Chennai Central

2:30 pm, 22 September 2005, Shollinganallur, Chennai.

It was a gloomy Monday afternoon. Rishi was at his office desk staring at the time on his laptop. He was restless and seemed to be late for something. Rishi was a mechanical engineer who worked with a wind power company in Chennai. He was originally from Delhi. He moved to Chennai a couple of years back after his college placement through NBTI Institute.

He was fair, skinny and had a stubble. He wore a light blue shirt and a pair of dark blue trousers. The wrinkles on his shirt were very evident. He maintained a shabby hairstyle. It seemed as if he was just out of the bed and forgot to comb his hair. His shoes had barely any polish on them. He totally looked out of place compared to the more formal people around him at work.

He was in search of his boss, Sajay, Head of Sales and Marketing, a reasonably tall and stout person with a charming character. Many people at work said he resembled the Malayalam actor Mohan Lal. He had a very nice cabin with a great view. Rishi always dreamt of having a cool cabin like this once he was successful with his own start-up.

The office was quite big, probably accommodated around 300 odd people with a lot of mixed crowd, which was unlike the Chennai of the past. Earlier, very few people from outside Tamil Nadu came to live in Chennai. Everyone had their own reasons. The most common were horrible climate, unreasonable auto walas and lack of nightlife. Amongst them the most common was that they weren’t getting a good choice of alcohol, even Old Monk was scarce. This has slowly started to change. The city had gradually started to accommodate people with different mind-sets from across the country. And it’s still managing to continue its rich culture.

Rishi was leaving for Kerala that evening to meet his fiancé, Neha, an architect, for a holiday. Both of them had planned for this holiday since they got into a relationship. Neha had travelled from Bangalore the previous night and was staying at her friend’s place in Calicut. They met during the first year at college. Rishi and Neha were in a relationship for more than three years now. Finally, their families had agreed for the alliance a month ago. Their marriage was six months away.

It was approaching 3:30 pm, and Rishi had been waiting for Sajay for more than an hour now. Sajay was caught up in a call with his boss in Spain discussing about the marketing budget for the quarter. It was an important call and Rishi was a little apprehensive about barging in during the call. Finally, Sajay stepped out of his office and saw Rishi waiting outside his cabin in anticipation.

“What are you still doing here? Aren’t you late for the train?”

“I was waiting to let you know that I am leaving.”

“Well, hurry up then. Do not be late for your engagement. Trust me; you do not want to start things off with your wife on a wrong note. She will make sure that you will regret this all your life.”

“Thanks Sajay, I shall remember that. Bye then.”

He waved to Sajay and said bye to his friends at work.

Aayush, one of his colleagues stopped Rishi and told him “Happy condolences on the engagement.” He gave a smile and walked ahead. “Marriage defined in just two words,” Rishi thought.

He swiped his ID-card on his way out. As he reached for the lift, he saw a pretty girl waiting by the lift. She was tall and fair. She was wearing a dark red saree, and the colour subtly suited the colour of her purse and lip stick. “She must be from the hospitality department,” he thought to himself. “Damn, the admin guys are really lucky; they get to meet all the pretty girls from the hotels who looked for corporate tie-ups. I should not have taken up engineering. I should have been working at least with the administrative department.” The thought of cribbing about the decisions of the past comes and goes all the time, but he knew engineering was the best thing that has happened in his life till date.