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I know it is him the minute I pick up the phone.
"Oye Jhansi!"
"What's up, man?"
We were back at headquarters, and our group was split into two batches - one going through a training called Total Quality Management, and the other out there, rotating through several departments. I was in the latter group, on the shop floor. I was impressed that A found out which subgroup I was in, where that subgroup was, what their phone number might be.....Quite an impressive detective work, that.
"This TQM is eating my head, yaar"
I laugh. "A, what doesn't eat your head? You get bored so easily!"
"Oye, I rely on people like you to do the listening..."
I smile. "Okay, why did you call me?"
"I don't know....felt like listening to something normal for a change, that's why! See you outside the canteen today?". He sounded hopeful.
"Hm. I'm not sure. Its a half hour lunch break and I need to be back on the floor. You have to walk long and you'll be late"
"Arrey, I'll find an excuse, yaar! I'll see you outside door #2, theek hai?"
The line gets cut. I smile and return to work, a happiness and a strange sense of relief flooding my heart.
A is there, as promised. Looks exuberant and is all smiles - whether its from seeing me or getting out of TQM, I'm not sure. Personally, I'm glad to see him. We hadn't seen each other in a whole week, after three weeks of traveling together, and all those nights of wisecracking on the bus. Normally, our 'gang' of seven would at least catch a movie or dinner once in a while, but this week was spent catching up with Mr.X (the man I would eventually marry), and winding down from all that travel.
We get our lunches and sit down together. Three more weeks, and our training would be over. After that, we'd all be scattered among the different branches of the company, our shared times a distant memory. I swallow a lump in my throat, and decide to make the best of the time we have.
"So. What's up?"
"I need some help from you"
"Shoot"
"I want to buy some sarees for my mother - Mysore silk....she specifically asked for them. Think you can help me select them?"
"Sure A, no problem"
"This Saturday afternoon, say 2 o' clock? Let's catch a movie before that and then we'll go off and do this"
That worked with me. A would be leaving after the training for Delhi, while I'll remain down south, at headquarters. That's where our postings were. He was to travel via Bhopal to spend time with family, before taking up his position. God, I'm going to miss A.
*-*-*-*
We watch what I later termed the stupidest comedy I've ever seen.
"Can't you select a better movie, A? We could've seen a Hindi movie instead - don't know what these Americans call a comedy....Bunch of guys breaking into a woman's bathroom - ugh!"
"Yaar - somebody said it was nice. You always complain about movies. We saw Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak on the tour and you complained about that one too!"
"Huh, when did I complain? I liked the songs, Aamir Khan was cute and so was Juhi!"
He shakes his head in frustration. "At that time you complained"
"Did not"
"You did"
"Did not"
"You are impossible"
"And you are deaf!"
I knew I was being impossible....None of this was serious. I just like ribbing A, and was feeling sad that I may not get a chance to do it again.
*-*-*-*
We look at several sarees. Whenever A has trouble selecting, I drape the sarees around me and ask which one looks better. We pick two sarees and keep them aside. Then A wants to see more, and I obligingly model for him. Finally, while draping what seems to be the hundredth saree, I get tired.
"How many sarees do you want to buy, A?"
"Two" he says, pointing at those he picked. "Those two"
I can't believe what I'm hearing.
"You picked those two and are wasting my time here, asking me to model one after the other? Have you lost your mind?"
A smiles. "Just thought that you were enjoying all this modeling, and decided to indulge you."
I throw the saree at him and he catches it deftly. We pick up the sarees, A pays the bills and we leave.
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