Crossing the Mirage - Passing Through Youth

Chapter 16 - Love in the Bind

 "Welcome to smoke and dust," said Sathya as he led Chandra into his first floor apartment.

"You smoke a lot it seems," said Chandra, surveying the heaps of Four Square butts lying all over the place.

"Ten packs a day," said Sathya lighting another cigarette with the butt in hand, "and that should give you an idea about my life and love right now."

"Well, I touched four when I was in the rough," said Chandra as he lit a Berkeley, "but now I've cut down to two."

"And your high was my regular quota," said Sathya, mixing Black Knight for them.

"I've a feeling that your life is rather unusual," said Chandra in anticipation, "that is, considering that my own life is no run of the mill."

"It looks like that," said Sathya looking vacantly, "going by my past, not to speak of the present."

"I'm eager for your story of indiscretion," said Chandra filling soda to the brim. "And that's what love is all about."

"If no woman ever induced indiscretion in your head," said Sathya raising his glass, "then your heart may not be in the right place."

"Well said," said Chandra as he raised his as well.

"Cheers," said Sathya.

"Cheers," said Chandra clinking them.

"The saga begins in Calcutta," began Sathya. "Have you ever been there?"

"No, but what I've heard about it is enough to make me not wanting to be there," said Chandra in jest.

"Then let me begin with Cal before I end up with Kala," said Sathya, sipping from his glass. "In a way the incongruities of my love are in sync with that city of contradictions. It's as if there is that identity crisis with the woman I love and the city in which she grew up. While the visitors perceive it as a hole, the residents won't like to swap it even with heaven itself. Well, it has that coarse exterior but it has a sublime inner, unique to itself. The casual visitors fail to grasp this, and that's why the calumny that's Calcutta. One understands that if only one lives there for some length of time. With people and places alike, don't we form opinions from appearances? Oh, how people fail to see the soul of Cal! To start with, that's how I erred in Kala's case too. But, once I thought I saw her inner self, I felt she is an angelic soul."

"For the same reason I was bitter for long," said Chandra nostalgically, "that was, till Nithya came into my life."

"Tell me how?" said Sathya turning eager.

"We will talk about that later," said Chandra concernedly. "But now your tale takes precedence for it seems unresolved."

"Oh, how nicely you've put it!" began Sathya as Chandra got ready not to drop a word. "It was on 15th March that I reached Cal to join Goddard & Griffith. That was two years ago and as a Purchase Officer for your detail. And it didn't occur to me then that Caesar was done in on the ides of March. Anyway, I was surprised at seeing a peon doubling up as the receptionist at the office in 13, Camac Street. As I learned later, it was a different story altogether. It seems the boss of the day fancied the then Miss. Receptionist and took her under his romantic wings. And to further her professional cause as well, he made her a Miss Purchase Assistant, what was worse, he installed a peon in her place. Though she was found wanting at the purchase desk, yet he was making out to the higher-ups, that she was reducing the lead periods. Why, that made the detractors sneer that the reference could be to her own periods."

Chandra had a hearty laugh followed by a strong puff of the Berkeley.

"As he was a man of substance, even otherwise, he moved up the ladder to the London Office. The man who replaced him thought it fit to shift the favored Miss to where she belonged. But the workers' union would have none of that. You know how shortsighted these unions turn into when it comes to the company interests. And that left the office reception in the rough hands of that semi-literate. One day, however, the bubble burst as the younger brother of the company director came on a visit. In a case of classic mess up, the peon informed the new head that someone from the Younger Brother & Co. came to call on him. Aghast at what he saw, the irritated visitor reported the matter to his director brother. It was that comedy of errors which triggered the move to recruit a proper receptionist. It was thus that my fate had placed Kala at the reception before it led me into the portals of the office. If you are a believer in numerology, number 13 is a symbol of 'power' which if wrongly used will wreck destruction upon itself.'