Girl in Rains - Part 3

July 2004 -

Walking over the moon -----------   

There were no flies on Anushree. She was up at 5.00 a.m. every morning. She started her day with Yoga and jogging.

At sharp 9.00 a.m. she used to be in office.

Her day went on with hour long meetings, training sessions on any upcoming drugs, replying to umpteen numbers of emails, client calls, and submission of daily weekly reports.

She would spend evenings and weekends reading every drug manual she could get her hands on. And studied each in detail, researched the history of the same, made notes and memorized. She sought answer in libraries for unanswered questions. She would attend seminars on new drugs in the market and recent medical developments.

At the end, she acquired great results for the efforts she was putting in. She did know more about the drugs than the doctor would.

Preeti and Anushree met often on lunch, dinner or at Anushree’s place on weekends. In the month of October 2004, wedding bells rang for Preeti. She had an lavish wedding in Goa and Anushree was her maid of honour. She was decked up with ravishing peacock coloured silk sari and hair nicely pulled over and decorated with colourful beads and flowers. She was looking like a Queen on her wedding day.

Preeti was settling in Australia after her marriage. Anushree was welled up with emotions. She was very happy for her friend’s life and happiness but she was surely going to miss her physical presence back here in Mumbai. Preeti and Anushree tightly hugged each other for a long moment. They were smiling, crying and wincing simultaneously. She dropped her at airport and went alone to the places she visited with Preeti to revive the old memories.  

Days passed. November came with the cool breeze. The long never ending nights, the fresh mornings, birds chirping and their morning calls, air filled up with the scent of pine and earth. She was sitting with the laptop near the fireplace. She was reading the email sent by Bharath and was stunned for a second. She spoke to her mom and dad about this. They were also very happy and were waiting for Anushree’s answer. At first, she was perplexed over this. She was sleeping over this matter for few days and finally she called her brother and gave him the nod.

“Like seasons changed, my life changed

like soft and mushy rains, you kissed away my pain

slowly and steadily, I fell in love with you

our affection and longing, could understand only few

donned in black jacket with nerdy looks, there came an investment banker

busy and occupied with work, love to be your homemaker.”

 Yes, Adi – Aditya Krishnan, Bharath's batch mate in college days came into Anushree's life. She is on seventh heaven. Aditya is an Investment Banker in Euro street. He did his schooling in Chennai and from college onwards, he had become a Mumbaiite. He had an analytical mind, read a lot, and had always assignments on hand.

Everyone wondered in the marriage day, how could someone like him fell in this emotional love game? Even Anushree pondered over this. They don't remember when they shared feelings with each other as theirs was not a mushy, epic based love story. They were good friends and best buddies. But whatever it was, Anushree was hell bent that she wanted to share life with Aditya and trusted him more than her. Aditya was also very determined towards her. He is not the person who will express now and then his love towards her but he will be there when he has to be there. That's what any girl would need the most.

After Marriage, The life was similar for both of them.

Anushree had her hands full on her own assignments, analysis of drug history, recent medical breakthroughs, her encounters with doctor. On the other side, Aditya's work kept him on his toes. He had to travel often to get the IPO assignments on place, manage his team, and carry out analysis on the deals they have closed, structure the deals which are in pipeline.

At home,

Anushree cooked breakfast and lunch for both of them in the morning. She tried different varieties of dishes and Aditya helped her whenever he could in her household chores. She managed to cook delicious dinner when she got back home. Sometimes, Aditya would take his sexy sedan to her workplace and pick her up at evening. She thought how lucky she was, as even in his busiest hours, he never forgot to manage his marital life. Aditya was too luck as he got timely rewards as a token of appreciation – Kiss on his cheek and …...... lips too.

They both tried to manage work and home well. They had become each other’s support system. As their professions were poles apart, they found time to discuss about each other's challenges, learnings and debated on particular issues. Both of them had enough knowledge to give, take and share. Anushree balanced her parents and in-laws in a good manner. She visited them whenever she got time. Her in laws were open minded and adjusted to every situation. So it worked well for her. Bharath too was very happy to know that his sister was in safe hands. He had nothing to worry about. Although he was busy with his work schedules in Chicago, he called her twice in a week to check if everything was okay.

June 2005

Anushree was dressed carefully for the occasion. She was wearing a tailored jacket and skirt of navy blue, with a a white ruffled blouse. It was mere blend of business crispness and feminity. It was a sales convention meet wherein she was appointed as a speaker. She had to give a speech on how detail sales women in Pharmaceutical industry work? The audience was mostly detail men from various parts of the country.

She went on with her studies, experiences and ugly truth of this industry. She had to face lot of questions from medical agencies, doctors and many other senior officers. But she thoughtfully and swiftly gave the satisfying answers.

Her new boss was mesmerized and floored away with her intelligence. Mr.Arjun Khanna, in his late thirties was graduated from Penn state college with a BSc in Chemistry. He had financed his way through college in part with a scholarship and partly from working nights and weekends in a drugstore. He had a deep vision and charismatic personality. He was hired as a Chief Executive. Looking at the talent that Anushree poured in, He gave her adequate support and guided her in each move she took. Even Anushree was blown over by his amazing knowledge and treated him as her mentor.

Arjun congratulated Anushree for the wonderful speech and she too shyly turned her eyes off him. She was greeted by Sheena, wife of Arjun. She was in her early thirties and a strong, no nonsense person with long, raven-black hair. They were joined by Aditya for dinner.

August was busiest for both Anushree and Aditya. He had to take flights on and off to Europe to work on hi deals. Here, Anushree had her audit meet and project deadlines. She used to return at 11.00 from her workplace. She was often dropped by Arjun when Aditya was not available.

One night, Aditya came early at 9.00 as his scheduled flight was cancelled. Anushree was not aware and she was dropped to her place by Arjun at around 10.00 p.m. She came and prepared food for Aditya and they were sitting in the dinner table. She thought, Aditya had something on his mind as he did not see her face and utter a single word. She kept silent till he finished his food. And thereafter, she quickly questioned what happened and if everything was okay. Aditya started a fight. He was accusing her of coming late and dropped by Arjun. She was startled by this statement and couldn’t digest. She was shocked to see Adi behaving like this. She tried to convince him that they were working on a project and it required special attention. As Arjun was passing by this street, he was dropping her on his way back. He was not ready to listen anything and He asked her to leave the house at that very moment. She thought something was seriously wrong about him. She couldn’t take all this shit and even though her eyes were full of tears, she collected her courage, packed her suitcase and left the place.

She did not know where to go, whom to ask help. She did not want her parents and brother to know about this.

It is her life and she had to deal with this daunting task.

She got into a paying guest place where she was approached my Jennie, Landlady. The lady was deeply moved by her situation and she gave her a room upstairs to stay back. Anushree hurriedly went to her room, throwed her suitcase and shut the door. All of a sudden, The moments shared with Aditya, those sweet memories flashed.

After Marriage, they went to Singapore for their honeymoon. They both were looking ecstatically happy. Candle light dinners, hand in hand walks in the moonlight, caressing each other, swimming in the pool, quietly leaning on the shoulder. On that night after they made love, she whispered in his ears that both would be there for each other till their last breathe.

Like every stories unfold, she too wanted her own life to be simple and perfect. And within fraction of a second,

She lost her life and cannot even think how the years ahead are going to be. Agreed she had a good coveted job but what about the beautiful life she dreamt of with Aditya and his kids.

 Anushree was mulling over the conversation of her and Aditya few hours back and her heart became heavy. The morning after, she was feeling giddy. She puked three or four times and went to see the doctor.

Yes – Anushree was kicked out from her house by her husband in the state of pregnancy.

Part 4 continues after a break…………Lets have teaJ   Part 2