1st
October, 2010, 5PM, 520 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, USA
Taking time out of the monotonous materialistic chores at
the client’s office, I peeped outside the window looking with gusty
astonishment at the Independence Hall across the road. Standing tall and stout,
it signified “freedom”, such a stark paradox to my own life right then. I
sipped in the hot beverage and rushed to finish my chorus and get ready for a
long flight back to India.
I had always been good
in picking options in my life, be it choosing one from four during the
objective miseries at college or evaluating capital projects and assisting
clients on choosing their perfect fit; but I never realised that formulae are
defined to unburden the paper work, not to calculate the fit in your own life
and easily pick the perfect one.
As I took my boarding
pass at the Philadelphia International Airport, traces of images of a breathtaking
“mole” brimmed through my mind.
It all appeared slow and lull in front of the eyes as it
took me ages to get into the aircraft and take my seat. I took a piece of paper
out and started scribbling the story; the story of the second angel of my life.
4PM, 27th
Feb, 2010, Varanasi, UP, India
As I was returning after a shopping spree with my mom, my
eyeballs traced the path of Hotel Grand Palace, which appeared tinge more
presentable today. It was the lucky location of tonight’s entertainment and the
feeling had yet to sink in that it was my evening, the evening to play the
prince charming of someone else’s life while people surrounding me would
celebrate an important milestone in my life.
In my room I suddenly saw my Blackberry do a jig, it was
Riddhima’s call. She sounded a bit excited about tonight’s proceedings as I
nodded to whatever she said and smiled back. She was my to-be wife, a doctor by
profession and definitely came across as someone with matured grey cells, one
of the very few reasons I said yes for her after a marathon of proposals that
came in for me.
An MBA graduate from a top business school, having an
enviable consultant job in an equally enviable company, I was considered to be
a rare breed in the small town of Varanasi. At times, it wasn’t just my family but
every Banarasi babu who expected me to reach soaring heights in my life, “Gupta ji aapka ladka aasman chuega”, “kaash
aisa beta hume bhagwaan ne dia hota”, was something I would hear
penetrating the walls of my house every now and then. It never bothered me a bit as I sailed through winning every
stroke of my “options” theory
3rd March,
2010, Hyderabad Office
Riddhima was on a sabbatical to celebrate one of the most
important events of her life while I was fighting with pieces of paper in the
office. 3 days into my marriage and I had to fly to Hyderabad for an important
news boss had for me. I took Riddhima along for a cameo honeymoon and she as I
presumed wore the mature head and readily accepted the fact that our stint
honeymoon would be delayed for sometime atleast
“Welcome Armaan, there is some news for u”, a sound like a
TV channel breaking some news greeted me as I entered my boss’s cabin. “The
deal that we were working so hard to strike has finally been cleared and yes it
seems your marriage has unlocked the ever so unlikely”, he smiled and happily
emoted the news to me about a client’s new project in the US. “And yes you’ll
be leading the project group and you will have to leave with the team for
Philadelphia tomorrow itself”. Mixed emotions became the order of my day as I
became reluctant to take this small divorce from my new marriage for 6 months,
6 long months. On my way back home, all what I was thinking was means to let
Riddhima know about it when suddenly……
