"Fire, earth, wind, water..., what's the fifth element?", she asked cutting the long silence between her and her new carpool mate. Sanjeev lost track of his thoughts, he was wondering what track was playing on the radio before they cut to a long string of commercials. "Air? I guess...why? aren't you in sales?", he replied.
"Airrrr, oh yes, I am in sales but I was watching some silly TV show and a thought came to my mind. Anyhow what do you do again, I did not quite get it.", she retorted. "I connect an expert with an analyst who wants to ask questions related to his research, like if you want to know which soap is doing the best in the market.", he tried to explain it to her for the fourth time this morning.
"Ohh, must be cool na, I am stuck doing stupid calls to people who want to buy wholesale detergents.", she said. "Oh you are like Miss. Chamko from Chashme Badoor", he chuckled at his own joke. "Yes, kinda like that, though I am no Deepti Naval.", she laughingly retorted. She could not understand if it was an insult or just a naive joke.
They had met last week through a common friend who thought it would be a bright idea for them to carpool as both lived in as she termed, "jamana paar". a term used by South Delhites to describe any area which is not in South Delhi.
He was quite resentful as he hated company in general and also could not fart in the car or cuss the other drivers. She was hated the idea because he looked like a serial killer and even if he wasn't one his jokes would surely kill her.
"So you leave at 6 na? I'll wait for you as I usually get done by 5.30", she said. "Cool, I'll give you a missed call and will catch you outside the office." he said. They both worked on the same floor and had almost the same shift timings.
"Teri beh...I am sorry", he said realizing again that he was in the company of a woman. Traffic at NH-8 was so bad that even Gandhi would have cussed and Buddha would have murdered most cabbies.
"Its quite alright yeh sala chu cut from the wrong side", she said. Rest of the trip was quite mundane. They reached office and took the same elevator to the 9th floor. She said a cold goodbye and he nodded and walked of in different directions.
This was now a daily routine for Sanjeev and Avni. Sanjeev was a boring man as Avni had rightly assumed and Avni was just not quite intelligent to hold a conversation as Sanjeev had assumed.
Gurgaon is a special city, it is always under construction, no one knows when it started an no one knows when it will finish. So like any other construction site, the rains bring in what we now know as the Gurgaon wetlands.
"Sanjeev, I think this rain will never end and I want to actually you know take a leak real bad", Avni said to Sanjeev. "Hmm... you know what so do I, but this stupid jam, I wish this would clear up real quick.", he retorted. God was in one his special moods that day and he had a strange liking to Sanjeev's like. He decided to free the two pressurized souls. In one swift move he cleared up all the traffic and they reached office. Now, god wanted some more magic in this story. He filled the basement of DLF with water and when Avni got out she slipped.
"Oh fuck, my foot. fuck you god!", she said. Sanjeev turned aorund and saw her on the ground with big red tears in her eyes. He went up to her and helped her get back on her feet. The fall had broken her foot badly, her heel broke and he skirt as she realized before anyone could was torn.
"Dude, my skirt its gone, what to do I know I have a spare in my locker but going up is going to be embarrassing." she said. He took of his shirt and tied it around her and said lets go upstairs.
"You cannot go up like this and stop acting like fucking SRK, you idiot, take your shirt and take me back to the car so I can call my friend to bring the skirt, you are a fucking moron Sanjeev.", she said peeing all over his heroic deed. He walked her to the car and helped her sit down while he buttoned his shirt.
The air was dead and god changed the channel to watch SRK's life. "You can go up, I will help myself, I hurt my ankle thats it", she said. Sanjeev without looking at her walked off and left the keys on the roof of the car. He dreaded seeing her in the evening and had decided he would ask her not to come from tomorrow. He felt humiliated and shouted at his manager the moment she asked for an explanation. His manager sat down coyly and pretended to work, she knew he was angry and an angry Sanjeev is not someone even the CEO wanted to mess with, she would speak to him later.
He made himself a coffee and walked off to the stairs for a smoke with his friend Sohan and Arun. He told them and they cussed the girl for a while and asked him to not take her along, they did not see anything wrong.