“Sorry, I got late. But where is Kirti?” Karishma panicked to see the caretaker at the day care already on her way out. Kirti spent her mornings at the pre-school, but her afternoons were still spent at the day care. Karishma had stepped out to do her grocery shopping before collecting her daughter and leaving for the day. But the checkout queue had been long, and it was well past the closing time of the day care.

“Don’t worry. Your daughter has a rather dedicated and, I must say, expensive caretaker.”

“What do you mean?”

“She is with your boss.”

“Boss?”

“Soumen.”

Karishma rushed to her office and there they were. Soumen was showing some cartoon show to Kirti on his tablet and the child was rolling over with laughter.

“Kirti!” she called her daughter to draw their attention.

“Mommy. Momen Uncle!” Her pronunciation of Soumen’s name made Karishma chuckle. Then she turned apologetically towards Soumen, “I am so sorry. She must have troubled you so much. You needn’t have–”

“Not a problem. She is a sweet kid. A youtube video was all that was needed.”

His expression surprised Karishma to no end. Until a few weeks ago, this guy couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that someone his age could have a kid. And now he was happily playing with her!

“Thanks! But we won’t bother you any longer. And her screen time must be limited. It’s not good for kids.”

“Oh! I am sorry. I didn’t–”

“No, no. It’s fine. A few minutes is fine. Really.” She shifted her shopping bags in one hand and held out the other one to her daughter, “Come on, sweetheart. Time to go home. Say thanks to Soumen Uncle.”

Kirti obliged her by thanking Soumen.

“How will you go?” Soumen looked at the heavy bags in Karishma’s hands and asked.

“What do you mean how? Just like I always go.”

“Let me drop you. The bags are heavy and the child–”

“I do that every week.”

“But I have a car. So why should you–”

“It’s–”

“Kirti will enjoy it. Won’t you, Kirti?”

“Momen Uncle! Red car!” the child smiled broadly.

“Yep. I have a red car. See?”

“No Kirti. It will be a lot of trouble for him. Come on.” Karishma had seen the red car. It was a fancy convertible, meant for racing, not for carrying groceries and kids!

“I will drop you and this is an order,” Soumen said and picked Kirti up. Karishma had no choice but to follow him. She kept protesting, but he wouldn’t heed her.

Once they reached the car he hesitated for a moment. “There is no child seat in it.”

“That’s fine, Soumen. You don’t need to drop us anyway–”

“Never mind. Will she sit in your lap?”

“Yes. But–”

“Let’s put the bags in the boot.”

—

“How come you are attending a meeting without your able assistant?” Siddhartha said jokingly but was really curious about Soumen attending a supplier meeting by himself.

“She is unwell,” he looked distracted.

Siddhartha himself got worried, “What happened?”

“Viral fever. Apparently, there is nothing to worry, but it will take a few days to recover from.”

“Oh! Sorry to hear that.”

The people they were meeting walked in just then and the conversation was interrupted. Siddhartha saw Soumen struggling to concentrate and knew that although he had not planned to, he would have to lead the meeting. Looking at how paralyzed he was in her absence, Soumen was more of an assistant to Karishma than the other way round!

“I thought you had started liking working, Sonu.” Siddhartha told his brother after the meeting.

“I have. I like working.”

“Then if you want to continue doing so, you can’t depend on Karishma all your life. She is here today, she may not be here tomorrow.”

Soumen looked startled, as if the idea had never occurred to him.

“Even if she stays in the company, she needn’t be your assistant all her life,” Siddhartha added.

“I will see you later, Dada.” Soumen rushed off.

—

“Go to your granny, Kirti. You can’t stay with me. You will fall ill,” Karishma’s mother and the visitor she had escorted heard Karishma’s voice at the door of her room.

“There is someone here to meet you,” the old lady announced as she opened the door.

“Soumen!” Karishma sat up in her bed with difficulty.

“Momen Uncle!” Kirti looked excited too.

The name made her mother realize that it was Karishma’s boss. As much as she hated that her daughter was working against her husband’s wishes, she instinctively had a respect for authority. She fetched a chair for Soumen and offered him water. Then she tried to take her granddaughter away. But Kirti didn’t want to go with her and Soumen interrupted, “Let her be, Auntie. She will stay with me.”

Karishma had absent-mindedly answered Soumen’s enquiries until then. She was growing conscious of the shabby state of her parents’ small house. Although they had two rooms, one occupied by her parents and the other by her, both were a severe compromise in the name of a room. With her bed and the chair Soumen had been offered, there wasn’t enough space left even to close the door. An open cupboard was stuffed with all of hers and Kirti’s possessions. Kitchen items were overflowing into the hall, which also housed dirty laundry. It was all visible to Karishma; but her only relief was that Soumen had his back towards the hall. Not that he wouldn’t have seen it on his way in. What on earth was he doing here?

And she blurted the question out.

“I just wanted to check up on you.”

“I am fine. I just have to wait out the viral. How did the meeting go?”

“Fine, I guess. Dada led it.”

“You could have.”

“I couldn’t, without you.”

Something about the way he said kept Karishma tongue-tied. He changed the topic, “Isn’t Kirti at risk of infection.”

“Yes. But my father is ill and my mother has to be by his sick bed all the time. Kirti doesn’t like it in their room.”

“I could take her to the day care, or pre-school if there is still time.”

“No. Why would you–” It was all getting too much for Karishma. After dropping her home for the first time, he seemed to have figured out that she did her grocery shopping every Wednesday and he would always insist on dropping her home on those days. He spent too much time with Kirti and the child was getting a bit too fond of her Momen Uncle and his red car. It now also sported a child seat. He would normally store the child seat in his boot, but it always came back on Wednesday evenings.

“It isn’t a problem for me and she would be safer there, won’t she? I will drop her back in the evening. On time.”

He was right about that. She would be safer there. Karishma relented and had her mother pack Kirti’s food and toys. But would he come every day and do this?

He did! And while his first visit didn’t seem to have bothered her mother, subsequent ones weren’t as acceptable. She as polite while he was there, but her questioning gaze and sly taunts got on Karishma’s nerves.

Fed up with the tyranny of Soumen’s inexplicable kindness and her mother’s taunts, Karishma tore herself out of the bed before she should have and made her way to the office four days later.

—

To be continued