Like any other normal day, I set out from my home to office. My office cab was always on-time, it took me thirty minutes to reach Saltlake, where my office is situated. As I disembarked in front of the gates and lighted a cigarette, I walked past a group of girls. I heard them chirping behind me -
Shruti: "Hey check out that new guy on the block; isn't he handsome?"
Angela: "He sure is, must be in his mid twenties".
"Stop flirting girls", chipped in the more serious Bhavna, "No chance for you, 'heard, he's already engaged and going steady with this pretty girl called Savi".
Angela: "How do you manage to get these informations Bhavna, you idiot".
Bhavna: "Yeah, yeah...call me what you want to, but the bottom line is that you've got 'no chance. I also managed to see Savi's snaps on his mobile, by God, she is good looking. Oh and by the way, your handsome hunk is called Tatya".
I reached the lift, pressed the button, still slightly tensed from the conversation I had last evening with my new Lines Manager. After a three-month training period, I finally managed to clear it all and today was going to be my first day at floor.
"Hi Tatya!! Everybody here, meet your new colleague Tatya", introduced my Lines manager, Gora. I shook hands with Riddhi, Kaushik, Vivek, Rohan, Sampriti, Sagnik and Briti.
Fifteen months have passed since that first day. Today I am the most loved character in the floor. I know the details to everybody's life, I assist them in making important decisions, starting from my Manager to my cab driver, everyone smiles, cares and loves me. Riddhi and Rohan were going together when I had joined, but the scene changed after a few months when a new girl called Sushmita joined office. Rohan and Sushmita are now married. Riddhi is now going around with Sagnik. I sometimes have to keep my mobile switched-off because of the number of calls I keep recieving from these two lovebirds.
Riddhi: " Tatya!! You wont believe what Sagnik did today, he took me out in his new WagonR and was caught by a Police, he didn't even carry his liscence, can you imagine?. If this is the kind of responsibility he has, what will he end up doing post marriage?"
Or, Sagnik : "Hey dude! do something for me yaar, Please call up Riddhi and ask her to come out with me tomorrow. She doesn't want to go out with me anymore, she calls me irresponsible, can you believe it, calls 'ME' irresponsible, I tell you these silly girls, they never understand".
Briti di is one serious and moody character who very seldom speaks. We keep asking her as to why she is still single..she smiles at times and at other times just gives us a cold look. The only person in the floor who is allowed to play jokes on her, is me. Briti di takes serious interest in astrology. She is around 32 years old. She always maintained her stance of remaining single because, she had once gone through a "situation", which would "never be accepted by any man", she used to say. We never asked her about it, she never told us about it as well.
I myself have had a complicated affair with Savi and reach my wits end trying to figure out, what exactly these girls want, although I admit having wronged her in the past and rationalise all her tantrums to that one year of pain and suffering she had to go thorugh because of me. But all said and done, I am a changed person now, Sagnik is right, these silly girls, tch. But I love Savi, I love her a lot. She is all I have ever dreamt my wife would be like. Quiet (that is when she is not screaming), beautiful, docile and submissive, obedient, extremely childish, emotional and my doll.
It wasn't like this always. Things had gone drastically wrong several months ago and I was completely broken down when Savi rebelled to my atrocities one day and said that she was tired of my not being able to commit to her for my a, b, c, d reasons and that she wanted to call the affair off. I realized my mistakes and tried my level best to make it up to her, but by then, she had lost faith.
Briti di had consoled me at that point saying, Savi would one day come back to me and we would be happily married.
Savi and I had a terrible fight few months back and I had lost all hope. I telephoned Briti di and screamed at her telling her not to make crap prophecies. She listened to all that I said very patiently and then came up with her story.
She used to study in a North Indian residential university. The city is situated on the banks of the river Ganges. It is a religious abode for the Hindus. Millions of peole visit the place for various religious purposes. Even its burning ghats are famous for different rituals and occult practices. While in college, she came across this saint( Naga Sanyasi- The Naked saint), who (as she says) had hypnotised her to become his follower and imparted to her the knowledge of astrology. Once the Guru was absolutely sure of her training, he asked her for a sacrifice (Gurudakshina-something a student has to sacrifice or give in the honour of the teacher as the price for his/her teachings). Briti was confused, she had never thought about this before. There was a time, when she even drank undistilled, raw alcohol from the skull of a dead man from the burning ghats nearby with her Guru and His other disciples. She asked her Guru what sacrifice he had to make as a student. He removed his loincloth to reveal his abdomen, and Briti almost fainted when she saw that Guruji had to sacrifice his reproductive organ. He told her that she would have to lose her chastity to one of his followers.
Briti di's voice became very serious over the phone. "Now you know why I say that the person who marries me will have to posess a very big heart?"
I was unable to speak. After a couple of seconds of silence, Briti di spoke again, "If I told you that the two of you would be happy together, then believe me, it will be so. I had to give such a big sacrifice, in order to learn this, i cannot be wrong, my predictions cannot be wrong".
Her existence was mechanical, her voice was a monotone, she never expected anything good to ever happen to her. Then came Sumit da, the way, a hero appears in a hollywood flick. He joined our office as the operations head for a period of one month, within which he proposed marriage to Briti. Sumit was a very jovial character but in no time after having proposed Briti, he became extremely serious. We guessed that Briti must have told him about her shocking past. Within the next one month we received wedding invites from both Sumit and Briti's side. They were getting married - Briti was getting married.
Today, as I look back to the torments our relationship has gone through, I only look up to heaven and thank God that Savi and I are finally getting married in another two weeks time. Briti di was right, Savi is mine and will always remain so in this birth and in all the rest to come.
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