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..