Chapter 4
Manju Haridas had become a topic for discussion for Vijay from the day she had stepped into the Indigo Office. Her parent were originally from Kerala, but were now settled in Bangalore. Her father was a retired IAS officer and her mother was an IFS, on deputation with the UN. Her parents had divorced and now she divided her time between them. She had travelled all over the world and spoke English with a British accent. Her dressing sense was what impressed Vijay the most. It was this dressing sense that got her into trouble with the HR team.
“How about you changing your desk with me?” asked Vijay
“Change my desk? Why would I want to change my desk?” asked Hari.
“ Well for one, you occupy the cubicle right next to Manju, which does not make any sense at all. That place should be given to someone, who values beauty”
“You know one of these days you are going to get into serious trouble, Vijay. You know Indigo has a sexual harassment policy right”
“I am the one being harassed here. By the way, have you noticed her legs? You can hardly miss them in the short skirts she wears. Quite shapely aren’t they. Makes me happy that I joined Indigo”, Vijay said.
“My God! Vijay. If someone from HR hears this even I would be in trouble.”
“ HR consists of a bunch of old women. They are all jealous of her”
The short skirts did create a problem and before long Manju got a memo and a copy of the official dress policy. As her buddy, Hari was asked to explaining the dress code to her.
“This is something that the HR should do,” he had protested, but HR would have none of it.
“As her buddy you need to handle it at the first level and then if you are unable to do it, it should come to us”, said the HR representative.
“ It is a stupid policy”, said Manju. “I should be allowed to wear whatever I feel comfortable in”
“See the idea is that others should not feel uncomfortable,” said Hari.
“Right, so that they can do their research on half saris. You are all such hypocrites. I hate it here. Do you suppose I would wear a salwar kurta like an old maid”, said Manju and stormed out of the ODC.
Hari was glad that the conversation was over. Manju was difficult to handle. The girl was technically good, but had serious attitude issues. She argued with all, even Gopal was not spared at times.
“I would not mind if she argues with me,” said Vijay. “Forget arguments I am ready to lose anything that she wants me to lose”.
“You know Vijay, your problem is that you do not have problems in life” said Hari “Look at me since moving into the new place I have hardly got time to think of anything else. Everything for me has been a learning experience.”
It took Hari some time to get used to the cooking, though. Back in Devipuram, Devaki ensured that he devoted his complete time to his studies and never entered the kitchen. Here he was the chef, diner and the dishwasher all rolled into one. He would start to cook some vegetable and then realize that his kitchen was missing some of the basic ingredients like salt, pepper, or oil. Slowly he learnt what all were essential in a kitchen. The rest was easy. The only problem was getting the kerosene for the stove. You needed to have a ration card to buy kerosene. Vijay’s parents pitched in here and gave Hari their share, as all their cooking was on LPG stoves.
One evening, Hari saw some flower petals outside the front door. For a brief second he froze but then a gust of wind blew the petals away.
‘The wind which must have brought them here,’ he thought and went in. Then the fog rolled in.
“One thing about the fog in this forest, when it comes, it brings the night with it”, he said as he stood at the front door watching as the fog slowly covered up the house. After a few minutes, he got tired and decided to go in and make himself a cup of tea. That was when he heard the sound of the anklets again. He peered in the direction from where the sound had come and soon could make out the figure of a young woman walking towards him. In the thick fog, he could see only the upper part of her body. As she came nearer, he could see that she was her late teens, and dressed in a half sari. She was very fair and had long curly black hair. Oiled and neatly combed it reached up to her waist. She had a garland of jasmine flowers in her hair and the smell even from the distance was quite strong.
She stopped at a distance under the trees at the end of the open space in front of the house.
“Hello, I am Hari and I live here”, Hari said in Hindi.
Much to Hari’s astonishment, she replied in his mother tongue, Malayalam.
“I do not speak Hindi, well, though I can understand it. I will speak in Malayalam,” she said. Hari was surprised. The last thing he expected in this forest was to meet someone who could speak Malayalam, that too someone so pretty.
“Who are you?” Do you live in this forest?” he asked.
“My name is Sumangali. We used to live in this house”, she said.
“Oh I … I am sorry. I did not know anyone was living here. When I came here, I found it empty and moved in,” said Hari.
“That is ok. We don’t live here anymore. ”
“You said ‘we’. Is there anyone else with you?” asked Hari.
“Yes my father. He is the priest at the nearby Sri. Rama temple. We live in the temple now. ”
“Oh ok. Where is this temple?”
The girl pointed in a direction behind the house. Hari thought for a moment. He had walked through most of the forest in the immediate vicinity. The forest in the direction she was pointing was almost impenetrable. He was enjoying the conversation with this pretty girl and did not want to start an argument, so let it go.
“What are you doing roaming around in this forest?” he asked.
“Why don’t you tell me about yourself?” she asked him.
“Well my name is Hari, as I have already told you. Hari Kumar. I am from Kerala. I am working at Indigo Software as a senior Software Developer and I live here. That is my short story”
“How do you know Malayalam,” she asked.
“That is because I am from Kerala, my language is Malayalam. Where are you from?”
“ We are from Vanchinad”, she said.
“Vanchinad” Hari started laughing. No one calls it Vanchinadu, the name the world uses is Trivandrum now or more correctly Thiruvanathapuram. Vanchinadu was the name used almost a hundred years ago.
The girl smiled, “That is what we call it”.
“Your Malayalam is a bit funny, slightly formal, don’t you think? Nobody uses such formal language anymore”
“You can teach me your way of speaking”
“I certainly can. But I don’t teach for free”, he said and smiled.
She smiled back at him and said, “I could bring you food”
“Yes that would be nice. How about some chicken and fish, it has been days since I have eaten either”
“We are Brahmins, pure vegetarians. I can get you berries from the forest”
“For that I would teach you only the basics of modern language,” he said and laughed.
“ Berries and fruits are all that you need to survive in the forest”
“I could also teach you Hindi”, Hari said.
“ Why would I want to learn Hindi? ”
“Well that is the local language. Might as well learn it if you want to live here”
“Who told you that I wanted to live here?”
“ Why, don’t you like it here?”
“ This is a bad place. Bad things happened in this house,” she said.
“Why what happened?” Hari asked.
The girl did not reply but turned as started walking back through the fog, “I have to go back. My father would be waiting for me. It is time for the evening pooja.”
She walked away and slowly disappeared in the fog. The sound of the anklets was growing faint in the distance.
“When will I see you again?” he shouted in the fog.
“S
oon… you would see me soon” the voice seemed to come from somewhere near but he could not see anything in the fog.
Hari stood there for some time, thinking.
“Now that is a very pretty face.” he said and smiled. The fog seemed to be thinning away. As it was getting dark, he went inside and got busy with his cooking for the night.
The next day as he came back from the office, he found some berries and fruits placed outside his front door on a plantain leaf. He smiled.
“Hmm so my girlfriend has taking over the catering service,” he said to himself. He looked all around but did not find her. He went in had a bath, came out, sat on the steps and began eating the berries.
“She was right, they are indeed filling. That is good now I don’t need to cook tonight,” he said. ‘I wonder where she has disappeared,’ he thought.
“ Sumangali madam, are you there?” he shouted ‘Come we can share this”
There was no response so he continued eating. After he had finished it all, he got up and turned to go in when he heard her voice “Did you like it?”
He turned around and said, “I knew you would be hiding somewhere close by. You could have shared it with me”. In the moonlight, he could see her standing in the shadow of the trees. He wondered how he had missed seeing her before.
“I don’t eat much,” she said.
“Oh ok. You could at least have sat with me. So what if you don’t like to eat. You can talk, I will listen and eat”.
“I was watching you eat,” she said. She turned and started walking away. After a few steps she stopped turned looked at Hari and said, “I will always be watching over you, “ then she turned and ran away into the trees.
“ Strange girl” said Hari, “always runs away after a few words. By the way, what does she like roaming around in the forest in the moonlight? Must meet her father and ask him about it”
“She brought you some berries and fruits?” asked Vijay.
“Yes”
“Then?”
“ What ‘then’?”
“I am asking what happened after that?”
“ Nothing I ate them and then after that she ran off”
“Why did she run off?”
“ How do I know? She always runs of after saying a few words.”
“ Ask her to bring you some local brew. The tribal’s in the forests areas make a deadly brew. Goes down well with meat and eggs”
“She said she is a Brahmin”
“Don’t tell me Brahmins don’t drink or eat meat. My friend I know Brahmins and Jains whose love for the good stuff in life would put me to shame!”
“ I thought you said you did not drink.”
“ I do not drink. I was referring to the meat and eggs part. Oh! So now, you doubt your best friend over a girl who gives you fruits and berries. Alas! That is the effect the female of the species has over the male. I am hurt”
“That is good! Now let me finish my work in peace. You can also look into your work for a change.”
“ Yes, I will. I have no interest in speaking to you anymore. You have hurt my sentiments”
The two continued their work in silence for a minute. Then Vijay turned at Hari and asked, “So when are you planning on introducing her to me?”
“Not now. Let me get to know her better.”