Life's a Rollercoaster :Part 9
Have I fudged this up, or have I fudged this up?😆
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A blanket of melancholy seems to be stopping any rays of happiness from entering the minds of the people here, making a fog of suffocating dullness. This office ruins my mood sometimes. Even Tina, who usually requires a box of chocolates to keep her mouth shut, seems in a bad mood. She doesn't talk, unless it is related to the 'project'. She is dressed quite modestly today, none of the low-cut tops, or short skirts. No, infact she resembles Priya, her personal assistant, in a navy blue pencil skirt and an off-white blouse. She is sitting in an uncomfortably straight and up-tight fashion, making me recline further back in my chair. Someone has to compensate for her posture after all, otherwise the world will be too full of prissy girls who want to act like 18th century princesses.
"Sir...Mr Patil" she taps her nails on the table to get my attention.
"Yes Tina? And call me Dutta, please"
"Hmm ok, Dutta, you need to tell me what colour you like" Tina points to a paper.
"Anything reddish maroon will do"
She sighs, slightly irritated, "No sir, you need to be specific, here look at this and decide on whichever ones you like. Then you can tell Naku." She thrusts the paper into my hands, "Here, have a look...there are more options if you don't like these ones"
"I said to call me Dutta" I look at the paper, pretending to choose a colour, but really, my thoughts are drifting back to how dull and boring this place is. Priya, too, is always very strict, and awfully meticulous, little miss perfectionist she is. Her eyes try to disguise something, I don't know what, but I have often caught her staring into space, lost in her own thoughts. Why isn't she here today? I look at Tina, who is tapping away on her computer. "Hey, Tina"
"Yes?"
"Where's Priya?"
"She took a day off. Have you chosen?" Ooh I seem to be getting on her nerves. Wait, not getting, I seem to be dancing on them. I suppress a laugh and point at some random colour. "That one"
"Okay" She takes the paper from my hands and types something on the computer. "Where is this Naku?" she mumbles, "Dutta, we can start preparing the list now if you want"
"Sure"
She starts saying something about walls, beds, interior, exterior, a load of garbage I can't understand, and I nod, adding an occasional 'Hmm' or 'Yes' where needed. Annoying Tina isn't as fun as teasing Naku, no it isn't fun at all. I just love the way that girl frowns at me, as if I am some slum kid slathered in mud. Oh speak of the devil, and here she comes.
She enters the room, with a sort of faraway look in her eyes.
"Hey Naku!" I say, with a voice normally used to 'maska maro' my mother.
"Good morning, Mr Patil" She replies, glaring at me.
"Nakusha, you..." Tina says, but stops herself. She probably realized that I would mock Nakusha to no limit if she scolded her for being late in front of me. Naku sits down beside her.
"Well, I have talked to Dutta about what he wants in the house, and we have prepared a small list. I want you to go with him, and have a look at the place." Tina says to Naku
"Me? Why?" She looks shocked by the prospect of spending time with me
"Because, this project is your responsibility, not anyone else's" Tina says sternly
"Fine" Naku got up, "I need to get somethings from my cabin, then I'll go." she said, looking at me without actually looking at me, if that is possible. She whispered something to Tina before going out of the cabin. Hey, she didn't even say 'Bye' or 'See you later'. Sweet bi**h!
The car trip wasn't too eventful, but I tried to talk to Nakusha.
"So..."
"Hmm" This girl was never going to talk.
"You like all this interior designing thing?"
"I completed several courses on interior designing two years ago, so I am qualified"
"That's not really answering my question, but anyways...." Anything was better than nothing.
"You like living in gilded palaces?" she asked. Yay, she is finally saying something other than replying to my questions.
"Huh?"
"I mean, looking at the list you made with Tina..." she giggled. Why can't she always laugh like this, she looks adorable.
"Oh" I chuckled, "Nah, I wanted to make the house the way my mother likes. She likes all that bright, showy stuff"
"Is your mother in Australia?"
"No, she is in India right now. But she will be coming next week" I felt much brighter all of a sudden, maybe because I was away from that darned office, or maybe because I am so happy that Ayi Saheb is coming. No more hotel food, the food made from Ayi's hands is the most delectable in the world.
"What about your parents?"
"I..." She didn't say anything else. Maybe I shouldn't have asked. I didn't say anything else, for fear that she would burst into tears, not that it was likely. I watched her from the corner of my eye as she gazed out of the window.
She abruptly turned towards me and yelled, "Stop the car!"
"Whats the matter?" I said, worried. This girl scares me.
"Just stop the damn car!" I obliged and parked the car in someone's empty driveway. She scrambled out and ran towards a house. "Oye, Naku, stop!" I tried to keep up with her. She started climbing a tree.
"What the hell do you think you are doing, Naku? You've always been interested in mimicking, haven't you? So now you are attempting to imitate a monkey?"
"What...? Shut up!" She jumped from a branch into the balcony. A bulky, baffled guy, who had also been attempting to climb into the balcony, held her hand and put her safely in the balcony on her own two feet. For some reason, I didn't like that guy's hands on her. I growled slightly and yelled at Naku: "Come down! What are you doing?"
The light turned on inside the house and some one came out. Priya?
"What's going on?" The look on her face matched the one on the guy's.
He finally stopped the car and let me go out. I ran to Pri's house and climbed up the tree. That guy I had seen was already on the balcony. Dutta was following me, the fool. He yelled at me to stop, but who was he to think that I would follow his orders? And then he said something about me imitating a monkey. Argh! "What...Shut up!" I screamed at him, jumping into the balcony. The guy held my hand and steadied me. A thief wouldn't do that...Dutta yelled at me again:"Come down! What are you doing?"
Priya came into the balcony, stunned, but actually she seemed more stunned to see me, than to see the guy. Oh, no! Love affair?
"What's going on?" she said.
"Priya...I was passing by, I thought, well the guy was climbing the balcony, so..."
She looked at me curiously for a second, then burst out laughing. "Naku! It's ok, I didn't tell you, um this is Vivek, my fiance"
"You are engaged?"
"Uh...yes" Priya looked down, blushing.
"Oh, well I will talk to you later, I have to go" I didn't want to stay and interrupt their romantic date, me and Tina would do the interrogation later. I leaped from the balcony to the tree. "Naku, use the door!" Priya squealed. "No, its ok" And its too late, I was already half-way down.
The stupid girl. She chatted with Priya for a while, before coming down.
"What were you doing?" I asked.
"Nothing...let's go" she said, sighing as if she had been carrying the whole world's load on her shoulders.
The journey passed in peace, she didn't have any other urge to climb someone's balcony, fortunately.
Priya, engaged? She's so young, too young to get engaged.
"What were you doing?" Dutta asked. Can't he stop disturbing my thoughts?
"Nothing, let's go" I said, sighing.
He didn't say anything throughout the trip in the car, and I was grateful for that.
We were travelling near my house, I realized. "Dutta..could you stop here?"
"Not another balcony!"
"No..no of course not. I am tired, so I thought I could see your house tomorrow, please?"
"Yeah..sure ok" he looked disappointed, but tried to hide it.
I smiled and got out of the car.
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I will drop New year ka dhamaka soon.....guess what it will be?😉 If I can't update around New year's eve then I will surely provide a sneak peek!
Suvi
Edited by Suvi7884 - 14 years ago
