Episode 17

I am totally enthusiastic today. My life is going well. I feel so great about moving out of my parents' place now. I am at work and nothing can stop me. I am going to hatch it. I am going to achieve it. I am going to make it big. I am high or something. But, I feel so positive.

The day could not have started better. Karthik had called me, rather woken me up and we had a nice chat. He asked me to have a nice day. I came to office and Sukanya had lot of good words to say. I am about to go for a meeting for discussing the system architecture with Sukanya.

'Hey Priya. Let's get to a meeting room', Sukanya arrives near my cubicle. I carry my laptop and follow her.

I enter the room, and she hooks her laptop with the projector and is browsing for some files, making small talk meanwhile.

'So, how are you finding this kind of work?'

'It is interesting. A change from normal development and release cycles.'

'Ya definitely! You seem to have some potential here. I am recommending you for a training and conference on designing, provided you are interested?'

'Ya sure.', maybe this is my calling. She has found the file she was searching for.

'Okay Priya. This is the system architecture I have come up with..'

What? Wasn’t I supposed to do that?

'Sukanya.. I have been working on that too..',  I remind her.

She looks taken aback.

'I don’t think so Priya.', she says.

'But..', I pull up the plan for me and show her the same.

'I think there has been a mistake. What that actually means is to prepare a presentation using what I design and probably do a feasibility check. Normally I do all that, but because of the time constraint…'

'I really thought I was going to work on the whole thing', I say.

Sukanya sits back on her chair and turns towards me.

'How many years' experience do you have? Four? I don’t think anyone would ask a four year experienced person to do full system architecture. You won't have the knowledge not experience to do this. This is not like domain modeling', she says.

Hmph. That may be so. But I am terribly disappointed. I am unable to not show it on my face. All my positive energy is being driven to my disappointment.

'Priya. As I said, I am recommending you for trainings and sessions. You can learn and start working on this…'

I nod my head. I had been looking forward to this. What she says probably makes sense. But I just cannot see beyond my disappointment and a terrible feeling of being let down.

'Shall I go ahead?', she asks. I nod again.

'So we are going for a web service based solution..', she starts and explains the whole thing. I have a lot of questions. We discuss a lot. The meeting goes on for a long time.

'Normally I do my own feasibility or comparative study. This time, I do not have enough time to do it. I have to start on physical architecture, these guys have even asked for a capacity planning, which no one does.'

I note down all the words she mentioned so that I can go and google it. I have no idea what she is talking about. Okay, I get what she means about experience. I wish I knew before and did not make a fool out of myself. Also, tamped down on my excitement.

'Feel free to ask me anything at any time Priya. We have to do this as soon as possible.'

'Sure Sukanya.', I say. I will do it. But, I am still disappointed. What do I know? Of course I can't design an entire system. But still… I could have tried. Well.. No one gives you a project for having tried.

Doing something on my own is much more engaging and interesting. Anyways, I start reading up on the huge load of things Sukanya spoke about in the meeting. Lots, I mean lots of strain on my mad googling skills.

Most of my day goes in all this and I have multiple rounds of discussions with Sukanya. She is a complete workaholic, she doesn’t go to the pantry or the cafeteria for lunch, no tea/coffee breaks either. To add to her work, there were a lot of people coming to her with doubts or questions or requests for help. Phew! No idea how she manages it all. She keeps asking me for status and updates. That is a bit tiring too. I end up slogging with her for a much more time than necessary. I do learn a lot of things from her though. But, did I want to learn all those? May be.

I start from work with Sukanya. She drives a bright red sedan. Sweet.  She doesn’t talk much as she did not know the area I am in and she spends all her time finding a route on the map. We do some small talk and we are really getting into it when my phone rudely starts ringing. I look at her apologetically and answer it, it is from Karthik.

'Hi Pri. Where are you?'

'On the way home'

'Ohh.. So late? Do you still want to go out?', he asks. His voice sounds really tired. Poor fellow.

'Of course not'

'Should I pick up something on the way?'

'You are coming?', I ask, quite stupidly I realize a second later.

'Yup. What do you want?'

'I don’t know. Your choice? Something light though..'

'Sure. You sound tired Priya.'

'I am tired Karthik. But you sound beat'

'See you soon?', he says following a chuckle, which sounds strained too.

'Sure. Bye', he hangs up, quite abruptly, even before I finish the single syllable that makes the word bye.

'I didn’t realize you were married', says Sukanya.

'I am not married', did we sound like a married couple?

'Boyfriend then?'

Hmph. Why does everyone assume he is my boyfriend? It just isn’t fair. I don’t think of him as my boyfriend.

'Yep. Sort of'

'Sort of?', she asks and laughs.

'You live alone?', she asks again.

Do I? Anitha isn’t a permanent roommate. 'Yep. Mostly'. She laughs again.

I hear my own responses filled with indefinites. Yep, I would laugh too.

Out of nowhere, she asks the next question . 'What is the deal with Shan and you? I sense some tension there?'

Uh oh. Do I tell her to mind her own business? How do you say that politely? Especially when the person is dropping you home thereby doing a favor?

'That’s a long story', I tell her hoping she gets the clue. Luckily, she does because she only nods. I have no idea why she asks though. So I ask.

'Why do you ask?'

'Nothing, just seemed like it. Since we are all working together, I asked'.

Hmmm. Okay.

'We are planning on including both of you in a couple of upcoming projects as well..'

'Oh. That’s.. interesting', I say. She smiles.

'So was wondering if the tension is something of a concern', she adds.

Personally? Yes. I am not sure. I mean, he is Karthik's friend. Should I be worried that he probably doesn’t like me?

Professionally? We were fine.

'I don’t think you should worry about us. Work-wise', I inform her.

'Yeah. That is what I am interested in anyways.'

I really hope Shan doesn’t let this become a thing.

We reach my place in sometime. I thank her, wish a good night and get down. She drops me at the gate so I have some distance to walk.

I reach home and I am just refreshed when my door bell rings. Wow, Karthik is quite fast. I go to open the door, I find Karthik, looking as tired as he sounded. He has his laptop and a bag which is probably food. I extend my hand for the food bag and he pops in, smiling, but wordless.

'Karthik, you look tired. You want to freshen up?'

He flops on to the couch and nods. 'Just give me five minutes, I am sure I have to at least wash my face.'

I get a chilled bottle of water from my fridge and give it to him and he gulps water down like I found him in the middle of a desert stranded without water.

'Lots of work?'

He nods. 'Loads. I am to finish something I was working on. '

I suddenly realize we never ever discuss about our work.

'Ohh.. What is it that you are working on?'

Karthik sits up. 'Well.. You know I work for a mobile manufacturer right?'

Ohhh.. I thought he was into robotics or something. No? If indeed he is a boyfriend, I suck as a girlfriend. Since I do not want to advertise the fact, I nod.

'We were working on a new technology. Have you heard of IoT? Internet of Things?'

'Umm.. no.'

'That has to do with introducing intelligent gadgets that automatically connect to internet for doing various things. Something like an air conditioner, which will automatically self-tune based on temperature outside, temperature patterns in your home, whether it is windy, rainy etc and adjust itself without any intervention. Most of the time it connects to the web for its functioning', he pauses, I nod for him to continue, indicating I am getting what he is talking about.

'We are in the process of making a smart phone which will be a central hub to do lot of things like unlock your security system, set the timer on your oven or even unlock you car and it will be IoT based. We have been working on it for more than a year now. This feature was about to be rolled out for manufacturing. In the last round of testing, we found a security issue which we have to address.'

'I thought you were into research.'

'I am into research and development. Anyways, normally, we would take this issue as a new research entity and start working on it. But this time, we want to be ahead of other smartphones and so we are being pushed to address this as part of the same one'.

'Isn't this risky? I mean..', he nods.

'As it stands, we have not found a solution, so we are going to be overworked until we find one at least, then we have to develop it, run it and the cycle would continue', as he spoke, his voice kept dropping, now he speaks almost above a whisper. Poor guy. I reach instinctively and pull my fingers through his hair.

He sighs and relaxes back.

Okay, what should I do now? I continue to sort of stroke his hair. He lets me do it for few more minutes, but then my stomach groans. He snaps out of his relaxed pose, drops my hand gently, stands up and stretches his arms and does a bend forward and backward thing. All this draws my attention to his super broad shoulders and I actually notice how muscular his arms are. I stare at his bunching and stretching muscles in fascination.

I clear my throat to prevent myself from drooling and ask him, 'Do you want to freshen up now?'

'Yes.'

'Okay'. I get up and go into my room, find a fresh hand towel, and beckon him inside. I show him the bathroom and leave him to it.

I go to the kitchen to see what he has brought for dinner. There is veg chow mein and what looks like stir-fried vegetables in Chinese style sauce. Looks like Chinese is his favorite type of food. I clear them from the packaging onto some bowls and carry them out to the coffee table.

I fetch plates, spoons and forks and that is when he comes back. He has folded the sleeves of his shirt till his elbows and unbuttoned the top two buttons on his shirt. I try not to start drooling again. He looks positively yum, tired, but yum.

'Ahhh… the food smells nice', he explains. Yep, definitely a Chinese fan.

He walks quickly to the couch, picks up a plate, fills it and hands it to me. So sweet.

'Thanks', I say, taking the plate from him while he fills his plate. We both sit down together.  I can smell my face wash on him. I find this a very interesting point.

'How did you come back to office today?'

'Sukanya, one of the architects in my team, dropped me'

'You could have called me you know I would have come picked you up. Your office is almost on the way for me'.

'Ohhh.. Did not strike me Karthik.', I say.

He looks at me for a few seconds, shakes his head and continues with twirling noodles onto his fork.

'What?', I ask him. He shakes his head. I continue to look at him until he relents.

'I think I have made progress with you. Then you do something that makes me realize that it isn’t much of a progress'.

'Huh. What did I do now?'

'If you don’t know what it is, there is no point don’t you think?'

Hmmm. I try to play back our talk. Ohhh.. Okay, maybe I got it.

'You mean, I didn’t call you for picking me up?'

He doesn’t say anything.

'I was really very preoccupied Karthik. Would have called else'. I probably would not have, it honestly didn’t occur to me.

Karthik doesn’t say anything again. I wait for a few seconds.

'Eat Priya', he says. Is he angry? I am not sure what his mood is. Since I don’t resume with my eating, he sighs.

'I had a girlfriend you know. Right from my undergrad years until I started working, for a solid six years'.

I had started chewing the moment he started moving his lips. On hearing what he just said, I start choking, a portion of the food having moved down the wrong pipe. I place the plate on the table and start hitting on my head with my hand. Karthik looks at me with a slight amused curve on his arrogant lips.

He offers me water after I all but bang on my head to get the food down the right pipe. I take a sip, 'You had a girlfriend?', I ask, immediately, starting a fresh batch of coughs.

'Yes. She was on the needy side'

'Okay?', I am not sure why he is telling me this.

'You, you don’t even call me when I can do something as easy as picking you up on my way'.

'Okay?', still not sure what his point is.

'I am used to doing things for my girlfriend. I liked doing it. I liked spoiling her'.

I am not irritated. I am not shocked. I am not angry or disappointed. I am feeling something; I am not sure what it is exactly, maybe a combination of all? Maybe something else?

I start eating with earnest, unsure how to respond.

'Priya?'

I do not hear him.

'Are you, jealous?', he asks.

Ohhh… Am I jealous? Girlfriend of six years who knew him in his college days? Probably I am jealous.

'Jealous? Me? No way', I snort for good measure.

A knowing look appears on his face. 'You are jealous', he proclaims.

'Right. I don’t even know who she is, why would I be?', I say, but he continues as if I haven’t said a thing.

'Anyways, what I am trying to say is. I expect you to ask me to do things for you.'

I am not touching that with even a ten foot long pole. I would ask him if I want to or need to.

'What happened? I mean with your girlfriend?'

'I got this job after my post-graduation, but she moved on to go into PhD and she ended up moving to France and long distance never works, something everyone told me, but I refused to believe it until it stopped working', he explains.

Damn. They did not fight and have a huge falling apart? He doesn’t hate her now? I don’t like this anymore and don’t want to know.

'Okay', is my only acknowledgement.

Karthik laughs sounding happy. 'Maybe I have gotten through to you.'

'Let me eat Karthik. I am hungry'

He throws his head back and laughs a lot more. Right.

His phone rings. He checks his display, sighs and picks it up.

'Yes Raghav', I hear him say. 'Oh.. Okay. Give me five minutes man', he says.

What?                                 

'You are leaving?'

'No Priya, I just need to connect from here. Is the wi-fi on?'

'Yes. But you better finish eating.'

'Nope I have to'

' I am not telling you the password until you eat.'

'Okay Ma'am', he says with a smile in his tone and makes a production of eating with humility and exaggerated dutifulness having listened to my direct irrefutable order.

I throw him a dirty look. He eats super-fast. I give him the password. He picks up his lap top, powers it on. After a couple of minutes, he looks up and says, 'Pri. You should go to bed. I think I am going to take a long time with this', doesn’t even listen for my response.

 I clean up the bowls, plates and everything. I spend time facebooking. I try to stay awake as he is still awake, I even doze of on the couch. 

Karthik wakes me up. 'Priya. Go on. Go and sleep. I am going to be here, I can't leave now', he says. I only hear go and sleep which is what my sleep-fogged mind wanted to hear. I nod. I think he kisses me on my right cheek before I get up and go to my room with its single bed and fall on it.

So that is how Karthik ends up staying the night at my place. 

Link to previous episodes : Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3  Episode 4  Episode 5  Episode 6  Episode 7  Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13 Episode 14 Episode 15 Episode 16