Notes: I am borrowing frequent-short updates from QuiteThoughtful. It works out well as I can get some writing done during lunch or meetings I am pushed to against my will. This chapter is unedited. Ignore errors. Really.
Chapter 6A
"Sitting in a bus facing its back is actually living through reality." Khushi said. Arnav who was sitting opposite to her facing the front of the bus groaned. It had been one week since both started working at the same corporate building – him at his new job with Lavanya and her, with Aman. Arnav worked two floors above hers and they traveled to work together in morning. Evenings however was different. As an event manager, his schedule was all over the place and not to mention that his evenings were completely booked for social interactions.
"What are you talking about?" He asked after failing to completely ignore her. He neatly folded Economic Times and placed it on his lap.
"When you are seated like this, you have no idea what is going to pass next to you. It's fascinating you know? Just few minutes ago I saw the beginnings of a bridge and was surprised seconds later when I saw that the bridge was left incomplete. But had I been sitting in your seat I would have been robbed of that surprise because from that position I would have seen the complete incomplete structure and shrugged it off."
"I am not exchanging seats with you," he said flatly amused by her long winded explanation. She grumbled but she didn't give up.
"I sit here and watch life create itself and see it becoming a thing of past. Sitting in this seat explains exactly what life is," she prattled on.
"Since you are into this finding pattern in every nonsensical situation you find yourself in, here is something from me. From where I sit I get a broad perspective of what future looks like. The perspective gets sharper with each passing moment and it gets clearer with each passing second. And the moment where everything is clear and makes perfect sense, the moment passes by and becomes the thing of past which isn't visible to me." Arnav replied with a smug smile. Khushi hadn't blinked. He continued.
"While you watch creation, I discover." His voice was suddenly void of any smugness as if he discovered something that moment.
"The opposites," she said matching his tone.
"Not opposites, really. Different aspects of the same," his voice lacked the conviction she had hoped for.
"Can't these two processes ever collide?" She asked. The eagerness in his voice threw him off balance while bus slowed down.
He bent forward and held her chin. "Stop looking in one direction and turn your head. You will see life being both created and discovered." He said turning her chin to left.
"The living moment. Now." She said understanding.
"Also known as bus stop - our stop. Come on, we should get down," he said hurrying out of his seat with Khushi following him close.
"Finding pattern isn't nonsense you know? What's wrong in seeing metaphor all around me?" Khushi asked ignoring their previous conversation. She had realized that with Arnav, it was best to ignore anything poignant or whatever bordered on hitting home close as he did exactly same. She found it cowardly but she didn't care. She preferred inane arguments over truthful exchanges as truth always found a way to punch her in the gut and render her restless.
"It's a pathological illness when one sees logic in something as dumb as number of steps from footpath to foyer." He said walking briskly.
"I didn't apply logic. I merely counted number of steps and noted the significance of it, that's all." She said in step with him.
"You are addicted to counting," he said waspishly as her eyes scanned the crowd in lobby.
"I am a mathematics major. Sue me." She bit out and walked past him and went straight to staircase.
"You are taking stairs all the way to eighth floor?" He asked, wide eyed.
"Don't be silly. With the number of people here, it will take at least twenty minutes to get to my office. If I take stairs I will get elevator in second floor which would take me to my office in six minutes," she said and started climbing. She smiled inwardly when she felt Arnav next to her.
She looked at him amused for which he said, "I trust your mathematics. But I am really not sure how can you be so confident about getting free elevator in second floor."
"I learned something in ladies room couple of days ago. At this time of the day the secretaries in second floor take elevator upstairs to get coffee for their bosses. I heard that they have bribed the technician to provide them with override access," she explained.
"Is that even possible?" Arnav was surprised.
"Bribing? You are kidding me right?"
"I meant overriding elevator…commands." He said not knowing if button press were commands or something else entirely.
"Yes it's possible," she said. "Not an easy thing to do but possible."
>>>>>>>>
"How is your new job?" She asked him stepping in elevator which as predicted was just about to leave the floor.
"More challenging than before as I have to deal with lesser funds and fewer resources to pull off pure magical creation every f**king time," he ranted.
"So you are having fun, creating stuff," she said, grinning not missing the irony of their previous conversation. He nodded wordlessly.
"Lunch at 12?" He called out when she stepped out of elevator. She nodded with a smile and waved as the elevator doors closed. His smile dropped as soon as the doors closed.
His apathy towards his new job and his latest boss – Lavanya, wasn't practiced. It came quite naturally which made him question for zillionth time that week – why the f**k did you change jobs?
He reaffirmed for the zillionth and one time – It has nothing to do with the girl working two floors below.
Oxymoron really ruled his life.
To be continued
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