Indu brought a cup of steaming cup of Ginger-Tea, and shook up Navya from her couch.

“C’mon; enough of your depression. Tomorrow onwards you should be back at your job.”

“No! I am not going there to face him again. I have already e-mailed my resignation letter to Arvind last night…” said Navya. She seemed to have lost a couple of kilos in two days. There were half-moon like craters under her eyes, indicating inadequate sleep coupled with excessive secretion of tear drops.

“I never thought you will be such an emotionally crumbling ‘girl’, Navya!” said Indu, emphasizing the word ‘Girl’. Navya didn’t fail to notice the dig. ‘That is the problem- Perhaps the very source of the problem’ felt Navya.

There was a knock at the door and Navya’s father Madhavan peeped in. “Sorry to intrude girls! Arvind is calling; He wants to talk to you urgently. Says, he couldn’t reach your cell”

“Appa! Tell him some nonsense. I am in no mood to talk to him” shouted Navya.

“Perhaps he is shocked to see your resignation. He would be desperate to talk to you about it. Don’t be a child, Navya; Take his call” advised Indu. Navya remained stubborn.

“This is the incurable problem with her; stubbornness. If only her mother were alive, she would not have come to this pass…” mumbling half audibly, Madhavan closed the door behind him.

“Navya, I am asking again. Did Arvind ever propose to you? Did you ever expose your heart to him? Was there any moment of romantic breeze sweeping between you? I am a close friend of you both, and yet I never knew you were nurturing such an idea about Arvind…” Indu questioned Navya accusingly.

“Why don’t you understand, Indu? Are we teen-agers? Do these need to be expressed in words? The way Arvind and I were communicating, the way our ideas about our profession and work synchronized, the extent of respect and decency we were maintaining with each other, I always felt he has interest on me and I on him and one day, I thought it would come out naturally….”

“Ha..ha…! You thought love is like a computer program you write, strictly as per logic and syntax!”

* * * *

In fact, it was Navya’s skill of writing programs with perfect logic and syntax that had brought her to the level of Senior Systems Analyst at Arvind SoftSolutions. Arvind, a Genius in Web based Data base Applications was an ideal boss and employer, nurturing the strengths of his subordinates and encouraging them always to come out with their best. He never hesitated to declare among his twenty and odd employees and also in front of his clients that Navya was an asset to him. Navya knew that many of her colleagues secretly envy her for her proximity with her boss and the influence she wields in recruitment, project selection and in promotion and policy matters, She knew her colleagues talk behind her back that the day was not far off when she would become Arvind’s partner – both in business and life.

Navya would never allow an opportunity to prove that she was in no way inferior to any of her male colleagues. Whether staying back at office till midnight to complete time bound projects, whether flying to a customer’s site at week-ends to sort out any technical glitch, Navya never hid behind the garb of a woman to seek special privileges. Navya, with her boy-cut hair, lean, lanky and meatless physique and an undeclared resolution- ‘I-won’t-wear-anything-other-than-jeans’, was frequently mistaken to be a gent when she sat among her male colleagues behind rows of computers.

It was a Sunday. She was in the office with her three colleagues Prakash, Dhamu and Selva to complete a last minute debugging exercise that was giving them nightmares over the whole week. As Navya pushed up her hands above head, stretched he upper torso and yawned aloud, she over-heard Selva who just returned to his seat with a cup of black coffee, talking in a hushed voice to Prakash . “There is a super-figure sitting at the reception, Machchi!”

Prakash and Dhamu instantly got up and walked up to the front room with a pretension of getting coffee for them from the vending machine.  As they returned, there were twinkle in their eyes! Prakash whistled inaudibly.

“What’s the matter?” – enquired Navya.

“Snake ears!” commented Prakash. “We are talking about a ‘Girl’”

Navya could not ignore the emphasis. She was used to it, any way.

“At last a new laser color printer among the worn out desk-jets?” – giggled Selva.

“Oh… boys” – Navya shook her head.

Arvind came out of cabin and dashed out to the reception. He was back, followed by a girl in sari, and a middle aged person clad in Dhoti. With a visible display of humility, Arvind opened the cabin door for the gentleman and all the three disappeared into his cabin. As the girl entered into his cabin, she passed a glance over Navya. Navya just could not ignore the beauty of her eyes. Very large, wide, a shade dreamy, a shade childish, shining and throbbing with life, enhanced enchantingly by a thick, rustic application of black eye-liner. Her face was round; She was neither lean nor fatty; her height was moderate; her movements had a distinctive and captivating grace of femininity.

Since Arvind did not call her in, Navya thought the meeting must be unofficial. After 15 minutes, all the three came out of the cabin; Arvind went up to the gate to send them off.

Monday.

As Arvind entered in to the office hall, the girl was standing behind him. In his typical style, he clapped his hands and asked all the employees to gather round him.

“Well, buddies! This is Kalyani. Our new arrival to Arvind Softsolutions. She is from Mayiladuthurai, my native place. She has just finished her Diploma in Computer Applications in some god forsaken I-haven’t-heard-the-name Institute. What she is going to contribute to us, well, we will have to figure out and put her in it! Navya! Introduce all to her and come to my cabin” –he disappeared into his cabin.

Navya did so and went in to his cabin.

“Why? Something wrong?”

“Er.. Arvind. Why didn’t you keep me informed of Kalyani’s recruitment? I don’t know where to fit her in. She just doesn’t have the background to suit our needs…”

“I know, I know. But you have to fit her somewhere. Let her type letters; Do filing; prepare manuals; Make some sundry accounting work – anything. Giving her work and paying salary to her is an obligation and a Guru-dhakshina to my school teacher – her father who came the other day, you know…” He paused for a while and then continued “That Arvind is a self-confident, honest and successful entrepreneur today is founded on the English and Mathematics that her father taught, and the high moral values he imbibed in me seventeen years ago at the NationalHigh school…”. Navya for the first time saw Arvind talking with a tinge of sentiment.

“Were shall I sit?” – Kalyani asked naively. Navya allocated a corner cubicle to her with one of the oldest computers they had. Kalyani went to her seat, touched the PC with her palms and placing them over her eyes, prayed in silence. The boys eyed her actions and suppressed their laughs with difficulty.

One week had passed since Kalyani’s arrival. There was a sea of change amongst the boys. They shaved regularly, came to office in ironed pants and shirts and generously smelled of deodorants. They created opportunities to initiate talk with Kalyani, loudly cracked jokes among them to see from the corner of their eyes whether Kalyani was laughing. Kalyani was coy, extremely cautious in talking to boys and  very respectful to Navya. There was only one feeling from Navya towards Kalyani – an extremely inexplicable aversion which she had to diplomatically camouflage.

Kalyani loved the simplest of jobs. She loved filing and sorting papers, arranging appointments, travel and hotel bookings for Arvind. She walked in and out of Arvind’s cabin more frequently than any one else in the office.

Arvind always had a practice of taking lunch with Navya in his cabin. A domestic Catering service person would bring lunch to both of them. They would utilize the forty five minutes to discuss about forthcoming projects, action plan for future and the business strategies to follow.

One day, Kalyani was filing papers in his cabin when they were getting ready for lunch. Arvind suddenly asked, “Hey! Kalyani? What do you do for lunch? I never bothered to ask you so far!”

“I bring my Tiffin box from home, Sir”

“What have you brought to-day?”

Kalyani hesitated. “Moar KaLi, Sir”

“Really? Can you share a piece with me? My mother used to make it in my childhood! I simply loved it in those days. She’s gone. ‘Thaayodu Aru suvai pOm’ (-Tamil- meaning ‘Pampering of taste buds go when mother dies’)”.

Kalyani virtually ran out of the cabin to bring in her Tiffin box and unloaded its contents on Arvind’s plate. Arvind asked Kalyani to sit beside Navya and proffered his Chapati and Mutter Paneer to Kalyani. He started relishing the ‘Moar KaLi’ with ‘Ooh’s and ‘Aah’s. “Its tastes the same way my mother made those days! By the way, how is my stuff?”

Kalyani, after a brief hesitation said, “Well, Sir, the Chapati is too hard. Side dish is too oily and under-cooked… Sorry that you eat this stuff every day”.

Navya flatly refused to taste the Moar KaLi that Arvind wanted her to try. On that day a warning bell started ringing continuously inside Navya’s heart.

From the next day onwards, Kalyani joined them during lunch time. She started brining a Tiffin carrier. ‘Thavalai Adai’, ‘Arisi Noy Kozhukkattai’, ‘Aval PuLi Uppuma’ all weird sounding traditional south Indian food-stuffs were arriving daily. Since Navya refused to partake them, her lunch pack continued to come from the caterer. 

Three months had passed after Kalyani’s arrival. In the middle of a busy week, Kalyani was absent for three days continuously. Arvind informed an irritated Navya that Kalyani’s father had been hospitalized after a massive heart attack. Subsequently, Kalyani stopped coming to office altogether.  Her father had passed away. There was an inexplicable sense of relief in Navya’s heart.

Three days back, Arvind stood in the middle of the office and clapped his hands. When all swarmed him around, he announced with an uneasy stutter, his forthcoming marriage with Kalyani.

* * * *         

As Arvind and Navya sipped their coffee at the Coffee Shop of Hotel Trident, the silence was hanging too heavily between them. At last, Arvind began, clearing his throat,

“Well… Navya…. Let me make it very clear. I just can’t afford to lose you. Accepting your resignation is ruled out. I have great plans for your future…”

Navya expressed a wry smile with a twist of her lips to one side deliberately for Arvind to notice.

“Look Navya. Let me tell you a fact. I was planning to propose you to become my business partner with 35% share in Capital from the coming financial year. I was just keeping it within my self; just to offer it to you as your birth day gift…”

“Thanks. Not interested. My decision is firm and final. I won’t like to be a partner to an utterly selfish and chauvinistic person, of whom I had all along thought to be one who stands for gender equality… ” words splashed out of Navya’s mouth uncontrolled.

There was an obvious look of hurt on Arvind’s face. His jaw bones tightened. His demeanor became stiff.

“Well, Navya. Anu is our mutual friend and well wisher. She has told me the background for your bitterness…”. Navya was taken aback. Anu? Back-stabbing her?

“Tell me Navya, Is there a single occasion in which I behaved with you in a way that could be taken as a signal of romantic intensions? Please be open…”

Navya’s face reddened.  She could not answer. Arvind’s face seemed to be totally drained of cordiality.

“After so many years of mutually beneficial and enriching association, if you can be so curt and harsh in critically judging me…” Arvind folded his hands against his chest and continued:

“Why should I be diplomatic? Let me also be frank. I have my standards, my goals, my dreams and my ethics in business. You know them all. In the office, I have no distinction between a male or a female when it comes to work, talent and efficiency. What you perhaps don’t know is that I have a different set of standards, dreams and expectations for my personal life. I want to marry a girl brimming with femininity – with love, affection, caring, pampering -  all the qualities that I loved in my mother in my childhood; I want my wife to be a full time mother for my children. I want her to be the master of my household as I am the master of my business. I want a woman who loves and be content to play the traditional role. Kalyani was only too gladly willing when I proposed to her.  I can not marry a woman who loves to be a man. If I marry a woman whose ideal is a man’s way of life and if I force her to relinquish all her career and social dreams and subjugate her to be my caretaker at home, then I can be termed as selfish and chauvinistic…”