Beyond forty – part II , Reality bites.

Narrated till now …

Pramod gets the contact details of Vandana Joshi (his first crush) during college reunion. He is saddened to know the hardships she had to face in the earlier part of her life after engineering.

Narration continues….

“I am now in Hyderabad. First half I have some meetings and will go to Vandana’s office in the second half. I have spoken to her” Pramod told me. “All the best bro and have a good time with her” I replied.

It was around 4 PM, the taxi driver stopped the car and said “This is the office you are looking for”. Pramod got out of the taxi and told the driver to wait for him  and walked into the office.

 The thoughts that she had to go through a bad patch in her life and had to marry a person much elder to her made him feel sad. Sporting a pale face he walked to the reception. The office was a very good one with centralized air conditioning and well made interiors. He stopped at the table of the receptionist and waited as she was attending a call. He saw the name of the company “Naidu Rail Sleepers Pvt Ltd” written on the wall behind her.

She finished her call, smiled at him and asked politely “How can I help you sir?”

Pramod smiled back and said “I have come here to meet Mrs. Joshi.”

She gave a strange look and replied “There is no Mrs.Joshi working here.”

“Vandana Joshi”

“Oh you mean Vandana madam. Her name is Vandana Naidu. Please take your seat.”

She went inside the office and came back in few minutes and asked “Mr. Pramod?”

“Yes”

“Please come with me “she said.

He walked with her and found that it was a big office with more than 100 employees working.

The lady stopped in front of a cabin, opened the door and gestured Pramod to enter. He walked into the cabin. The lady sitting inside got up and with a huge smile on her face said “Pramod how are you?”

 “Vandana it is my pleasure to meet you after so many years” he said.

" Do you recollect our days during engineering?” Pramod asked.

“I have to recollect only if I forget. I have not forgotten you” Vandana replied.

She looked very beautiful and was almost of Zero size. She was draped in a sober colored cotton saree duly starched, with minimum make up on the face, well set long hair and looked very attractive.

They sat  on the chairs ,the office boy came in and offered water and hot coffee.

“Looks like you are in a senior position in this company” Pramod said.

Vandana smiled and replied “It is indeed a very responsible position. I am the Managing Director.”

There was a look of disbelief on his face. Few minutes earlier he had a perception about her as a struggling woman fighting to make both ends meet. Now he was sitting in front of MD of a big company.

He got back to his senses and asked “What do you manufacture? How could you get till here?”

She replied “Let me tell you the full story. The few years after engineering was a big struggle as dad passed away and I had to support the family. I joined Mr. Ramesh Naidu as a design assistant in Hubli. He was a railway contractor from Hyderabad and had started manufacturing of Railway sleepers (concrete blocks that are placed between the rails). After one year of association the chemistry between us became favorable. I was 22 years old and he was 34 years old. He had lost his wife and was having a 5 year old son. We decided to get married. Some resistance came from my family side as we are orthodox Kannada Brahmins and Ramesh is a Telugu Naidu and a non vegetarian but things fell in place with due course of time.

We built the company from scratch and today we employ more than 1000 employees and have three factories spread over 3 states.”

Pramod was listening to her with a blank face with his mouth wide open. It was like a story from a novel to him. He looked at her and said “You have grown really big in your life. Hope you do not have any problems now.”

Vandana looked at him and said “you thought that I would cry and you would lend you shoulder?”

Pramod smiled and said “You have not changed in this aspect. You are the same harsh Vandana, the girl who rejected my love proposal during engineering days.”

“It is not like that” Vandana continued “I was never harsh . I have huge respect for you and Susan. I always speak straight without adding any drama and that’s why am able to manage this big work force of 1000 people.”

Pramod clapped in appreciation and continued “How does your husband look?”

She took one framed photo in her hand and showing it to Pramod said “He is Mr. Ramesh Naidu, my husband and Chairman of our group.”

Vandana looked at Pramod and said “He is about 10 years elder to you and is a fitness maniac. He keeps himself very fit.”

They spoke for about an hour laughing heartily in-between.

Pramod got up from his chair and said “It is 6 PM now. I have return flight to Bangalore at 10 pm. I have to rush to the airport.”

Vandana walked up to him and stood closer to him and looking over his shoulder said “One selfie please.”

He smiled and she took few selfies.

 She escorted him to reception and as he was getting down the steps at the entrance he stumbled. Vandana held him tight and pulled him back. A jolt sort of feeling was sensed by both of them. She left his hand and stepped back. Pramod smiled at her and went towards the taxi. Vandana stood at the entrance of the office, watched him get into the taxi, waved at him and looked very satisfied having met him. 

Beyond forty – part I , The reunion.

“We are always first to arrive in any function” Susan told mini sarcastically.

“But that is good habit” Sujan Chandy added “A punctual person is serious about the commitments made”. Susan and her husband Pramod had arrived at the 5 star hotel banquet hall where their engineering college reunion was being held. Sujan Chandy was their batch mate and he had come with his wife Mini Mathew.

The hall was huge and was dressed up beautifully with many round tables and chairs around draped in clean white colored clothes. The core committee of the reunion had not taken any chance and wanted the one day event to be enjoyable and memorable.

Batch mates started arriving with their families and soon the hall was filled with them. It was an ocean of happy faces beaming with joy and seemed as if they had rewound two decades of their lives. They were joking and laughing like teenage students.

I entered the hall and could see hundreds of my batch mates with their families busy talking and taking selfies with their old friends.

 Rashmi walked up to me and said “sir, how are the arrangements?”

“Mind blowing” I said and continued “You are a very good event manager.”

She smiled and continued “The podium is on the raised platform at the end of the hall. It is all yours now.”

I walked to the podium smiling, wishing my batch mates and after reaching the podium started “Friends, Good morning. It has been two decades since we passed out of our engineering college and many of us have crossed the wrong side of thirties and have entered the right side of forties. Looking at the expressions on the faces, the way guys are talking, laughing, gesturing, taking selfies and playing pranks on one another, it appears that we all are now twenty year olds with two decades of experience.”

 “Have we grown older?” I questioned and continued “Maybe the very fact that we are having reunion indicates that we have aged. We might have aged physically but mentally we are as young as we were during our college days”. I continued for another ten minutes and concluded the speech by saying “next couple of hours we have many of our batch mates sharing their experiences and will tell us how they have spent the two decades after completion of study.”

Raghu started sharing his experiences and I slowly walked down the podium and went to the table where Pramod and Susan were sitting. Pramod Kulkarni and Susan Dsouza fell in love during engineering study days, faced all odds, got married and have been living happily since then. I sat on the chair next to Pramod and started compering the event from there with cordless microphone. One by one enthusiastic batch mates started sharing their experiences and each one of their talk was received by thunderous applause from the audience.

After about an hour I announced “Friends now we have a surprise event. She was considered the most beautiful girl of our batch and today she is not going to share her experience but will do something else.”

Soujanya walked to the podium and the audience went berserk. Deafening claps and whistles raised the decibels in the room to an unbearable level.

Soujanya smiled and looked at the batch mates from the podium.

“She is still the most beautiful woman from our batch” Sujan said leaning towards me.

“Yes” I replied.

She started “Friends today I am going to sing a song from an old Hindi film”. She narrated the background of the song and started singing. She sang with sincerity, passion and looked like she had practiced singing for many years.

Chetan walked from his seat and came to our table. Looking at Pramod he said “I never knew about her singing”. “Neither do we” Pramod replied. Susan gave a stern look at the boys and said “Keep quiet. Let us listen to her singing and encourage her.”

Guys did not heed to Susan and kept discussing. Sujan Chandy commented “This is called Limelight issues. She was in the limelight always and now age had caught up and maybe no longer in limelight. That’s why she is into singing.”

I did not like the comment much and added “She is pursuing her passion. Maybe during our study days she did not find time to do so and now with grown up kids she finds time to enjoy her hobbies”. All of them nodded in agreement.

During lunch break I walked to Pramod and said “Do you remember Vandana Joshi?”

His face brightened up. “Where is she?” he asked.

I smiled and continued “I spoke to her few days ago. She is settled in Hyderabad.”

“But why in Hyderabad? She is from Hubli right?”

I walked away as Rashmi called me and started discussing about the post lunch session and the arrangements she had made.

The post lunch session started and I could see Pramod lost in thoughts. It was natural as his first crush in the college was Vandana Joshi from our junior batch. Pramod Kulkarni thought that since both of them came from the same place and similar family backgrounds, she would fall in love with him when he proposed. She rejected his love and later Susan entered his life and they got married.

Pramod came to me and asked “you have her contact number? What is she doing in Hyderabad? Is she married? How many kids she has?”

I smiled and gave her mobile number to him and said “Vandana’s father died immediately after her engineering. She had to take up responsibility of her family, her younger brother and sister. Those days opportunities were not many and she had to toil hard to make the family ends meet. Her mother developed high blood pressure and while we all were freaking out with our initial salaries, she was struggling with her life. She got married to a widower who is about 12 years elder to her.”

Pramod looked dumbstruck and said “I cannot believe this. She was so beautiful and so good at studies and this is what life could offer her? I shall meet her the next time I go to Hyderabad on a business trip”…

To be continued in part 2…