On her way to work later in the morning Rupali recalled Partiosh’ advice to her at the time of her appointment to the student counseling forum. He had said that this job was very sensitive and she should take care of her students. But she had been so preoccupied with her own resentment for him that she hadn’t paid enough attention to his advice. She had never intended to ignore her responsibilities, but she hadn’t thought through their gravity either.

She walked into his office for a meeting as they had agreed to do while leaving the hospital that morning.

“Sit down, Rupali. Are you all right?”

The concern in his voice surprised her, “Why are you asking about me? I have been so irresponsible. You should be…” her voice trailed off.

“I should be?”

“You should be scolding me. Throwing me out of the job. May be I should resign.”

“Come on, Rupali. I thought you were more of a fighter than that.”

“Sir?”

“Look. We all make mistakes. That cannot be the reason to give up.”

“You mean you don’t mind me continuing to work here?”

“Continuing to work here? What are you talking about? What makes you think…”

Rupali looked even more embarrassed and did not say anything. So, Paritosh continued, “Look Rupali. Like I said we all make mistakes. But it is important to learn from them and not repeat them. You are intelligent. You understand things. Yes – you have not been the most responsible person. You were not so even as a student.”

Another surprise for Rupali, “You remember things from then?”

“Of course, I do. A teacher always remembers the good students. You would know that now. But the point is this, Rupali. The student days are gone. It’s good to hold on to child-like creativity and innocence even as we grow up. But it’s absolutely necessary to let go of childish immaturity and irresponsibility. I’m sure you understand and will be able to do so, right?”

“I will try my best.”

“That would be more than enough, I’m sure,” he smiled.

—

“Rupa. Is everything all right, darling?” Mrs. Mouli Banerjee had noticed changes in her daughter’s behavior since her return from Kolkata. While finding her room neat and clean unlike earlier had been a pleasant surprise, her unusual reticence during evening tea on a Saturday alarmed her.

“Yes, Mom. Everything is all right. Why do you ask?”

“You are hardly talking.”

“Oh! Work life is boing as a teacher! Nothing interesting happens that one can talk about.”

“Then what are you doing there? Make something interesting happen!”

“I don’t know how to do that. Just getting the students to call me by my name, and not Ma’am, is so difficult.”

“Well. That is ambitious! Did you call any of your professors by name here?”

“No. But they never asked me to.”

“If they ask you to do that now, will you be able to? Some of them are your colleagues now, right?”

“Eh! I don’t know. But the point is they still haven’t asked me to. So, don’t try to trap me, Mommy dear.”

Mouli laughed and so did Rupali; and the melancholy hanging in the air diffused away.

“By the way, Mom, do you remember I had professor named Dr. Paritosh Khanna? I had told you about him. He had taught some of my courses back then.”

“The one who didn’t like you for some reason.”

“Yeah. And guess what!”

“What?”

“I asked you to guess.”

“Come on!”

“He is our HOD now.”

“Really? Is he troubling you? Is that why you have been looking so worried?”

“No. No, Mom. Don’t worry. He is fine now. Actually, quite helpful. Even I was apprehensive initially. But he is all right. Funny, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It is,” Mouli looked thoughtful for a moment, but didn’t say anything about it.

—

“No Problem, Mom. I will take a cab or something. Bye.”

Rupali had returned from a study trip with a group of students. The bus had dropped them at the institute and all the students had gone back to their hostels or home when Paritosh overheard her conversation on phone.

“What happened, Rupali?”

“Nothing, Sir. Our driver had an emergency in his family. So, Mom let him take the car to his village. She had called to let me know that he cannot pick me up. I will call a cab.”

“I will drop you. It’s quite late.”

“You will unnecessarily have to drive into the city and then come back all the way. It’s not needed, Sir. I will take a cab.”

“I have been sitting in my office for last ten hours reading papers. I can do with some fresh air.”

“But…”

“Fresh air? You are not going to deny me that, are you?”

“You are being manipulative,” she smiled.

“Things you have to do for small pleasures in life,” Paritosh said with mock solemnity as they walked towards his car.

It didn’t take them long on the traffic-free roads at that hour and soon they pulled up in front of her home.

“Please do come inside, Sir. Mom would be really happy to meet you.”

“Umm,” he hesitated for a moment, then agreed, “Yeah. Sure. I’d like to meet her too.”

—

“Dr. Khanna. Very nice to meet you, finally. Rupali talks a lot about you.”

“I hope she says nice things.”

Mouli laughed at that and asked him whether he preferred tea or coffee.

“Coffee, I think,” Rupali answered, “I will get some.”

“Don’t bother, Rupali. I don’t need anything. I came in just to meet Mrs. Banerjee.”

“I and Mom would have chatted for a while over coffee anyway. It’s not a problem.”

Mouli engaged Paritosh in some small talk.

“So, Dr. Khanna…”

“Mrs. Banerjee, please call me Paritosh. I can’t claim to be young any longer, but I think I’m young enough for you.”

Mouli laughed pleasantly. Paritosh noticed absent-mindedly that she laughed like Rupali. Rupali looked a lot like her mother too. Except she was taller and also had longer fingers. Probably those came from her father.

Mouli’s voice broke his unintended reverie, “All right, Paritosh. Thanks for reminding just how old I have become. But with a daughter of that age, I cannot hope to hide that. I wish she hadn’t grown up so soon.”

The slight termor in her voice did not escape Paritosh’ attention. He knew that Rupali’s father had died when she was seven years old and her mother never remarried. Mouli’s entire life must have been devoted to her daughter.

“She has grown up fine. You should be proud of her.”

“Slightly immature still, I am afraid.”

“I would call it innocence which is a good thing.”

“You are being nice, Paritosh. But she has told me about all the irresponsible things she has done on the job in a very short time. Thanks for helping her out.”

“She might have exaggerated it. Everyone makes mistakes. Mature people learn from their mistakes and she did.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Rupali walked in just as Mouli was changing the topic of conversation.

“What about your family, Paritosh? Wife? Kids?”

Rupali noticed Paritosh’ discomfort immediately and intervened, “Come on, Mom! Can’t find a less boring topic to discuss than marriage and kids? Don’t become the nosy, old woman.”

Mouli laughed yet again, “Well, Paritosh has declared me to be an old woman just a while back. So, I might as well play the role.”

“Mrs. Banerjee. I really didn’t mean too–” Paritosh was genuinely embarrassed.

“Sir. Don’t fall for her leg-pulling. When she decides to entertain herself at someone’s expense, she doesn’t care that it’s her first meeting with them.”

“Did I ask something inappropriate, Rupa? Is there a problem in his family?” Mouli asked her daughter after Paritosh had left.

“I don’t know, Mom. I don’t know anything about his family. But he looked uncomfortable. That’s why I intervened.”

“That was clever of you.  Thanks for handling the situation.”

“You are welcome, Mom. But you should really not become the nosy, old woman,” Rupali made a baby face and the mother-daughter duo broke into a loud laughter.

—

To be continued