking at her computer screen now.
Arnav knew when he was beaten. He walked out with the files and went straight to Sally. "Do I get a work desk of my own?" he asked. She showed him his cubicle. It was quite nice really. He had his own computer and telephone. He quite liked it.
"Why does a 26 year old woman need to see a cardiologist?" he asked Sally as he settled down into his plush leather chair.
"I don't gossip about Ma'am! Mind your own business," said Sally angrily.
"Jeez! I'm sorry, Sal! I was just asking 'cos I was curious. I didn't mean any harm," said Arnav hastily.
"Firstly, my name's Sally. No one calls me Sal but my family. Secondly, you were fishing for information that you have no business knowing. Finally, I don't like you, so please stay out of my way. And if I were you, I'd get the report in on time. Ma'am hates tardiness!" Sally stomped away angrily.
Arnav was trying to make sense out of the first project when the clock struck 10. He saw a nervous looking man in the mid 40s, waiting in the lobby outside Khushi's office. Sally rang Khushi, and told them they were here. She ushered them in after ringing off.
"Mr.Jayantinathan, come in! Good Morning. How are you today?" Khushi extended an arm towards him.
"I'm well Ma'am", said Mr.J, wiping sweat off his brow with a kerchief.
"Have you met Mr.Raizada?" she nodded towards Arnav. "He is interning with us for 2 months. I think he'll be very interested to hear about your work!" she said slyly.
"Nice to meet you Mr.Raizada. Are you into Biological research too?" asked Mr.J, becoming quite effusive.
"Err, well. Not quite. I'm primarily into.."
Before he could finish Khushi cut him off. "Mr.Raizada works as a team lead at SETA. He was part of the team that coordinated to release the animals Mr.J!"
Mr.Kalladakuruchi Vasantivelan Jayantinathan turned what could only be described as a shade of Magenta. He turned to Arnav and his face contorted with rage.
"You bloody fool. Do you know how much damage you have done? How many years of work you have destroyed? How many livelihoods might have been lost had we not had back-up facilities?" he held Arnav's collar as he spoke now. Arnav tried to push his hand off, but he didn't let go. Khushi watched the drama play out in front of her interestedly. When it seemed like Mr.J would squeeze the life out of Arnav, she stepped forward to intervene.
"That's enough Mr.Jayantinathan. Arnav is interning with us now. Please treat him with respect," she said in a steely tone. Mr.J let Arnav go with a heavy push that resulted in Arnav falling on his butt on the carpeted floor of Khushi's office. He sat there for a few seconds getting his second wind, while Khushi dismissed Mr.J, asking him to come back when he'd composed himself. After he'd left, she stretched an arm out to Arnav.
"Come on up Mr.Raizada," she said, eyes twinkling merrily.
"Arnav, you called me Arnav just now," he said, taking her hand. She had half pulled him up when he spoke. She let go of his hand when she heard his words. He fell back down onto the floor with a grimace.
"What was that for?" he asked, rubbing his butt and getting up simultaneously.
"To remind you of your place Mr.Raizada. I don't call my interns by their first names."
"Off with my head then, I guess. Such insolence!" he quipped.
"It would be so nice if something you said made sense for a change, Mr.Raizada!" said Khushi. "Now, off you go, I believe you have a report or 3 to write for me!"
Arnav walked out of her office feeling about 2 feet tall. Her Chief Scientist had almost asphyxiated him and she had quite literally, put him down. What was a guy to do? He mused. Then he remembered, he had to drive to her home and pick her lunch up. He hit his head in despair. A Masters degree and a burning desire to change the world. And here he was, fetching hoity-toity women's lunches from their high society homes.
Payal snuggled closer to Akash. "When can I meet your family Akash-kins?" she asked sweetly, tucking her head under his chin, in a move guaranteed to make him sneeze, as her hair was big as a honeycomb.
"Uh..I dunno Payal. There's a lot of tension at home these days because of Bhai. I go home really late from work myself. It's a busy time. Maybe in a month or two baby?" he said placatingly.
"Well, OK. How about you come meet my family first then? We're always stressed out because of Jeeji, but that's OK. We're used to it now. They'll be happy to meet you."
Akash looked petrified. He really wasn't ready to meet Payal's family. He liked Payal. She was fun and sweet and suitably stupid. All the qualities he liked in a woman. He just wasn't sure he wanted to marry her just yet.
"Baby, how about we give this sometime before we go about meeting each others' families?" he asked pleadingly.
"Don't you love me Akash-kins?" she pouted.
"Well, now..I never said I didn't!" he said, not quite sure that he did. He had told her he loved her. When they were having sex. He didn't think the shit that came out of mouth when he was getting lucky should count against him.
"Then, what's the problem?" asked Payal, planting a kiss on his cheek, and curling her fingers through his hair.
"Err. No..umm problem Payal. It's just,"
What it was just all about, Payal would never find out. Because at that minute an avalanche of people descended on them.
"Hey Akash! You sly dog! Who the girl?" asked Kabir, nudging Akash's elbow.
"It's his girlfriend, of course. And she's pretty! How'd you get so lucky, you ugly bas***d?" asked Kabir, slapping Akash on the back and winking at Payal.
"Does Arnav know about this?" asked Lavanya, looking Payal up and down as if she were calculating the price of every item she was wearing. Which is exactly what she was doing.
"Leave him alone guys! He's obviously here with a friend. Let's go," said Ana, trying in vain to get her outrageous friends to leave Arnav's shy cousin alone.
Hi, I'm Payal Gupta! You must be Akash's friends?" said Payal, smiling brilliantly, as Akash wondered for the fiftieth time, why the Earth didn't open up and swallow him whole. He was done for, he thought.
Thus it was that at the end of the day, both Bhai and Akash-kins felt they'd been rather hard-done by, by the Gupta sisters. One was an autocrat, and the other, just plain batshit crazy. Both men were in ball deep shit and they knew it. Both men were completely clueless what to do next, and so they did what all men did in such circumstances. They watched cricket. Payal Gupta did Yoga with uncharacteristic fury that evening, leading her instructor to remark on her enthusiasm. "It is good, but it needs to be tempered," he said, politely asking her to perform Yoga like it was Yoga, not kick-boxing. Her sister Khushi, on the other hand seemed in the zone today. She was in a Zen place. She'd landed Arnav Singh Raizada on his butt and she liked the feeling.
So, any thoughts?
Cheers!
Maxine
Note: All sentences in bold and italics are from Alice in Wonderland. 😊
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