Pooja Kulkarni had just turned 19. She had celebrated her birthday around 15 days back. But soon after her birthday, she had received a rude shock upsetting her life. She had a huge row with her boyfriend.
The result was a complete shock to her. Not only Avinash had lots of unsavory things to her, but he had insulted her outright. Now she was thinking if he was the right man for her after all. She had left her job for him, simply because he had asked her to do it. Just like that.
She was trying to sleep in her bedroom, but her mind was flooded with all the things that had happened. She often cried during the night, soon reason took over and she found herself analyzing the break up in more rational way. Now that she thought about it after getting over the initial shock, she felt what had happened was good for her. When she was in love with him earlier in the period, she couldn't see his faults even though she really knew them all along. And it was a long list of faults. He had been too possessive of her. He always resented her career oriented mind and thought of her as a kind of household thing. Whenever she spoke of working, he often cut her out saying that working was not a woman's thing really. He never respected her as a woman. She had forgiven all this when she had been in love. But now as she analyzed it more dispassionately, she was feeling happy that she was well out of it. She would have never loved an autocratic husband for herself. And soon enough the reality dawned on her. She will need to find job. One she was independent, she would see how it goes after that. She had enough experience to a least get a job in call center.
She lived in Mumbai and studied B com in Mumbai University. Her parents lived in Pune. So she lived as a paying guest with 2 more girls. Even though her family was well to do, she had learned to be self reliant from an early age. She had moved to Mumbai around 1 year back and immediately joined a call center. Her college was important, but she knew she could manage it as her job was during the night. After 1 year, she had settled well in her job. Her job was good and she loved it. She was a customer care executive for an American electronic manufacturer. She had to support queries and inquiries from retailers selling electronic equipments of her client. She was assigned a specific portfolio of large retailers. Her portfolio consisted of hardly 6 retailers, but they were very large. She had to support all the inquiries about their shipments, bill and almost everything related to these retailers. And soon after she had joined, she had made great impression on all the clients she was handling. Even though she was hardly 18 when she joined, all the customers were very happy with her work.
Now after1 year, she saw no reason why she couldn't do it now. She applied to the same call center again next day and was immediately accepted. Though the entire company had changed, her boss was same. And fortunately, she was offered same client portfolio that she was handling 1 year back.
She joined the work immediately even though Avinash protested. He had been trying to patch things up, but she didn't listen to him. It was here that she met Mark. He was an American white man and was 25, about 6 years her senior. Mark was her contact with one of her large retailers and her work often involved lot of interaction with him. Initially it was strictly professional, but soon after, Mark had started making a move on her. She had often reprimanded him, but not very seriously. But it hadn't had any effect on him and she often found his flirtiest posts on her face book account. But she could never think of being angry with him he talked very light heartedly and never took anything seriously. So her mailbox used to flood with flowers, greetings and virtual chocolates. She kept telling him that she was engaged, but he just used to laugh and said that he will wait till she broke up with her boyfriend and became available.
She never took him seriously, but soon even she started feeling s strange kind of attraction for him. There was something about that she felt very curious about. He often pestered her post her pictures on face book so he could see her. But she had declined. But he had persisted and almost after 2 month she had given in to his requests and posted an album of her pictures and shared it with him. His comments were almost instantaneous and very flattering. She had a good opinion of herself, but his comments were too flattering.
But she was surprised that she enjoyed his comments rather than being awkward at it. She also checked out his pictures just out of curiosity. And to her utter surprise, she found that he was very handsome. He had nice physique and very flat stomach. She couldn't feel somewhat attracted to Mark.
Pooja continued to work and soon started enjoying her workplace. The relations with her boyfriend also became better even though she couldn't help feeling that there was still a large wide gap between them. She felt her love may fell apart at slightest problem. The problem came much sooner than she had imagined. Avinash saw her pictures posted on face book and raised a hell for it. They had another bitter fight. She reported sick to the office and asked for leave for one week.
As she rested, all things about Mark flooded back in her and memory and she felt good. Her boyfriend had said the she was not good enough to have any other man. But here was one man who had been chasing her for last 1 year despite knowing that she was engaged. He was better than her boyfriend in every aspect. He was way more progressive than her lover. Being an American, he knew how to respect a woman and not treat her as an object. She had often felt these things about Mark.
It was 4 days since she had reported sick now. She hadn't spoken a word to Avinash since they had had the fight over her pictures and job. She woke up from the bed and checked her watch. It was around 10 PM. She was feeling much better now as she thought about Mark. She decided she would call her manager and report to him that she would be back to office tomorrow. She got her cell from and dialed her senior's number and waited for him to pick up the call.
"Hi Ashish, this is Pooja. How are you?" She said as he answered the call. She moved to the bed and sat on it.
"Oh, Hi Pooja, How are you? Good to hear from you. How are you feeling now?" She heard a lot of chatter behind him on phone.
"I am feeling good now. I just called to check if I can join office tomorrow." She picked up her pillow and placed it on her thighs and leaned in as she spoke.
"Of course, I have been waiting for you to call. You know I had to handle all your clients. I would be glad to have you back."
"OK, Great. Then see you tomorrow. Bye." She smiled to herself and then disconnected the call.
She knew that he would have to work himself as she didn't have any backup. Now that her hard part was done, her thought turned back to Mark. When she had applied to leave, she hadn't even told her. She felt somewhat sorry for him now. He had often asked her for her cell number, but she had avoided him. He must have posted some scraps on face book. She decided to check it and switched her PC on. It took some time to boot. She closed the door of the bedroom as she waited.
She sat on the chair next to the PC and logged in. She got up from the chair and went to her wardrobe to get a comb. She was feeling odd and her hair felt a bit sticky. So she brushed them lightly as she waited for the login process to complete. Once it was done, she put the comb back in the wardrobe and sat on the chair. She connected to internet and opened face book. Just as she had thought, she had received a post from Mark almost every day.
The last one said. "Hey Pooja, How are you feeling now? When are you joining back? I miss you. You boss is good, but he is no match for you. Please come back as soon as possible." She almost wanted to laugh. He knew the personality defects of her boss.
She replied to his post. "Hi Mark, I am sorry I didn't tell you about it. It happened a bit suddenly and it's complicated. I want to talk to you about it. Would you like to call me back anytime you are free? This is my cell number." She typed her number along with STD code. She posted her reply and then checked her email. There was nothing except typical Mark flowers and virtual chocolates. She smiled and deleted the mails. He had been so persistent since last 6 months. Then she disconnected the internet and shut down the PC. She had to get some sleep.
As she lay down in her bed, she for the first time started thinking about Mark. She liked him; there was no doubt about it. However, till now she was shackled by being married to Avinash. Now that suddenly her shacked had been removed, she felt a different kind of feeling towards Mark. It was a strange attraction for him. But doubt engulfed her mind if she was right in doing this. Mark had been asking her for her personal number since last 6 months. She had been avoiding him. And now that she was heartbroken (at least socially) she had given her number to him. She was turning towards Mark because her boyfriend had turned out to be a wimp. And she thought about this as she lay in bed. She wanted to sleep, but the question whether it was right or wrong just didn't allow her to sleep. However more she thought about it, better she felt. After all lots of love affairs bloom after one partner is dumped by someone. There was no guilt in turning to someone for consolation after you have lost love. You can't just throw away your life because you loved a wrong guy. As she thought along these lines, she felt much better and her feeling of guilt reduced.
Just as she was dozing off her cell phone rang. She was still dreamy when she collected her phone and checked it. It was an US number and there was only person who could call her from US. She smiled to herself as she answered the call.
"Hi Mark, how are you?' She said as she got up from the bed.
"Hi Pooja, I should be asking you about how you are. You got quite a good break. What happened to you? I was wondering if you are going to turn up or not." She rubbed her eyes lightly.
"Well I was not feeling well. So I decided to take leave for some time." She replied.
"Yes. But what happened to you? Is it fever, sneezing of something serious?" He sounded a bit excited and there was lot background noise around him.
"Well there is nothing wrong with me physically. It's emotionally that I have a problem." Her heart raced as she said this.
