Episode ei8ht

If you are new to this story, do not start here. Go to the Index and Introduction page.

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'Listen', Warney was assuming charge. 'I'm sure Muthu, and maybe even some others, will try to hit on you in there. Junta are drunk, and you are more popular than you think.'

'Really?', Preeti had been a little reluctant to get back to the party when she was in this kind of blue mood, but Warney had been adamant. But she was already feeling better, and was getting back to her usual sharp, perky self. 'You think I don't know how "popular" I am around here?! I have grown up being "popular" everywhere. I can handle it.'

'I'm sure you can. But at this time, you don't need any of that shit.'

Preeti was silent. He'd made his point.

'We go in there, you stay with me. We'll dance together. I'll make sure no one tries anything silly.' He paused. 'Don't misunderstand me. I'm not trying to be your boyfriend, even if it looks that way to others. I'm just being a friend, and I'm looking out for you.'

Preeti was touched by the consideration the geek was showing, way out of character. 'I know, Deep. In case you haven't realized yet, I trust you. But are you cool with people thinking we're a pair? We won't be able to keep it up very long.' And then you might look silly, she didn't say.

'I don't care right now. You're my friend, and this is what's needed.'

'Besides, I think I'll quite enjoy having everyone jealous of me for once', he added with a big grin a few seconds later.

They went in and danced together, deliberately keeping away from everyone they knew. They looked good together. He started off with some Bhangra, and she matched his moves. Then she led with some salsa-jive-type stuff, and Warney kept up with some improvisations. Soon, they were encircled by people applauding and cheering. They really looked damn good together...

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'Deep, Preeti - both of you please come to my cubicle.' Shubh looked serious, and impatient as usual. Our "couple" had no idea what this was about - they weren't working together on anything, and weren't aware of recent leads. Whatever it was, it was serious and was probably going to mean a lot of pressure for the next few days.

'There's a conference in Singapore - Consumer Banking in Emerging Markets. It's going to be attended by all the big guns from the world over. KVK has been invited to deliver a talk. Since he's going, we all also need to send some good entries for the conference, and hope that 1-2 from ICICI Bank get selected. I want you two to work on one entry.'

Warney and Preeti were taken by surprise, and neither knew what to say when Shubh looked at them.

'Any ideas? Come on!'

Warney spoke after thinking for a minute. 'Shubh, we've recently conducted that survey and I've also done some face-to-face interviews with customers. The big finding was - they don't trust private banks. Even though we offer better products, professional service, higher interest rates, multiple-channel access though high-end technology - they don't trust us with their life savings. They keep some amount with us, which they can easily access through debit cards etc., or to cover their loan repayments, but not the life-savings.'

'So you're saying that's a big challange in developing markets - educating customers and changing their mindset. Interesting.'

'In fact - we could even mention other products. Coca-Cola has had problems in India. People say deodorants cause cancer, shampoo damages hair... but we've adopted cellphones faster than anyone else. So, basically, people don't trust Western concepts. We need to create something new to win here.'

'Excellent! But do one thing - start with this background of how people here don't trust Western concepts. Then talk about the challenges this translates into - for Banks.'

'Right, makes sense.'

'One issue', Preeti spoke for the first time druing the exchange. 'You'e talking only about India. Wouldn't it be better if we could talk about something more general - so that it's relevant to the entire developing world.'

'India is almost half the developing world', Shubh cut her, 'and everyone wants to enter India, if they aren't already here. Others have come, but not been very successful. So, we can talk about India only, and that's enough.'

Preeti didn't look convinced. Shubh thought for a moment, then added. 'Do one more thing. Do some research on other developing markets. Look for anecdotes or publications that talk about similar phenomena there. If we can prove that what's happening in India - broadly - is what's happening in other developing markets also, that solves the problem. Then we can have a detailed discussion about our Indian experiences, and assume that it's relevant everywhere.'

'OK'

'One more thing', Shubh was almost done, and this would be some general gyan.

'This doesn't mean you guys don't have to do your regular work. Business can't be de-prioritized. So, make the extra time for this research. Stay late, or work weekends... whatever. You're young, and this is a good opportunity for you to expand your knowledge.'

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'How do you wanna do this?', Preeti asked Warney, as she always did.

'Jaan le lega yeh humari. I did the survey, so I'll start building some material from there. You can start the desk research on other markets. Tumhara hi idea tha. Ab karo!'

'Come on, karna hi hai to theek se karte hain.'

'OK. Today's Tuesday. Let's work on this whenever we can till Friday, and review on Saturday, aaram se.'

'Done.'

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Warney and Preeti went through all their material and prepared a document to share with Shubh on Monday. It was 4:30 in the evening. They decided to head off to Mocha at Juhu for some well-deserved coffee.

'I want to go the beach', said Preeti just as they were nearing Mocha.

'Ok. Let's do that, then.'

They went up to the edge of the waves and sat down. Warney thought about sitting next to Preeti. He'd done that in Goa, and they were close enough now. But somehow, it felt too "forward", and he settled down about 3 feet away from her. This was perfectly symbolic for the state of their relationship - two of them were together at the beach on a saturday evening with no one around, but sitting 3 feet apart.

Warney's phone rang. It was Charu, his little-sis.

'Hello'

'Bhaiya, Dr. Grewal and his wife were here for lunch. They've just left. Mom and dad were talking about you and their elder daughter.'

'What? What do you mean talking about "me and her"?'

'Shaadi!'

'Are they out of their minds? I'm not ready for marriage yet. I'm working crazy hours, and my boss is still trying to kill me and might succeed. Why'd they want to ruin an innocent girl's life?'

'Stop kidding. They're seriously considering this rishta. If you want out, better prepare your reasons. I think they'll talk to you at night.'

'But that girl's a doctor. And I'm a young banker, which means a slave. We can't live together. Our lives will have totally different directions. And I've only met that girl once - when I was in class 11. What makes them think we can be happy together?'

'I agree. In my opinion, the misfortune of marrying you shouldn't befall ANY woman. But I'm warning you. Be prepared, and be careful.'

'Ok, thanks chhoti'

Preeti had heard most of that, and had an amused look on her face. 'So, Warney's gettin married?'

'No freakin way! I'm just a kid. I'm sure chhoti's kidding.'

'Yeah yeah! Denial!'

'Screw that. I don't even wanna talk about it. So, do you have any siblings?'

'Nope. I'm the apple of my parents' eyes! Spoilt silly.'

'Yeah right. You're one of the most mature and level-headed women I know.'

'Sweety, how many women DO you know? 4? 6?'

'That's mean!'

'Sorry. Well, yeah - I'm a weird combination of spoilt brat and tough-girl. I guess that happens when your parents dote on you, but give you enough independence to learn your lessons outside. College really toughened me up.'

Her phone rang. It wasn't a "saved" number.

'Hello?'.... 'Hiiiiiieeeee!!!'

Preeti turned to Warney and whispered 'Arjun'. Then she got up and walked away, happily chatting away on the phone...

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Continued here

Episode se7en

If you are new to this story, do not start here. Go to the Index and Introduction page.

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Preeti had met Arjun at IIM, Bangalore. They were in the same class, but didn't interact in term 1. Preeti, for understandable reasons, was very popular on campus and had made a large group of friends. Arjun was a serious, studious guy who spoke to few, and was invisble to Preeti.

But Term 2 was an eye-opener for Preeti. Nearly all her 'friends' turned out to be competitive, two-faced pricks with no qualms about putting anyone down for personal gain. All this became apparent after term-1 grades were declared and summer placements took place. They didn't invite her to study groups, didn't give her 'meaty' parts of projects on the important courses, and sucked up to professors in class as well as outside. She landed a 'Day zero' summer placement, but people gave credit to her 'looks and personality', rather than her competence. When confronted, they were rude and callous. She realized that none of them took her seriously as an academic/professional peer, and considered her just a pretty-face who was fun to hang out with. Not amused by any of this, Preeti lost most of her 'friends', even having open fights with a few.

Having learnt her lesson, she started keeping to herself, and only a few friends she really trusted. Her best friend now was Vineet. And a good friend of Vineet's was Arjun. Over the course of the first-year, the 3 of them became inseparable.

In the second year, Preeti was elected to the Placement Committee (placecom). Her life was hell - classes, assignments and placecom work kept her seriously busy for 12-14 hours a day. Hunger and hygiene took up another two hours or so. She slept for an average of 5-6 hours daily, and it was affecting her health badly. The only support mechanisms she had - were her helpful neighbor Vijaylakshmi, and her two friends - Vineet and Arjun. They'd help her with her coursework, remind her to call her parents every few days, get her snacks when she needed, and also force her to take a break and get some sleep every now and then. On the rare occasions she did not have any deadline zooming past, the three of them would just meet in one room, talk about random fun stuff, and get drunk (if Preeti didn't have deadlines to meet the next morning). Vineet was chirpy and childish, and Preeti and he chatted a lot. Arjun was always there, but took the back-seat most of the time. He was the one Preeti turned to when she had something serious to discuss.

In the 5th term, the placecom fell out with the rest of the batch over some allegations. As is typical on such campuses, placecom's methods were a closely guarded secret, and many people were suspicious of them. Everyone knows that placecom has a lot of power, no one knows for sure how 'fairly' they use it, but usually placecom is given the benefit of the doubt because they deliver big promises. 

However, this time some equally-credible people who'd been in the 'war room' team (carefully selected by placecom to assist them during those 3 all-important days), had disagreements with the placecom during the junior batch's summer placements, and had made claims about 'witnessing unfair practices'. This had the whole batch up in arms. It was too late in the year to change the placecom, but lots of questions were being asked in loud voices and nasty tones.

Preeti, under a lot of stress, turned to her two pillars of strength. But one was crumbling. Vineet told Preeti he trusted her, and was going to be her friend no matter what happened, but he also asked her questions about the working of the placecom. He felt, as a close friend, Preeti owed him the answers. Preeti tried to reason with him - their friendship and her placecom role were two different things. She assured him that all allegations were false, and she was a part of placecom because she really believed they'd always done the right thing. She begged him to trust her, and not abuse their friendship to glean information he was not supposed to have. She felt torn between responsibilities as a friend, and a member of placecom. But Vineet didn't let up, and their relationship became strained.

Arjun, on the other had, showed blind faith in her. He had questions too - about the others on placecom. But when it came to Preeti, he just accepted that she would never be part of any wrongdoing, and also respected her decision to not discuss 'placecom matters' with friends she would otherwise trust with her life. That meant a lot to Preeti. Over the year, their relationship became much stronger and deeper than ordinary friendship.

Term 5 ended. Just one term was left now, with only half the normal number of classes to attend, grades not being counted towards final placements, and the entire placecom burden off Preeti (her group had placed all the juniors for the summer, and now the juniors were going to handle her own batch's placements). To celebrate, she, Arjun, Vineet and a couple of others decided to go to Goa for a long weekend.

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'We'd been driving around town the whole morning - drinking beer, buying random little mementoes, eating seafood, and evaluating all the hot firang chicks stutting their stuff. Then we came to this beach in the afternoon, ran around playing some childish games, went on a banana boat ride - and enjoyed ourselves so much we could burst with joy. At sunset, everyone else had gone off somewhere. I was reading some book with my iPod plugged in. I put the book down when the light faded, and I saw Arjun sitting next to me, watching me. I don't know how long he'd been just sitting there - just watching me. He took my hand, and didn't say anything. I didn't say anything either. It was perfect - no words were necessary. Then we kissed.'

Warney was listening. He heard, understood and 'recorded' everything in his head. But he wasn't thinking. It was all just too much for him to handle.

'That wasn't so long back. So, what happened.'

'Well, we were together for a few months. But Arjun wasn't cut out for the rat race. He wanted to do something more meaningful. He's gone to the US for his PhD. We decided it was best for us to part.' 

'But, he'll be back, right?'

'Deep. He'll be back after 5 years at least. We couldn't wait that long.'

'Why not? I mean, you two were in love and happy with each other, right? That's not easy to find. And if your parents and all are OK, you can wait...'

'No. First of all, we are from different communities. The parents would NOT be OK with it. And we've just been together for a few months. That couldn't keep us together for 5 years.'

'Not 5. I have friends who've finished their PhDs in 3'

'It's not that, Deep. 3 is very rare, and he'd also have to find a job. It would realistically take at least 4 years, more likely 5. My parents wouldn't wait that long. Not for a guy they don't like in the first place.'

'How do you know? They might like him. I'm sure they'd care how you feel.'

'No. The community thing was going to be difficult anyway. And with him away for 5 years, there's no chance. They WILL get me married to someone else. And honestly, even if they were OK, we weren't sure our relationship would survive 5 years of separation. Lots of things change in 5 years. People change in 5 years.'

'I can't believe you guys just let it go so easily.'

'Easily? Does THIS look easily to you, moron?'

'You can cry. But the fact is - you guys didn't really take your chances. You just gave up without trying.'

'It hurts. If we'd tried, it would've hurt even more. We just decided to keep the happy memories, and move on.'

Warney called for the bill, a bottle of water, and some tissue paper. Preeti was confused.

'What's all that for?'

'For you. We are going back to the party. And I don't want anyone to think I made you cry!'

'No, I'm not going back there now.'

'Yes, you are. I'm not leaving you like this. You'll just go back to your room, keep thinking about Arjun, and will just depress yourself. I'm not going to let that happen. Ab muh dho aur chalo.'

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(Continued here)

Episode 6ix

If you are new to this story, do not start here. Go to the Index and Introduction page.

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They arrived in Goa on Friday morning, exhausted from the long bus journey. Nobody had managed a good night's sleep, and this was after four tough days at work. There wasn't going to be much respite, as they had to attend 'talks' from senior management post-lunch. The talks ended at 8pm, and after dinner, the five RCLG newbies decided to head to the girls' room (it was bigger than the boys', even though it was for 2 people rather than 3). For a few hours, they bitched savagely about their bosses and the Bank in general, downing more than one bottle of vodka in the process. They also played some card games for an hour. All through the evening, Muthu kept hitting on Preeti. Warney noticed every single time, and also noticed that Preeti gracefully ignored him every time. He was a little annoyed with Muthu, but thanks to the vodka and the generally cheerful atmosphere, it didn't bother him much.

Back in their own room at 1 am, Muthu and Neil made a few lewd jokes about Muthu's 'luhhvv'  for Preeti. Muthu declared that he was gonna flirt a LOT with Preeti at the party on Sat evening. Warney heard all that, but didn't comment. He looked forward to watching this, and was curious to see how Preeti would react when Muthu got in her face. Though he didn't admit it to himself, he really hoped she'd brush him aside ruthlessly, and discourage him from trying again. She was better than this. He was the first to fall asleep.

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'Lets hit the floor, people', announced Neil, and all five of them did. For a bit, they were all dancing as a group, with no one dancing with anyone in particular. Then Muthu asked Preeti for her hand. She danced with him for two songs. Then he started getting close to her, and held her by her waist for a bit. She was visibly uncomfortable, and Warney was boiling. When the song ended, she somehow managed to get away from him and rejoined the group. Muthu backed off for a few minutes. Then, he started turning towards her, and tried dancing with her as if the other three weren't around. Preeti seemed undecided about how she felt. She didn't make any effort to get away from him, but clearly wasn't dancing 'with him'. She looked like she was enjoying herself, aware of Muthu, but not quite with him. Everyone had had 4-5 drinks by then, and Warney was sure she'd give in soon. He was disappointed. He had hoped she'd give Muthu an ice-cold shoulder, but she wasn't doing anything like that. She seemed to be enjoying the attention, and playing just a little hard-to-get. Warney knew how Muthu's mind was working, and was very unhappy about the way Preeti was behaving. 

The music stopped for a few seconds. 'I'm hungry. I want some dessert.', said Preeti, sounding like a 10-year-old.

'I'm sweet, baby. Have me!', came the flirt-attack from Muthu. He made it sound funny, so that it didn't seem offensive or too forward. But Warney knew he wasn't just kidding. Now, Preeti's discomfort became more visible, and Warney felt reassured. She wasn't totally loose or easy after all.

Muthu went to refill his glass with another Bacardi. This was the time.

'It's really warm and stuffy in here. I'm stepping out for a bit.' Warney turned to Preeti, and asked only her, 'You wanna come along?'

'Yeah, sure.' And they got out, without bothering about Neil and Rags. Right now, Warney didn't care what they made of it.

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'Thanks', said Preeti.

'What for?'

'You know what for. Thanks.'

Warney thought for a second, and realized there was no point in feigning ignorance.

'That was over the top, man. I dunno about you, but I was getting irritated for half an hour.', he paused, 'I mean, I assumed you weren't interested...'

'Deep! I'm not that stupid. I knew what he was doing, and FYI - I was NOT interested. But I deal with this all the time. I was just trying not to react and he didn't deserve any more attention. I thought he would back off after some time, when he saw I wasn't interested. But it's true after all - you guys simply DON'T take hints.'

'Don't generalize. That guy's scum. I mean - he's normal, and most guys are like that. But still, you can't generalize to all guys like that. I took the hint and got you out.'

'Yeah, you're a sweetheart. Thanks'

She smiled. He blushed, and gazed into the distance.

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'Can we sit down for a bit? I'm tired, and I want a beer.' Deep wasn't really asking, he was informing her. They sat down just beyond the line the waves had made, facing the sea, and about 3 feet apart. Deep was too shy to sit right next to her. He ordered a beer for himself. She didn't want anything.

No words were spoken for some time. After downing half the bottle, Warney noticed that Preeti was sobbing quietly. He had no idea why she'd started crying, and no idea what the appropriate reaction was. Sitting close to her, beer in hand, all he could think was 'WTF?!', and was distinctly uncomfortable.

'Preeti?'

Nothing. An uncomfortable minute. Still nothing.

'What happened? Talk to me.'

Still nothing. She was crying now. His awkward questions weren't drawing any words from her. Only more tears, and the crying was getting louder. He felt like a deer staring into the headlights of a massive speeding truck 5 yards away.

After two minutes of total cluelessness, he decided to take a step. He moved right next to her, and put an arm around her. She buried her head in his shoulder, and cried freely. He didn't understand it, but somehow this felt a lot better. A couple of minutes passed. She seemed to be regaining her grip over herself.

'What happened? Talk to me.'

Nothing, again. 'Preeti, I won't tell anyone. But you can't be like this. What's bothering you? Tell me!'

'I know! If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't have broken down in front of you. Dumbass!'

She paused for a bit. 'One year back, on this very day, I was right here. With Arjun'

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(Continued here)