ONE NIGHT (8 page)

WASG. Now tell please,’ Esha said and wiped her long fingers with a tissue.

‘Well, let’s just say, my mom is the happier person on earth today,’

Priyanka said.

‘No riddles man. Just tell and the story,’ Vroom said.

‘Well, you know my mom and her obsession for an NRI match for her

rebellious daughter.’

‘Uh-uh, Radhika nodded as she ate her milk cake.

‘So these family friends of ours brought a proposal for me. It came from

one of their relatives in Seattle. I would have said no like always. However,

this time, I saw the pictures, which were cute. I spoke to the guy on the

phone—he sounded decent. He works in Microsoft—so is doing well. His

parents are in Delhi and I met them today. Nice people,’ Priyanka said and

paused to break a piece for herself. She could have broken a smaller piece, I

thought, but it was not really my business.

‘And,’ Esha said, her eyes opened wide and starting at Priyanka.

‘I don’t know, just something clicked or what,’ Priyanka said, playing

with her milk cake rather than eating it. ‘They asked for my decision upfront

and I said—yes.’

‘Waaaoooow! Oh wow!’ the girls screamed at their highest pitch

possible. The system guy shook in terror under the table. I told him

everything was fine and asked him to continue. At least everything was fine

outside. Inside, I had a burning feeling, like someone had tossed a hot coal in

my stomach.

Radhika and Esha got up to hug Priyanka as if India had won the World

Cup or something. People get married everyday. Did these girls really have to

create a scene? I wished the phones would start working again so I did not

have to listen to his nonsense.

I looked at my computer screen and saw that Microsoft Word was open.

Angrily I closed all windows with the Microsoft logo on it.

‘Congratulations, Priyanka,’ Vroom said, ‘that’s big news.’

Even Military Uncle got up and came to shake hands with Priyanka.

Grown ups like it when young people decide to get married. Of course, he was

back at his desk in twenty seconds.

‘This deserves more than milk cake. Where is our treat?’ Esha asked.

Girls like Esha hardly eat anything, but still jump around asking for treats.

‘Treat will come guys,’ Priyanka said, her smile taking permanent

residence on her face. ‘I have only said yes. No ceremonies have happened

yet.’

‘You’ve met the guy?’ Vroom said.

‘No, he’s in Seattle. But we spoke for hours on the phone. And I have

seen his picture. He is cute. Want to see the photo?’ Priyanka said.

‘No thanks,’ I blurted out in reflex. Damn, I could not believe I’d said

that by sheer luck, I had not said it loud enough for Priyanka to hear.

‘Huh? You said something?’ Priyanka asked, looking at me.

I shook my head and pointed under the table. Yes, my only focus was to

fix the phones.

‘Do you want some milk cake?’ Priyanka asked and shunted the box

towards me.

‘No, thanks,’ I said and slid the box back.

‘I thought milk cake was your favorite.’

‘Not anymore. My tastes have changed,’ I said. ‘And I’m trying to cut

down.’

‘Not eve n a small piece?’ she asked and titled her head. At some stage

of my life, I sued to find that head-tilt cute, but today I remained adamant.

I shook my head. Our eyes locked. When you have shared a relationship

with someone, the first change is in how you look into each other’s eyes. The

gaze becomes more fixed, and it is hard to pull away from it.

‘Aren’t you going to say anything?’ Priyanka said. When girls say that,

it’s not really a question. It means they
want
you to say something.

‘About what? The phone lines? They’ll be fixed in ten minutes,’ I said.

‘Not that. I’m getting married, Shyam.’

‘Oh really,’ I said, as if this were first time I had heard the news.

‘I just said yes to a proposal today,’ she said.

‘Good,’ I said and turned to my screen.

‘Show us the picture!’ Esha screamed, as if Priyanka was going to show

her Brad Pitt naked or something. Priyanka took out a photograph from her

handbag and passed it around. I saw it from a distance: he looked like a

regular software geek, similar to the guy under our table, but with better

clothes. He stood straight with his stomach pulled in—an old trick any guy with

a paunch applies when he gets his picture clicked. He wore glasses, and had a

super neat hairstyle as if his mom clutched his cheeks and combed his hair

every morning. Actually, she just might have for this ‘arranged marriage’

picture. He was standing with the statue of Liberty in the background,

perhaps to emphasize that he was an NRI match and this better than others.

His forced smile made him look like a total loser if you ask me—like the kind

of guy who never spoke to a girl in college. However, now he was hot, and

girls with dimples were ready to marry him without even meeting him.

‘He’s so cute. Like a little teddy bear,’ Esha said and passed the picture

to Radhika.

When girls call a guy ‘teddy bear’, they just mean he is nice but they

will never be attracted to him. Girls may say they like such guys, but teddy

bears never get to sleep with anyone. Unless of course their moms hunt the

neighborhood for them.

‘Are you okay?’ Priyanka said to me. The others were busy analyzing

the picture.

‘Yeah. Why?’

‘No. just expected a little more reaction. We’ve known each other for

four years, more than anybody else on the desk.’

Radhika, Esha and Vroom turned their hands away from the picture to

look at us.

‘Reaction?’ I said. ‘I’m thought I said
good
.’

‘That’s all?’ Priyanka said. Her smile had left the building.

‘What?’ I said. ‘I’m busy trying to get the system fixed.’

Everyone continued to stare at me.

‘Okay,’ I said, ‘okay, Priyanka. This is
great
news. I am
so
happy for

you.
Okay
?’

‘You could have used a better tone,’ Priyanka said. ‘Anyway, I’ll just

come back,’ she mumbled, and walked away quickly towards the ladies room.

‘What? Why is everyone staring at me?’ I said and everyone turned

away.

The systems gut finally came our from under the table.

‘Fixed?’ I said.

‘I need signal testing equipment,’ he said, wiping sweat off his

forehead. ‘The problem could be outside. Builders are digging all over

Gurgaon right now, some stupid contractor may have dug over our lines. Just

take a break while I come back. Call your manager here as well,’ he said and

left.

I picked up the telephone to call Bakshi. The line was busy. I left a voice

mail for him to come to the desk.

Priyanka returned from the restroom. I noticed she had washed her

face. Her nose still has a drop of water on top of it.

‘Sounds like an easy night. I hope it never gets fixed,’ Radhika said,

knotting ferociously.

‘Nothing better than a call center job if the phones are not working,’

Priyanka said and closed the box of sweets.

‘So tell us more, what is he like?’ Esha said.

‘Who? Ganesh?’ Priyanka asked.

‘His name is Ganesh? Nice,’ Esha said and switched on her mobile

phone. Everyone else followed suit and several opening tones filled the room.

Normally agents could not use cell phones in the bay, but it was okay to do so

now as the system was down.

I had two text messages from Shefali: One wishing me goodnight, and

another one wishing me sweet dreams and a cuddly night. I cringed.

‘Does Ganesh like to talk? Sometimes the software types are real quite,’

Radhika said.

‘Oh yes, he talks a lot. In fact, I might get a cal from him now because

my phone is on,’ Priyanka said and smiled. ‘We’re still getting to know each

other, so any communications good.’

‘You sound
sooo
happy,’ Esha said. Her ‘so’ lasted four seconds.

‘I
am
happy. I can see what Radhika says now about getting a new

family. Ganesh’s mom came home today and gave me a big gold chain. And

she was all hugging me and kissing me.’

‘Sounds gross,’ Vroom said.

‘Shut up, Vroom,’ Esha said. ‘Oh Priyanka, you’re so lucky.’

Vroom sensed that I was not exactly jumping with joy at the

conversation.

‘Cigarette?’ he said.

I looked at my watch. It was 11:30, our usual time for taking a smoke. In

any case, I preferred burning my lungs to sticking around to find out Ganesh’s

hobbies.

#8

Vroom and I went to the call center parking lot Vroom leaned against his

bike and lit two cigarettes with one matchstick. I looked at his tall and thin

frame. If he weren’t so skinny, you’d say he was a stud. Still, a cigarette

looked out of place on his boyish face. Perhaps conscious of the people who

had called him Baby Face before, he always kept a one-day old stubble. He

passed an already burning cigarette to me. I took a puff and let it out in the

cold night air.

We kept quiet for a minute and I was thankful to Vroom for that. One

finally thing guys do know is when to shut up.

Vroom finally spoke, starting with a neutral topic. ‘I need a break man.

Good thing I’m going to Manali next weekend.’

‘Cool, Manali is really nice,’ I said.

‘I’m going with my school buddies. We might ride up there on bikes.’

‘Bikes? Are you buts, you’ll freeze to death.’

‘Two words: leather jackets. Anyway, when did you go there?’

‘Last year. We took a bus though,’ I said.

‘Who all went?’ Vroom said as he looked for a place to flick ash. He

found none. He stepped to a corner of the parking lot and plucked two large

leaves from a tree. We tapped our cigarette on the improvised ashtray.

‘Priyanka and I,’ I said and turned silent. Vroom did not respond either

for ten seconds.

‘Fun?’ he finally said.

‘Yeah, it was great. Apart from the aches from the bus ride,’ I said.

‘Why, what happened?’

‘We took a bus at four in the morning from ISBT. Priyanka was in her

anti-snob phase, so she insisted we take the ordinary slow bus and not the

deluxe fast one. She also anted to enjoy the scenery slowly.’

‘And then?’

Then what? The moment the bus reached the highway, she learned on

my shoulder and slept off. My shoulder cramped and my body turned sore. But

apart from that horrible journey, it was great fun.’

‘She’s a silly girl,’ Vroom said. Letting out a big puff, his face smiling

behind the smoke ring.

‘She is. You should have seen her then. She used to wear all these

beads and FabIndia stuff all the time. And then she’d sit with the truck drivers

and have tea.’

‘Wow. Can’t imagine Priyanka like that now,’ Vroom said.

‘Trust me, the girl has a wild side,’ I said and paused, as her face came

to mind. ‘Anyway, it’s history now. Girls change.’

‘You bet. She’ll all set now.’

I nodded. I didn’t want to talk about Priyanka anymore. At least one

part of me didn’t. The rest of my parts always wanted to talk about her.

‘NRI catch, Microsoft and all. Not bad,’ Vroom continued as he lit

another cigarette. I narrowed my eyes at him.

‘What?’ he said. It’s in my daily quota. It is only my third of five.’ He

exhaled a giant cloud.

‘It’s a little too quick, isn’t it?’ I said.

‘What? The cigarette? I need it today.’

‘Not theat. Priyanka’s wedding. Don’t you think she is deciding too

fast?’

‘Fast? C’mon man, you don’t get matches like this everyday. He is in

freaking Microsoft. As good as they get. He is MS Groom 1.1—deluxe edition.’

‘What is the deal with Microsoft? Good job?’

‘Dude, I’m sure he packs close to a hundred grand a year.’