Rehaana - part 3 - the phone call

Rehaana - the beginning

Rehaana - part 2 - the twilight

Three days later the call came, he was working on a presentation, while writing were his bread and butter he was not making either of them from the writing so he donned his corporate hat and worked. There was stuff he had to finish...but then

"you busy"

"not very"

"i can call later"

"or you could just talk now" he smiled, he wondered if she could imagine him smile, cause he could see her smile over the phone

she didnt talk about her pain, she spoke about her childhood, a fiesty childhood, an adventurous childhood, she spoke of things she liked, the gol gappas she could guzzle, the books she read...and he talked about his childhood; father being in the army, playing at the banks of saryu river.

They both talked of the nice things they did, the silly things they did, the bad things they did. The whole thing about talking is quite simple, someone who can understand what you are saying, someone who you can speak freely and not having to worry about being judged, and someone who is interested in what you have to say, not because the topic is interesting, but because you are.

"Tell me something will ya"

"what" her voice took a deep and soft tone when there was hidden excitement in her.

"Whats a girl like you doing in Chennai"

"As in"

"As in, you are bigger than this city, you dont belong here, you belong to Bombay or Delhi, not Chennai"

"Someday" she said

He wanted to push her, ask, get to know, but he left it at that, he had felt her pain, he wanted to soothe it out, but not just yet...patience, when the heart is bursting with passion, patience

Another time they were talking of starting a business and he said "check out the latest business today, they have a feature on these young guns...i quite like this chap Abhyut Saxena, smart, dashing, team player and what a cracker of an idea he came up with, that new product category of meat flavored namkeens to be had with drinks. Think i'll go do a feature of him on my blog"

"Ya isn't it, i gotta go now, got some work to do"

She called later in the day.

"I used to work for a firm in Bombay, new products division. It was pretty interesting work and I was good at it. I had a nice boss who gave me the support I required and trusted in me. There was a radically new idea I had which required a lot of change in the way we made our product and preserved it. The company was not doing so well at that point of time so my boss to keep the project alive made it a classified incubator project. Only me and him worked on it along with the technicians, the management was not to be told until we had perfected the production technique and had done the basic market research. Both his and my neck were on the line. But we did it, we finally got the technique right and in the closed group market trials it was a huge hit.

We were to present it to the management on the 20th. I was there waiting outside the boardroom, the meeting was to begin at 9 a.m. It was 8:45 but there was no him, he should've been there at 8:30 only. I tried calling him but his cell was unreachable...8:57 a.m. The heads of various product categories started rushing about, somthing was amiss, they were all worried. Slowly all of them started surrounding me asking questions; they, the senior management. It was an inquistions...my boss had jumped ships, taking with him our product, my product. He stole my baby and left me in a lurch. I was accussed of being his accomplice, of selling out, of sleeping with him and what not...

You may have heard of the scandal at Amantra Foods..."

"Ya i did, in passing only but i did, so?"

"I am Gauri Pradhaan"

"Errr"

"The Gauri Pradhaan scandal at Amantra Foods..."

"I'm so sorry..."

"My boss was Abhyut Saxena...

[dead silence]

I just wanted you to know"

"Thanks.............for trusting me with this..."

*****to be continued