Saturday, January 23, 2010

To Say or Not To Say

The work burden had fallen on Manya after her boss Preetham took a friday leave to enjoy the weekend with his family. When she had completed the work and was down in the parking lot, it was eight in the night. She was damn tired but still found some energy to instruct the security guard to check the entire office once again. The Security guard put down the novel he was reading and exclaimed in Shudh English, "Madam, There is still a light on in the third floor. I presume someone in accounts is at work."
Manya tried to catch a glimpse of the cover of the paperback, but failed. She and the guard moved towards the third floor to find out who the night owl was.

What they saw brought a smile on their face. A young accounts executive was looking at the computer screen. No he was not looking at some tax computation nor it had anything to do with accounts. It was the photo of a cute young girl around twenty three and the executive was zooming in and out.
Manya cleared her throat, "Doing some eye exercise.... at eight o clock in the night, Mr...."
The embarrassed executive gave his introduction, "Surendar... Surendar Rao... I was just about to leave..." and saying so he directly switched off the power switch without even going through the normal shutdown procedure.

Manya knew how seniors have to sometimes address the concerns of their juniors and it has to be truthful and not like 'How is your mother doing now' immediately followed by, 'Can I have the file by evening on my table'. So she teased the guy softly, "Is the girl on our payroll. I mean are you working out on some final settlement for her? or is it some admission formalities"
Surendra was shy yet he answered her question, "Not exactly. She is not on the payroll of our company. She has definitely captured my heart. Its all just a online relationship. I have not even expressed myself to her for fear of rejection. She lives in the big metro and I in this Small coastal town."
The Security Guard encouraged the young man, "So what? She may be just another girl in big bad city wanting a good boy to love her.It all ultimately comes down to that! You are simply confusing yourself" and he further added, "Online relationship is much better than the 'out of sight is out of mind' sort of relationships"
Manya just went wow with the Guard's answer. But she also felt he was giving her competition and so she cautioned the young man, "All forms of relationship are complex. Whatever one hears or sees or reads must not be believed, because there may be undercurrents which we cannot sense...."

Surendra expressed his concern, "I have been exchanging mails and messages with her for the last five or six months and dreaming of a better tomorrow with her. The feelings in the heart have just remained that...feelings... they have never been expressed through words."
Manya felt that someone has truly said,'Woman often talks outside her head and man inside his head'. She dispensed her advice "Why don't you speak openly with her? I don't believe she is good at telepathy to read your mind. Don't just build a castle in the air. Its just a waste of time."
The watchman again hijacked the argument from her, "If you have built castle in the air, your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them*"

Surendar put his hands up, "Still! Would she say yes? I mean she wants to come up in her field and other than that metro where she can get a good opportunity to excel in her area of expertise and come up in her career. On the other hand, I am a easy going man..."
Manya found that young man was unable to explain his position, "Hmm... Love and planning life can definitely go hand in hand. Think about it? So why don't you think of moving to the big bad city where there is lot of demand for your profession than for software engineers?"
The guard decided to put in his own thoughts, "Its not a big distance to cover. The greatest distance man has to ever cover is the eighteen inches from the head to the heart.**"

By then they had reached the parking area and the Surendar just said 'Ill think about' and went away. Manya asked the watchman, "What do you think, Sir? What decision he has to take ?"
The old man laughed and said, "Do you girls allow boys to take the decisions. Even in a family if man is the head, woman is the neck and it is the neck which turns the head. His head is already turned...."***
Saying so he got back to his book and now the title was clear to Manya. It was Two States. And Manya thought, 'Like the title, so was Surendar.... in Two States of mind.'

*Quote by Henry David Thoreau
** Anonymous quote
*** A Russian saying

12 comments:

Priya Joyce said...

yet another good post!!

relationships are one of the most complex stuffs in this world...
Somehow..we all at one point of life wish to read tat "luvd one's" mind...

If it was a true incident I would have(I do wish) wished he and his girl to be together as he wishes!!

Arjun said...

I haven't read Two States but it shows how accessible chetan Bhagat's books are to all. I suggest you find something about a writer called Surendra Mohan Pathak... the Hindi equivalent of Chetan. His books are read by all .. rickshaw pullers, bus drivers, peons.. everybody!

Suresh Kumar said...

@ Arjun
I will google surendra mohan... but i wud have loved if u had commented on the post also.
I just used the words 'Two states' to mean sumthing more here...the two states of mind... kahu ya na kahu Even I have not yet read the book..

Divya Khanna said...

u said that u write stories around u thru these characters... m sure online love stories are common these days... but yea, its true that love happens in various ways... it can be as strange as Elephant falling in love with Ant :D

Anonymous said...

Wow! good one....:)

Tulika said...

The greatest distance man has to ever cover is the eighteen inches from the head to the heart

True..

Nicely put up.. And its so very apt to today's scenario.

Lena said...

I will second PJ, she perfectly expressed what I think on this one. Nicely written :)

moi said...

two states - did u read it too?? I like the way you put your ideas into the characters mind.

Dawn said...

Nice post as I agree relationships are very complicated and tough to understand at times.
Currently going through a phase where am trying to explain or trying to understand "how they can fall in love with more than one person at a time"

Your post sounded realistic
Cheers

Lena said...

I love the way you use the quotes in your stories. They are always a great fit :)

Prathima Bhat said...

Nice post :) Ya.. Online relationships are something very common these days... But frankly speaking, not all such love stories have won rewards from their parents/relatives...

Not everyone in such relations will b sure that their partner is honest with them...They might not pose feelings while chatting but surely somewhere in the corner of their heart, they do have doubts!!

Suresh Kumar said...

@ PJ
We do read minds usually but as we want to not as they could be

@ Divya
I loved the expression Elephant falling in luv with ant and I do get inspiration from the surroundings and that goes for this one too

@ Anonymous
I wud have loved if u have signed ur name.

@ Tulika
Ty...

@ Lena
thx a lot

@ moi
Not yet.. I am still on the first one 5 point sum1 :)

@ Fiza
a new definition for multi-tasking :)

@ Prathima
One becomes sure of the partner gradually.. when one spends more time knowing one another, gradually the doubts wud be cleared. Thats what I think

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Edhey Thumbi Haaduvenu by CA Suresh Kumar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
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