Shifting Gears - Episode III

To know what happened in episode II, please visit http://vaaman.blogspot.com/2005/08/shifting-gears-episode-ii.html

Kushaal was more in Cloud Nine within a minute. He felt as if he finally found some purpose in life, and was waiting for the tea break so desperately. Readers can relate this particular sequence to the dream duet in the Alps with any song of their choice.

Finally at 11, as the first introductory session got over, and the freshers got a 15 minute break.

His long time pals were waiting for a long time for the hero. He was busy rehearsing his intro with the angel.

Gathering composure, (which at the moment was not to drop the tea cup out of excitement), as the Moment of truth was just there,he went upto the angel, and introduced himself “Kushaal Madgaonkar, Fresher from JC College”.
And then came the all important response “ Shruthi, Shruthi Gokhale, B.Com Grad from Podar College”.

Then, Kushaal, just to gain familiarity, checked about couple of his school friends., who were also studying in Podar, and the conversation seemed to have stabilized.

“Accha shruthi, How did you commute to office today?”
“Belapur Local ”
“Surprising. How long did it to take to reach here”
“Half an hour”
“You must be lying”
“Why”
“You sure must be”
“But why?”
“Are you saying that Heaven is closer than Bandra from here. I can’t believe it!”

This brought about a rather instantaneous blush from Shruthi. Kushaal thought to himself “Well begun is half done”.

Back to Induction, and now, both of them wanted to know more about each other, after the surprise morning meet. Kushaal’s trick did work.

In the evening, in true filmi style Kushaal’s friends decently moved to a different compartment.

Kushaal learnt that Shruthi was from a modest background, and for her a job in a BPO was not a platform to finance her studies later, but as a means to be a supplementary bread winner for her family.

As she got down from the train, at Kurla, Kushaal was so happy, that he wanted to share his experience with his friends. They first acted as if they were least interested, but later had to later give in to his courage .

Once the induction and training got over, they got themselves dedicated workstations, and luckily for the duo, they both were with the same client, and Shruthi also got day shift, though she had her weekly off on Friday and Saturday.

Feb 2004

Now that Kushaal was firm on getting married at the earliest, to who other than Shruthi, and Shruthi was equally willing, it was just a matter of convincing his parents, that going in for an early marriage is not that bad an option, now that he has learnt to manage himself independently, and that higher studies may be pushed to the back burner.

After a rather turbulent month of deliberations, in both families, they finally agreed to get their children married, and in June 2004, Shruthi changed her name to Shruthi Madgaonkar.

As they came back from their honeymoon, 15 days after their marriage, they were not ready for the situation that was waiting for them at office.

The final episode will be published soon!