Tejas came out of the conference room fuming fire from both nostrils. "THIS IS SO NOT OKAY."- he murmured to himself, dropped his laptop loudly on the desk and stormed out towards the smoking zone.
Six months back, he was elevated to the senior software engineer designation. But so far, the dividends of this 'senior' tag had been abysmally awful. In exchange for a mere 1200/- salary increase monthly, this promotion had only brought him longer working hours, logging in from home on weekends and covering for the work of juniors in his team. And that onsite opportunity promised, was just fading away with each passing month. It's particularly the weekend part though, which gave him the biggest heartburn.
After weeks of pleading and praying, Aisha had finally agreed to go out with him for 'Avengers: End Game' this Saturday. Aisha was his 'more than friends but not yet a couple' kind of buddy from the apartment next door. Like him, she too was deep into following the pop culture. Aisha shared the same child-like joy going with him to comic con, the same sadness watching Ross and Rachel's heartbreak, and the same disgust over the Game Of Thrones final season. Tejas was head over heels in love with her. But over the last six months, their weekend reunion was getting frequently interrupted because of his last minute project requirements.
This weekend, he had been longing for years. As 10 years of Marvel superhero build up was going to culminate in a once-in-a-lifetime date for them both. That should seal their relationship secure forever. And just then, on a freaky Friday morning today, during the weekly status call his manager dumps the pending tickets of Neeti on him. Neeti, who was habitually not yet in office.
"It's urgent for project's sake Tejas. Hope it will be okay for you."- thundered his sadistic boss.
"When is it not urgent for you?"- thought the tired Tejas.
"THIS IS SO NOT OKAY."- puffing out the rings of smoke, Tejas directed his anger now towards Neeti- "What a clever girl she is! Comes to office whenever she feels like, uses her good looks on the manager to leave sharp at 5, breaks down at slightest hint of a criticism, plays the girl card to skip any weekend duties. And since the time she got married last month, she is not even completing her own quota of assigned tickets. And this blind fool of a manager overlooks every shortfall in her performance, but never misses to point out the smallest mistakes in mine."
Tejas finished his cigarette cursing both his manager and colleague, while searching for the movie tickets on Sunday now. But much to his dismay, bookmyshow deemed him unworthy by this time. Tejas passed through the canteen to intake his morning dose of caffeine, and there he saw Neeti, sitting all alone, perhaps even sobbing a little.
Tejas paused and looked around but saw no signs of anybody joining her any time sooner and it became evident that she was sitting there alone not for tea, but for crying out only. Tejas contemplated for a minute or two, whether to go to her or not. But then he was already going to spoil his weekend for her laziness anyway, so what the heck. He drew a chair and sat opposite to her.
Neeti was really an introvert. And being stunningly good looking alienated her further in her work space. Half the people got intimidated in approaching her, while the other half labeled her a snob for not speaking up first. She hardly had anybody close and Tejas coming up and sitting next to her in a vulnerable moment like that made her eyes swell even more.
"Hey hey hey, what's the matter Neeti? Did the manager say anything to you?"- Tejas wondered how he himself really wanted his manager to say something nasty to her just a minute before.
Neeti shook her head and wiped her eyes off. The kohl was dripping all the way down to her flush pale cheeks. Her eyes unable to make contact with his were still oozing salt and grief. It was truly a shame seeing such an innocent face ruined with tears. His gaze shifted from her face to her arms which were still adorned with henna designs from her wedding not so long ago. And suddenly, looking further down to her hands, Tejas observed a fresh scar on her right palm she was trying to hide. He slowly held that hand, turned it over and looked straight at her with an inquisitive look. She withdrew her hand back, joined with the other one and avoided his sharp gaze fruitlessly for a moment.
And then she let it all out. Without restraint, without a care, as if all that she needed was just an ear to listen to her. She revealed how her perfect wedding had its ugly side. Her father had taken a huge loan to match up to the demands of the in-laws. Even till the last minute, there had been sudden surprise demands but her father battled it all out for his only daughter's flawless future. But alas, the future had been anything but cruel to Neeti. The short lived affection of in-laws soon turned into frequent Barbwires. It started with her refusal to give up her career and take over purely as a house wife. Despite her best efforts to wrap up the morning duties, she always ran late for office, and when she returned after slogging for 9 hours, she didn't even receive a cup of tea at home. It was straight away the dinner chores, all the way to cleaning up the kitchen by late night. Her body was totally shattered by that time every single night, but her staunch will kept her going. At some occasions, she was able to play the role of a perfect wife too despite being completely wasted. Not a speck of support from the female in-laws all this while, and yet Neeti kept her head down and played an ideal daughter in law while clinging onto the job by her teeth.
But everyone has a breaking point and she reached her today, barely after a month. Today her husband, her protector in chief and partner in life, told her to quit her job. Why, because he suspected she might be having an affair in office and that's why she was neither able to make him happy at night, nor was his mother feeling the household getting properly looked after. The argument escalated to such an extent that her husband took up a knife and in a fit of rage, grazed it over her hand lifted in self defence.
"You know what hurts more than this wound? The fact that he then left for his shop without a care, and left me tending to this wound myself before coming to office by an auto."- Neeti's eyes were watery, much like Tejas's now- "My father has taken a heavy toll financially to see me happy. I can't quit this marriage now and cause him more grief. I put in my resignation today as I have lost this battle."
It dawned upon Tejas that she was sitting here and crying alone today, as it was potentially the last day of her career. A promising bright flower which was about to get nipped in the bud today even before a fair chance to blossom. He took her hands into his fingers, rubbed them gently while tapping her head and speaking with purest of affection- "Don't quit just now kid, you gotta continue this fight. Let me talk to the manager. We will figure something out."
Tejas came out of the conference room again. This time not fuming, but with a deep satisfaction. He had persuaded his tyrant boss to allow a novice like Neeti to work from home for a month. He had personally taken the ownership of completion of her work, being a 'senior' in the team. He guided Neeti for laptop assignment process and during installations. It was not just mundane softwares getting installed in a life sucking piece of machine anymore. For Neeti, it was the installation of a renewed strength in her ongoing battle she was about to quit today.
Tejas called up Aisha and asked- "Listen, can we watch it next week? I still want to watch it only with you."
"You are impossible Tejas, what can be more important than Avengers battling Thanos?"- she grunted.
"Everybody is fighting his own battle, in one form or the other. I lost my petty one today. So that someone doesn't have to quit her biggest one in life."- Tejas spoke and they both smiled.
Tejas, because he was content for not judging Neeti incorrectly.
Aisha, because she found a sudden massive respect for 'her guy'.
The battle of the Avengers will have to wait for one more week now.
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