When Rupali came back to the hall, the doorbell rang. Paritosh opened the door and ushered in a man in his late 30s dressed smartly in a black suit.

“Guys,” Paritosh addressed his students, “This is Mr. Milind Mohan. An old friend of mine. Very busy man. Working for Horizon Group of companies. But he agreed to come here today to meet you all. He is going to head the incubation centre that the Horizon group is setting up in our institute.” The warmth in Paritosh’ voice indicated that Milind must be a good friend of his.

“Ah!” The acknowledgment of recognition was very audible from the students. A stylish building was being built in the campus for the incubation centre and there had been much speculation about what exactly was going to happen there.

“The idea, as you can guess, is to promote entrepreneurship in the campus. I thought it would be a good opportunity to interact informally with the students. My work is yet to start formally,” Milind said.

“I must confess, MM,” Paritosh said, “That it is a very small, and perhaps not a representative group. But there is at least one person who is already excited. What do you say Suhas? Good time to drop the boring Ph. D. and do something more exciting like running your own business.”

Suhas grinned  and shook his head, while everyone else laughed. Rupali, in particular, laughed out so loud that she drew everyone’s attention towards herself.

“Actually, Paritosh, we all could drop our Ph. D. Rupali can work more than all of us combined. Don’t you think so?” somebody in the group joked.

Rupali flushed, but Paritosh laughed. “That she surely can,” he said, “But I have to take pity on my old friend here too. I have known what it is like to make you all work. I can’t saddle MM with the responsibility of turning all of you into something useful in one go.”

More laughter followed. Paritosh didn’t notice Rupali fidgeting when he acknowledged the joke on her doing more work than all others combined. Milind did though.

“So, you are Rupali Banerjee?” he turned towards Rupali, “Paritosh’ co-author in all his recent papers?”

“You are reading my papers?” Paritosh asked, surprised, before Rupali could answer.

“You should know better, Paritosh. Since I was coming here, I looked you and your students up on Internet. And you academicians are very helpful. You always keep your resumes fully updated on your websites.”

“CVs. We call them CVs.”

“Snobs. We call you snobs.” Milind also replied in jest making everyone laugh again.

—

“I don’t agree with you, Dr. Khanna. You can’t give 5 marks to somebody for doing just that,” Rupali was arguing with Paritosh over the marking scheme for the exam of an undergraduate course he was teaching.

“Rupali. They are kids. Second year students. You have to be a bit considerate.”

“It is a course prescribed for them. They should know how to solve these problems.”

“Everyone is not like you, Rupali.”

“Well, your decision is final. But I still disagree.”

“Hello. Looks like I am disturbing,” Milind was at Paritosh’ office door.

“No. You are rescuing me from this Rani of Jhansi. She is preparing to kill me if I gave five extra marks to some poor undergraduate students.”

“Stop making fun of me, Dr. Khanna,” Rupali felt embarrassed on realizing that Paritosh’ friend might have heard their exchange and could not bear to be thought of as a brat by yet another person.

She greeted Milind, “Hello Sir.”

“Sir? Please, Rupali. I am not your professor here. MM. That’s what everyone calls me.”

“Sure,” Rupali smiled and made to leave, “I will come back later, Dr. Khanna.”

“No. Why don’t you stay back?” Milind stopped her, “I have to talk to him. But you should also stay. You guys look as good as married.”

Both Rupali and Paritosh frowned and Milind hastily clarified, “At work I mean. With the fights and all. It’s perfect.”

Paritosh relaxed and even played along with the joke, “I agree to the fight part.” Rupali just fidgeted and smiled weakly.

Milind noticed her reaction, but did not remark on that. He started discussing business, “So, we need some faculty members on-board as advisors in the incubation centre and of course, I want you before anyone else, Paritosh”

“Nepotism much, MM?”

“Do you want me to sing paeans for you? Don’t you have enough people around you doing that already?” he stole a glance at Rupali, but her eyes were glued to Paritosh.

“What do you think, Rupali?” Paritosh asked.

“I think you should go for it,” she replied.

Milind had to suppress a grin as he wondered how spousal that conversation sounded. His earlier joke sounded more true than any of them had realized. Outwardly he said, “And you have an able help in her for your research. So, no harm in trying other things, right?”

Paritosh looked at Rupali who was nodding in agreement. “All right. Sounds good,” he said with a smile, “Do let me know what I am supposed to do there.”

“Let me find some entrepreneurs. Then you can advise them on technology,” Milind grinned.

“It’s time for my class. I will see you later,” Rupali informed them and left.

Paritosh smiled fondly after her.

“What was the fight about?” Milind asked.

“It wasn’t really a fight. She was just being herself. Extreme is usual for her.”

“I see. You are being poetic about it.”

“Arr… Okay. She is the TA – teaching assistant – in one of the courses I am teaching the undergraduates. She wouldn’t agree to a lenient marking scheme.”

“And how do you put up with her if she is always so hyper?”

“She challenges me, but if I disagree she accepts my decisions. I  quite enjoy arguing with her. It’s… I don’t know what word I should use.”

“Intellectually stimulating?”

“Yes. And fulfilling.”

“Good for you, Paritosh. I will get going now. Need to meet more faculty members. And not everyone will be as pliant as you.”

“Good luck, MM.”

—

“Dr. Khanna?”

“Yes, Rupali.”

“My Mom is visiting. I had informed you earlier, right? She wants to meet you. Do you have time now?”

“Definitely. Bring her in. Hello, Mrs. Banerjee.”

“Hello, Dr. Khanna. I have heard so much about you. I just had to meet you.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

“This is my Kaku – I mean paternal Uncle,” Rupali introduced the man accompanying her mother, “Rahul Banerjee. He stays in Delhi. Takes care of the our business operations here.”

“Great to meet you, Mr. Banerjee. Please sit down.”

“Mom. You were thirsty. Shall I get you some water?”

“If you are going to the common room, Rupali, perhaps some tea or coffee as well for our guests?” Paritosh requested.

“Sure, Dr. Khanna.”

“So, you came to Delhi to visit Rupali?” Paritosh started talking to Mouli Banerjee, Rupali’s mother.

“To attend a wedding, actually. In the family. Our relatives stay in Noida. Rupali refused to come for the wedding. She said she was swamped with work. So, I had to come down to meet her.”

“Are you here to complain about that? I never stopped her from going anywhere. In fact, she did not even ask me,” Paritosh pretended to be defensive making his guests laugh.

“I am not here to complain. I am here to thank you. For taming this wild daughter of mine.”

“Taming who? Rupali?”

“Who else?”

“Who can tame her, Mrs. Banerjee? She is the terror of the entire department. The best of our Professors shy away from her questions,” Paritosh replied, smiling indulgently.

“See, Boudi,” Rupali’s uncle spoke this time, “The entire department can’t handle her. And you wanted me to keep her in control in Delhi. I gave up on day one, Dr. Khanna.”

“You are an intelligent man! But on a serious note, she is a fine girl. Why do you worry?”

“I told you, you have tamed her. Has she ever told you that she wanted to leave everything behind to go to Himalayas?”

“No!”

“Once, she had cycled down to the other end of Kolkata. She was very young. She had just been gifted her first bicycle. And Kolkata is a big city, Dr. Khanna. We had all gone berserk, until an acquaintance who recognized her informed us. Another time, we had to bring her back from a group of traveling Sanyasis.” Mouli told him of Rupali’s exploits.

“Wow! Anything else I should know?” Paritosh grinned.

“What are you doing?” Rupali re-entered the room and slammed the tray with water and tea on the table, “Why are you telling these stories to Dr. Khanna, Mom?”

“I am just preparing him–”

“What for? I was a kid, for God’s sake. Do I have to carry the burden of what I did then all my life?”

“It’s okay, Rupali,” Paritosh tried to reassure her, “I’m not taking it seriously.”

“Why are you encouraging them?” Rupali didn’t spare even Paritosh in the heat of the moment, “So that you can prove yet again that I am a brat?”

Mouli and Rahul flushed in embarrassment, but Paritosh just laughed, “Told you, she can not be tamed.”

Finally, Mouli found her voice and reprimanded her, “Rupali. He is your advisor. Is that how you talk to him?”

“Stop preaching. Otherwise, I will actually take off to Himalayas.” Rupali stormed out and Mouli pressed her palm to her forehead in frustration. Paritosh was calm though.

“Mrs. Banerjee. Your daughter is a genius. She needs challenges to keep her hyperactive brain busy. Perhaps there have been times when this genius mind of hers has not been sufficiently occupied with anything constructive. Devil’s workshop and all. Hence, all these absurd incidents.  But she is fully occupied now and is perfectly fine. So, don’t worry.”

“I’m sorry for the way she behaved. I didn’t realize she would react like this. At any other time, she would herself have proudly told everyone how crazy she used to be.”

Paritosh smiled, “It’s okay. She was just being herself. You can’t blame her for that.”

—

To be continued