“Vikram doesn’t want you working,” her mother said, as if informing her of something new.

“Vikram doesn’t want my daughter alive. What do you advise?”

“A man can lose his temper once in a while. You are supposed to keep this together. But you are hell bent on being stupid, running away from your marriage.”

This wasn’t the first time it had come up. This won’t be the last. But she now had a difficult job to worry about. She wouldn’t spend any more energy on this. She took a decision of not opening her mouth ever again. Before going to bed, she locked herself in the bathroom and cried her frustration out. Then she washed her face and waited until it no longer looked puffed. By the time she went to Kirti – her daughter – to put her to bed, there were no signs of tears left on her face.

—

Siddhartha went over to Neela’s place to pick her up for dinner. But as soon as she entered the car, he knew he wasn’t looking forward to this date. She had sounded interesting when he had first met her. She had talked a lot. And she had a lot to talk about too. But now he realized that it was enough only for one meeting. She never seemed to remember that she had told him a story or talked about a particularly curious opinion of hers on an obscure issue almost every time they had met. Besides, she believed in speaking instead of having a conversation. There was never any time or space for him to talk. And he wasn’t the kind who would talk unless the other person really seemed interested.

Perhaps, he thought as he drove, it was time to admit that he would never have a meaningful relationship. Perhaps the fault was not in the women he met, but in himself. Perhaps he was looking for impossible in a life partner when he didn’t have anything special to offer. Perhaps he should just find a good escort service to take care of his physical needs once in a while and forget about dating and relationships forever. He was getting too old for all this.

His state of mind didn’t matter as Neela continued to talk through dinner. That was expected. The surprising part was when he dropped her back and decided to announce his intention to break up.

“It’s me, really, Neela. I just don’t have time and energy for a relationship right now and it will be unfair–”

“it’s okay, Sid. You don’t need to soften the blow. I expected it.”

“Really?”

She smiled, looking sad, but speaking with ease, “Your reputation precedes you. It had to happen. I am alright.”

“What reputation?”

She chuckled, “That you are commitment-phobic. Anyway, let’s not drag this out. I do hope we can keep in touch. I don’t have any hard feelings.”

“Of course,” he replied, relieved that it had been so quick and easy, “We will keep in touch.”

Reputation? He had a reputation for being commitment-phobic? Is that what he was then? Not someone waiting for the right woman, but just commitment-phobic?

He wasn’t going to keep in touch in any case.

—

Mrinal called Karishma. Siddhartha had sent a contract to Soumen to be reviewed. He wanted it back.

“Was it a soft copy?” she asked.

“No. A hard copy. Must be in his drawer.”

“Okay. I will check it. By when does he want it?”

“Yesterday?” Mrinal chuckled, “I don’t think Soumen would have done any review, and I don’t think Siddhartha is expecting him to. But he keeps pretending that his brother is involved and perhaps hopes that by pretending he would be able to turn it into a reality.”

Karishma knew that Mrinal didn’t mean any harm. He was only jocularly stating what was the truth. But she felt her anger surge. She needed this job. And if her boss was delinquent, she couldn’t possibly have it for long. Mrinal’s joke didn’t sit well with her. She put a lid on her annoyance though and said, “I will see where it is.”

She opened Soumen’s drawer and had no difficulty in locating the contract. The drawer was empty save for those sheets of paper. She picked them up and flipped through them. Soumen hadn’t disappointed anyone. There were no comments anywhere on the contract. It was as clean as a freshly printed one would be.

She picked up the sheets, brought them to her office and threw them on her desk. After staring at them blankly for a moment, she sat down, picked them up and started reading through them.

—

It was a week before Siddhartha could catch Soumen at home during dinner. Sunidhi and their father were there too. He decided to use the opportunity to drop the bomb.

“Sonu,” he addressed Soumen by his pet name, “You have done well reviewing the contracts I have been sending your way recently.”

It didn’t take Siddhartha’s extraordinary skills at reading body language to see that Soumen was startled and confused.

“What are you saying, Dada?”

“I am serious. Your assistant sent those contracts back to me with your comments. You have even marked out grammatical errors in them. That’s some attention to detail. I didn’t think you had it in you. You have surprised me.”

“Oh! Right. Thanks, Dada,” Soumen didn’t want to own up before his father that he was getting praised for something he had no clue about.

“However, you would do better by focusing on the business terms rather than all the little spelling and grammar issues. There are other people to take care of that. If you could sit with me tomorrow, I would go over them with you and that should help you understand.”

Now he was really trapped. But also, curious. So, he agreed.

“I have some time at 11.30 tomorrow morning. I am blocking the calendar for you.”

“Okay, Dada.”

—

At eleven o’ clock, Soumen grew frantic. Karishma was nowhere in sight. And whatever review had gone back to Siddhartha could only be her doing. If he couldn’t talk to her before his meeting with Siddhartha, he would certainly be exposed. He didn’t want that. It had felt good to be praised by his elder brother who had always been too good to be measured up to. He regretted never noting down his assistant’s mobile number. But he hadn’t thought he would ever care.

“Where were you?” he demanded when Karishma walked in five minutes later.

“I.. I just– Did you need something?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in office by 9 ‘o clock?”

“You are never here,” she retorted.

“So what? Are you not supposed to be at work by nine? Why weren’t you? Today I actually needed something and you weren’t here.”

Karishma took a deep breath before replying in a clipped voice, “I was here at nine. But my daughter, whom I leave in the company’s day care, had fallen sick. So, I had to go and see her. I was away for barely fifteen minutes.”

“Your daughter? You have a daughter?”

“Yes.”

“But we are the same age. How can you have a daughter?”

Karishma was getting angrier by the moment. But snapping at Soumen was not an option. This spoiled brat had power over her. She grinded her teeth and spoke with as much calm as she could muster, “What did you need?”

“Right,” he seemed to need a moment to gather his thoughts together. Then he spoke, “Dada had sent some contracts to be reviewed.”

“Eight of them.”

“And he received them back, reviewed. Who reviewed them? Because I sure as hell didn’t.”

Karishma went pale. “Was it–” she gulped, “Bad? Is he angry?”

“No. Apparently it was pretty good and detailed. But who on earth did it? He now wants to discuss those with me and I have no idea what was in them.”

She sighed and opened her drawer. “These are the photocopies of reviewed contracts. You can go through them.”

“You did the review?”

She didn’t respond.

“Of course! You were the nerdy kind even in college, weren’t you? I am sure you enjoy reading pages after pages. But how am I supposed to figure out what was in eight of them in next–” he looked at his watch, “twenty minutes?”

“Shall I explain?”

“Yes.”

When it was time he asked her to accompany him to the meeting. Nervously, she followed him.

—

To be continued