He woke up feeling excited at the thought of meeting up Guru. He started his car, all his memories cheering him up. Rustomjee’s was a joint near their pre-grad college and he looked forward to be there and relive the days of past…
He spotted a parking spot and parked his car. He was an hour early. He resisted the temptation to enter the pre-grad college campus and take a stroll there. He decided to wait for Guru to show up.
He entered Rustomjee’s, pleased to hear the buzz of students he had been anticipating. He looked around and found no change to the setup – even after seven years. Someone tapped his back. He turned around and found Guru smiling at him.
They hugged each other in joy of their reunion and walked over to a vacant table. They had so much to talk about…
“Who? Where? When? How?” Chaits asked Guru who burst out laughing.
“Hey! Hold on – I will answer all your questions – one by one – but, first, tell me about you … It’s been a long time …”
“Okay” Chaits said, “I got nothing much to say. My life has been simple. After our graduation, I joined this company in their maintenance department. Looking at the way I speak and the ease with which our customers were getting convinced, they shifted me to sales and now – I’m responsible for both sales and maintenance for the west zone… I wake up in the morning and rush to my office with no specific time to return. I normally roam around on tours for about 15 days at a stretch, almost every month.”
“Married?”
“Hell – No!! Don’t get time to even glance at any passing girl.”
“Hmm … still stuck on Anjali, eh?”
“No … I haven’t seen her since our graduation. Don’t know where she is or what she does or if she’s married …”
“I find this a bit difficult to believe. Your infatuation for her was a bit strong and stayed for long. I know … if she walks in here and says she wants to marry you … you’ll marry her without a second thought.” Guru laughed.
“I really don’t know.” Chaits blushed at the thought, “Seven years is a long time. She was junior to us and must have graduated about a couple of years ago. She most probably should be with Sunny – her so called – best friend. Anyone would have noticed that he was desperately in love with her…”
“C’mon … don’t be so negative in your approach. I’ve seen her wide eyes whenever you were around. She always clapped the loudest when you played for the college team. She never missed any of those rehearsals you had for the annual function. I always had a feeling that she was as obsessed with you as much you were with her…”
“Gone are those days.” Chaits sighed.
“Only, if … You would have asked her …” Guru persisted on the topic, “I’m sure I would be talking to both of you today. You –as my best friend and she – as your wife.”
“It’s okay Guru, I don’t get time to think about her now. Sales figures and service complaints occupy my mind all the time … and … I remember – It’s you who should be speaking. You’re the one who’s getting married. You have a romantic story to tell and I believe it’s interesting … Go ahead – I’m all ears …”
Guru looked up at the ceiling fan for a moment, took a deep breath and smiled.
“As you know, after our graduation, I shifted to Chennai to join a company in their R&D. I worked hard and designed few modifications which helped the company in a large way. They decided to send me abroad for further studies. I was abroad for three long years. I returned about a year ago. The company, by then, had decided to expand and move the R&D facility here.”
“Why were you out of touch all this time?”
“We didn’t own mobile phones in college and I forgot all the land lines in due course of time. Our desk is in process of being shifted here in this city and I landed – yesterday. The first thing I did was to hunt your number and call you. Here we are – sitting and chatting.”
“Hmm … Need to punish you for forgetting the phone numbers.”
They laughed at this remark even as Guru continued, “Even as our R&D was expanding… we had new people joining. Few were technical, few administrative and one statistical analyst – her name is Tanvi…”
Chaits looked at him – prodding him to go on…
“Tanvi …” Guru said, his voice soft, “she’s the one I’m getting married.”
“Oh! I see … Office romance, ah?”
“Sort of…” Guru laughed, “We both belong to this state. We didn’t know people in Chennai or the local language spoken there. This made us come together. We started spending more time together – and, then – one day it happened – we fell in love with each other. Her parents were visiting her at Chennai and we met. They instantly approved. They are now settled in Pune. They had had enough of this Mumbai rush. Hey – aren’t you happy for me” he said looking at the blank expression on Chaits.
“Of course – I ‘m happy…” Chaits gave him a mischievous look, “I expected a Thriller of a Romance Story – this was boring…”
They burst out laughing and started visiting the memory lanes together.
“Hey! Chaits!’ Guru said, “I’m visiting Tanvi coming Saturday. She’s currently at Pune – about few hours’ drive from here. Why don’t you join me – let’s visit her together. That way you both will get introduced to each other. You drive – I’ll not disturb you. I’ll chat with her.”