chapter 15

Chapter 15Turning another pageShe was engrossed in approving content for the day when she sensed Chintan behind her even before she felt his hand on the backrest of her chair. “Thanks,” Chintan said in a soft voice.She turned to face him, her face warm and flushed. “What for?”“I wasn’t sure if you would come today,” he said wistfully.She looked down uncomfortably. He turned and left her to join the design team on her floor. Soon she was called along with the marketing head to discuss microsite templates, which she had tried not to think about. When the discussion continued to lunchtime, Chintan suggested that the entire group go out for lunch.  The marketing head suggested the dhaba. “You should try it, Chintan, it is an experience.”Chintan was game immediately and said, “It’s been years since I visited Singhji.” Anu demurred, but as almost all agreed to this unexpected treat, she allowed herself to be persuaded. She took comfort in the number of people trooping out of the office. She felt a strange hesitation to be with him, fearing his formal coolness, his return to sensible normalcy.As all settled down in the dhaba, the marketing head asked Chintan, “You seem to be a jack of all trades – a bit of marketing, a bit of design…must have had varied experience?”Chintan laughed self-deprecatingly and completed the saying, “And master of none. You are right, that describes me well.”“Oh no, Chintan,” said the design head. “Your knowledge of designing and IT is pretty sound.”“Thank god for that! After all the money my dad spent on my engineering degree, it had better be good,” he said and smiled.“And marketing? How did that happen? You did your MBA?”Chintan shook his head. “My friends and I ran an online marketing company when we were at college. Then I interned here, and then had my own online publication for a while – for IT products. So you can say, by trial and error.”“Oh really!” the marketing head exclaimed.Someone – a sales guy – put his foot in his mouth by commenting, “Well, some people are born lucky.”Someone shushed him, but Chintan nodded and said, “Yes, you are right. Having this opportunity, it would have been silly to give it up. But I soon realised that this is not where my heart is.”“Oh!” the marketing head asked. “Where is it?”“Agriculture,” he said. “Your father said you were a lyricist,” someone said.He shook his head. “He hates to say I am into farming. He finds it embarrassing,” Chintan said. An uncomfortable silence followed. “Is this what you want to do? Selling?” Chintan turned the question on the cynical sales guy.“Me? It doesn’t matter what I want to do. The fact is, this pays,” the man said bitterly.“And your dream is…?” Chintan persisted gently as a general silence fell over the group.“Singing,” the man said and attacked his lunch with renewed vigour. All looked at him surprised. One close colleague of his nodded and said, “He has a superb voice.”It became a time to share dreams and like a game of passing the parcel, each one shared his or her dream. Many had forgotten to dream, but some still nurtured a secret desire to be someone else, something else, somewhere else.When it was Anu’s turn, she closed her eyes for a second. Writing was her interest and she had been happy at her job. But when she closed her eyes, she saw snow-capped hills, cool mountain breeze and a gentle sun on her skin. “I want to travel all over the world,” she said dreamily.“Be a travel writer?” someone asked. She shook her head and said, “Just be one with nature somewhere remote, with nothing on my mind, nothing to disturb or distract, no deadline to meet.”“So you must be hunting for a rich husband full time!” the cynical voice rang across the tables, breaking her reverie and bringing her back to the present with a thud. She blushed and fell silent. The next person, eager to share her views, made all laugh saying, “I definitely wouldn’t mind that! I want to be a housewife.”