A Return Ticket

A request: Thanks guys for visiting my blog. This one is my first attempt to write a story. After reading the story kindly hit the “comments” link at the bottom of the story and say whatever you want to say. Good bad or ugly, anything and everything is welcome.Your may as well read the other posts too and comment J.Thanks

Disclaimer: All the characters in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance to any person dead or alive is purely co-incidental.

A return ticket

Like every IT employee in India Gadin was thinking of his onsite opportunity since the day he joined this MNC and the announcement of the same to him was no less melodramatic. His boss Debasis or Debu as he was known, a man in his early forties, his age shining on his bald head and his big salary shaking in form of his paunch when he laughed, called him to his office.”Gadin you have been doing well here and as you know our company is famous for taking care of its employees and giving them the opportunity to grow” Gadin stopped listening at this and thought “oh yeah...I can clearly see how much growth they can cause”. After showing his love for the company for 10 more minutes, Debu finally told him that he should start putting his documents in his place because a new project was coming and Gadin may have to travel to Edinburg for this project. Gadin also no less melodramatic answered, “Thank you sir, I have been waiting for this opportunity for such a long time and I promise I won’t let you down and perform to my level best and give in my 100%”.At this time Debu had understood that Gadin was taking his revenge for boring him and knew this was his turn to switch off. Then after 10 minutes of his revenge Gadin asked his boss who was the client going to be and what was the project (but believe me he was actually interred in knowing how many GBPs will I get).Debu told him the name of a banking giant there and said he himself was not very clear about the project details and will update Gadin as soon as he gets it.

Gadin came to back to his desk and stared blankly into the screen of his computer which was showing some multi-coloured Greek looking text which these geeks called code and claimed this is what causes the browser to show understanble things when we type WWW.Google.com and hit the enter key. The voice of Debu re-sounding in his head “You might have to travel to Edinburgh”. “Have to”?? He thought he was waiting for this like anything and then his boss telling him he may have to. He knew that actually these bosses were not as modest as they pretended to be or just and exotic places where he could have as much single malt scotch as he wanted.

Soon he was lost yet again in another world.Edinburgh-the capital of Scotland. Scotland definitely meant a lot more than merely a foreign country or just a currency which will multiply when he would come back or simply a country where one has an easy access to striptease bar where he could actually see the girls whom he had been seeing in the playboy. It reminded of his college, of Kangan who was somehow fascinated by Scotland after watching the movie “A walk to remember”, No it was not that movie, it was some other movie which did not remember. But what he clearly remembered was that Kangan had told him that she wanted to go to Scotland and like a perfect idiot Gadin has decided that day that if ever she agrees to marry him they will go to Scotland for honeymoon and his dreaming and idiocy did not end just there. He bought a small box and decided that he would put all his change and some notes daily in that box and save for their trip to Scotland. Gadin was good at mathematics and quickly did some maths and calculated that if he daily put 10 bucks in that box and 200 bucks at the start of every month when he got his pocket money then by the time he would pass out of that college, he would have money to buy at least one side ticket for one person. He though then could save more once he got a job. When he was a kid he wanted a toy gun badly and asked his father for that. His father rather than giving him that toy gun brought him a piggy bank and told him he should start saving early in his life and put away some money from his pocket money for his dreamed toy. He had saved for two months for the toy. Although the amount saved was not much but his father knew that he had got the message and bought him the tank and let him have his money too. After that whenever he wanted something he put a piggybank for it and started saving for it.

After some more mental maths he calculated that if he got a job with a salary that was average each year then he would save for their trip in two years. He chuckled and said to himself- who is in a hurry to get married anyway and took out a crumpled Rs10 note and put it in a box and stared at the box for a little more than necessary.

The project was later scrapped because the Finance department of the client bank did not see enough Return on Investment (ROI) to fund the project.

A few months later Gadin was sitting in his rented flat on a Sunday morning. Technically you don’t call 1 o clock as morning but for the 89.76 % of IT guys like Gadin Sunday 1 definitely counted like a morning as this way the day slept as much as they wanted and this was the only day when they did you wake up calling some fancy names like idiot, asshole etc.

Bachelor’s like Gadin who used be way from their families owed a lot to Nestle for coming up with maggie because that was the best thing that could be cooked if all you knew about cooking was how to boil water.So, Gadin again saying his silent thanks to nestle and tore of the double pack of Masala maggie and poured the contents in water and put it on the small gas stove he had. Although a single packet of it was enough for one person for one meal but he did not want to think again about his hunger as soon, so he decided to have two packets and be done with it. After putting the Maggie on stove he thought that he was becoming just like his bike in which he could put four litres of petrol instead of two and stop worrying about it for a longer time.

The Nokia tune that he had put on his old Nokia phone just interrupted him in his philosophical pursuits. A number flashed on his screen and he said to himself ,”will these Idea guys ever stop selling me their new schems”.He picked up the phone and said an angry hello making his hello sound more like stop-bugging-me. A female voice answered Hello, her hello sounding more like what-wrong-have-I-done. The voice was known. Although he had not listened to this voice in one and half year of passing from his college but he still could recognize it with just a hello.Kangan, is it you? He asked surprised. Yes Gadin, How are you doing, she asked. I am ...I am fine, how are you, where are you, this number seems like a local number, are you...are you in...he as usual asked a lot of question in one breath. He could feel his smile when she said, Yes I am in Bangalore, Got transferred here a week back. Had a chat with Arun yesterday and he told me that you too are in Bangalore and gave me your number. Arun was Gadin’s roommate in college. So are you in the same company, where are you staying, Have you moved in alone. She laughed and said you haven’t changed Gadin, still can’t be patient and ask one question at a time. He was glad that she remembered how he was. Yes, I am still with Hindustan bank, am staying in accommodation provided by the bank in Sundar Nagar and yes have move in alone. Sundar Nagar, cool that is not too far from my place, I am living in a rented flat with one of my colleagues in Hari Nagar.So what are you doing in the evening. He smiled and asked. There is a CCD in Hari Nagar, Want to have a SB? She too smiled and said yes, Let’s meet at 6.

SB was the short form of Sizzling Brownie that Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) served. It was a heated brownie, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and served in a mini pond of hot molten sizzling chocolate sauce.SB used to be the favourite of both of them and although they did not have it too frequently but whenever that had, it became a special occasion. God knows was there something in the SB or was there something in the time they had it. They always shared things which were close to them whenever they went out and had an SB.

It was a year and a half now, precisely the time since Gadin had passed out from his college, since he had his last SB.

Gadin just went back to the memory lane and remembered his college. It was the evening of first Sunday of August. People celebrated it as the Friendship day. The whole batch had gathered in the college lawn and everybody was singing friendship song and enjoying the spirit of friendship. It had just rained and half of the people were soaked in water but this did not dampen their spirit, thanks actually to the spirit they had consumed at the bar which was at a walking distance from the college.

Gadin stood near the college mess and was watching people dance and sing and enjoy themselves, just at that moment Kangan came to him laughing like crazy and Gadin looked at her as if asking dudette how much vodka did you have? She told her some joke about which she was laughing; Gadin did not find it really funny but still smiled. He now strongly believed that this girl had too much to drink today. She just stood there for a few more seconds, laughed a little more and left. Gadin had two realizations later. One he realized a few days later that she did not drink anything but she was generally this bubbly and happy and actually living-in-the-moment kind of girl. The second realization (which technically was first) came immediately after she left. He had fallen in love with that laugh.

This Sunday had come after almost two and a half months of their joining the college, but these two had generally not talked much because they were in different streams and had different class schedule.Infact he could not remember if he had talked to her ever before but he definitely knew about her. After this Sunday he was determined to know more about her and they started interacting more, thanks to the virtual media of chats and the social networking sites where you can interact with people and also don’t have to get embarrassed thinking that you are invading into their privacy or being a “chipku”.

Missing the usual outings or the leg pulling sessions in one of the rooms of boy’s hostel was one of the changes that had occurred in Gadin’s Schedule. He now used to sit longer hours in front of his laptop waiting and wishing that Kangan would come online and would have time to chat with Him. Another change that happened was his usual habit of planning got more intense. Every night before checking his own schedule on the college web site, he used to check Kangan’s schedule and planned how could he adjust his things, project works etc so that he could see her more and talk to her and still make it all seem like that he accidently bumped into her. Well, he was good at planning and his estimates did seldom fail and for the next few days, he “accidently” bumped into her three or four times a day, sometimes at the breakfast or lunch at the mess, sometime between the lecture breaks or sometimes at the nearby coffee shop in the evening.

Now they had exchanged phone numbers and called or messaged each other before going for lunch or dinner or tea breaks. Gadin loved this companionship and though she too liked spending time with him. Kangan had a little problem in understanding the subjects where mathematics was involved and Gadin was good with numbers, so she asked him if he could help her and Gadin more than happily took up this task. They started spending more and more time together-reading, eating, going out. Watching movies etc and as all this happened Gadin’s feelings for Kangan also grew.

Although his love for her was not typically a love at first sight but it definitely had become the love at every sight. Every time his phone rang, before picking up the phone he made silent prayers for the call to be hers but most of the time it used to be some stupid telemarketing call and he cursed them a lot.Everytime his phone showed “one new message received” he wished it to be hers, wishing she asking him to go out for a walk to tea or anything.Everytime he logged into his laptop he wished her to be there and if she was not there, he waited for her to come online and every time somebody pinged him, he wished it to be her. Sometimes he felt he was behaving like a foolish little kid, but whatever, he liked it.

This time machine journey of his was again broken by the ringing of his phone. His heart sank that may be she had changed her mind, maybe she has do some work, maybe she doesn’t want to go out with him but when he picked up the phone, his father’s number was flashing on the screen.

He sighed in relief and picked up the phone and had a casual chat with his parents for 5-7 minutes. They talked about a neighbour Suresh Uncle who was suffering from severe diabetes and was now undergoing two dialysis per week. His father told him that Suresh uncle’s condition was worsening and the doctors said may he would have to now go three dialysis per week. Then his father told him about one his cousins who was blessed with a baby girl yesterday and then the topic drifted to usual discussion about wheather, how it was too cold in Delhi but in Bangalore it was neither hot nor cold. His father said Ok now talk to your mom. His mom asking the usual question “khana waana theek mil raha hai na” are u getting good food there? He said yes mom and then thought he had gained 8 Kilos in the last six month. How can the food be not good? His mom then told him they had made some sweets from jiggery at home and should they send him some of them. He said no mom I will have it when i come back home and they said bye and kept the phone. Although his mind was orbiting in altogether a different trajectory still he dialled his cousin’s number to congratulate him, but nobody picked up the phone and he though he will probably call later in the night.

He still had a few hours to kill before he went to meet her. He picked up the book he was reading. Short stories by Chekhov. He had bought this book day before yesterday and had read a very few of the stories. He started reading it, the first story he read was “Death of a clerk” He could not concentrate on the story but he still vaguely remembered having read that story when he was in school. He then read two or three more stories and went again into sleep reading that book.

It was 5 when he woke up. He quickly had a bath and dressed. It was 5:30 He knew it would take him at the most 20 minutes to reach the CCD in Sundar Nagar but as punctual he was he left early and preferred to wait there rather than getting late. He Reached the CCD at 5:45, Went inside looked here and there for Kangan but he knew she would not have come early. He sat there and picked up the news paper to read. Although he was gazing at the letters of the newspaper but his thoughts were somewhere else, remembering his college days and smiling by himself. Then he finally saw an article of launch of a new motorcycle. He new this was one article where could concentrate and read it. He looked at his watch, It was 5:58.He knew she would be coming any time now. Something started vibrating in his pants giving him a tickling feeling. It was his phone. He again thought it might be Kangan saying she could not come because of xyz reasons. He took out his phone and saw; it was again those idea customer care guys. He wanted to get them out of the phone and beat the hell out of them but he just cut the phone. He looked at his watch at least 20 times in the next 10 minutes. He was not getting impatient, but he also knew that for Kangan 6 meant at least 6:15.He then again remembered and incident when they had a huge argument because he had to wait for her and he shouted on her and invariably ended up saying sorry for being rude. He was just smiling and trying to concentrate on the newspaper when that voice said “Hi Gadin”.He looked up and there she was standing, not changed a bit, as beautiful as ever, same life in those eyes, same killing smile. She was wearing the blue dress that he had gifted her on her birthday before leaving the college. He stood up, said Hi, shook hands with her and gave her a friendly hug and whispered in her ear, “It’s high time you got rid of this stupid bag of yours”. She hit him in the arm and that friendly slap too had the momentum .Then he said to himself, come back Newton, This is no time for physics’ said the same ouch, it hurts-you Mike Tyson and she said the same “I know”.

They ordered their favourite SB and the shine in her eyes after looking at the boiling hot chocolate was again the same. He was thinking nothing had changed but he was not too sure of this Then they ordered again their usual. She ordered a hot Cappuccino with extra sugar and he a cold Mochachillo with extra ice. They sat there talking, laughing, and teasing each other. He pulling her leg on the roadside shopping that she always did and she making fun of his north Indian accent. Time seemed to fly remembering the old college days when she suddenly looked outside and realized it had grown dark and then they looked at the watch and it was 9:30.I have to go now she said, I have to get back to my flat before 10 according to the rules. He said okay and dropped her to her place on his bike and came back home. Lying on his bed he could not stop smiling remembering those old days and how they again had laughed today. Sleep never came easy to him in the night, he had to lie down for at least half an hour before getting sleep but today he was not upset about it. Kangan was also smiling at all the stupid things they did and PJs(Pathetic Jokes) they always cracked about everything, but she was blessed and dozed off within 5 minutes of hitting the bed.

They kept going out and meeting generally on weekends. Although there was not a single day in those one and half years when he did not miss her but his feelings for her again started growing inside him. It was a Saturday night and they decided to go to a discotheque. By now she had moved into another accommodation and did not have to really worry about that 10 P.M. rule bet she kept her landlady posted if she thought she would be coming late. Today also she had told her that she will be coming a little late. They were a group of 6 people going out, one of the girls being Kangan’s roommate. Her boyfriend was coming to pick her up and she offered to take Kangan with them because it would not be very comfortable to with on a bike wearing a skirt. Kangan said okay. Gadin decided to come on his bike only and they went to Amoeba, the most happening Disc of Banagalore.It was early according to the timings of a disc where people started to come in after 10 o clock, so they got an easy entry into the Disc. They went inside and sat at a table. The guys ordered their regular whisky and the girls took a small drink of vodka and ordered some snacks. By the time they finished their drink the disc started filling up. She said Gadin come on let’s dance and they started dancing. The DJ was good and playing latest party numbers. She was a very good dancer and could dance from anything to folk to hip hop and he on the other hand could just perform some of the acrobatic moves which remotely remembered to any kind of dance. They danced for around 45 minutes when Gadin said I want to have another drink and they came back to the bar. He ordered his whisky with Soda.

This whole set up reminded him of their farewell party at the college. It was more than a year that Gadin and Kangan had become friends. They have had their best of the times together in this one and a half year. They had studied together; eaten together, laughed together at times cried also together, they have had their share of fights and their share of sorrys over the ice cream too. But Gadin was still not sure about her feelings for him but he knew that he could not wait any longer. The organisers of the part announced that the first bus back to college was leaving in another five minutes. Gadin went to Kangan and told her that how much he loved her and how he wanted to spend rest of his life with her and do everything possible to keep her happy. The music was too loud, the words could not be heard properly but the lip movement had to be decoded.Kangan’s lips moved for a few seconds and changed expression on Gadin’s face told that she should leave by the bus that was going back to college. He came back to college. Although there were 10 days in their convocation but Gadin left for his home the next day early morning and did not even come for the convocation .The two had not talked since then.

It was same again. The music was loud. There was smell of sweat mixed with perfumes and alcohol in the place. There were again disco lights throwing occasional light and there were again their friends dancing, there was again loud music making it difficult to talk and calling for deciphering the lip movements to understand what the other person was saying. There was again she, looking more beautiful than ever, wearing a simple yet elegant dress, wearing big but not loud earings, having done no makeup except for the light lip gloss, and there was again he with his whisky in his hand and lots of things to say in his heart. He asked her a question again. She answered again his face expressions changed again and he left yet again.

The next day Sunday morning, he was sitting there in his room with his old Nokia phone in his hand and searching something on the internet. Then he got what he was looking for and dialled a number. After three rings a pleasant female voice answered” Welcome to TravelWithUs.com, how may I help you”.Gadin’s heart started pounding fast, He could hear his own heartbeat. The lady on the phone said hello, hello.Gadin could not still speak and just could muster a Hello. The lady once again said his well practised sentence “Welcome to TravelWithUs.com, how may I help you”?Gadin was waiting to say this sentence for a long long time and when the time had come he was so overwhelmed that he could not speak. After a few seconds and a few more hellos from the female, Gadin finally managed to say it “I want to book a return ticket for two to Scotland.”