Incoherent & Irrational
He drove to Ivy & Bean in Siri Fort through the pothole ridden Shahpur Jat
He laughed when she told him she had forgotten it was a Sunday and she just arrived on campus without looking at her phone and registering that
He asked if her mother made it to Berlin safe, she nodded her eyes sparkling at how thoughtful that sounded
She had spent the night in fear, the whole Naina crying routine felt like a premonition to something bad especially on the night Ma was going on an airplane
“He talked about how he got caught in traffic a week ago near Connaught place and could not return home for two hours at one point even thought of abandoning his car near Janpath
“Your home is a mile from there isn’t it?”
“Yeah… 2 ish”
“I could not jog home like you, Rohini is too far”
She reviewed a paper quietly
He pretended they were married and he was driving her home from work one rainy afternoon in Fall
He had slept poorly last night wondering what she was going to say to him
He had fallen asleep only to wake up from a nightmare of attending her reception at the same banquet hall from a month ago waking up sweaty when he saw the men push the large cart of bouquets out the hall
He realized that image was stuck in his brain and his imagination had spun this tragic story around it
They ordered chai and coffee and went upstairs
He found a spot by the wall, far away from spinning fans above
“Do you know what I do for a living?” he placed his elbows on the table and linked his fingers and smiled
No I don’t… I mean I know an attorney?”
“Yeah… I am the General Counsel at Power Engineers and I am on the board at my Uncle’s company”
Viveka lowered a gaze recalling Inder Dhamija
She sipped her water thirstily “Do u want more?”
Naina was pounding her texts now
“Yeah I think so” she giggled pushing her glasses up
She had told herself it didn’t matter so she shouldn’t take care in dressing up this morning
Later fought with her brain and told herself IT DID MATTER she had to dress up…. Why not… its not about him
She wore a cobalt blue, almost half and half split with a orange, with blue batik circles, with a blue sleeveless blouse
The saree thankfully kept in the rain… her messy bun smaller with many tendrils leaking out
The large blue bindi misplaced in the million “glass push ups”
An errant water drop slid down from a hair lock down her honeyed arm, she caught and rubbed it down on to her skin
He tried not to look, his birch lemony scent wafting over, Naina had spent the day harassing her on phone, Viveka placed the phone face down
“What does a general counsel do” she distracted him, trying to look cool, as she grabbed her pallu and casually threw it over her bare shoulder
“Build a roadmap for Power Engineers from start to finish, advisory on deal and negotiating tactics”
Something about how he said it turned her pink and she felt her heart hammer
“Ufff” he knows what he is doing” “I don’t stand a chance” she thought
He realized it too, he hid a smile
“Determine tax implications, work with antitrust attorneys… on regulatory approvals….
He spent the next 20 minutes explaining what his typical day looks like
The coffee came, they drank and a second cup came, he ordered a bunch of food
“Are you attracted to me?” he asked dissecting a moist warm brownie
“Well when you ask me that as you cut the that brownie with an Italian painter’s finesse.. I cant make up my mind who is more yummy” she thought
You make me feel like a incoherent fool you Parashar kid!
“Do I have to answer” she dodged just looking at his hand and the treat and not his face
“Yes Viveka” he stopped what he was doing and waited for her to look up at him
She waited for him to start cutting it into perfect microscopic squares…
It didn’t happen
She looked up at him
The mile long column of her neck and the positively indecent plunge of her blouse caused him to stir
“Uh… I haven’t thought about it much” she said trying to be safe
“You can think now…” he offered beginning to send the perfect squares into his mouth, with not one crumb separating
She watched the perfect square go down his adam’s apple
“Do you remember when you came to Japiur?” he asked
She nodded her mouth open
“You were chatting with Naina, the room was dark and I passed by looking for Inder, you sat up?”
YEAH?” she knew she was going to die right now, he is probably going to walk away and I am going to lay here, until Papa finds me
“That was the first time I thought about how it would be if you were my wife…. You sat up in bed flustered.. pulling down the folds of your saree over ur ankles, I saw you in moonlight Viveka”
“Umm.. oh… I… Oh umm”
She knew she was never going to hear anything so romantic from a man ever again in her life
The Research and IAS groupies she hung out with could whip up a 50 page paper on rural poverty with graphs and such but none could talk like THIS
DUDEEE
“We are completely different people” she groaned stomping on her tiny 10 oz heart with her 100 kg brain
“I know that… I still want to get married”
“Do you say that to every woman you like?” glass push up Naina had called her 5 times already
“No…. only to the one who drives me crazy
OKEEEEYYYYYYY
“Are you gay?” she asked suddenly
He burst out laughing…. Uncontrollably
Accidentally letting his foam stained spoon fly off the saucer
“Why do you ask?”
She smiled and then her expression turned grim
Abhishek had told her such wealthy WELL GROOMED men are usually gay and only marry a girl to appease parents
“I don’t know”
“Are YOU?” he asked with amusement
“NOOOO… I AM NOT” she had a how dare you kind of expression
“Good” he nodded
To her it sounded like “I am going to do some wicked things to you
“Now that we have that out of the way, what else is bothering you”
“WHY ME?” she said emboldened
“You are the most smartest, attractive. WAY OUT OF MY LEAGUE economist I have ever met” he said simply
“I AM out of your league?” she crinkled her eyes and passed a look of confusion,
“You don’t even look at me when you talk… look look u know… you talk to me like I am a umm.. 10”
She began to laugh
“Did I?” she laughed again
“At Harsha’s engagement I saw the real you”
“Oh” she was speechless again
“Are you still seeing him?”
“Umm.. yes… occasionally” she mumbled no longer hungry
“Before you ask…. I am not I was not seeing anyone for over a year now”
“Oh?”
“Are you doing this because you hate Abhishek?” she asked like a fool
“Marrying you so you will not marry him?” he repeated her question and watched her face show the shame
“I am hopelessly in love with you Viveka… no I wont jump off a building or cut my wrist, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you” he said simply and directly
“We don’t know anything about each other”
“Fair” he nodded sighing
“I could be the worst human being you ever interacted with”
He smiled at how she was down selling herself
“I am only obsessed with my Ph D right now… they waitlisted me” she was almost in tears
It annoyed him that she had not shown any silly emotion like that for HIM
“Ah? Oh… I am sorry”
“I want to see if they will accept me in January… I want to finish it”
“You can do what you want Viveka. Study all your life” he offered
Yeah right… with you being so yummy over there like I would ever get anything done… gosh he stresses me out…. Ughh
She had no idea how it felt to be wooed with words and expressions and gestures
Now she knew
He was relentless
“You could very well hate me for how my room looks I have 4 glass cases filled with hastily jammed in books and journals
“I did not know that” he pretended to be shocked
Her head hung…
“As long as you promise to get it off the bed at night”
I am probably going to hold everything upside down when you even come inches near me… reading researching, none of it will make it on my agenda if I let you lead me down this mad path
Her face was scorching.
“Did you agree to meet me today to talk me out of it?” he asked
She looked up at him in shock
“I don’t.. umm yeah I thought its not very rational”
He smiled
He knew why he loved her
To him being with her was heady and exhilarating, like sky diving
“Have you read predictably irrational by Dan Ariely?” she asked in a geekly composed expression
“No I haven’t”
“As you know…. Or you might have heard behavioral economics is as much about psychology as it is about economics….” She began
He leaned forward to settle into what she had to say
When he turned 90 or IF he turned 90 he would lean back and tell his great grandkids about how the woman he most admired and respected spoke about economics like it was a person she was in love with….
If he was lucky it would be THEIR great grandkids who will also carry her gene
Sports
Seher Hone Ko Hai
