Paritosh had been restless over the weekend. He had scolded Rupali for being unreasonable, but the hurt and disappointment in her eyes haunted him now. ‘It’s not a big deal,’ he kept telling himself, ‘She was indeed being a brat. Besides, she wouldn’t hold a grudge against me. That’s not what she is like.’ But he continued to feel miserable. Several times, he almost dialed her number, but checked himself in time. Calling her made no sense and it would be inappropriate.

Rupali found him doodling on a paper, when she came to his office on Monday morning. “What are you worried about?” she asked, knowing well what the doodling meant.

“Nothing,” he replied with a sigh, “The submission deadline for MT journal is coming close. We need to finish things quickly–”

“I have already run the results through Meteor and have forwarded you the results.”

“You have?”

“Yes. I sent you a mail last night.”

“Looks like I missed it. Let me check.”

“The improvements are quite good. It should get us an acceptance.”

“So it seems,” Paritosh mumbled as he peered at his screen after downloading the file she had sent, “Good. Good work, Rupali.”

“Thanks. Shall I start finalizing the paper?”

“Yes. By when do you think you can finish writing it?”

“Tomorrow afternoon? You will have enough time to review it, I hope.”

“Yes. Ample time.” With any other student, Paritosh would have added at least three to four days to the time they estimated to do the work. But with Rupali he didn’t need to do that. If she said so, she would send the paper the next day. Then he would have until the weekend to review and correct it for the submission.

“Okay then,” she got up to leave.

“Rupali,” he stopped her.

“Yes, Dr. Khanna?”

“Umm… If you see Suhas, can you please ask him to meet me?” Paritosh referred to another Ph. D. student of his.

“Sure. If I see him that is!” Rupali grinned drawing a smile from Paritosh. Rupali and Suhas were two extremes. If Rupali was one step ahead of Paritosh is doing her work, Suhas would often not even see him for weeks.

She made to leave again and was stopped by him again, “Rupali.”

This time, she just looked at him questioningly.

“I am sorry,” he finally spoke, “I was very rude to you the other day.”

“But I thought I had to say sorry,” surprise and confusion were evident on face, “Why are you apologizing?”

“You were just being yourself. I know that very well. So, I shouldn’t have reacted that way.”

“Being myself? You mean I act like a brat all the time? That isn’t much of a compliment,” Rupali smiled sadly.

“You don’t ‘act’ like a brat. You are a brat,” Paritosh chuckled as he said that, “And that isn’t a bad thing with you. Being every thing else that you are, it actually makes you very special.”

“I see. Not that I understand.”

“It’s okay. You are not upset, are you?”

“No. But if you think all that you just told me, why did you get annoyed in the first place?”

“I was not in a great mood. I told you I had come back for some work. I was with one of my Uncles yesterday. He is alone. None of his kids are in India. He is facing some issues related to the land records. You know how messed up those are in our country.”

“Can I help?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean my family is in real-estate business as well. They would have the right contacts.”

“Oh! Thanks, Rupali. But we don’t need to pull that string right now.”

“Fine. But let me know if you need–”

“Sure. If required, I will ask you.”

—

Rupali saw Suhas in the lab later in the day.

“Dr. Khanna wants to meet you, Suhas,” she told him.

“Why? You aren’t writing enough papers for him?”

“I can write papers for him, all right. But he is not the one who needs his Ph. D. You are. And you have to write your own papers.”

“You will make one difficult Ph. D. guide, Rupali. You are more difficult than Paritosh.”

“And how exactly is pulling my leg going to help you?”

“Yaar Rupali. Listen to me. Do you know why I am doing a Ph. D.?” Suhas sat down next to her and spoke in a conspiratorial tone.

“No,” she whispered mimicking his tone, “I don’t know. But I have been wondering about it. Why are you inflicting this pain on yourself, Dr. Khanna, the department and the mankind in general?”

“Because,” he whispered back, “My parents think that Ph. D. is another degree that can help me get a better job and a higher dowry.”

“I see.”

“Rupali. You are my friend, right? Please help me.”

“By writing papers for you?” she raised her eyebrows.

“No. Just ask Paritosh to give me a Ph. D. I promise not to enter academics and inflict any pain on future generation of students. I won’t even take dowry, I promise.”

“Of course, it is that easy. I ask Dr. Khanna and you will get your Ph. D. Why not?”

“If he finds a way to do it without creating any issues, he would be happy to let go of all his Ph. D. students,” another lab mate of theirs chipped in.

“Huh?” Rupali did not understand him.

“Except you, obviously.”

“And he will make do with one student?”

“He hasn’t taken anyone in since you came.”

“You guys are crazy. I don’t think I can work here. I am going to my room.”

“Arr… Rupali… Listen…”

But she picked up her bag and left. Her labmates laughed in amusement.

“What are the names of Sujeet Saxena’s two children?” someone shouted.

“LC Saxena and RC Saxena,” everyone else replied in chorus.

“Why does Rupali Banerjee call her advisor Dr. Khanna?”

“Because ‘unka naam nahin lete’.”

Another round of laughter followed before everyone went back to their work.

—

Rupali, Suhas and other graduate and undergraduate students working with Paritosh were gathered at his house. It was an yearly ritual for Paritosh to invite all his students to his home for dinner. Two of the female undergraduate students had not been able to make it. So, Rupali was the only female student in the group.

After spending some time with her fellow students, she slipped into the kitchen as a courtesy.

“Can I help, Ma’am?” she asked Amrit, who was busy giving instructions to a cook and a maid.

“Don’t bother. You are Rupali?”

“Yes. I was here last year too.”

“Is it? I am sorry. I know your name, of course. But I didn’t remember your face.”

“No issues. You can’t be expected to remember so many names and faces when you meet them only once a year.”

“That’s very sweet of you.”

“Looks like the cook can take care of the stuff here. Why don’t you come out and join us for a bit?”

“No. No. What will I do there? You will be talking about computers and work. You should go back. The food will be ready shortly.”

“Amrit. Can you send some more pakoras–” Paritosh came to the kitchen and stopped in his tracks on seeing Rupali there. “Rupali. What are you doing in the kitchen?”

“She came to help me,” Amrit said appreciatively.

“And you let her do that, Amrit?” Paritosh frowned.

“No, she didn’t,” Rupali hastily intervened, “I am not doing anything here. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t have. I don’t know how to cook all this.”

“You would be used to cooking Bengali food, right?” Amrit smiled encouragingly. She had assumed that Rupali was  embarrassed at her inability to cook. This was her way of coming to Rupali’s rescue.

“She is not used to cooking anything, Amrit,” Paritosh sounded curt to Rupali, “Come out now. You are sweating.”

“All right.” Sometimes Rupali did not understand Paritosh at all. It was within reason if he did not want a guest in the kitchen. But he wasn’t politely while asking her to come out, like he should do to a guest. He was ordering her around. Rupali stole a quick glance at Amrit. She was not affected by this exchange at all. Didn’t she feel bad, Rupali wondered. They exchanged a smile and Rupali followed Paritosh out of the kitchen.

“Why on earth would you go into the kitchen?” he asked her on their way back to the hall, still sounding irritated.

“Why on earth would you make such a big deal out of it? I had come to get water. I though I’d say hello to Mrs. Khanna. Is that a crime?”

“No.”

“And rest assured. I was not made to do anything.”

“I’m sorry,” Paritosh was now mollified and his gentle, dignified manner was back, “I over-reacted. It’s just that… That’s not your place.”

“Now you are being hypocritical. It can be your wife’s place. That is fine by you? But not mine.”

Paritosh sighed, “I didn’t mean it in a derogatory sense.”

“Really?”

“Are you interrogating me?” Paritosh tried to make light of it in an effort to wriggle out of an uncomfortable conversation that he himself was responsible for.

“And you are very successfully evading me.”

“Okay, lady. Ask me directly. What do you want to know?”

“I… I don’t know.” Rupali was suddenly clueless, “I forgot.”

“So, we were fighting just like that?”

“Yes. I guess!”

Paritosh was amused now, “Next time I call you a brat, don’t get mad. You are one. You proved that just now.”

“Right,” she mumbled, feeling slightly disoriented.

“Shall we?” Paritosh pointed towards the door of the hall, where all the other guests were busy with starters and drinks.

“Umm. You go ahead. I didn’t get the water I came in for.”

“Okay. Just don’t start cooking fish,” Paritosh joked and Rupali smiled in reply.

—

To be continued