Part 51
Sixth Sense & Sea Weed Green
SUNDAY...
"Who sent you a HOW to make RASAM book?" Appa was curious but a lil worried😲
"Edavadu prank aa irukkumo?" "Is it a prank?" "Do u want to call Baldev?"
"madhu did u send rasam recently for any of her coworkers?"
Appa's questions WOULDNT END😭
Amma took the book from her hand and sifted...
"All of us are good cooks... was it mailed to the wrong address?" Amma wondered LOGICAL😳😃
II's face was like a tomato... as she imagined how she would squish Rakshasan like the tomatoes floating in the rasam... squished and peeled and shred to fibres...😃
Her heart did the NOW familiar hyper ventilation as it brought back that magical encounter.😳
SHE TENDED TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM AND EVERYTHING ABOUT THEIR ENCOUNTERS
EVERY BREATH HE TOOK SHE COULD RECALL, she had a vivid image of every aspect of his love making☺️
His admonishments, his proprietorial attitude, his persistence... his tactics of slowly but steadily wearing her down☺️
The blanket and the two forms snug underneath like he didnt want the world to know what he attempted to do under the wool😳
... as if it were a "this is what I do every evening when I return from work" vibe...
She was barely beginning to acknowledge it to herself, what are the odds she would acknowledge to her parents?
ZERO!!!😃👏
"Should we return it?" Appa asked as if it was some illegal thing😆
She grabbed it from Appa... "Vendaam... ummm... no... I mean... Appa.." she stuttered
"ayyo Appa, Amma do u remember that Garhwali girl Babita Singh? Amma taught at KV Amma knew most of her class... Amma TAUGHT ECONOMICS, II took commerece in 11th
It was a GOOD LIE...
She lives in Blore, annikki the other day on FB la she asked me rasam recipe I gave it to her,
she called to tell me it didnt turn out how she wanted it.. and so tease panarthukku, in oirder to tease me she sent this"👏👏😈
LIES COME VERY EASY TO ME RAKSHASA!!😭😈
WHAT HAVE U DONE TO ME?😭
AYYO!!😭
She didnt have Babita on FB... she had NO idea where the girl was now...
She crushed the lil bubble wrap like envelope box... eliminating any chance of it being sent back...
Hanging on to something sent by someone that doesn't mean anything to her😳
"Amma, I can use this book, I only know how to make ONE KIND OF RASAM.. idula 21 kinds irukku, there is 21 kinds in this" "I am just going to keep it... lets say some well wisher who hates my cooking sent it.. she managed a lame wink... fleeing the room...😳
Sunday evening...
pulling clothes off the lines in the balcony Akka continued to wonder.. she hadn't said anything to Bala yet... II...had inadvertently ...she had completely forgotten her "physical" thing with Subbu... anda cted like she was experiencing everything for the first time with Rakshasan... II may have made an innocent slip but whoever she was talking to... took FULL NOTICE
By brushing off the experience with Subbu, she had completely discredited it ... in a heart beat... when Akka had asked about it repeatedly II's response was a tepid "whatever" "meh?" "I guess it happened with Subbu Huh?"😲
"it was so forgettable I don't even remember it"🥱
Though it was not the most exciting performance of Subbu AND Akka hated Subbu passionately.. ...II herself had never gushed about the full first experience OR the "almost" second experience ...NEVER...😃
On the contrary ...NOW... .. claiming to have NO MAN in mind...and asking the question for "purely hypothetical" as II "claimed" she was stuttering, shaking, trembling, and gasping for breath.. during the phone call.. and had said YES to the "knock your socks off" comment.. WHY? what had changed from then vs now? Why did she act like her socks had been knocked off NOW? but NOt when it actually happened?
Unless it had happened with someone NOW?
WHO WAS IT? her instinct prodded her something was off yet again...
II had had given her a sliver...she was closest to Vandita... one such sliver had predicted Subbu's actions before😃
What WILL THIS sliver do?😉
Monday...
As expected something had to go wrong on the work front, bugs were detected in a portion (of the customized for "automobile dealership") of the transaction software in the Gurgaon showroom
Her audit of the reports from the legacy systems vs the KMPG installed SW showed various discrepancies...mid week, around Wednesday... the receipts for the entire last week did not match especially in cash based transactions
She alerted Ashwini... and things started going downhill from there...
JUST when they were able to gain Mr Ranjan's support and confidence around the whole project...
Srikanth texted her mid week "Will you be my shopping guide at Delhi Haat one more time?"
"I might have to work Saturday" she did not lie
She wondered was the guy was upto..
"It shouldn't take too long" he promised
"How about Saturday at 11?" she asked reluctantly although polite
"Will be there at the gate at 10:50, the man hung up thrilled
Amma Appa had heard about this from Natesan Mama... HE HAD CALLED TO TELL HIM HE Srikanth wants to hang out some more... Amma and Appa were giddy with joy, like THEY WERE IN LOVE or something..Amma hummed... Appa invoked Lord Krishna randomly... both went unnoticed by II
II was either cursing the IT Gods or invoking Rakshasan...on Rakshasan,
performance eval was coming up in a week and Excelsior was proving to be no shining medal on her lapel
Baldev's boss rated both of them... she rated her team and took it to Baldev, he approved or declined the ratings they argued and disagreed and eventually found common ground
Though she loved people management she HATED the RATINGS PROCESS she was jumpy and unhappy all the while through, it bothered her to be forced to rate people in a curve
She got "directives" from corporate... that had to be adhered to...
While working 60 hours a week on Excelsior she attempted to hand off the Rajouri Garden parts supplier to another team WHILE filling out evaluation forms for the A, B, C,C D on her team
Her own self rating? "Oh I can do that at night"
YA RIGHT!!!
Rating herself instead of think about Rakshasan and his misdeeds? She tried one night, two nights, three nights... she managed to write THREE THINGS ABOUT HERSELF... in the first part of the form... the form went from 1.1 to 9.9...
KMPG employees mocked the system as the "point to point hell"
She found herself looking at the "No" book or the Post It with French words or the Rasam book
For a DENIAL relationship this was a bit much?
Sure!
For a relationship that DIDNT EVEN EXIST.. was she spending inordinate amounts of time tormenting herself?
no clichd symbolisms... no selfies or FB postings or dinner dates, or roses, or gifts like couples dancing in white mist inside a sno globe.. or car rides, or walking hand in hand in Janpath...trying on earrings while he took pictures,
haggling on girlfriend's behalf about an already ridiculously low priced skirt to be all macho showing off cut throat bargaining tactics in the process sending a poor store hand to unemployment ... ALL FOR THE girlfriend😃
he didn't argue chivalrously with her auto wallah, he didn't stand guard near her seat when she sat on the aisle seat in a bus... no cooing on the phone like toddlers (SOME OF HER FRIENDS DID THAT)...no weekend sexcapades at Bijwasan farm houses...😃
She was firm about the fact that he wanted to destroy her life... yet thought of him every minute she was not working...😳
He was just calling her bluff at every step... and acknowledging it with generous overwhelming mind numbing kisses😳
Friday ...
she wound her way to the elevator at 11:45 ish.. with coffee & cookie in one hand and the latest edition of Business India... it had the new RBI Chief Raghuram Rajan on the cover.. she admired him immensely...She would sleep with it under her pillow tonite... and, after memorizing every word he said in the interview👏...She would buy and read up every book he quoted, and look up every data point he referenced... she would DO IT ALL to someday be where he was today😳👏...
lunch hour was approaching... she wandered attempting unsuccessfully to flip to her "idol's" interview page...
a man not too far from the elevator, wearing glasses and dressed very formally...spotted someone he knew... he called her name out...
She turned startled... at first then visibly shocked... she smiled
"SREEE?" she smiled😲😃
A REALLY TALL LEAN GUY was talking to a woman five feet away... in seaweed green cargo shorts and egg shell cream Banana Republic tee turned from the entrance of the Daily Perk watching the tall 20 something girl sprint towards a bespectacled man her height...
SHE greeted him with a WIDE smile and began talking he yanked the ear bud from his left ear to be able to hear the chatter clearly, he didn't understand it but she seemed really happy... she showed him a magazine she was holding and asked him to hold her coffee and cookie while she flipped to some page... he bent to read, she did too and their heads bumped... she rubbed hers.. he reached to rub hers... and he gulped his burning hot coffee burning his insides
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