Kuteeram

I just crossed 22 when I stepped out of home leaving mom, dad & my city of life to explore life outside my small world.It was a Sunday morning, when I boarded brindavan to migrate to Bangalore to begin my career life & to live my dreams, bidding half hearted good bye to my home town- Chennai . I didn’t know what surprises life had for me in this new city that I was heading to. My new journey in life began when brindavan departed on that sunday morning from Chennai central. As the train passed by all the stations in Chennai , a kind of unexplainable mixed feelings struck my heart. Partly sad since I was leaving my city of birth, childhood and my city of youth life. But not very sad since I knew that any time I can visit back for the fact that Chennai was only a night journey away from Bangalore. Partly excited because I would be leading an independent life, the way I dreamt it, with no one to say ‘no’ to anything that I wished for, in life.
I packed my dreams & desires along with my scarfs and sweaters the earlier night and spent some time in the portico to get the final glimpse of the place that was living in, standing there leisurely with no worry in the heart & no storm in the brain. Maa kept brooding over while packing rest of my clothes along with some pickles and podis, muttering to herself " children are like birds in the nest. Once we teach them how to fly, they leave us and go", with a pool of tears dripping down her eyes. Dad was watching all this and looked like he was silently in retrospection, unlike mom lying back on his favorite cane chair. That was the last night that I had the authentic feeling that I belonged to my home town. As the train still kept moving all the hoardings and posters printed in Tamil vanished from my sight. Thoughts kept rolling on the crests and troughs along a big wave of memory that splashed on my mind. Since it was a Sunday morning, soon the train became crowded with my South Indian folks occupying every square inch in the compartment. But I was alone in the crowd, totally secluded. Didn’t feel like picking conversation with anyone around. I wanted that silence in my mind to graze things and to introspect for some time. Lucky that I got a window seat to look out and imbibe all that I observed on my way. Looking out of the window, I said to myself ‘ Bangalore’. Yup it wasn’t a new city to me. I have explored it enough with my friends when we were there for 3 long months to complete our final year graduation project work. And I have been to this city on short trips, nearly 4 times for either a vacation or an occasion. But each time it was a different experience with different folks around for different cause. And I thought, this time it would be yet another new long episode but how long ? remained an unknown certainty.
While Brindavan was heading towards its decided destination, I was completely lost in thoughts with people from past life encroaching the mind until my new destination arrived. Once the train reached Bangalore City station, I squeezed out, breathing in some fresh air around. Soon I managed to spot the person waiting with my name printed in black on a white sheet stuck on a wooden plank. I spoke nothing but signaled him through gestures implying, that it was me whom he had been waiting for. And he handed my luggage to the car driver who could speak my language with a mildly tolerable accent. He assumed that I was new to Bangalore and tried to familiarize me with all the roads that the car passed by. And he continued with, where is what in Bangalore and in minutes I was again lost in my thoughts passing by few of the roads that I had taken earlier.
He finally dropped me in the company’s guest house where I could stay for the next two weeks from then, without paying a single penny for my stay, food & my cab journey to the company & back home. The moment I stepped inside the guest house , I found a huge gang of youngsters mostly in their early & mid twenties, dining together in the front hall, quacking in to peels of laughter. They seemed to be enjoying the moment. Before I stepped in to the mansion, I noticed that it had a peculiar name – ‘ Kuteeram ’ inscribed on a rectangular polished black marble tile which I hadn’t stumbled else where. Watching that name, I found myself having stepped in to one of the finest portico I have ever come across which was a perfect blend between the traditional idea of having a portico in front of the house built with the modern architectural outlook. It seemed very pleasing from outside.
As soon as I entered the house I observed that the mansion had a very creative plan, absolutely well lit one and amply spacious. I had indeed liked it. It was a two storied building, a swimming pool in the basement, the way to which was via the spiral stair case from one corner of the long rectangular hall. There was a portico view to the same swimming pool from the other end of the hall. And on the left was a way leading to the kitchen while there were two big rooms on either side of the long hall with amply spaced stone built platform cots which was again peculiar to me but looked more organized. The aesthetic sense of the residence was well maintained. The first & second floor of the mansion had a common drawing room, filled with rooms on either side of it. Drawing rooms on the top floors had a L shaped parapet wall constructed protruding from one side of a wall at about 4 feet from the floor I guess, built with bricks and wooden slabs, and the platform was raised to a height of one foot from the ground which was comfortably cushioned all over and a Television was placed right across this setup. The wall color and the furniture shades blended well with each other that gave an absolute bright look to the rooms. The thin bamboo stripe curtains hung on the open glass windows brought mild sunshine in to the living space giving a typical posh look to the mansion with an undeniable pleasant look. Having a single glance at the entire mansion told me, that somebody’s careful & colorful thought had precisely gone behind the reality of that house.
The girls occupied the left hand side rooms and right side belonged to the boys. The house helped accommodate more than fifty people with an individual cot & an iron cupboard given to each. Kuteeram had a beautiful terrace with plants in mud pots placed along side of the parapet wall and a huge mirror to look at ourselves, especially during the unwinding hours. It had a long dinning area with tables built with black shining marble. And a sloping roof covered with green creepers enclosing the top portion of the entire dining area on the terrace. The impressive terrace again spoke about the colorful thought behind the house having come true. I, in fact met close to 100 people in that guest house in those 3 weeks of stay, some hailing from eastern corner while some others hailing from the southern corners of my own country. I have not had any opportunity before to live with people from the east of India to know them better. I mostly met the Bengal tigers & tigresses and people from the south of India which is where I too hail from. Life went on a perfect fast track for those three weeks of my stay at Kuteeram with lots surprise, joy, happiness & few rich experiences worth imbibing in the heart for a lifetime.I began to master the art of flawless interaction with strangers, without any fear at Kuteeram. I still remember all the striking personalities whom I met there. Sometimes I think about these people, who lived in my life only for a fortnight but how they managed to influence my heart and mind in someway during the course of my life. I met a cute looking newly married, Bengali couple .When I met them in the railway station for the first time, I didn’t know that I would get along so well with them and get to know about the ecstasy lying behind living life on earth through them.
The very next day, at evening 4.30 pm, we were supposed to take the cab provided by the company which first offered me employment, after clearing six rounds of interview in my home town for this no so respected tech support job. We were five of us from the same guest house to be taking the same cab. We introduced ourselves to each other . Three out of the four were Bengal tigers and no tigress to give me company .One among those four happened to be the one from the couple whom I met in the station the earlier day. He liked people calling him Kash though he had a tongue straining Bengali name. Umesh was basically from Assam holding the most pristine assamee look imprinted on his face. And the other two were Partho & Jagan who had a striking cross similarity between them. One was a tamilian spent years in Bengal and the other was a Bengali who grew in Chennai for few years.
All of them knew Bengali except me .Though it was initially hesitant to move with those unknown boys from a strange background speaking some slippery language, in less time I got along well with them. And I never expected that I would miss them badly after two weeks from then, when I left the organization and Kuteeram forever.It was close to a ten minutes drive from Kuteeram to the company campus. Each of them were exploring glimpses of Bangalore sitting inside the cab to know the route while I was watching them all observing things outside with amusement. When the cab reached the company gate, even I was thrilled for a moment. The guard opened the huge gate for our cab to enter the campus. When the gate was just flung open, wow ! I could feel how huge the campus was. All of us were spell bound for a minute to believe that we were in such an unimaginably huge campus which extended in all possible geographical directions without any boundary to the sight. May be bigger than my college campus, I thought.
The cab driver drove via all mazy cemented roads lined with plants kept in pots, while we were peeping out, watching all the huge glass buildings inside the campus. I was told later that this had been the place where they manufactured tobacco years back when the same organization had only tobacco division to its credit in the country. As years passed by, since that being a huge plot in the heart of the city, the tobacco division moved out of the city to prevent pollution in the residential area and it became the ideal site for the same company’s software and IT division. ly amazed seeing how the huge go downs and factory halls were converted in to modern architectures to suite the need and to incorporate the elegant look for the corporate culture. organization had tie up with all major Internet service providers in the world and hence to avoid chaos, there were individual blocks allotted for each of the ISP campaigns. I liked Microsoft block the best, though I was trained on American online software.
We were all still dumb struck seeing the Hi-fi company’s interior and exterior architecture, watching the professionals adding life to those elegant lifeless structures by walking around all the time. They guided us to the first floor of the AOL block. For a moment I felt, I was in some corporate heaven. My eyes spotted the striking captions hung all around the floor. Four out of five of us were in the same campaign. Partho belonged to BTC (British Telecom Campaign) . So we all met only during the long dinner break at 10 pm discussing our day’s experience and what happened in our training for the day. Though we hardly knew each other , we had so much to share during our dinner time explaining to Partho all about our AOL campaign. And Partho would tell us his BT tales elaborating on how he was paired with different girls during each of his training activity and how he enjoyed those moments. For reasons many , we use to envy him assuming that all his tales were true.
Being in AOL was equal fun for those two weeks. We had two trainers assigned to our team. Rajesh,a mallu to train our hands on the technical edge and Balwin, a cross breed of a tamilian & a Punjabi I guess, to train us on our English accent. We were around thirty in the batch. The first day was not that fun, since we had orientations and other formalities to be completed by filling out form after form, not even getting enough time to scan through the faces in the batch & to count the number of handsome guys around. We were kept in the dark hall with no lights on for most of the time, to keep us more focused towards the orientation program than on our batch mates. First day was disappointing in a way. Our fun & frolic began from day two. We spent equal time with Rajesh & Balwin during the first week. With Rajesh we rarely had fun but we enjoyed the way he trained us. He should have been around 26, not very tall but slim and a handsome bachelor with extensive smoking habit. When ever I had seen him out in the campus outside the training hall, he was sure to be with a cigar in between his fingers but personally & professionally he was really a nice chap to us. When Rajesh began with his AOL software tricks and techniques #$%^&* we would look at each other giving him a puzzling look. But soon we would catch up with his Merlin Software and Internet Security stuffs. I seriously wondered, how on earth can some body talk for 5-6 hours continuously without losing energy, not feeling bugged or without slipping out words, absolutely technical and still felt that he had more to tell us but had to stop just because he had to give us our dinner break during the nights.
It used to be our dinner time and time for us to meet our know folks from other campaigns. Great food to enjoy and nice treat to watch for the next one hour. I was mostly fascinated watching couples walking together holding hands in the public, smoking the same cigar& mostly found indulged in some important conversation. How important was that ?, probably they would only know the importance of it and the importance of smoking the same cigar. While I kept watching these amusing scenes, my Bengal tigers get stimulated watching south Indian girls in jeans, with a naughty smile at the corner of their lips signaling things through their eyes which remained indecipherable to me mostly.
Though my Bengal tigers began their discussion in their slippery language, soon they realize my presence, change their language mode to involve me in their conversation and it ends up mostly in laughter pulling Jagan’s leg for no reason. My other batch mates envy us, wondering how come we got along so well in just a day’s time. But I spent some good time with my other batch mates as well. Kash would leave us in some time while at the dining hall to catch up with his newly married wife who was being trained in another campaign called UOL .He was not personally very happy since the time he spent at the campus being in AOL, his wife would be sleeping at home to get ready for her shift which was when kash used to go home to sleep. They in fact looked at each other in light only in the office campus. So we never disturbed them. Though I would feel helplessly sleepy, the thought that it would be Balwin’s session after dinner would bring some life during those odd hours in the night. He brought bundles of happiness along with him all the time, to the training hall. He made his sessions more interactive , fun filled one and at the same time dropped all his messages right in to our brains. But this man had a special corner for me. Since there were only 4 girls in the entire batch, and on the very first day he heard me introduce myself from Chennai, he was more curious to know why did I come all the way from Chennai just to become a tech support agent. And he always addressed me as Miss Chennai, which initially left me in embarrassment, since I knew it was a question of degradation for the original title winners. Soon quite a few in the batch began addressing me in Balwin’s way which I couldn’t help stopping from.
Balwin should have been in his mid forties, tall & dark at the same time, a man with the perfect matured look and deeds .He was highly sensible and he taught me as well, how important it is to be a sensible person in life in just those two weeks which I spent with him. I prefixed all my statements with ‘Sir’ when I interacted with him during the initial days since I truly felt he deserves at least the least respect that I could pay with. But the fact was, we met on the corporate grounds in life. The corporate culture doesn’t encourage paying respect to anyone, even if he be the CEO of the corporate. In fact he would remind me every time I addressed him as ‘Sir’. That was very sweet of him to deny the respect that I showed by my words but sincerely he was a man to be celebrated for his sense and sensibility.
One among the best things that I enjoyed being there was Balwin’s mock call sessions. As support agents job demanded handling customers via telephonic conversations ,we were expected to have undergone the mock call training. Since Balwin found few people like Dominic and Vicky having had a very good corporate profile, he would ask them to handle the mock call sessions during which all the others were supposed to listen to the conversations carefully without any distraction as anytime the calls might be diverted to the person of Balwin’s choice. I still remember how the conversations would get personal very soon skipping the technical existence behind it. And how we would roll on the floor, laughing at the humorous conversations which were believed to be absolutely non essential while attending calls. Balwin himself had once burst out laughing for minutes together with tears rolling down his cheeks. We have had countable humorous mock sessions but the ultimate mock session happened when Balwin chose Dominic to play a customer’s role & Pradeep to play the tech agent’s role. He always chose people from two different corners in the hall so that all others in between stay mentally connected. Dominic was sleek and slim ,with his long streak conditioned hair creeping down his shoulders. Pradeep looked plump and weird sometimes with his unexpected hair style. The conversation that day went like this…..
Pradeep: Goodmorning!.AOL.How may I help you Mam ? slipping words out of his mouth.
Dominic(almost instantly): Sorry to observe that u have a poor hearing capacity.I am not any mam at the other end of ur receiver.
I chuckled silently at the two line conversation.But things weren’t getting any better.While Dominic was irked a bit posing himself as an irate customer to Pradeep, he still was enjoying the absurd conversation that he was involved in.
There was a small pause and then Pradeep continued.
Pradeep: Hello mam, I understand your sensitiveness towards the gender incongruity but I see no point in you getting irked for this straight fact in life which you cannot bury under, for long (with an uncanny smile).
Dominic:Oh yaaaaa …..but when was it the last time when u really looked at yourself in the mirror examining your real self. Can u recollect it ? (still handling things coolly).
Pradeep:I guess that wouldn’t matter to you any way now, u sitting miles across babe.Let me know when u shift to some close proximity .I shall let you know.
Balwin’s face went completely blank and I guess his mind too was. May be thatz why he never interrupted them amidst the senseless conversation that went on. All the others in the batch were having the time of their life trying to laugh in silence with great difficulty until Manash stood up, burst out laughing aloud, roaring ’ Boss, we couldn’t manage anymore and that was really getting wild in the presence of the whole batch’. I remember how the whole batch including Pradeep and Dominic laughed over it non stop for the next 15 minutes watching the clueless expression on Balwin’s face. All that Balwin did immediately was to end the mock session, take a break for himself rushing out of the hall, may be thinking all to himself that he had enough with our batch.
On another day during our accent training session, while in a casual conversation with him, he chose to reveal to us his weekend plan of spending some quality time with his wife who stayed in some town in AP – another south Indian state where his house was and there he had a thick green lush surrounding his house which he and his wife carefully nurtured during their past years. And that he loved to spend all his weekends there with his wife & nature. I knew I would soon miss him just for the kind of person he was to me and to others. By the time our training got over it would be 1 AM in the midnight. As soon as we packed our bags, my tigers would beg me to accompany them to the dining hall to have their mid night snack. Initially I was totally annoyed with this idea of having a midnight snack when all we would be doing next was to board the cab, reach kuteeram and doze off immediately. I couldn’t take a separate cab just for me to reach kuteeram on time. All 5 of us had to be there for the cab driver to put his keys on and push off. I had no other option but to accompany the tigers to the dining hall and keep watching them hogging belpuri, bread sandwich, ice creams and some juice for the night. They would invite me too to join their midnight party but I would keep looking at my watch just to remind them that we need to get back home soon. They would bring me a glass of lime juice to pacify me at the end, which choicelessly I had to gulp down my throat almost on all the days.
They would just unwind in that huge dinning hall at midnight,each in their lovely corners. Kash would pick a glass of badam milk and walk away to the smoking zone which was well planned and aesthetically set the smokers to foo-fy with some visual pleasure as well. He would sometimes call me too there to hold his badam milk and would indulge me in a conversation with him, expecting me to reveal more about myself, my family, my dreams and my aims in life. I had even felt sometimes holding his badam milk in hand in the middle of the night "what am I doing at this midnight narrating him all my stories ?". But it was during those few solitary moments that I actually read him from inside out. He brought happiness in to my life just for the fact of knowing him who he was.A very honest, sincere, caring and an abstractly admirable romantic person which no one might care to figure out until he chose to reveal his intricate nature. They say, it strikes best when your wavelengths match. May be yes. I also knew that I knew him for less than a week. But I had lovely moments with him which I absolutely cherished. He asked me after a silent long pause during one of those dark hours in the night while I was admiring this strangely sweet person who also loved to spend time with me as I did unconditionally, "Dev have u ever fell in love ?. Had ever somebody occupied ur mind and heart at the same time ?" having a deep satisfying puff. Without any pause he continued to look at me and said he & his wife fell in love with each other while at college. Hmm …..that was interesting to listen. So I pestered him little to know more and more about it to fill my databank which I felt might be of use someday .He did not feel bugged to answer to my Q’s instead I did see a blush on his dimple chinned face with a cute little smile when he spoke about chandrani and their clandestine meetings. After some time he said, it was only the month before they both got married just to live together while in Bangalore. And that it was a registered marriage with both their parent’s consent. He also told me that they both wished to leave abroad in a year’s time to pursue their higher studies in their chosen fields. That was adding a glow to his face. While I was listening to him, Partho peeped in to smoking zone, pulled his full hand shirt away from the wrist, showing his watch at us. Yup it was already 1.45 AM and time for us leave else the cab would leave us in the campus and depart.
So we rushed from the cafeteria to the cab area which was around a km long to walk. It was the month of December & the cold was creeping in to my sweater and in to his jerkin, while we took long steps to reach the cab area trembling from inside. Partho disappeared after signaling us in the cafeteria and reappeared on time at the cab area. While we walked kash sent few sms’s from my mobile to his roomie in kuteeram just to keep him awake until we reached there. He also politely informed me to whom he was messaging from my mobile so as to ensure that he was not misusing it.
When we reached kuteeram, all that we would do was to jump out of the cab in that shivering cold, open the door, sign in the register kept on the dining table, climb upstairs and lie flat on the bed spread on the stone cot. That night I didn’t sleep as soon as I lied down. I was just wondering all to myself as how on earth did I stumble upon this gem of a person without searching for one. Soon my thoughts went blank and I went asleep.The next day morning when I was reading the newspaper with a cup of chai in the hand, I saw him dressed up to leave somewhere. When I just looked in to his eyes guessing where would he be leaving, he said a silent "hi" to me with his cute smile raising his brows and waved bye immediately to vanish away from my sight. I plunged my head back in to the newspaper scanning the zodiac column to check how would my day be. Hours passed by and soon it was lunch time. As we gathered in the main hall to have our food I saw kash entering kuteeram. I spoke nothing to him but soon finished my lunch to catch up with kash. I just dropped the plate, washed my hand, rushed myself through the spiral staircase at the end of which I saw him on the first floor watching television, with a puzzled face. I went and sat near him taking the tv remote in my hands. It took a while for him to realize that I was beside him. I hesitantly asked him where he went in the morning and he told me that he and chandrani are planning to move to a new house so that they don’t have to sleep in two different rooms. I could understand his frustration behind pulling a newly married couple apart being in the company’s guest house. I was little disheartened when he said he would move out soon. But immediately I said to myself " Nobody knows how long we would stay here". Officially for two weeks but if we were interested that could go on for how many ever days we personally wished for by paying a huge rent on a daily basis.
That evening I received a call in my handphone from an IT Firm who had contacted me the very next day I landed in bangalore during the current trip, for employment opportunity with them since my profile matched better with IT firms & the software industry. I was totally pleased to receive that call from the company’s HR asking me to report the very next day for an interview at ten in the morning. The joy jar in the heart overflowed as if I received my appointment letter. Soon she hung up ending the conversation politely wishing me all the best.
That day while we boarded the cab, I said to myself "If I clear the interview tomorrow then I don’t need to call myself as a tech support agent & I don’t need to work during odd hours in the night any more". Soon I was in usual conversation with my tigers. We spoke about the weekend that was approaching in a day’s time.They all seemed to be excited to explore Bangalore and to visit brigade on that sunday to get the best out of Bangalore & brigade especially. They were all from bengal & mostly visiting Bangalore for the first time I guess. But from where in a week’s time they gathered information all about the existence of brigade road in bangalore and the specialty of it, I didn’t know. ‘Guys are really fast’, I thought to myself. There was some concert happening in that weekend and they were planning to go not just to watch the concert but in specific to watch some good looking bang babes, which was what I heard from them. They told me all about it and invited me to join them. But my focus was more on the scheduled interview falling the very next day than the week end that was following. That day in Rajesh’s session I hardly listened to his tech talk. I only kept thinking of the interview that would be happening the very next day. The day passed. And it was friday morning. My roomie pulled the curtain up to open the window to let in the sunshine and some morning breeze. I opened my eyes responding to the mild warm sun that shined on my face, giving her a plain look while she wished me good morning. I woke up but was still lying down gazing at the ceiling wondering how my day was going to be.‘ This day might change my professional life forever from now if it’s going to be a good day & if I perform well in today’s interview ’ I thought.My roomie threw a pillow on me, trying to capture my attention, while I could only hear half of the missed lines that spoke. Soon I had my morning tea & breakfast, took my bath and combed my hair and decided not to plait my hair for no specific reason. I put my odni on and checked my wallet for enough cash incase I get lost traveling else where when I needed to reach the place on time. I took my cloth file where I had organized all the certificates of merit & the recently drafted resume of mine along with some photographs, paper clips and a mini stationary in fact. I buckled my sandals and stepped out to reach for an auto. And luckily the auto wala understood my dumblish – dumb signs fused with some english words. He agreed to reach MG Road first and there by he felt he would take me to the right destination once we near the place. Surprising that we didn’t get struck in the traffic jam that morning. He took the right directions & I landed exactly on the right premises on time.
The office premises was very bright and new to look at. While waiting to meet Biju, perhaps the first person whom I met in that digitally ur’s company, I imbibed that bright new December morning in my life sitting in the reception hall wishing for a very good day ahead. He came down in less than 10 minutes with a streak of thin smile on his face. He enquired my well being as we kept walking towards the lift.
Biju was tall, fair & seemed to work out religiously everyday, watching his hard built structure with no flab skin for his age. Following him till the lift I felt from his behind strongly that he could sign some Matrix class of movies, playing Keanu reeves kind of roles which I knew was absolutely inappropriate for the moment to ponder over. We entered the lift & he pressed 4 and while the lift was in its up thrust we were again in a casual conversation. We reached floor 4 and stepped in to the pantry.He asking me to order the drink of my choice. I decided to quench my thrist with some universal solvent, before I could take up the interview. So I fetched some H-0-H in one of those white paper cups kept near the cooler when he filled his huge coffee mug which had three brow raising letters imprinted on it, with some tea. We kept walking, taking small steps on those white tiles on the pantry floor in Asha Arch that morning. Soon he briefed me about the current projects that he was managing and saw my eyes lightening up when he mentioned to me that the company was awaiting for a project from a very renowned news agency firm’s software division in less than 2 months from then. I gulped all the water fetched in my paper cup while he finished the last sip of the tea from his big blue mug. Biju then introduced me to Elan, (a person whom I later believed to be a specialist in extracting the essence out of anyone to create an edible product) when we reached floor 1 by steps, talking on few other things like my stay and food in Bangalore. Elan portrayed to me as a very agile and an energetic person the moment I met him for the first time, carrying the printed sheets of my resume that he triggered a print for. He introduced himself to me once more and in less than no time I found myself sitting in one of the conference hall in Asha Arch that friday morning with Elan right across the table starting to shoot questions one by one, trying to rate my attitude towards learning, communication skills & my potential to grow professionally. Things went well for the next 45 minutes while I lost the fear of being interviewed in less than no time when I felt confident enough to answer his questions.
I felt I gave my best shot that day and never felt nervous or very curious to know "what the future holds for me ?". I was told that I would be knowing all about it on the approaching monday. I reached kuteeram to join my other friends for lunch. It was really a heavenly feeling when I entered kuteeram from outside escaping from the sun. In few minutes I found myself beside Umesh in the dining hall. While I was swallowing my gulab jamun prepared by our cook, I felt like giving my genuine appreciation to her for creating magic with her hands once more, calling her "amma" loudly.
I never knew he would call me back the same way in the cab that evening in his austere assame accent to leave me in embarrassment in Jagan’s presence, who was the only person in the cab who knew tamil other than me.Only Umesh would know, how he assumed for himself that all south indian women could be addressed that way.Umesh made his sincere effort to utter "aammaaa how did u like the dinner today" looking straight in to my eyes when I was absolutely not expecting it. For a moment I was startled not knowing how to react while Jagan burst out laughing and refused to stop at once.
Umesh had no clue why my face was blank and what made Jagan laugh out like that. Partho & Kash were equally clueless as what was happening around. Again umesh asked me "Devi can I not call you as amma.Tell me amma " which was like slipping on the same banana peel twice , when a million eyes focused on you. It took a while for me to come out of the embarrassment and to respond to his statements. But he was quite unhappy knowing that he cannot call me as amma which he relished pronouncing, I guess.
Early in the evening, when I was watching TV with few other tigresses in kuteeram, I realized that it was time for me to go and get ready to leave for the training but I felt extremely lazy to move myself out of the soft cushion. While I was trying hard to change positions, I saw Jagan dressed in his Allen Solley outfit with enough talcum powder on his face, emerging out of his room holding the training material and trying to give me a mild dosage of his awful smile. He was basically a tamil brahmin boy who had to spend years in bengal away from his folks in triplicane - chennai where they were rich in their folk strength for reasons I didn’t really knew. He was perhaps the only guy who kept himself miles away from the others when they opened their cigarette packs and beer bottles, I was told. But once I saw him becoming mildly emotional, when he watched the sky with his palms pointing up, hands slightly raised while his crumbled Nalli polythene cover hanged down his wrist, pleading to his god " Perumalae evva élllan y’en epadi iruka?". I had nothing to comment on his query though I did make a common observation that in Bangalore people smoked and drunk just like having a cup of coffee with a friend, justifying that it was part of the socializing culture & to beat the cold in Bangalore. And I did find some girls taking few puffs when I visited the smoking zone beside the dining hall, which I personally couldn’t acknowledge for reasons many that those girls probably wouldn’t even bother to hear from anyone. Youth in Bangalore lived for the moment and believed in enjoying every moment that they lived without any thought for the future. The idea was appreciable but deriving happiness out of unhealthy habits weren’t that convincing to me. But I kept watching kash lighting his cigars one after the other, without any count on almost all the days that I spent with him. I felt when his own wife had no issues with it, who am I to even speak about it to him.
On friday evening while waiting on the corridor cum balcony for the training hall to be opened, in the first floor of the AOL block, I kept watching the level 2 tech agents attending calls in the ground floor leaning on the steel rods along with my batch mates. This was what they called ‘’ hitting the floor ’’ here, I thought to myself watching the tech agents hitting the keyboard. Once we were certified after the training program, they have coined this phrase ‘ u hit the floor’. I asked my self in a mild whisper, "will I I hit the floor or will I hit something else ?".And Jagan saw me muttering under my breath and asked me how my interview was in the morning ?.I said, it was fine. There was a long silence while he kept watching the tech agents on the ground floor, with a sly smile on his face. Mean while the training hall was opened and our noisy gang of AOL techies rushed in, to occupy their favorite last row.
When I was the last person to enter the hall , I saw Rajesh walking with Manash appearing from no where on the corridor. Manash was basically from orissa , who had a very sharp and a musical voice which was quite peculiar in him .His sense of humor was simply the best. When on the second day Balwin requested everyone to speak for 20 minutes continuously on anything under the sun, Manash chose to speak about his interview with a Indian MNC the day before his last semester exam in college. Wow, he almost made all of us roll on the floor, while narrating his experience with his hilarious facial expressions, imitating the people whom he met in the process. I still remember how this strange person, in my life made me enjoy his true story that day , bringing some laughter in my life after a long time. He was also a very good friend of mine until I stayed there for those 2 weeks. We identified each other as belonging to the same wavelength in a very less time. For me it was thrilling to believe that some one from this not very neighboring state is very receptive to my signs and practices. He was technically a sound person and sometimes I wondered what was he doing there as a tech agent. What I liked in him the best was his attitude towards life, taking life the way it came instead of brooding or waiting for the right opportunity to knock his doors. He was a cheerful person but the hard core fact that he still couldn’t manage a place for him in the software industry was stuck on his face. I didn’t spend more time with him but the short conversations that we have had, stroke best between us and we believed that we could be friends forever, no matter if we leave anytime the organization that united us. He was another awesome personality who left his footprints on my mind.
There was another interesting personality whom I just can’t forget for reasons many. He was Vikram and was called Vicky by our other batch mates. He had a very striking appearance, at the same time I had a strong feeling that I knew him before. His voice was strong & sexy while he was a bit plump and fair. He was younger to me by 7 months but the maturity of thoughts that he had than most of us in the team and the words that he spoke at the right time to the right person during all our discussions & conversations had left me green-eyed numerous times.
He captured all our attention on the very second day ,when there was a deviating discussion on who was superior among men & women which itself was a senseless topic to be debated on, I felt. I heard few boys speak on the topic with great zest, may be because of their personal
experiences, I thought to myself. I chose to keep mum since I was least interested in involving myself in it. But Balwin was expecting me to respond rather react to those few comments made by my other batch mates. And the fact that there were only 4 girls in the team gave them all a picture that may be there aren’t enough female folks to fight back or to threaten them. Things were fine until I chose to be calm. But once it was our turn, I was not very keen in arguing since we were all new to each other and I was not in the mood to fight back with not so familiar faces
around. But one statement made by one of my batch mate stood at the corner of my mind seeking a justification from him while I could forget other trivial comments made by him and others. So I decided to speak out in favor of my gender that moment, to make that friend of mine realize that we are truly no less than our counter parts. I knew that I had to spend some considerable energy to get in to the debating mood though I was not sure if I was ready for it. But the moment I signaled to Balwin that I wanted to make my point right across, there was silence in the room which still prolonged me to begin. In seconds, I was surprised to listen a male speaking in favor of my gender bringing some relief in me. He also didn’t choose to speak more. All he spoke was 3 odd lines which made others seal their mouths for reasons they felt was reasonable to them. Sitting comfortably at one corner in the training hall, he began like this "Friends believe my words since I am married. Itz just the physical difference created by god that differentiates us as men & women. Otherwise we are all the same. And all the disparity that arise between us are because of this physical difference I believe". After he spoke those words in Balwin’s presence he looked straight in to my eyes and gave a gentle smile .I smiled back as a sign of thanking him. Thatz how we all came to know his existence in the batch. He had a very rich experience in the field where we have been undergoing training. Sometimes Rajesh , our tech trainer would cross check with him on certain technical stuffs. Vicky was a very confident person by nature and comforted all those who spoke to him though his IQ & EQ levels were much beyond a normal person of his age.
On one of those training sessions in the first week, we happened to work on the same machine to practice those stuffs that Rajesh was trying to get right in to our brains. Vicky seemed to be an expert in that while I was quite confident that I would soon escape from this tech support world. So we began our conversation enquiring each other as where we hailed from, slipping from our minds how we introduced each other to the batch on the very first day. He said he was a tamil christian. But settled in Bangalore years back when almost his parents got married. He told me that he had an younger brother but revealed nothing about his wife and his married life.
While I was trying out some stuff that Rajesh had asked us to work on the comp not paying much attention to it, vicky enquired about me looking at his watch, waiting for the next break. When I heard myself repeat that I hailed from chennai for the nth time after landing in Bangalore, he asked me "where in chennai?". I had no clue that he would be knowing places in Chennai. I replied back saying "Annanagar". The moment he heard me say that , he was a bit excited, telling me that he learnt in SBOA school for 2 years, staying in his aunts house who stayed in the same locality as mine in Chennai. I became more excited knowing that. I added saying 'Most of my friends in the locality are from the same school'.
We felt we had something in common to relate to. When we exchanged our identities, some intuitive thought told me that he should have married a person who must be elder to him. But never had the guts to ask him for the reason that I felt, the probability of my intuitive thought might be wrong. But at the same time I was curious to know about the story of his married life at a very young age. So I was probing more in to his personal life when I found myself questioning him ,when they got married ?. He seemed to be pleased to answer me. He said " Just 2 months back". And I asked him where was she working. He revealed to me another MNC name in the city. I became more curious wanting to know where and when they met, to take a bold decision like that in life at a very young age.
He found me more interested in their love story. So he positioned him comfortably pulling his chair more close to mine, while digging out some thing from his left pocket with a smile. He then continued saying that they both met in another organization where they both were working previously and that was were they met. By now I became bold enough to ask him straight on the face, if his wife was elder to him ? .And I did. Without any reaction on his face he said "yes", leaving me in absolute excitement, pulling out a passport size photograph of his wife from his wallet to show me. While I kept watching this beautiful lady who was four years elder to him, I simply adored their thought of taking this bold & brave decision in life. While I became more curious to know all about their parents reaction to this act of theirs, I kept staring at the picture. He asked me," U didn’t tell me as how good looking my wife is ?". I signaled him through my eyes ,choosing not to speak more. But I couldn’t resist.
I again probed, inquiring about his parents reaction. He said ,when he told them all about his feeling for this girl who was four years elder to him, they couldn’t appreciate it. And they said "Think twice before u do something since this is your life and not a child’s play. If u really feel this will give u happiness then we wouldn’t stop u from going with it". And personally they didn’t wish for that to happen. But he replied back to them saying, "we will show u how happy we can be each day". And after which he got married to the girl of his choice. And he also told me that he called his mom almost everyday to tell her how happy he was with his wife.
The biggest surprise came when he said , he wouldn’t work for long since he had plans of doing his MBA abroad. He was absolutely sensible and I was sure that he did not take any decision in haste. He was one guy who knew what he was doing in life unlike few others. Time and again from the very first day, looking at him I felt I knew him earlier, but couldn’t retrieve much. A kind of unexplainable silence in the mind when ever my eyes scanned his face which still remains a mystery to me. I knew I would remember him for the rest of my life though I had met him for a very short span.
There were others in my batch who joined that organization for a short tenure but were equally qualified as I was and we would get together sometimes to pour out our collective sentiments and the longing ness that we all had, to belong to a software concern in some near future. Guys would tell me how they had roamed on almost all lanes & layout in Bangalore submitting resumes to company after company at the end of their graduation, while I was doing the same with not much of a difference in another city. I did read the lines of worry running across their faces, while a bright future stood as a big question mark in front of their eyes.
It was Saturday morning, the first weekend after a job in hand. Weekend....and time to unwind for guys who were waiting to break the monotony of the weekday workaholic role but it was time for us to find an accommodation and to catch up with others in the guest house. I did hunt for a good paying guest accommodation with two other good friends of mine, Kaushik and Yasmin. Kaushik was from Hyderabad, but managed to speak decent Tamil since he had spent four full years in an engineering college in Chennai. He was as old as I was. He was lean, fair and handsome. I felt good to learn that he was a very down to earth person & realistic by nature. He cracked jokes sometimes but mostly emitting out the frustration that he was not in his dream job. Yasmin was from Chennai but several years elder to me. Having born in a Muslim family where they believed women were meant only to spend money that their counter parts earned all their lives, she was different.
She had been to London to complete few projects in some good firms in the world earning in pounds for some time in her life. She was in love with a tamil iyengar & was mentally prepared to wear a madisar after her marriage than her usual burqua, sacrifice all her mutton biriyani & chicken gravy delicacies for curd rice & avial.
She also practiced to visit the sundarraja perumal apart from her visits to the mosque.She had a long hair. She was fair and pretty plump. She was shrewd and bold. She was my roomie for those two weeks while at Kuteeram. I learnt many things from her. She was not the person to be there getting trained on Inkjet printers and cartridges while I was meddling with AOL softwares. She knew what she was doing in life. A very confident girl with a well plan in life. Her sole idea behind migrating to Bangalore was to be in the same city with her cross religious boyfriend before they got married. Otherwise I didn’t see any reason for her to shift. I was curious enough to know if her parents had given her a green signal to her desire to marry an iyengar. That saturday night I enquired her about it, while not being sure of how she would react to me- a week old stranger peeping in to her personal life. But she replied politely, in one shot saying her parents were still not aware of her future plan of marrying in to a hindu family with totally mismatching ideas and practices. But she also told me how much she loved him and that they were in relation ship for the past 4 years with out any obstacle. She told me that she would do anything for him in this life in a firm emotional tone. I realized the strong passion behind their relationship when she told me that. The next day morning atthimber had come to Kuteeram to pick up Yasmin didi for some outing that they planned the earlier week. I got to see him from the portico of my room in the first floor when he was kick starting his bike. She saw me from his behind and waved at me smiling, while I watched them zoom in their pulsar passing Kuteeram waving back at her. I then walked down & picked my cup of coffee from amma in the kitchen who took care of all our appetite requirements, support, services and consultation while at Kuteeram, and was heading to the terrace with my open locks of hair and the sleepy look still imprinted on my face. As I headed to the terrace with the coffee cup, smelling the fresh air, I heard Partho calling me out from one corner. Looked like his day began early that sunday, trying to take some push-ups in the terrace to cut down his flab skin around to impress girls in Bangalore. As soon as he saw me, he stopped his hard core morning practice and comforted me by offering a seat across the table that he was positioning himself to rest on. I was still sleepy, not in my full form yet to smile back at him. He wished me "Good Morning" and I managed to wish him back taking the first sip of that hot steaming coffee, slightly getting out of my partial sleep mode.
Partho was very talkative & informative too.He kept telling me how he happened to land here without even knowing if I would be the right person to listen to him. But he was really a nice chap. By the time I sipped the last drop of coffee in the cup, I felt brisk and fresh. It was around 6.30 AM.I was more fascinated by the fact that he was from calcutta, a city more unknown to me like any other city from the north. So I was more interested in knowing all about the largest city in the country from where he hailed. I made him speak about his city and he at once started like an electric razor but he gave me a very good picture of his home town in his words almost leaving me in temptations to visit calcutta immediately. I knew that he had a great passion for his home town just like how I had for mine. He spoke about the landmarks, memorials and places of interest. He also spoke about the stadiums, gardens, parks & the places of worship and more about the howrah bridge that fascinated me the most, watching the city only through the pages of magazines & via the pixel points on the television screen. Partho then continued his conversation with me enquiring all about my familiarity with the city and my search for the accommodation.
He was very comforting, technically sound and seemed to be a person who was more explorative in life. But sometimes he reacted impulsively when a marketing guy inside the work campus approached him with credit cards, personal loans and a post paid mobile connection with 3 cards to use in 3 different cities. Me and Kash need to rescue him on time from those marketing fellows roaming around the campus. Otherwise Partho had been a very caring person, when I was with him for those two weeks.
We crossed the first week of our training , which meant …..just another single week left to have fun with Balwin & Rajesh while being with these bengal buddies staying in Kuteeram. I also sensed that things wouldn’t be the same at the end of that new week which was born. We wouldn’t be together anymore, living under the same roof and all our fun in the training sessions with Rajesh & Balwin would come to an end. While this ran in most of our minds, I had something beyond to look forward to. Yup ! my interview result with that "digitally ur’s "corporate. I prayed to god sincerely by paying him a visit in a temple which I managed to spot near Kuteeram in banaswadi.

Week 2 began, by when kash & his wife chandrani moved out from Kuteeram, leaving me mildly unhappy. But he promised me that he would be traveling with us in the same cab everyday, which left some joy in me. And we had to receive our new guests by then whose first week was about to begin just like how it was for us the earlier week. New faces around and there was a tigress from bengal to share the room with me for the next one week. She was tall, fair, cute looking with all her sharp features & a beautiful smile studded on her face all the time. I was impressed with her smile than anything else. She was very good to move with. Her smile kept me cheerful while with her in the room. She signaled to me like a bird left out of the cage after a long struggle. She was genuinely happy to get that job in hand in a city like Bangalore which had more amusing things to be explored for a person like her. Being away from parents, she felt she was going to have a juicy slice of her life living out the way she wanted it to be. With great joy I saw her unpacking all her things from the bag. She was enjoying to the core for having landed down south and I discovered in the coming days that she lived for the moment. She was like a cyclone followed by heavy rain, being around. The moment she stepped in, back from work she would give us all her usual smile which would greatly refresh us. She would immediately start off with what happened in her BT campaign and how her trainer was entertaining them, who did what & what she liked the most for the day. She dressed each day like a model. She wore her long skirt& a matching top with two pony tails, the first day. I saw her in sari the very next day with matching bangles & flowers while the third day she was in her jean. And on the fourth day in salwar kammez.
She was happy all the time and seemed to be a perfect happy go lucky girl until the 4th day when we all sat down together to watch her family album that she carried along with her from calcutta with some sweets wrapped in a silver foil that she offered us during the mid second week by when i knew my immediate destiny of having offered an employment with the "digitally urs" company which then became digitally mine too : ).She was a bit attached to me in those 5 days and may be she felt like revealing her real self while watching her family album with few other roomies around.I saw her dad, mom & her younger brother along with her in almost all the snaps in the album. She also introduced a person in his mid thirties in the snap who was holding a baby in his one hand, while the other hugging her shoulder, standing glued to her. When I enquired her, who it was, she replied to me saying that it was her cousin sisters baby and the person holding it was her Jeju. She did not allow me to turn to the next snap. She stopped me there, paused for a while and burst out crying badly. I had no clue what was happening with her and what made her pour out like that, when we were having fun with each other on a cloudy evening. I first tried comforting her but didn’t help much. Looked like she wanted to pour out all that she had stacked up in her heart for months together. She wept for 20 minutes continuously and then decided to speak. All that I could do was, sit and watch her pouring out for reasons that I couldn’t comprehend immediately.
She said she had an ailment in her body which was very rare in the world. It was congenital and that no one knows how long she would survive. That was the reason behind which she lived life for the moment not carrying any worry in her heart, which really wasn’t worth for a person for whom every day was a bonus. I was slowly getting it all right by then as what made her pour like that but still didn’t understand why she stopped me from turning to the next snap in the album. Then she gave a small pause before she left us all in shock. She revealed her age to us looking straight in to my eyes. She said "I am 26 years old now. May be it is a surprise to all of you since I don’t look that old. But I am. And my parents have no thought of getting me married to any person in this world since my survival span is a big enigma. But I would love to get married and have my own child. I want some body to lean on when I feel tired of life and a shoulder to hug & cry out my own worries. In all I need a person to take care of me and a child to call me as maa. This is all that I long for in life Devi and nothing else. Not money, fame or beauty. Not even more days to live than what god had already destined for me."I was completely tongue-tied, felt I was watching a thriller. She then continued after gulping some water from the aquafina, lying in my hand.
"One person who understood all my timely needs was none other than my Jeju. But it is absolutely a clandestine relationship. Even my cousin sister doesn’t know this. But I would definitely tell my mom sometime when we get married. And the fact that now I am in Bangalore, he can come down anytime to see me and spend some quality time with me and may be after we get married I might think of having a child of my own". From the moment she landed, she kept receiving calls for every hour in her mobile. She said it was her boy friend in bengal who kept calling her every now and then. But only then ,we all knew that, her boy friend & her Jeju were the same person. She felt little better after pouring her heart out.What made her cry was the fact that she never expected her destiny to be shaped that way by god, not making her capable enough to live the life that her age demanded.
I had nothing to say but to remain mum. That was probably the first time I came across a live case of an illegal relationship in life. I imbibed all that she told us sitting in a corner, meddling with that aquafina bottle. She then came to me and asked "Do you feel like talking to me anymore after this?". I was back to my senses and replied back saying "come on …….what does your personal life got to do with me talking to you". I also comforted her by telling her how gifted she was with flawless physical beauty, a kind heart and a friendly attitude towards people, making others smile all the time though she had her own worries piled in her heart.
She felt better and smiled. Just then mom rang me up to enquire all about my health, the food that I was having in kuteeram, when I would be joining the new job and where I would be staying from that following week. I told her that I would not be moving anywhere until I find myself a good accommodation near the new office which was just a stone’s throw away from – the brigade road, an happening place in Bangalore. Soon we ended our conversation and it was time for me to go to bed, have some peaceful sleep to attend yet another formal round of interview with my new organization the very next day. So I visited Asha Arch near brigade the next morning to meet miss Asha, the HR officer.
That round of interview went well as expected and I had my appointment letter in hand, listing the break up of my salary details. I knew it wasn’t any dream but reality. But not much time to sit back, unwind and enjoy the happenings. I rushed back to Kuteeram as the traveling took around an hour and a half, sometimes more than that, by the city bus enjoying the glimpses of the bright city during late morning hours when the sun was happily shining, contemplating my new jubilation. And that evening I informed Rajesh and my other friends in AOL campaign that I would soon be leaving them. I met Kash personally when we were all standing outside BT campaign that evening to watch their agents work on the floor.
I went searching for him in the scattered crowd. And finally spotted him, standing away from the crowd with a cigar in hand as usual. When I saw him, I had no words to share my happiness with him. I simply handed my appointment letter to him. Without any enquiry he took the printed sheets from me gently to read what was there in it. Then with a smile on his face he congratulated me. I sincerely felt bad that I would be leaving him in no time. But we weren’t intimate enough at that point of time, for me to convey him openly. So i froze the sentiment in my heart that evening, watching him feel happy for me.
Then I had to reveal this to Rajesh in detail to whom I was reporting to. He congratulated me and wished me all the best. He thought I would leave the same day. But I made things clear to him saying that I would stay until that Friday, end of that week, attending all his training sessions without missing even one. He had nothing to say but to give me a plain smile. Then I shared that joy with other friends in my batch. This time my batch folks had more to share with me, probably because I would be leaving them very shortly, in 4 days time. I enjoyed all our round table conference in the cafeteria interacting with almost all my batch mates. May be none expected me to leave that early, in two weeks time after joining the organization. Even I didn’t expect it to happen that soon. I decided to enjoy each moment of my presence in the campus learning a live lesson from the bengal tigress who was my roomy in Kuteeram. I was capturing few of the precious moments that I was spending with people who became dear to my heart like Kash, Vicky, Jagan, Partho, Manash, Balwin and a long list of people when I knew that I would be with them for less than a week’s time.
Things were coming to an end leading life as a tech agent. On that thursday soon after the accent training session with Balwin, with just one more day left in that campus, I was deeply engrossed in silence, walking down the steps. It was a strange feeling in the heart but I guess I was enjoying it. I never dreamt of landing in such a busy & a lively place which kept everyone in the campus on their toes all the time with work and inspiration to work more, young and energetic tech agents passionate enough to work, enjoying life to core & almost living every moment in the best possible way. Awesome to have been present there. The tall newly constructed buildings covered with transparent glass on all sides were still fascinating to me. Suddenly down the steps in floor 0, I found a group of my batch mates heading towards me, almost in fun & frolic with weekend being around. So I gave them all a smile locking eyes with few known buddies. They stopped me there on the corridor & conveyed their resentment since I would be leaving them soon. I knew it wouldn’t have been a deep resentment any way. I had nothing to say. So I again smiled back at them. Then they demanded a treat from me for having got my dream job. I said, "definitely yes". They also wished that I keep in touch with them. A batch mate of mine took great interest in creating an e- group before I left them all and gave me the e- group id as a token of gift to our friendship. I had hardly spent time with him during those two weeks but he was truly gentle and handsome.
He wished me all the best in life & reminded me to invite him without fail when I get married. He also wanted me to meet them all frequently being in the same city and to keep in touch with them. I agreed to all his sweet requests. It was so lovely of him to gift me the group id, wanting me to invite him for my marriage & requesting me to keep in touch with them. I cherished that moment, truly. Kash was watching all this from a corner with a grin on his face and a cigar amidst his fingers. I exchanged my mobile number with many of my batch mates, promising to keep in touch with them. Biplap was the person who spoke unfavorably about girls on the very second day, making me furious. And no time after that incident was I inclined in having a conversation with him but he actually wasn’t bad at all. It was just that he wanted to have some fun the other day. He really respected girls and I did find that in his tone and in his gestures. He conveyed his apologies on my last day. He said to me that he sincerely wished that I stayed with them. And also gave me his mobile number & said ‘Don’t hesitate to call me anytime you need any help in Bangalore’. I never expected it from Biplap, the guy who spoke rubbish about my gender folks on day 2. He also got me my favorite drink from the coffee counter, chewing the gum in his mouth in his usual style. He was there until I boarded my cab, bidding me good bye and wishing me good luck. I really melted seeing Biplap’s attitude towards me.
Hours before all this happened I decided to treat all my friends in the campus with bar chocolates that I was holding in my hand before entering the microsoft block which was where we were been trained on that friday, my last day of training with AOL.
Balwin had no time slot to spend with us. So I wasn’ t sure where I should be finding him in that huge campus to tell him that I wouldn’t be meeting him anymore. With christmas round the corner in the month of december, microsoft techies were decorating their block with christmas trees, balloons, bells, stars and gifts giving their block the ultimate look of a christmas house. That being the last day in that campus for me, I was wondering how I would meet Mr.Balwin before my shift ended. Suddenly I saw him passing by a cubicle through the huge glass patting a microsoft techie. I immediately requested Rajesh to let me out for a minute. He gave me a rapid green signal after which I rushed out with my box of chocolates towards him. I managed to stop him before he stepped out of the floor. He was surprised to see me standing before him during my training hours. I couldn’t speak a word for the next 30 seconds, breathing in and out. He gave me a kind of strange and a surprising look again not able to guess what it would be ……… watching me panting with a chocolate box in the hand. Then I told him that, it was the last day for me in the campus & in a way the last day that I was meeting him too. And that I got another job that fitted my profile. He picked a bar of chocolate, showing signs of happiness for me. There was a little pause in between our very short conversation, during which I decided to bend down to touch his feet to get his blessings.
He didn’t expect that from me and neither did I expect to meet such a wonderful person in that place from whom I would choose to seek a blessing that late evening. He said that his blessing would always be there with me stroking my hair & there is no need to touch his feet. Though I felt like spending few more moments with him, I knew that I had to reach the training hall in time as Rajesh would be answerable to that bald Ops manager for letting me out during the training hours.
It wasn’t a sad farewell when I left, unlike the previous one’s in my life. Rajesh winded up early that day giving me some time to spend with my AOL techies. I met every single person in my batch to bid them good bye personally. For a moment I felt the world was filled with only kind people and the air around with kindness and nothing else. The training was over and it was 12.00 am. I choicelessly followed my tigers to the cafeteria like anyother day. They did seem to realize from with in that I wouldn’t be waiting for them anymore during the odd hours in the night. They compelled me to have bhel puri & orange juice served as mid night snack that weekend night. I didn’t prefer to, but didn’t want to disappoint my tigers on the last day by saying ‘no’. Kash compelled me to take some more from his plate when he saw me scooping out the last spoon.All were there.Chandrani,Jagan,Umesh,Partho and few of Kash’s friends some of whom were new to me and in fact was in conversation for the first time, when a guy who should have definitely been from kash’s city I guessed, shook his hand with me introducing himself as an UOL agent.I heardJagan cough at the very sight of the new guy shaking hands with me in the middle of that cold december night in the smoking zone.I was too tired, having dissipated most of my energy by then, to repond to Jagan.
Soon they all ignored my presence by conversing in bengali which was yet another encrypted syllable to me in the state of kannada speaking population. So I simply was tying the lace on my jerkin looking down. I had no clue what they where up to. There was a pause suddenly and I found everyone looking at me together laughing out. When I asked Kash what was it all about, none replied back to it, leaving me puzzled.
It was time for chandrani to login.So kash left her behind and joined us to walk till the cab area.On the way,we reminded ourselved how we got lost on the very first day in that huge campus,amidst the cold and dark hours in the night trying to reach the cab area.They all walked slowly along with me by my side, cracked jokes and pulled my leg even on the last day. I knew it was not intentional. May be, making the most of it on the last occasion, I thought. I was just saving all those wonderful moments in my heart lobby that december when our cab left the campus once for all, leaving the campus in my thoughts for ever.
The weekend I resigned my tech agent job, I was in retrospection. We couldn’t step out of Kuteeram since the sky was heavily pouring out.I was too tired and planned to sleep for the whole weekend. After sleeping for more than 14 hours, on saturday evening, I decided to spend some time in the portico watching the sodden city.It was cool and I felt fresh. Immediate thought was to pick a cup of chai and unwind in the terrace for the whole everning. This time I found Tanmoy,another bengal tiger (who stayed in Kuteeram for a longer duration than anyone else) who was profoundly interested in music, listening & singing, heard some unheard lyric at one corner of the long terrace.Music was his heart and soul, I was told.His name was also peculiar to me like the name of the house that I stayed.It wasn’t easy for me to forget him for his peculiar name and the attitude that he possessed in his life. Tanmoy – he said it meant ‘soul’, in sanskrit or bengali I didn’t remember that precisely. After a short casual conversation on the terrace, he enquired about my knowledge in the field of music. When I told him that I have no relationship with that fine art except that I had some good taste in listening to the finest of music, may be he felt he would induce some in me.
First he spoke about music for an hour clearly explaning to me what was the kind of music that he and his city folks loved to listen. Though I choicelessly listened to him, I learnt many things about music, until when I could have even rated me on the negative scale for the musical knowledge that I possessed. He gave me a beautiful insight of what goes behind every song to create magic amidst the listeners.He sang few Bengali gazals with his ultimate passion, shutting his eyes until he finished singing it. It was really a special moment in a way on that saturday evening when rain had just stopped for him to sing that beautiful gazal.He opened his eyes slowly,and asked how it was. It was the first time I have heard somebody sung a gazal.He sang many stints from various other gazals,poems and movie songs that he cherished himself. All were pleasing to the ears but I couldn’t comprehend the meaning behind any of those lines .He did translate a few for me but not all that he sang. By then it became dark and cool.He finally identified himself as part of a musical band in west bengal named –‘Neel Akash’.I liked the name of the band that he and few of his friends began. We became very good friends that day. He had a masters in English literature.Apart from his high proficiency in music, he insisted that I always spoke good English, pronouncing all the words in the right accent just for the fact that he could never tolerate people speaking bad English, especially the pronunciation.
Once he knocked our door to check if I had Airtel connection in my mobile, at around 11 in the night.I was almost asleep but hearing him called me out, my roomie shook me rough to wake me up.I was totally annoyed by the fact of having woke me up at around midnight,when I was asleep.But still decided to go out and check what made him call me during that late hour in the night.He asked me if I had an airtel connection in my mobile.I replied to him in that half sleepy state speaking a complete sentence "No, I don’t have an aaair tel connection’’.He corrected my pronunciation asking me to pronounce it as Airtel and not aaairtel and was waiting to hear me pronounce it , his way. I sincerely felt, he deserved one tight slap from me that minute. Otherwise Tanmoy’s helping tendency was matchless with most of us. He once admitted lalitha in a near by hospital and chose to spend the whole day sitting beside her when her health condition was totally ill, inhaling the hospital smell, from which he could have very easily stepped back pointing out the fact that he’s availed off only on a single day in a week. But he spoke to none about it. All that he insisted was to take good care of herself and not to fall sick anymore once she recovered.
Knowing that I was a tamilian, Tanmoy decided to reveal his ancestral history that had a relationship with my mother tongue, place of birth and culture indeed. He told me that his paternal grandmother was a tamilian and that his grandmother’s sisters lived in Triplicane – Chennai. He also told me that he admired his grandma for all that she was, especially the courage that she owned, to marry a Bengali years back. Yes ,it was really a bold step by her, that too years back, I thought to myself. It was sunday night, and the end of second week in Kuteeram. Combing my hair softly, stroking it in the front, I watched myself in the mirror and said to myself 'A new life is beckoning to begin from tomorrow Dev, new corporate, new culture, new nature of job, new place and new people too'.