ch 11: ''building blocks''
heer stood next to the draughtsboard, with her arms crossed and a look of long-suffering patience at preet, his hair ruffled and pointing in every direction all at once. the problem with architects, she decided, was that they were too much a slave of control. the entire paradigm of architecture, as she was beginning to understand it, was to use material to control, direct and manage light and air and space. whereas, the way she saw it, it was the elements that told you where and how to use the material. she shrugged inside her mind. one good thing about preet was that he was eventually got the obvious. what she didn't understand was why he fought so hard against it at the start.
''heer, this just can't be right,'' preet was frowning at the broad brush-strokes with which she had defaced the blue-print he had spent all of last night working on. ''
one of the reasons for the steeple was so that the high roof could accomodate glass and bring the light in. what you suggest goes against that. even if i do it with dad's idea of marble tiles, there would be too much mass to be easily supported. and all that extra material spoil the light.''
he looked disgruntled as heer threw up her hands, picked up her portfolio and told him to figure it was his job to figure materials out, while she went to spend time with soni and rajat working in the garden, on the home-of-light. his father would have never left him dangling like that. why couldn't artist-girls be more like his father? preet wondered as he picked up his rulers and went back to the drawing board.
heer settled under the oak tree, laying her charcoals and sketchpad on her lap. the afternoon sun was beginning to glow golden from white. she sat there, dreaming, while the air played games with the hair falling off her brow. soni and rajat came into view, grunting as they pushed a wheelbarrow of round stone blocks. they were going to set the corner of the east wall today. soni cursed as he nearly slipped straining to push the heavy wheelbarrow up the small slope upto the oak.
''you're going to have to give me a hand here, rajat. this darned thing is slipping past me.''
the older man grunted in reply, ''
and who is going to steer this thing??''
heer stood, walking quickly upto them. her quiet ''
can i help?'' startling them. soni tried to straighten, face red with the effort of holding the wheelbarrow in place while simultaneously being courteous to a lady.
''no,
heer. we'll manage. i'll just shout out for john...'' but heer was already pushing up her sleeves, taking charge of the front of the barrow. non-plussed, the two men didn't spend much time arguing. she strained to hold the front of the barrow steady, as it moved slowly up the slope.
''one more push, guys.'' she said through clenched teeth, pulling back with all her might, faced crunched with the strain. suddenly she felt arms go around her, pulling the barrow. startled, her foot slipped when the barrow sailed forward. as she fell backward, someone cushioning her as they landed on the grass, she felt a fatalistic sense of deja vu. she twisted and scrambled to her feet to see prem juneja lying on the grass, long and lean, those dark deepset eyes laughing at her.
''we should really stop meeting like this.'' he said solemn-faced, before he rose to his feet gracefully. through lowered eyelashes, she watched the white t-shirt stretch over his chest as he dusted the grass of the seat of his jeans. ''
i'll join you in a bit. but first, john-uncle wanted to know if you guys would like to have samosas with your tea? although watching you three at work pushing that wheelbarrow at the pace of old ladies at the church, i think i'll tell him to forget about it. all that food'll just end up going to your waist and spoiling your figures.''
heer had made sure that she had stayed out of his way ever since that disastrous day that preet set up for her to meet with the board, two weeks ago. she had taken care to find out when he was likely to be at the brownstone, and made sure she found things to do elsewhere during those times. he was supposed to have been out on a project for his old firm today. but there he was, in flesh and blood, in front of her and it was as if all her hard work to not think about him had come to naught. she knew the look in his eyes as if they had met just yesterday; had not forgotten what his arms and his chest felt like; could still feel the explosion in her mind when he had returned her kiss that fateful day, remembered him leaning in, not letting her go, even with his head bleeding against the stone.
now, as she watched him dodge soni's flying tackle, laughing at the shoe that rajat threw at him, as he streaked back to the brownstone, she was shaken at the thrill of gladness she felt in her heart at seeing him againa a stranger who, it seemed to her, had even the light flowing after him, to stay with him, all the way.
soni was talking, ''
that boy seems to be full of beans lately. i wonder what has put that smile in his eyes.'' he said slyly, looking sideways at heer.
was she never going to live that disastrous board meeting down? from the time that the paramedics had left and everyone was assured that prem juneja was still alive and not mentally impaired forever, everyone apparently only wanted to discuss was whether it was the most memorable board meetings at ''lj&sons, ltd.'' or not? shakti, a legal aide who was also was did the client fronting for the firm, had told her it was gaining popularity even over the time that lj had got a contract from one of the richest men in the city after telling him baldly that he had absolutely no taste and he, lj, would not be dictated to by someone with such poor taste. after all, shakti said blandly, what were petty principles compared to pretty girls kissing the boss through blood and gore?
heer refused to rise to soni's bait. gesturing instead at the wheel barrow with their crudely cut cylinders of stone. ''
what are these for?''
''the columns around the back wall'' he started explaining how the material was roughly cut when they got them, and that part of the work in putting the columns up was stacking up the blocks, and then hacking and hewing at the stone till they become one smooth whole. ''
it's easier with concrete - they make the whole column offsite and then bring it in. with stone -- marble blocks -- there is a lot more work involved on-site in getting it just right. and a bit of luck in getting the right sized material.'' soni squinted at the blocks as if deciding where to start.
''and lj always had quite a bit of that.'' rajat's voice was gravelly, catching heer off gaurd. much older of the two, he didn't usually speak very much.
''did you know mr. juneja?'' she asked. there was no pause in the pace at which they were off-loading the blocks, checking each one and laying them in different piles.
soni laughed ''
oh ya, lj was not someone who gathered together a group of people who didn't know each other. me, i've been with him for 15 years. i was a bit of a dud at school, and my dad got lj to take me in to help with lj's concept designs. it was so much easier going through material sciences once i got to see how they mattered to the design.'' he gestured to the older man, who was starting to measure distances and mark the grass to put up the columns. ''
rajat'd been working with him on these projects for much longer. i don't think he's been through school -- but i have never seen anyone who has a feel for material like rajat has. he has this knack for what needs to go where. same like lj and prem.''
''prem juneja?'' heer's brow wrinkled. ''
he has an intuition for stone?''
soni grinned. ''
ya, doesn't seem obvious, does it? but of the three, prem's the one who is actually good with material.''
rajat grunted as he came up behind them.''
that boy is a natural. always has been, ever since he was little. harman was bookish. preet was always upto mischief. but prem tagged along with his father when he went to the suppliers for the material. when lj got busy with this place, it was prem who took over procurement till we could afford to hire for the job.''
loud laughter was wafting from the open brownstone door -- the juneja brothers were coming out with shakti and john-uncle for tea. heer felt her head spin. whether from a sudden and excess dose of prem, or from the dread of having to sit through another ribbing session for being the raison d'etre of the
most memorable board meeting ever, she did not know. but she felt that old familiar urge to run away. ignoring the puzzled look on rajat's face as she abruptly walked away from him, she swiftly gathered her sketchpad and charcoals with an economy of movement and disappeared around the corner of the home-of-light.
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CID
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