Chapter 5 Passengers had started boarding the Lufthansa flight bound to Washington. It was a not full flight much to the relief of the flight crew. Prakash pulled up his hand luggage and moved into find his seat number, he had requested a window seat. He organized his luggage in the overhead compartment except his laptop bag which he placed near his leg. There were 10 more mins for the take off.
Prakash a successful architect by profession in his early thirties was a pious, self-righteous man with the perfect blend of anger, happiness, ego and kindness. He had in his school days dreamt of becoming a police officer but his mother wanted him to have more of a sophisticated job rather than running behind criminals. Just for his mother he gave up his ambition and chose the path of designing buildings. He was excellent at his work and he worked for some of the top companies in India, receiving training outside of India in several top of the line architectural products. This was the third time he was traveling to USA and it was more of a long term assignment.
He had had several offers in USA , but prakash never idolized on those options. He had always wanted to be in India and wanted his best work to be done for India. He had even bought a small house where he would settle himself in the future. A good woman and his life would be complete. But whats life without problems, he still could not find his dream woman. His parents had been trying to find several brides, the girls were good well educated, beautiful but none had the chemistry he was looking for. He had been love as well when he was in college, but things didn't work for out and after that he had met several girls and none of them appealed him. He didn't care much about looks or money though he expected the girl should be brave, self reliant and ambitious. Well someone is already out there, it was just that God hasn't shown him the direction to her location.
"Thank you so much", Nandini greeted the air hostess and stopped in front of the seat allocated for her. She opened the overhead compartment and put her hand luggage next to Prakash's luggage. She placed her hand bag near her feet, in her hands were "The Inheritance of Loss" the booker award winning book by Kiran Desai. Nandini was a big lover of books, she practically grew up hearing her grandfather talk about writing and literature. He had a big influence on her life and his death was a huge loss for Nandini. He had instilled in her a certain value system that she believed helped her make right decisions. Her first 21 years of life had been nothing but a bed of roses, she had the best school and college life, she was in trained bharatanatyam and carnatic music. A typical upper middle class family she belonged to, her parents wanted her to marry.
She had had many dreams about her man while in college and just as she was out of it and working in a software firm. But she knew her parents would not give into her dreams she decided to find the love and materialize her dreams post marriage. Thus she landed into marital bliss with Anand a successful software engineer in Gaithersburg, Maryland. She had 2 months of engagement, she was quite upset that anand was not making regular calls to her but even before she could make a big deal out of it, the wedding day came. It was a grand wedding everybody were happy but nandini the smart girl she was sensed a bit of aloofness in Anand. She openly asked him if he liked her and he said yes, but with a total lack of chemistry. She blamed his stress for this and convinced herself that everything would be fine as they understood each other better.
She had already applied and secured admission at University of Maryland, College Park to do her Masters program.
With big dreams of making a perfect home and career she took leave of her parents and landed in Washington. The first few months of their married life passed by with a lack of excitement, but Anand was a responsible man. He made all the necessary arrangements for nandini to go to college and encouraged her to be independent. Nandini was perplexed she had hoped for so much romance and love but none of that was happening. But she was touched at the kindness and care given by anand. Nandini was beginning to be more independent, she drove and she shopped herself and she had even secured a student job at the campus. Though the indifferent attitude of Anand frustrated her, since her focus was channeled to her studies she could be sane.
But her sanit didn't lost long, much to her surprise anand took her to dinner one day. He told her all about his girlfriend and how he still could not forget her. The shocking thing was she was his colleagueas well and they still met every day. Nandini was upset, angry , frustrated and she blamed her parents for spoiling her life. Anand requested her to give him some time and he would get over his girlfriend and be there for nandini. That didn't convince nandini, how could he get over his love. Isnt that mean and isn't he cheating her and me, even if he comes back to me how can I ever believe him. Though she was angry and frustrated , she also felt sorry for Anand. He was afterall a smart, sweet guy. It was just that he couldn't convince his parents enough.
After several days of thinking over, Nandini made her decision. Her grandpa's value system helped her make the decision. She requested anand to give her a divorce. Anand was shocked, he had not expected nandini to make such a drastic decision. Though he loved Deepa deeply, he didn't have the courage to face his parents, nandini's parents. But Nandini instead of being angry with him tried to make him see the point. She made him see that both were fooling themselves and Deepa. With much resentment from both their parents Anand and Nandini applied for their divorce.
Nandini was upset that her life turned out this way, but it was much better than losing sanity and living a stressful life. Her parents were very angry with her and they immediately started looking out for alliances again to uphold their prestige. But this time around Nandini was not going to give in, she was determined to make her own life. She wanted to finish her masters and get a good job and after that she would think about marriage. She converted herself to student status and finished up her Masters in Computer Engineering. Now she was employed in a leading IT firm as a lead engineer. She was a smart, assertive, self relianct and ambition woman with a certain level of will power and kindness. What was she missing in life, a man who would fall head over heels in love with her and sweep her off her feet.
Edited by madumithas - 18 years ago
Arjun
Sensational South
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