MICRO CHEATING-PART 2

Narrated till now..

Pramod meets his engineering college junior Vidya during his visit to Hyderabad. Meeting her after almost two decades was sought after one and he keeps his wife Susan informed about it.On his return to Bangalore he is surprised to get a good night message from Vidya in Whats app. He replies but does not get response from her.

Narration continues...

“You are looking dull since the time you returned from Hyderabad” Susan said coming out of the kitchen with two cups of coffee. It was Sunday evening and Pramod was sitting on the chair in the balcony of his bedroom.

“Nothing like that” he replied and continued “Am perfectly alright”.

Something was bothering him. He was unable to figure out if he had crossed the line in his reply to Vidya’s text message.

The next day morning he got ready and went to office. Couple of days passed and he was checking his mobile every now and then. He did not get any reply from Vidya. On Wednesday morning he was pleasantly surprised to see a good morning message from her. He was overwhelmed with joy and replied immediately.

“Where were you for the past few days?” he texted.

“I had been to Delhi and was very busy with the officials of Railway ministry. I was not checking messages on Whats App” she texted back.

He felt relieved and kept the phone in his pocket and continued his work in the office.

During lunch hours he checked his phone for messages. His face brightened as there was a message from Vidya. She had sent a relationship quote. Pramod gathered some courage and sent a relationship quote to her. She liked it immediately. The exchange of messages and quotes went on for many weeks and soon it became a ritual for them. Everyday exchanging good morning messages, jokes, videos and quotes became regular.

The following weekend Pramod was speaking to his close friend Sujan Chandy over phone. After speaking for about 15 minutes he kept the phone on the TV and went to the wash room.  He forgot to lock the screen of the phone. Mohit called on his phone.  Susan took the call and informed Mohit that Pramod was in the wash and shall call him back in an hour’s time. Out of curiosity Susan checked his Whats App messages. She was surprised to see many messages from Vidya. She started reading them. She was shocked to observe that the two of them were exchanging messages on a daily basis and she was not aware of the same. Pramod opened the door of the washroom. Susan kept his phone on the TV and walked away.

“Tea please” Susan said and handed over the cup of tea to Pramod. He was sitting in the balcony of the bedroom.

She sat on the chair next to him with her cup of tea and asked “Pramod you know Rohit has sent me text message in Whats App”.

“You mean Rohit staying in B block 403 apartment?” he asked.

“Yes” she continued “Every time I change the DP of Whats App he comments immediately. He keeps mentioning I am beautiful, my dress is good. Today he wrote that I am hot”

Pramod became very angry and got up from his chair and said “I shall go right now to his house and blast that fellow. How can he comment like that on someone else’s wife?”

Susan asked him to sit back and with a smile on her face said “So rules are different for the world and for self”.

Pramod looked up at her and replied in a confused way “I did not understand you”.

“All men are the same. You became angry because Rohit texted your wife praising her beauty. You keep sending messages to married woman day in and day out and it is OK”

It was like a huge boulder falling right on his head. Pramod sat back on his chair. He started sweating and he could feel his heart beating very fast.

There was silence for about 5 minutes. Susan got up and went into the kitchen. Pramod was dumbstruck. He knew that the game was over as Susan had read the messages exchanged between him and Vidya.

Susan returned to the balcony after 10 minutes. She continued “How many months old is this Whats App affair?”

“It is not an affair. We are just friends, good friends and that’s all”

“I have read the emotional relationship quotes exchanged”

“Believe me Susie there is nothing like what you are thinking. I have not met her after the Hyderabad visit about 6 months ago. How can you be so mean and doubt us? There is nothing physical or emotional between us and how can you call this an affair?”

Susan smiled in a sarcastic way and said “Pramod do not teach me about this. This is not our engineering time. Now we have Whats App and many other social media platforms. Cheating has taken a new turn and now it is Micro Cheating. You need not meet the person to indulge in it. Emotional texting is enough. This is the age of direct phone to phone messaging with end to end encryption.

You don’t need to be physically involved with third person to cheat your spouse. This kind of messaging is enough”.

Pramod had no answer to this. He gathered courage and said “I have not committed any crime or cheated you. I was happy about the response I was getting from Vidya and believe me we never crossed any line.”

“I know that. Am happy that it is Vidya on the other side and she has a very balanced and matured head over her shoulder.”

Again there was silence for 5 minutes. Pramod continued “I realize how bad you are feeling. I should not have done it. I shall inform Vidya accordingly”.

For the next three days he did not send any text messages to Vidya. She kept sending good morning messages but he did not reply. On the fourth day he called her and frankly told what all happened. Vidya was very forthcoming and expressed her uneasiness about their whats app messaging. After a long discussion they decided to be in touch as good friends and keep wishing each other on festivals, birthdays and anniversaries. Pramod informed Susan about the same and it appeared like a story with a good ending.

Weeks passed and Pramod felt much better as he was not waiting for any text message or was eager to send one. It was Friday evening and he got a message on his Whats app. His face brightened up. It was from Ipsita Chakraborty. She had texted him informing that she would be back in Bangalore the next day after few weeks of holidays in Agartala.

Men will be men, will seldom change.

MICRO CHEATING , PART - 1

“It is a wonderful office” Pramod said.

He was speaking to his wife Susan on his cell phone.

Pramod Kulkarni had gone to Hyderabad on a business trip for a day and after completing his official work in the first half, went to office of Vidya Joshi (his junior during engineering study days). He got the contact details of Vidya during his engineering reunion and had spoken to her and fixed a meeting with her. It was almost two decades since he had seen or heard about her. He was very eager to meet her as she was his first crush during engineering. He had in fact proposed to her and she had rejected saying that she was in the college to study and not waste time in unwanted things like falling in love. Subsequently he fell in love with his batch mate from Computer Science stream, Susan D’Souza. They got married after facing lot of resistance as both were from different religions.  

“Did you meet her?” Susan said and continued “How does she look now? Beautiful like before?”

Pramod said “I haven’t met her yet and am waiting in the reception.”

The receptionist walked up to him and said “Please come with me sir. Vidya Naidu madam is free now and will meet you”. While walking Pramod asked the lady “She is Vidya Joshi right?”

The lady looked at him and said “No sir she is Vidya Naidu madam”.

They entered a huge room. Pramod was awestruck with the size and grandeur of the room.

“Hi” the lady sitting on the chair said and walked towards him. She shook his hand and smiled. “You have put on lot of weight Pramod “she said.

“Yes I have but you look the same beautiful Vidya.” He replied.

The receptionist went bank and pramod sat on the sofa. Vidya looked very pretty draped in a white cotton saree.

Sitting on the sofa across the glass coffee table she said “How are you? How is Susan? You stay in Bangalore right?”

He replied “Am fine. My tummy is sign of my prosperity. Susan is doing fine and we have one daughter Bharathi. She is in 7^th standard” Saying so he opened the photo gallery of the mobile and showed the photos of Susan and Bharathi.

“Lovely lady and a cute girl” Vidya said.

“Are you in a senior position in this company? Why are they calling you Vidya Naidu?” he asked.

She smiled and said “I have a small position in this company. I am just the Managing Director”. Pramod could not believe it. His image of Vidya was that of a lower middle class girl from Hubli who had to take an educational loan to pursue her engineering as her father could not afford it.

She looked at him and continued “I know you would be surprised. Few months after completion of engineering course my father passed away. I wanted to relocate to Bangalore to join some good IT company. I had to stay back in Hubli as a support to my mother and two younger sisters. I joined an Andhra contractor Mr. Srinivas Naidu who was executing railway civil contracts around Hubli. Though he was a civil engineer he had less technical knowledge but had lot of money and knew the trade very well. I gradually learnt the nuances of civil designing and became a good support to him. He was a widower and had one young son. Couple of years of working together brought us closer and we eventually married each other”

Pramod intervened “Did you not face resistance from your house?”

She continued “Yes of course my mother was not happy. Inter caste marriages were not in vogue at that time. You know how difficult it was. My mother had no other option. She accepted our marriage.”

Pramod got up from his seat, shook her hand and said “Congratulations my lady, you married a man from other caste and I married a lady from other religion. Is he much older to you? “

“The age gap is about 10 years. Srinivas is very fit person. He has lost hair on his scalp but he is very regular to Gym and keeps a fit body unlike you. You have grown a big tummy” she laughed and continued “Am joking Pramod. You look handsome despite the tummy”

 “This does not look like office of a railway contractor. You people have grown big” he said.

“We later started concrete sleeper factory for Railways and over the period we have built three factories manufacturing concrete sleepers. We have about 2000 employees on the roll” she said.

Pramod commented “I salute you Vidya. You have been a winner all the way and your husband is a superstar”. She nodded and they spoke for about an hour and Pramod said “It’s time for my flight back home. It was nice meeting you. Keep in touch”.

She nodded and accompanied him to the portico of the building. He started walking down the steps and she walked with him. Suddenly she tripped and was about to fall down. Pramod held her and she fell into his arms. The touch was like a jolt for him. He looked into her eyes. She was also looking into his eyes. He said “It is nice to know that you remember me”.

She got up from his arms and walked up to the car. Pramod sat in the car and Vidya said “I should remember you only if I forget you. You were always in my mind during the past many years”.

Pramod took the flight and reached his home in Bangalore and could not sleep that night. He got up from his bed and walked to the front hall and switched on the light and the TV. He took his cell phone and checked Whats App messages. He was in for a pleasant surprise. Vidya had sent him a text message. She had texted “Good night and sweet dreams”.

Pramod could not believe it. She was always a very reserved woman and had never entertained extra talk with him during engineering days.

He looked at the watch. It was 11.45 in the night.

He texted back “Thank you and sweet dreams to you too. BTW you looked very beautiful today and I have seen our selfie more than 50 times till now.”

She was online. He could see that in a matter of few seconds she had seen his message as the notification became light blue in color. He waited in expectation for her reply. One hour passed and there was no response. He could see her online in Whats App but could not get her response. He started thinking if he had crossed the line by texting about the selfie. After all Vidya was a very strict lady and she would not have liked it. He cursed himself for crossing the line.

To be continued..

Resolutions- To honor or to break

“Quitting smoking is very easy. Mark Twain once mentioned that he did quit smoking a thousand times” Sujan said and started laughing. Sujan Chandy’s wife Mini Mathew frowned at him and added “I tell you friends that I could change many things about this man including his dressing sense and social etiquette but could not stop him from smoking”.

Sujan got up from his chair, walked towards Mini, placed his arms around her and said “Do not worry dear. I shall give it up”.

Many friends had assembled at the house of the Chandys to celebrate New Year eve with fun and frolic.

Pramod Kulkarni added “Talking of new year resolutions I should say that no one takes resolutions as seriously as Susie” referring to his wife Susan D’Souza. He continued “Imagine the stress both of us underwent as it was an inter religion marriage about two decades ago. Without any one asking for it she gave up eating non vegetarian food for my sake. Till date she has not touched it again”.

Everyone clapped and Mini said “Susan is of different DNA altogether. She has enormous amount of patience and adjusts to situations well”.

“Where is Rohit? Did you not invite him?” Subha asked Mini.

Sujan replied “We did invite him. We sent the invite to everyone in the Whats-app group a couple of times. You know Mini well. She sent messages to everyone and followed it up with a phone invite”.

Pramod took out his phone and dialed Rohit’s number.

“Strange” he commented keeping his phone down “His number is switched off”.

“Let me try Suruchi’s number” saying so Susan dialed her number. To her surprise it was switched off.

“This is very strange. These two guys are very active on social media and are the most accessible couple of our group and right now we are not able to contact them” she added.

Suddenly the mood in the gathering became glum and the group looked concerned about Rohit and Suruchi.

“Rohit’s 'last seen' in Whats-app is four days ago. Imagine a guy who is always connected, keeps checking at least once in 5 minutes and suddenly stops doing so. No updates on Facebook either” Balan said.

Everyone became busy with their smart phones looking for updates from Rohit on various social media platforms.

“This is worrisome now. I haven’t seen a single day wherein he has not updated in social media and now it's been 5 days since he has not said anything there” Balan continued “ Hope everything is OK with him. Neither he nor Suruchi are accessible now as their phones are switched off”.

The glum mood continued and the friends who had gathered to enjoy the New Year eve were silently having their drinks and occasionally looking at one another.

It was about 11 PM and the silence was broken as the calling bell of the house rang. Mini got up and opened the door and to her surprise found Rohit and Suruchi standing outside.

She shouted looking back “Guys cheer up! Rohit and Suruchi are here”.

Suddenly the group erupted in joy and all of them ran to the door. Sujan rushed to Rohit and giving a gentle blow on his stomach said “Where were you guys? No news and no updates on social media. We were very concerned”.

Fifteen minutes later the friends were sitting on the respective chairs and were in a very relaxed mood. Rohit started “I'm very sorry to note that you guys had to go through this because of me. In fact I was not happy about my over indulgence in social media and told Suruchi that I wanted to completely cut off my social media activity. I took a resolution to stop all my updates and since 5 days have not opened Whats-app, Facebook or other apps.

Yesterday morning we got a call that Suruchi’s mother was not keeping well. We took the next flight and reached Indore. Today her condition has improved and so we decided not to skip this get-together and started back.”

Balan was immediate to question “Then why were your phones switched off?”

Suruchi replied “I think you tried our numbers while we were in flight. We landed and came straight from the airport. Look I have the luggage with me and have kept it in the corner there”.

There was silence in the hall for a few minutes.

Pramod broke it and said “Rohit we do understand your concern about your over indulgence in social media. Totally cutting off is not an answer for that. Your resolution should be to reduce your time spent for it. Detachment from social media is not about completely coming out of it. It is more to ensure that your life is not dictated by it.”

Rohit nodded in approval.

As midnight started inching closer each one started telling their New Year's resolutions and hoped that they would honor the same the coming year.

Mini said “Everyone has told about their new year's resolution except Susan. What about your resolution Susie?”

Susan smiled and said “I do not make resolutions every year. A couple of them I have made and have been honoring them year after year. So my resolution on every new year's eve will be to stick to the resolutions already made.”