by DICE Media
‘If I was your daughter? Really? Isn’t it weird for you to say that considering the things we were doing at 3 a.m. because of which I woke up late?’ The grumpiness on Kavya’s face was now replaced by a naughty smile.
‘Yeah, okay, okay . . . fine,’ said Dhruv, trying to banish the image from his mind. Now that he thought about it, it sounded disgusting.
‘It sounded fine in my head. But when I said it, I too . . .’
He shook his head and realized that they were only wasting time and getting delayed further.
‘Wait! Why am I explaining myself? I am getting late!’ he said, shoving Kavya away from the bathroom door.
As Kavya stood there stubbornly, Dhruv decided to trick her. ‘Fun fact, fun fact, fun fact!’
Kavya looked at him, wondering what he had to say.
‘Do you know, “Daddy” is the most searched keyword on Pornhub? You know what it is in India? Tell me quick!’
‘I don’t know!’
‘Guess, guess . . .’
‘Boob, maybe?’
As she thought about it, Kavya didn’t realize that she had let Dhruv enter the bathroom and close the door. The moment she registered this, she banged on the door angrily.
‘Dhruv!’
‘Bhabhi!’ he shouted back.
‘What?’
‘Bhabhi, sister-in-law, is the most searched-for keyword . . .’
‘Yeah, okay. Thanks for telling me that. Now come out fast, I need to go!’
Just then her stomach rumbled. She decided to prepare some breakfast while Dhruv bathed. She knocked on the door. ‘Would you like scrambled eggs?’
‘Can you make French toast, please?’ he called out over the sound of the shower.
‘No, it takes a lot of time and I need to iron my clothes as well.’
‘I’ll iron your clothes. Please make French toast! It’ll only take two more minutes. It’s Monday and I need an extra boost, Kavya Kulkarni!’
‘Yeah, fine, glutton!’ she gave in. Why had she even bothered to ask?
‘Tamma, tamma loge . . .’ Dhruv sang happily inside the bathroom. He had been singing that song all through the previous day and it was really getting on Kavya’s nerves. Annoyed, she shouted.
‘Stop singing that song!’
Dhruv started laughing at how much it bugged her.
‘It’s stuck in my head too! I need to get it out.’
* * *
Later, as Kavya applied lipstick in front of the mirror, one thing was certain—she was furious. She put on the earrings that Dhruv had given her for her birthday, the ones she loved. But right now her mind was only focused on the rage boiling within her.
Dhruv came in, still humming the song, completely unaware of the trouble he was in.
‘These are really nice, Kavvu,’ he said, taking a huge bite of a French toast.
Kavya whirled around and held up the clothes Dhruv had ironed for her.
‘What is this, Dhruv?’
‘What happened?’
‘This, can’t you see this?’
Kavya pointed to a large burn mark on the sleeve of the shirt he had ironed. ‘Are you blind?’
‘How did that happen?’
‘You should have checked the iron before using it! Now I have to wear this crumpled shirt and go!’
That’s when she saw Dhruv’s dirty clothes and wet towel tossed carelessly across the chair. ‘How many times have I asked you not to leave dirty clothes here?’
Dhruv tried to defuse the situation. ‘Wear something else, Kavya.’
‘I don’t have anything else to wear. Nothing else is ironed. And I’m super late anyway.’ She threw the wet towel at him and stormed out of the room.
‘So selfish, Dhruv! Just finish your stupid toast. Have a nice day!’ With this, she slammed the door and left.
Dhruv turned around and noticed something that made him feel even worse. In her hurry to reach work on time, Kavya had forgotten to eat the breakfast she had made for herself!
2
Kavya got off the autorickshaw and ran across the road towards her office.
‘Oh, Madam!’ someone yelled behind her. Kavya turned to see her autorickshaw driver glaring at her.
‘Oh, shit!’ She’d forgotten to pay him in her hurry. She ran back, apologized and paid the man.
Then she made a dash for it again. A car brushed past her just as she reached the other end. Kavya thanked her lucky stars at being able to get away with the reckless rushing.
Never again will I be late, she promised herself—just as she had done hundreds of times before.
She rushed into the lift of the glass-paned building that was her office. The lift doors had just closed when she pressed the button. They opened again. The people inside stared at her impatiently. Everyone was in a hurry.
‘Seventh floor, please,’ she said, feeling conscious about the fact that her shirt wasn’t ironed.
Minutes later, Kavya knocked on the door of the conference room and entered, her eyes fixed on the floor. For the second time in ten minutes, she felt people’s eyes on her, staring and judging. She adjusted her shirt nervously.
‘Kavya, you’re late again?’ Her boss sounded exasperated. It seemed to be more of a statement than a question. His face reflected a mix of disappointment and anger.
‘Have a seat,’ he said, shaking his head in disapproval as the meeting resumed.
But there was no chair for Kavya and she had to keep standing—like a child sent to a corner to be punished. She felt humiliated as her boss spoke to the rest of the team and she wasn’t included in the discussion. She grew angrier and angrier at Dhruv as she blamed his demand for French toast for her day spiralling into a haphazard mess.
* * *
Meanwhile, Dhruv too was not having the best of days. He needed to get his passport renewed to travel outside the country and complete his research. But bureaucratic red tape and inefficient government officials made this task way more complicated than it should have been. He was still shouting at someone on the phone when he stepped into his office.
‘How many times should I send you the identification documents? I’ve sent them thrice already!’
Akash, Dhruv’s friend and batchmate, was trying to fix his computer and had his head almost inside it. He jumped, hit his head on the computer, and looked up, annoyed.
‘The permanent address is in Delhi. I have already told you this. Please sort it out quickly. Passport renewal should not take so much time. All right, thank you.’
Akash could make out that Dhruv was really upset.
‘What’s up? What’s wrong? Is Uber on surge pricing again?’
‘Don’t start with me, man . . .’
‘Fine!’ Akash said, dropping the topic. ‘FYI, my RAM isn’t working, so I’m busy anyway. Okay?’
‘It’s just been a shitty morning, yaar. First I had a fight with Kavya over a stupid thing. And now this whole passport renewal mess . . .’
Akash dropped all his work and turned towards him.
‘There’s something about girls, no? Saloni is also very weird in the morning . . .’
‘Dude! When will you stop comparing your one-night stands with my two-year-old relationship?’
Annoyed, Akash got up and pretended to look for something.
‘You know what? I have something for you. Where is it? Where is it?’
He put his hand inside the shell of the computer and pulled it out—his middle finger raised.
‘Here it is! Isn’t it yours?’
‘Funny, dude. Very mature,’ Dhruv replied sarcastically, equally mad at his friend.
Akash turned back to his work.
‘Listen, Akash . . .’ Dhruv said. Akash ignored him.
‘Arre, Akash, just listen.’
Akash finally turned around.
‘What is it?’
‘Did you get an email from Stockholm?’
Both of them had applied for a grant there and were awaiting a response.
&nb
sp; ‘Not yet. You?’
‘Nope.’
Dhruv sighed and got down to work.
* * *
In another part of the city, Kavya was battling her own set of issues. Her boss was screaming at her from inside his cabin.
‘Kavya, did you find out why the Eternity Mall guys haven’t replied about the pricing?’
Everyone on the floor could hear him.
‘I’m just following up on that, Sir!’
Kavya frantically combed through her emails but couldn’t find the one she really needed to.
Why can’t I find that stupid email? I swear I sent it!
Kirtana, her colleague and friend who sat next to her, was listening.
‘When did you send it?’
‘Sometime last week. I marked you on the email, didn’t I?’
Kavya looked up to find Kirtana staring at her with a puzzled expression.
‘Kavya, why are you wearing one earring?’
Kavya felt her ears and panicked.
‘Did you drop the other one somewhere?’
Kavya abandoned her search for the missing email and started looking for the earring. She dropped to her knees to look under her desk and on the floor.
‘Shit, shit, shit! I can’t lose these! These are the earrings Dhruv gave me on my birthday!’
Kirtana joined her in the search, but to no avail. Dejected, Kavya started to get up and hit her head against the table. She fell back to the floor, close to bursting into tears. She wondered if this day could get any worse.
The day did get worse for Dhruv . . .
‘The mail from Stockholm is here!’ Akash shouted in excitement. Dhruv reached for his mobile phone and began to scan his inbox.
‘Yes! White chicks, white chicks, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do, when I come for you?’ Akash parodied the Bad Boys theme song while doing a crazy jig. He turned towards Dhruv and stopped abruptly. His eyes on his mobile phone, Dhruv looked pale.
‘What’s up, man?’
‘I didn’t get through.’
Akash had known Dhruv for years. He was easily one of the smartest and most hard-working people he knew—not only in his batch, but in the whole college. It was shocking to think that Akash had got through and Dhruv hadn’t.
‘Yeah, right, don’t bullshit me,’ Akash said in disbelief, grabbing Dhruv’s mobile phone to read the email.
‘I regret to inform you that your paper, ‘The Injectivity of Isometric Numbers’, has not been accepted for presentation at the 27th Nordic Congress . . .’
‘Enough! Stop reading!’
Akash looked sadly at Dhruv’s distraught face.
‘My paper is not getting accepted,’ Dhruv said softly.
Akash wanted to comfort him in some way, but he didn’t know how to.
‘It’s okay, Dhruv, I’m sure we’ll figure something out.’
‘If my paper is not getting cleared, how the hell will I get my degree?’ Dhruv held his head in his hands. Today was just not his day. Just not his day . . .
But it wasn’t Kavya’s either.
‘That does not matter!’ Kavya’s boss shouted at her—for the third time that day, his mood at its worst. And it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.
‘How could you send the client our internal costing?’ Her boss was shocked at Kavya’s blunder.
‘You were supposed to send them the quotes. No wonder they’ve not replied! They’ll come back with some shitty pricing now that they know our costs!’
‘I know, Sir. I must’ve forwarded the wrong attachment.’ Kavya ruefully bit her tongue even as no words escaped her mouth. She felt horrible.
‘This is such a huge order for the company, Kavya. Why couldn’t you have been more careful? What’s happened to you? This is the second time in this month that such a thing has happened. This is some seriously shoddy work, Kavya. Really shoddy!’
‘I’m sorry, Sir. I’m really very sorry . . .’
As they say, when it rains it pours.
Dhruv had been brooding for nearly half an hour when Akash decided to take things into his own hands. He couldn’t bear to see Dhruv so dejected.
‘Dhruv, cheer up, man! It’s no big deal if you didn’t get through. There are so many options out there. There’s Illinois, Ohio, Toronto and so many others!’
‘But those are all the tough options, and you know that. This was the easy backup and even that didn’t work out.’
Akash knew that Dhruv was right. There was no rationale or logic he could use to refute that. So he turned to the easiest and most sure-shot method he knew to cheer a guy up. He went to his cupboard.
‘Let me get you something.’
Dhruv had no patience for whatever Akash was up to. There was tremendous pressure on him and he had to figure out what to do.
‘No, Akash, don’t joke now. I’m not in the mood, seriously.’
‘Wait, wait, wait!’ Akash opened the cupboard. ‘Ta-da!’
In his hand was a half-full bottle of the finest Scotch whisky Chivas Regal had to offer. Dhruv was aghast. Not only was it a very expensive bottle of liquor, but he also wondered how the hell was it in the office.
‘What the—!’
Akash beamed with pride as though he had distilled and brewed the Scotch himself. ‘Look at this beauty! Tantalizing, alluring and tempting golden juice, waiting to trickle down your throat, spreading warmth—the kind that radiates from your stomach and releases all tension and kills all grief!’
Dhruv grinned. It was incredible what a good friend can and will do for you.
‘Only if you were this romantic when it came to a girl, you would’ve found someone who could bear the thought of being with you!’
The tension evaporated and both of them burst out laughing.
‘You’re too much of a miser to buy this bottle, I know that for sure. Where on earth did you steal it from?’ Dhruv asked his friend.
‘I am not a miser, I’m just underpaid. Don’t tell anyone. This is Rao Sir’s special stash that he thinks he’s hidden very well. Whenever I feel low or when things aren’t working out, I sneak this bottle out, pour a bit of it into my coffee mug, mix it with Coke and pretend it’s black coffee—one of life’s easiest hacks!’
Dhruv felt amused. ‘But doesn’t he find out that someone has been drinking from this bottle?’
‘Dude, don’t underestimate how cunning I am, please! I keep refilling it with Coke and water from time to time. This way, not only do I maintain the volume of whisky but also its colour and consistency. Ingenious!’
Akash looked at Dhruv. ‘Come! Let’s have a couple of drinks. We’ll fix your mood.’
Dhruv smiled.
‘You know what? Let’s have biryani! Let me order some,’ Akash added.
‘Yeah,’ said Dhruv, pleased at the thought of food. Life wasn’t going his way anyway.
‘Keema or Afghani?’
‘Any, you’re paying anyway.’
‘Yeah, my treat.’
As much as Dhruv was smiling and playing along with Akash’s attempts at cheering him up, not getting through Stockholm was still gnawing away at his happiness. He was sitting there, still brooding, when his gaze fell on a photo of Kavya on his desk. She was sticking her tongue out and holding up a plate of freshly cut mangoes. Dhruv couldn’t help but smile. Kavya radiated warmth and comfort. As long as she was with him, he felt strong enough to take on any challenge life might throw at him.
And as suddenly as it had come, the heaviness in his heart lifted and the haze in his mind cleared.
‘Listen, Akash, can you please make that three biryanis?’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes.’
‘Okay, I’m ordering the kebabs as well.’
Dhruv’s heart was filled with gratitude. There were still a lot of things worth smiling about . . .
* * *
Kavya was sitting at her desk and wallowing in sorrow and self-pity. There seemed to be nothing that could pull her out of
the slump. Everything seemed to be in vain.
‘Madam, there’s a parcel from Dhruv Sir for you.’ The office boy’s voice jolted Kavya out of her thoughts. She stared at him, still in a daze, then rose and walked slowly to the reception.
The receptionist seemed to have gone for lunch, but a white plastic bag sat on the desk with her name scribbled on it. She opened it to find a plastic box with a note stuck to it:
I know I don’t deserve a gold medal in ironing clothes. But I have a decent track record in gluttony. Sending you some of me, packed in a box. =) Dhruv
Kavya opened the box and was delighted at the sight and fragrance of the keema biryani. Her stomach growled, begging for food. She realized how hungry she was and headed to her desk with the packet.
Halfway, Kavya turned around. If she took the biryani to her desk, she would have to offer it to everyone, and she was in no mood to share Dhruv’s love. Instead, she stepped out to the exit staircase—no one would bother her there.
Kavya couldn’t wait. She was famished. She wolfed down the biryani, her mind focused only on satisfying her hunger. Once her stomach started feeling full, she remembered that she should at least thank Dhruv. She took out her mobile phone and took a selfie, making a face while eating the biryani. She sent him the picture.
Thank you. I really needed this right now. And sorry about the morning. I was rude. Love you! <3
A few seconds later, she received a reply.
It’s all right. You were stressed out. And why aren’t you eating at your table? Don’t want to share your food? :P
Also, Biryani Monster is looking really cute.
Then another message:
And by the way, I did not get through to the Stockholm Conference. Bad day :(
Kavya felt guilty. She had been rude, even yelled at Dhruv for a small mistake and then called him selfish before slamming the door on his face. Yet, he was doing things to make her feel better and special. If anything, he was the exact opposite of selfish. She had to make up for the morning, and fast. Finishing her biryani, Kavya fished out her drawing book and got down to work.
3
Dhruv and Akash lounged in their chairs, leaning back and gazing at the ceiling with their legs propped up on the desk. It had been a splendid afternoon. They had stuffed themselves with biryani and had more whisky than they should have, while gossiping and talking about the good old days, girls, movies and much more.