Every night, an argument with his father or his new wife—whom he had wed barely months after Ash’s mother had given up her battle against cancer—would drive him out of the house and on to the streets. Loneliness had been a constant companion and addiction provided an easy getaway from his troubles.
At times he would sit for hours on the rocks being drenched by the waves that failed to douse his anger. Sometimes, he would wind up at a friend’s home, on some pretext or the other. Often, he would simply gatecrash a party in search of alcohol or joints to numb his overwrought mind. The vicious spiral had finally ended when he woke up one day to find himself lying in a filthy gutter with no memory of how he had landed there. It had scared him enough to go back home and seek his father’s help. He had swallowed the bitter pill and agreed to finish his studies.
He’d found ways to steer clear of his step-mother but avoiding addiction hadn’t been easy. Until he had a lucky break. A friend’s brother introduced him to video games.
It was as if he’d switched addictions—the urge to smoke pot declined as he became obsessed with mastering the games. And that had led to curiosity about designing and animation—and a whole new virtual world that was far more interesting than the real one.
The memories came to a halt when some children started lighting firecrackers in a building nearby. The loud bomb like explosions of the firecrackers had Dumbass cowering between his legs.
Diwali celebrations had begun in the city and just like every other year, the citizens had forgotten about their promises to have a ‘clean, green, firecracker-free’ festival. It was the nature of the Bombayite—always in a mad dash to fulfil his dreams but celebrating the here and now was just as important. A line from an old Bollywood song crept into his mind… Kal kya hoga kisko pata, abhi zindagi ka le lo mazaa (who knows what’ll happen tomorrow…make the most of life today). A motto he had believed in until a girl from Nagpur had made him wish for a tomorrow filled with sunshine, laughter and a shot at a lasting happiness. He squashed the thought before he was overwhelmed by the sudden sense of loss that had begun to creep into his soul.
Picking up the trembling Dumbass in his arms, he trekked back to Bombay Heights. When they reached home, the dog jumped on to Ash’s bed and curled up under the safety of the covers. Dumbass’ human sought refuge from the onslaught of memories of a girl with silky long hair who was barely a few feet away and yet so unreachable. How ironic that the world of animation should come to his rescue yet again, he thought, as he fired up his computer.
Chapter Twelve
D-day had arrived. Sanjana woke up tired and gritty-eyed after a restless night. Today was the day her entire family would be arriving. They had booked themselves into a guesthouse near Bombay Heights, and she had no doubt they would expect her to stay with them during their Mumbai visit.
Pinky had already left for Patiala to celebrate Diwali with her parents. Even though Pappaji, Gauri and Meghna could have stayed with her at the apartment, she had consciously decided it would be best if she maintained some distance.
Her sisters had at first been mystified by her attitude but she had put her foot down and refused to budge. She knew they were a little hurt at her insistence that they check in to a nearby guesthouse. Gauri Ma was definitely going to give her an earful about it. But Sanjana quelled her guilt and was determined to stand her ground. It was high time her over-protective family learnt to respect her decisions.
She still had a couple of hours before she needed to get to office and she used that time to finish her presentation. She had roped in Asiya to transfer her files to Ashwin. With every document being marked to Asiya, she had eliminated any possibility of Ashwin making personal remarks. At times she wondered if that was even necessary. He seemed to have forgotten all about her existence.
Her inbox pinged. She glanced at the message and was shocked to find that the man who was occupying her thoughts had sent her a mail on her personal id. It did not have a cc: marked to Asiya. Her heart missed a beat and her brain went into overdrive trying to work out why he had emailed her. There was an attachment and it seemed like the file was too big for her computer to process.
She nearly chewed her thumbnail off during the nerve-wracking wait. It finally opened and she was stunned. He had converted one of her rough sketches that she had shown him on her notepad into a beautiful 3D image. Three more messages dropped into her inbox from Ashwin but her laptop did not have the bandwidth to process the large files.
She was curious to see the rest of the images but that would mean asking him to send it to her official email id. Asiya who had access to all official mail would definitely show it to Sunrita and that would simply not do. She had pulled her off the Wadia assignment and had even refused to let Sanjana speak to Jeroobai. That had rankled but she couldn’t openly thwart her supervisor’s instructions.
However, curiosity got the better of her. Before she could stop herself she marched out of the apartment and knocked on Ash’s door. As the minutes passed, she began to lose her nerve and almost ran back to her flat.
Just at that moment, a bleary-eyed Ash opened the door. He looked as if he hadn’t slept all night. His hair was all mussed up as if he had spent hours raking his fingers through it. She felt a tremendous urge to run her hands over them and pull him into her arms. Before her brain proceeded to act upon the commands of her heart, she blurted out, “Hi, uh …the files you sent me won’t open on my computer.”
“You want me to send them to your official email id?”
The icy tone sent a shiver up her spine and her cheeks heated up in embarrassment. “I’ve been pulled out of the Wadia project. I didn’t realize you would work on those sketches. Sorry to have wasted your time.”
His eyes remained impassive—and she wondered why she stood there blathering away when she should just beat it!
“Your work is good and the team should be proud to showcase it.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Do you want to come in and see them on my computer?”
Far from an invitation, his deadpan manner and the flat tone of his voice indicated supreme boredom. Stupid as she was, she’d been excited to see the rest of the images. She struggled to control the anger that rose within her. “You can just trash them.”
She turned around to leave when she found her arm being caught in a vice like grip. Her eyes flew to his face and she saw his nostrils flare momentarily in anger though his voice remained calm.
“If your work doesn’t matter to you, it definitely won’t to anyone else. But here’s the thing. Sometimes you need to rock the boat even if it makes some ripples.”
“Thanks for the unsolicited advice,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“You’re welcome. Consider it my Diwali gift to you.”
Seething, she turned on her heels and barged into her apartment, slamming the door shut.
Even before she could calm herself down she heard her computer ping as yet another message landed in her inbox. This time, it was Sunrita, telling her to be in time for Ash’s presentation of a first cut of the video.
Three hours later Ash had walked into the office looking fresh as morning dew. Gone was the stubble, the tousled look she had encountered. She had to give it to him, he was professionalism personified. Never once did he single her out for extra attention nor did he ignore her presence. She, on the other hand, was a bundle of knotted nerves.
As soon as Sir walked in, Ashwin started the video without further ado. The visuals were stunning and the animation cleverly blended the information into an engaging storyline. Twelve minutes later, the slick infomercial came to an end to enthusiastic applause from everyone seated around the conference table.
“There is still some work to be done and some of the scene transitions have to be smoothed out. And of course, the voiceover will be done by a professional artiste. But overall, this is it,” said Ashwin.
They discussed a few details and Sir gave his feedback on some of the lines that n
eeded to be changed in the voiceover. But overall, he was effusive in his praise.
Ash looked at her and said, “It’s a shame we couldn’t add some details about the Wadia project in the video.”
She glared at him, hoping he would take her hint and shut up. But he pretended not to notice and continued, “The Lara story could be enhanced with Sanjana’s sketches for the renovation of Jeroobai’s mansion.”
Sunrita raised an eyebrow and Sanjana wished the office floor would open up magically and swallow her.
“The Wadia project, unfortunately, is on hold, thanks to Sanjana’s ineptitude and in any case she is too inexperienced for us to take her amateurish attempts seriously.”
Sunrita’s malicious words were intended to cut deep.
Ash’s eyes mocked Sanjana as if daring her to take up the challenge and counter Sunrita’s statement. Instead, she avoided his eyes and ignored Sunrita totally.
“I think if we’re done here, I’d like to leave, Sir,” she addressed her boss.
Sir nodded and she walked out of the room after wishing everyone a ‘Happy Diwali’.
By the time she reached home, she was a mess of emotions. She had had enough of her annoying neighbour. He had very nearly pushed her into a public spat with Sunrita. At least now that she had finished her end of the bargain she would never have to lay her eyes on him again. She even had a good mind to look for new accommodation once the Diwali holidays were over.
The thought strangely did little to boost her spirit. If anything it made her feel worse. Somewhere deep down she knew she should have taken up the baton that Ash had offered her in the office to redeem herself in front of the team. She also knew that he’d back her up but she had chickened out. Like so many times before. Confrontation had never been her thing and she had always chosen flight over fight. She had done it again. Perhaps even more than the fleeting look of disappointment she had spied in Ash’s eyes as she failed to take his challenge, she was crushed by her own reluctance to stand up for herself.
She collapsed into the couch, dreading the prospect of having a celebratory dinner with her family. Her phone pinged in her bag and she dug into it. Reading the text Gauri had sent, she groaned, and dragged herself to the bathroom for a shower. She grabbed the first thing in her closet and was surprised to find a hot-pink dress. It didn’t belong to her and she thought she might have accidentally put one of Pinky’s dresses in her closet. A small card fell out from the folds of the dress. Picking it up she saw it was a note from her roomie:
“To dearest Sanjana,
Woman was never intended to be an oyster. She is meant to be a pearl in a hot pink dress. Happy Diwali!
Your loving friend,
Pinky
XOXO”
She turned the card around and found another message scrawled on it: “That’s a Pinky Original. Good one, right?”
For the first time that day, her face cracked a smile. Well, she was done being an oyster. Perhaps, it was time to give Pinky’s philosophy a test drive—and try being a ‘pearl’ for a change. That would also mean telling her family that she was done being a yes-girl, who meekly nodded and did what she was told to do because after all, they knew what was best for her.
She wore the dress and looked at herself in the full length mirror that graced the front of her closet. For a moment she didn’t recognise the sexy, sophisticated girl in the reflection. The soft chiffon dress clung at all the right places and hung loose over her upper thighs exposing her lean legs. She had just the right pair of heels to go with it. A pair of glittery dangling earrings she had fallen in love with during one of her shopping expeditions at Linking Road, completed the picture. How she wished she was going out on a date with Ash than a family dinner. She picked up her brush and gave her hair a thorough brushing—till her scalp tingled and her tresses shone like black velvet—but it was not enough to make thoughts of Ash disappear.
This girl could definitely stand up for herself. And that’s what she would do. She looked down at the pink-and-gold embossed card with Pinky’s quote which still lay on the dresser. A small germ of an idea began to take shape in her mind. Riffling through her desk, she found a bunch of blank cards. Grabbing a pen, she started scribbling on them. She took the cards and pushed them in her tiny gold clutch purse.
Showtime, Sanjana! Blowing a kiss at her reflection she braced herself to greet her family.
It took some time for Gauri and Meghna to stop exclaiming over her sexy avatar. While Gauri tut-tutted that the dress was a little too short, Meghna ribbed their elder sibling for being an ‘old hag’. Pappaji finally put a stop to their fussing when he embraced her and said, “We missed you, beta.”
Sanjana instantly felt churlish for harbouring uncharitable thoughts about her family. Ever since Ma had passed, she had never been away from home for Diwali and it seemed only fitting she should spend the festival with them. Pappaji did seem a little frail and under the weather and she worried that perhaps she should have gone to Nagpur instead of wrenching him away from home to visit her.
“Pappaji, if it hadn’t been for my work, I’d have come home for Diwali. And you should be resting at home, not traipsing down to Bombay.”
“Don’t fret,” he said. “It’s a change for me too. Besides, I may as well get used to the idea of my youngest daughter living far away from me.”
“Come on, Pappaji,” she smiled. “Mumbai is only six hundred kilometres from Nagpur. You can come see me whenever you want to.”
“Actually, it’s eight hundred and nine kilometres. But that’s not what I meant.”
Gauri moved in closer and butted into their conversation. “He means once you and Chetan are married and have settled in the States, he’ll be moping away for you.”
No sooner had Chetan’s name cropped up than Sanjana’s newly found calm evaporated into ether.
“Pappaji, Gauri, I really need to talk to you about Chetan.”
Meghna joined them, “High time, Sanju. We should have heard of your plans from you rather than him.”
The dull throb in her head had begun to grow into a full-on headache. “He had no business talking to you when—”
Pappaji cut in, “It’s okay. Chetan is part of the family—has been so for many years. It’s only natural that he wanted to tell us. Now, come on, let’s not waste any more time here.”
“What? Wait! Don’t you want to hear what I have to say?”
“Oh baby,” Gauri gushed and gave her a big hug. “Of course we do. But right now we should leave or else the reservation at that fancy-pants restaurant will be cancelled.”
Meghna nodded. “Oh yes, and that snooty woman on the phone made it very clear she would not be able to hold our reservation if we were late.”
She ushered them all out of the apartment and Sanjana had no choice but to grind her teeth and be herded out. Story of her life!
“Hey, give me a second to grab my purse.”
Rushing to her bedroom, she grabbed the purse and the apartment keys. She stole a quick look at her reflection. Yes, the time had come to put her plan into action.
The elevator doors swished open and Ash stepped out into the corridor. The place was buzzing with women’s chatter. Like a missile homing in on its target, his gaze went straight to the woman whose thoughts occupied his brain through his waking hours and into his dreams. She looked like a vision from one of his particularly hot fantasies about her – the short dress accentuated her curves and the long hair invited him to twirl his fingers around the silken strands. And, those lips, red, luscious and oh so tempting! They were smiling at him. He wanted to reach out, grab her and kiss the living daylights out of her! Then they were moving, and he read them first before he heard her. “Hi, Ash!”
“Hi,” he said, amiably. “Going out?”
It was only then that he noticed the others with her. So, her family had turned up and the eldest sister was giving him a hostile look-over. The other sister had turned away from him and he noticed Sanj
ana roll her eyes at her.
Sanjana was all honey and sweetness, which came as a huge surprise. The last time he’d seen her was in the office after she’d refused to take up his challenge. She’d looked as if she would happily strangle him. What exactly had changed since then?
“We’re going to Neo’s for dinner. Would you like to join us?”
The sisters turned to gape at her as if she had grown a pair of horns.
She waved her hand self-consciously. “Oh, how rude of me not to introduce you to my sisters, Meghna, Gauri. And this is my dad… My neighbour Ash, uh, Ashwin Deo.”
“Pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you all from Sanjana,” he said.
The hostile one, Gauri, lifted an imperious eyebrow. “Oh really?”
“You know how it is…neighbours and all that,” Sanjana said breezily. “Ash, if you’re not doing anything, do join us.”
Ash had no idea what Sanjana was playing at and he wondered if he should call her bluff. She seemed to have struck her sisters dumb.
Gauri was the first to recover. “Oh, that would be lovely but unfortunately the reservations lady warned us they were all booked out.”
“I’m sure accommodating one more guest at a table won’t be so difficult,” Sanjana said.
Ash edged closer to her and mumbled, “Are you sure you want me in your cosy family dinner?”
“I think Diwali is the right time to create some ripples, don’t you?”
Though he didn’t have a clue as to what she’d in mind, this was something he definitely didn’t want to miss. The siblings meanwhile were looking at them as if they were aliens communicating in some strange language.
Their dad was the only one with a genuine smile on his face and oblivious to all the undercurrents. “You’re more than welcome to join us, Ashwin. It’s good to know that Sanjana has nice neighbours. I always worry about her.”
Bombay Heights- Sleepless in the City of Dreams Page 11
