‘Good! Good!’ said Akash. He slapped Sid on the back and said loudly, ‘Keep it up, young man.’ With a conspiratorial wink and a thumbs-up, Akash finally got up. Sid couldn’t bring himself to return the wink but made up by giving two thumbs-up with a tight smile. As Akash left, he turned back to his computer, allowing his features to melt into a scowl. Asshole, muttered Sid to himself.
As a result of having wasted the first half of his Monday on a presentation that would never see the light of day, Sid was completely caught up after lunch in trying to finish the day’s tasks. When he next looked up it was already 7 p.m.
Just one more email, Sid vowed, and then I’m going straight home. He couldn’t wait to curl up with the television and a mug of cold beer. It had always been his idea of the perfect evening, and today of all days he deserved it.
He finally stepped out of his office to find that it was already dark. Shit. Night driving. Reminding himself silently about which one was the high beam and which was low, he got into the car and drove home, slowly and carefully.
Congratulating himself on having made it home without incident, Sid took the lift up to his eighth-floor apartment and let himself in. He was whistling as he walked in, and the echo made him aware of the unusual silence in the house. Where was Mandira?
Must have made some plan of her own, he thought. Could have at least let me know. Now what was he going to do for dinner?
Dinner! It suddenly came upon him in a flash. Mandira had mentioned something in the morning about dinner. Oh damn it. Dinner tonight was with Vikas and Sunny. She had said 8 p.m. He looked at his watch – 8.30 already. Double damn!
Mandira was really uptight about things like this – even a regular, informal dinner like this had to be treated with military precision. The worst part now was that he didn’t even feel like going – he toyed with the idea of cancelling. He could just say that he was tired and didn’t feel like coming over, that he wanted to watch TV and have some cold beer in the comfort of his own home. Or maybe, he thought, I should pretend I’m really unwell and can’t get out of the house. But he knew that Mandira would end up getting upset with him for not coming no matter what he said.
He sighed heavily and picked up his car keys again. Chalo, he tried to console himself philosophically, there would be television and cold beer at Vikas and Sunny’s too.
And where there was beer, there was hope.
5
Meeting Ms Meenakshi
‘Sid! I really need to discuss your team’s appraisal with you. When will you be able to take out time for me?’ Sid looked up to see Meenakshi leaning over his table, her face unnecessarily close to his. The words were perfectly normal, but her singsong tone, the coquettish tilt of her head, and the petulant expression were blatantly flirtatious. She stopped short of actually pouting her pink lips, but the overall effect was fairly pouty.
He cleared his throat and said, ‘We can discuss it anytime, I never said we can’t.’ He looked confused. ‘Did I?’
Meenakshi threw her head back and laughed. Peals of high-pitched laughter. Sid winced slightly. Usually, he loved bringing about such a reaction, especially in women – he suddenly remembered Aditi’s party where that pocket-sized Coorg-not-Coorgi Bangalorean Neha’s loud laughter had almost hypnotized him. But in Meenakshi’s case, the laughter sounded fake. Also, he noticed for the first time that while her face was quite pretty in a smooth well-made-up feline way, her gums showed too prominently when she laughed, and he found that mildly creepy. Besides, he thought self-righteously, it was clear that she had other intentions. Well, I’m a married man, lady. He patiently waited for her to finish laughing. He would have to be careful not to be ‘Witty Office Sid’ with her. If a simple two-word question could get that reaction out of her, what would happen when he made a real joke? No, no – would have to avoid funny, just stay cool and polite.
Meenakshi finally caught her breath, leaned over him again and said, her voice suddenly changing to throaty and businesslike, ‘Let’s talk now, shall we?’ Sid nodded mutely. In one smooth motion, with a rustle of her green sari, she straightened up and sashayed to the closest conference room, long straight hair swinging slightly. He watched her for a second before scrambling to get up and follow her. He had to admit the woman had style – how had he never noticed before? Well, he was being forced to notice it these days, given her sudden interest in him. But that was only because of his forthcoming promotion and he wasn’t falling for it!
He settled himself down in one of the conference room chairs and leaned back, waiting for Meenakshi to begin. Since Sid hadn’t been able to concentrate much today, he was actually kind of glad about this distraction from the routine. In fact, before she interrupted him, Sid had been staring at his screensaver for a full fifteen minutes. For once, he had been unable to force thoughts of the previous night’s argument out of his head.
Mandira and he had fought late into the night after their evening with Vikas and Sunny. Well, it was she who had fought, really. He had just stayed quiet, while she ranted about what had happened during the evening. Which, as far as he was concerned, was not his fault at all.
Sid sighed, resolving that the next time Mandira suggested they go over to Vikas and Sunny’s, he would refuse. Now they were arguing even in front of other people. It had embarrassed him immensely. What had things come to? They couldn’t pretend to be ‘Happy-Sid-and-Mandira’ for even their best friends any more?
Meenakshi broke into his thoughts momentarily with, ‘I’ve got a summary of your team’s appraisal here in this file, and I want to discuss my thoughts with you so that we can align, and then sign-off together with Akash next week.’
Sid nodded, pretending to be enthusiastic. Meenakshi began, ‘Let’s start with this girl then, shall we? Trupti … You’ve rated her 2.9 … last year she was a 2.5…’ Sid tried to focus, but his mind kept drifting back to the previous night.
To begin with, Mandira had already been annoyed about his being late. He had barged in through the door with a loud, ‘Hellooo … Friends, Romans and Countrymen, lend me your beers!’ Vikas and Sunny had hailed him warmly but Mandira’s lips were a tight line, her greeting a terse and sarcastic, ‘Finally … Mr Agarwal makes his appearance.’
‘Yes, yes, sorry, I got late – had a really tough day at work, yaar,’ Sid said as he sank into his favourite beanbag, positioned right in front of the TV.
‘What happened?’ The sympathetic question came from Sunny. He had always found her a very sweet person and a good listener. She was simple, quiet and homely – not his type, of course. But he often thought Vikas was lucky to be married to such a nice person. It was an arranged marriage, and they made quite an odd-looking pair – Vikas was big and bulky while Sunny was particularly thin despite the two kids she had had years ago.
‘Arrey, yaar … what do I tell you?’ Sid said, addressing Sunny. Vikas rose to fetch him his beer while Sid started to tell them all about his day including the wasted time on the presentation. In the middle of his story, Mandira seemed to lose interest and started to scroll through the messages on her phone, but Sunny continued to listen.
Sid finished telling her about how Akash had been hinting at a promotion for him, and she said, ‘But that’s really something. You’ll be one of the youngest VP’s in the company, right?’
This got Mandira’s attention back and her head snapped up at them, ‘What? You’re going to be promoted?’
‘Well, yes, that’s what Akash was saying could happen soon – nothing’s certain yet. He was just kind of dropping hints today.’
Mandira’s voice was dripping with sarcasm again as she said, ‘Dropping hints? That’s more than you’ve been doing with me, I must say. First time I’m hearing about this move, Mister VP.’
‘Arrey! This happened today. When have we had time to even talk?’ protested Sid.
‘You do know there’s this little device invented some time ago which enables communication over distances? It’s called a
phone, Sid.’
Sid stared at her. Mandira was getting upset about his not having told her yet rather than being happy about the possibility of a promotion itself?
‘Hey, come on, guys,’ Vikas spoke up, laughing lightly, clearly trying to ease the tension. ‘This is good news, isn’t it? Why don’t we all raise a toast to Sid’s move up the corporate ladder?’ He raised his glass. ‘To Sid…’
Sunny raised her glass of juice and Sid raised his beer mug slowly, unable to take his eyes off Mandira. After a second she raised her glass of gin and tonic, saying, ‘To the next “Head of Toilets”. The most glamorous job anyone can ever think of. May you someday rise to the “throne” of chief executive officer!’ She gave a sharp laugh, tossed her head back and gulped down the remnants of her drink.
A few moments of uncomfortable silence ensued. None of the others had brought their own drinks to their lips. Finally, it was Vikas who spoke after a quick glance at Sid’s stricken face. ‘Mandy, that’s not nice.’
Mandy? Sid felt slightly disoriented. Mandira didn’t react; she just kept staring at Sid. Under normal circumstances, Sid knew she would probably have snapped at Vikas – she was proud of her name and never allowed anyone to take liberties with it.
‘Congratulations, Sid – really hope it comes through, you deserve it. You’ve been working so hard,’ said Sunny, in her quiet and sincere manner.
‘Yeah,’ chimed in Mandira, apparently undeterred by the rebuke from Vikas, ‘he works really hard. Really, really hard – his own wife hardly gets to see him, but obviously, it’s well worth it.’
Sid felt the anger rising within him, his ears turning red, but there was no way he was going to fight with Mandira in public, no matter how much she provoked him. So he just quipped, ‘Hard work is always rewarded in my office, but not as much as “hardly working” if you go by my boss’s meteoric rise.’
It was a terrible one but Vikas and Sunny grabbed the opportunity to lighten the tension by bursting into laughter. Mandira tossed her head and ignored it.
‘Oh, by the way, Sid,’ Vikas spoke as soon as their laughter died down, as if eager to ensure no pauses, ‘we were just telling Mandira before you came in – Mom and Dad will be visiting Anamika in the US for the next six months, so we finally get the farm to ourselves again!’
‘Really?’ Sid forced himself to sound excited. ‘Our old party place eh! I still remember your pool party in second year of college – what a disaster…’
Vikas and Sid began to reminisce about the good old days, and Sid was soon in his element, doing most of the talking. Vikas guffawed as Sid described his memories, and Sunny smiled throughout, although Sid suspected she had heard these anecdotes a few times before from Vikas. Mandira went back to playing with her phone, refusing to participate in the conversation.
In fact, she didn’t speak to Sid directly the entire evening. It was only later at night that she broke the stony silence between them as they lay in bed, saying in a quiet tone, ‘So why exactly is it, Sid, that I get to hear of everything that happens with you only when I’m part of an audience? Why would you not tell me first?’
‘Mandira, I told you already, I didn’t get to speak to you before. It was a really crazy day, that’s all. Why can’t you…’
‘… or maybe there’s a reason why you tell Sunny things before me? Now why would that be?’
Sid was rendered speechless. Was that an accusation of some sort? He opened his mouth once but shut it when he saw that Mandira had already turned her back to him and put a pillow on top of her head. Resisting the impulse to pull it off and bop her on the head repeatedly with it, he just lay back and stared at the ceiling for about an hour or so before finally falling asleep.
Meenakshi’s sultry voice cut into his reverie, ‘So what do you think, Sid?’
Startled by the interruption, Sid realized, too late, that Meenakshi had already finished her comments on several of his team’s appraisals. Who were they on now, he wondered, desperately trying to sneak a peek at her papers.
‘Fine, FINE!’ was his reaction, but then he realized that this was too important a discussion to try and bullshit his way through. What if she had disagreed with all of his suggestions for the promotions of his hardworking team members? He felt annoyed with himself – usually, he could block personal matters while at work, but he had failed today. But he couldn’t be unfair to his team, so, with an effort, he dropped his initial pretence and said, ‘Err … Meenakshi – could we, just, perhaps, you know, go over it again? To, you know, realign on what we … aligned?’
Meenakshi gazed at him thoughtfully through her kohl-lined black eyes. She waited a moment and then pushed aside some papers before saying, ‘Siddharth, it may be none of my business, but I am getting a feeling that you’re a bit distracted today – what’s wrong?’
‘Me? Oh no! Fine, FINE – just that I was, you know, and…’
‘I’ll completely understand if you aren’t comfortable talking about it of course.’ She leaned closer – he could smell her perfume. It was kind of flowery and made his nose tickle, but he had to admit it was nice. ‘… but you can trust me as a colleague and a friend. After all…’ she paused meaningfully, ‘… I am a people’s person – being an HR professional … you know.’
Sid glanced down at the table, catching a glimpse of Meenakshi’s arms as he did so. He noted they were attractively slim and white. He found himself murmuring, ‘Well, it’s just that my wife and I have been having a few arguments of late…’ He paused, unsure of why he was telling her this, but she was nodding sympathetically, all attention. Strangely, the scene reminded him a lot of how Kaa, the snake, had looked at Mowgli in the Jungle Book. He could almost imagine her bursting into a hissy rendition of ‘Trussst in meeee, jusssst in meeee’. It unnerved him and he clammed up.
She said, ‘I’m so sorry to hear this, Sid. You know, marital problems are becoming so common nowadays.’ She sighed and continued, ‘I know you probably don’t want to discuss in detail here, but maybe we could go out for a chat? As your HR Business Partner it’s not a part of one’s defined role, but surely we can go for a coffee and talk, just as friends you know?’
Sid looked at her carefully and tried to put as much meaning into his question as possible. ‘Meenakshi, you’re married, right?’
Meenakshi tossed her hair back and said, ‘Of course, I’m married, Sid, have been for twelve years now, I have a seven-year-old daughter as well.’
Sid considered this for a moment and then said, ‘Well, sure … I mean … maybe we can go out and talk, but about general things. – I don’t really discuss stuff like this. I don’t know why I even told you what I told you. It’s really a private matter and…’
Meenakshi put her hand on his arm and he stopped speaking, unconsciously gazing at her slim white wrist on his hairier, only slightly darker skin. Her touch sent a strange chill up his spine and he was only dimly aware of her saying, ‘Sid, don’t worry, anything that you tell me will remain between you and me. I just really want you to know that I feel a certain … connect with you, and I’d like you to know, I’m here for you – whenever you need, in whichever way you need – as a colleague … or just as a friend.’
The words were innocent enough, Sid thought, but it was only when she had withdrawn her hand after giving his arm a light, comforting squeeze that he realized he had stopped breathing. He gulped in some air. She gave him a big smile, revealing a little too much of her gums, again. He had never felt such a strange combination of attraction and repulsion ever before.
‘Okay … yes … thanks, but no, I mean, you know … fine, FINE!’ Sid said helplessly. ‘Can we just go over the appraisals one more time now, if you don’t mind?’
He was determined to concentrate this time, and not get distracted either with thoughts of home or by Meenakshi batting her eyelashes. There she was, doing it again already – batting those long, mascaraed eyelashes at him. With another toss of her long hair over her shoulder, she s
ighed and murmured, ‘Anything you say, Sid.’
She pulled open her file and turned her attention to the papers in it once more, but not before adding in a tone that was particularly suggestive, ‘You’re the boss.’
6
Dinner with Aditi
‘Heyyyy … Buddy-boy!’ Sid stood at the door grinning at Aditi – she would be pleased that he was on time today for dinner. Seven p.m., the lady had said, and it was seven on the dot. So why was she giving him that strange, narrow-eyed look again?
‘What?’ he decided to get aggressive. You had to put these women in their place now and then or they walked all over you. Heavens knew he had learnt that the hard way with Mandira and there was no way he was taking it from Aditi or any other female, for that matter.
Aditi finally stepped back from the door to let him in, and he walked in with a confident swagger. She waited until he had settled on the sofa before saying, ‘We said we would meet at seven p.m. on Friday.’
‘So, it’s seven p.m. now,’ Sid said, indicating, with an impatient gesture, the clock on her drawing-room wall. Silly woman – what was her point?
‘Yes … sweetie.’ She sat down next to him. ‘But today is Thursday!’
Sid looked at her for a couple of minutes. Finally, he said, ‘Shut up!’
‘Arrey Baba, I’m telling you – it’s Thursday today. What’s wrong with you?’
‘Thursday?’ Sid felt disoriented and, moreover, strangely let down. ‘There’s one more day to go in the week? Why did no one tell me?’ He had been looking forward to sacking out on the weekend, doing nothing, and now it was work again tomorrow.
‘People aren’t usually expected to tell you such things, Sid,’ said Aditi with an exaggerated air of patience. ‘Anyway, never mind. Now that you’re here, we can do tomorrow’s dinner today.’
Sorting Out Sid Page 4