Notes

The lady lived in a two bedroom flat that laid on the 6th floor of a gigantic apartment that was very common to the city she lived in. She was a confident young lady whose actions had the conviction that surprised the people around her far often than not. But, recently, something had happened that dramatically changed the world around her. Her attempt to face this gargantuan challenge pushed her to the edge of being a pariah…

How well did she fare facing this challenge? Were there any victors in this psychological battle? For the victors, was the victory pyrrhic?

The spliced chapters below might answer those questions.

Chapter 1: The Reprise

The sky was clear without a hint of clouds way before the noon had set reminding everyone it was a peak summer day and the mercury level had already set records for the city which was once called the ‘Garden City’. The gardens had dwindled slowly and painfully over the years as indicated by the sparse chitterings of the birds muzzled by the rumbling tires on the roads. Every nook and corner of the city had been covered with either concrete or asphalt turning it into some sort of a concrete jungle and in one of those corners there stood a lady that morning like she always did.

She stood there with the Sun coppering her face from an angle and she stood there at the edge of the blacktop staring into the monstrous screen of her cell phone which was momentarily stopped by her raising head which first turned left and then right as if she was searching for someone or something. The traffic in front moved oblivious to the thing that was happening there. The search went on until the sight of a white-hatchback forced her to wave her hand to gesture she was the intended pickup. The cab came to a grinding halt, and the number-plate read KA04E1116, the number that made her raise her eyebrows. As she tried to board the cab, the occupants of the car looked at her, and she looked at the driver, the look that informed him enough the door was still locked. The driver did his magic and the door unlocked.

She opened the door with the same hand that held a satchel, which looked heavy, whereas the other hand was busy holding the cellphone. She sat on the rear-side window seat with grace, and her gaze set upon the driver who was busy with his cell phone that laid on a holder hung from the windshield. The next moment he turned back and looked at her-

“Ma’am, can you tell the OTP,” he asked

“It’s 8066,” she replied

“Is it towards Richmond Town?” He asked for which she nodded a little.

The engine buzzed and the cab made a steady pace after an expected inceptive dawdling. She placed her cell phone inside the front pocket of her claret-colored leather satchel which bore a swirl patterned design at its sides and a shiny silver logo to its center. She closed her eyes to take off some strain only to be greeted by the image of the number-plate she’d seen a while ago.

Forthwith her mind drifted to the memories of that day when the moon floated against the backdrop of an asterism considered sacred – which made the day auspicious. It was the day which fell on the second week of November 2016, and it was the day she tied the knot. Oh! The grandeur and ostentation the mere words cannot describe. The D-day itself was preceded by the mehndi ceremony whereby the end of it she was left so jaded that she hardly had the energy to perform in the sangeet that was about to follow. Soon, the noise of the sangeet followed where her cousins and friends in their fancy lehengas and over-the-top makeup danced wild under the moonlight, thanks to the hits of Honey Singh which was occasionally interspersed by the melodies of Arijit Singh to save them for breathing. Before her mind could recollect the events of the D-day she was interrupted by the voice navigation which read “You have arrived at your destination.”

“Cash or Ola Money?” The driver asked as he terminated the trip by swiping a green bar that displayed on his cell phone screen.

“Ola Money,” she replied and got off the car with the same grace she boarded it.

She plodded towards the glass-door of her office one step at a time and her shadow followed in tandem. She stopped briefly in front of the reflective glass-door to check if everything was in place on the outfit she wore. She entered the office and walked towards the elevator as her shoes squashed the tiles second after second and creaked in a pattern. Her office was on the fourth floor and it took fifteen seconds for the elevator to reach there, approximately. The doors of the elevator opened and she stepped into the lobby carrying the satchel on her left shoulder.

Her boss eyeballed as she passed through the aisle and she could feel his watchful eyes even without turning towards the cabin where he perched on his chair. She reached her desk and placed her satchel on it and began to organize the accessories that were on it. There was nothing much to organize as it was already well arranged. She sat on her chair with grace and immediately noticed the table-calendar which was not up-to-date. She tore off the top two pages, crushed it until it turned into a small mass and threw it to the dustbin which stood near the lower right cabinet of the bureau. The date on the calendar displayed 12-NOVEMBER-2018!

Fifteen minutes passed and the desk phone made a thunderous noise which scared her a little and the name that displayed on its tiny LCD screen was of her Boss’, Alok Sharma. She picked up the receiver to answer the call-

“Hello, good morning.”

“Hello, very good morning to you too. Sorry for the short notice, but I need to discuss something important with you–can you come to my chamber immediately?”

“I will–give me two minutes.”

“Oh! Thanks!”

The earpiece made a continuous beeping sound as the receiver on the other end was shut and she placed the one on her end to its accustomed position. She put the file in front, to a stack nearby and made her way to the chamber.

To be continued…