THE PROPOSAL DESIGN OF LOVE

Prologue

“But we had decided that if one of has to stay it should be me .” she remarked , almost trying to drill in some reason into an almost irrational mind of his .

He did not look at her, kept staring at his coffee mug on his desk.

“ I have decided that I will not be quitting my job. It will have to be you .Its my final decision.”

“Well you know what,” she said, “ In a relationship its never a case of individuals . Its always our decision.”

He didn’t say anything.

“Why are you doing this?” she was almost on the verge of breaking down. Never before had she felt so miserable .

He still didn’t answer. She looked at him for one final moment as if expecting a semblance of a response. When it did not come, she walked away, slowly .

That night , she buzzed him twice but he did not pick up . Next day he reached office late . He had made the decision. If it would cost him their relationship, he would have to think twice before asking her to quit . He pulled his drawer and took out a white envelope. It was his resignation letter. He had never thought it would be so early.

When he pushed the glass door of the Vice President’s cabin, the VP just looked at him as if the foreboding of what was to take place had already dawned upon him. Before the resignation letter could be offered, the VP handed him an envelope .

He opened it. The handwriting was easily recognized. But the content left him speechless.

“It is therefore with great regret that I wish to inform you that for personal reasons , I will not be able to continue my services and as such they stand terminated from today. I thank you and my colleagues for making this such a wonderful journey.

Regards,

Anushka Mittal

Group Head

ANM .”

Minutes later, he sat in his cubicle and stared back at the seat exactly behind him that would now be uninhabited. He put his resignation letter back in his drawer. He dialed her number but she did not pick up. He knew she could not have gone to Mumbai without informing him.

He called her Kolkata residence.

After a gruesomely long ring time, an unknown voice picked up from the other side.

“Can I talk with Anushka?” he asked.

When no reply came from the other side, he repeated .

“Saahab ji , she is …”

Somehow the fragmented words from the other side were making him more nervous.

“Sir , she is in the hospital .”

The second time of the day , he did not know what to speak .

“But , why ? I mean how ?” He asked frantically.

“Sir, “she paused for a moment trying to think of words that could cushion the shock that she her words were about to convey, “I think I have some bad news for you.”

The line then went dead. He had hung up the phone. He did not have the courage to hear further.

…………………………………

PART 1

The TRYST with destiny

He looked at his newly made visiting card yet again , not to confirm whether he was at the designated place but more so as a preoccupation to keep his droopy eyes from giving it up .

Prakarsh Tiwari

Associate Creative Manager

ANM

11, MILK SHAKES APPEAR Sarani

DRAMA ROAD.

9^th and 10^TH floor, CUCKOO HOSPITAL.

Two months into the job, and he had discovered that training programs can be a real pain in the neck. But then they all had never been very excited to listen to Shabnam Ketriwaal , Media Head of the agency . As if her red suit was not enough to make them notice her, the lady had a mysteriously chilling voice that made her all the more noticeable. However just 15 minutes into her lecture, and they were just glaring at their watches hoping that they could make it run faster than the Chinese batteries it incorporated, could permit.

Amidst her lullaby, the conference room door opened. Shubham Palit peeped in to see if his late entry would be ignored or was he to report to his Boss (like he had done during the last three days) to cite a newly conjured excuse for his late arrival. But perhaps to encourage people from their supposed slumber, Shabnam did not ask him to turn back. However she raised an eyebrow when she saw the girl entering along with him. The girl. It was hard not to notice her, especially because of her hair, which had been all messed up because of the downpour. She wore an ethnic Indian suit, almost as if to challenge the norms of formal wear that was mandated in ANM. As she flipped her hair around her back , he noticed her earrings dangling like bangles . She sure had made some fashion statement even before her introduction.

Shabnam looked at her. Before the girl could make a comment either on her inappropriateness in terms of the fashion statement she was trying to define or on her late arrival , Mr. Pansari Batliwaala , ACNM’s man of crisis , ushered himself along with her.

“Shabnam, I am sorry to intrude at such an unholy time. I am sure the recruits have been listening to your interesting insights with great interest.” He regretted the import of his remark almost immediately seeing some of the glum faces who had just been awoken from their stupor after gauging the audacity of his comment.

“She is Anushka Mittal , our new joinee from IIM Bangalore .She has a work ex of three years in our sister concern PineTree Communications . Her flight was delayed by 2 hours because of the weather so I thought I might as well come up and give a proper introduction.

Anushka distanced himself from Mr. Batliwaala and took the nearest seat she could find. Shabnam just gave her a feeble smile and after Mr. Pansari’s exit continued with her lullaby.

Prakarsh recognized her almost immediately. Infact it would have been nearly impossible not to, because she had not changed much. He almost thought it was destiny because deep down he knew that the war that they had started years ago was yet to reach a conclusion , a conclusion where the victor will be clearly demarcated and the vanquished absolutely overthrown . No arguments. No doubts.

“You recognize her ?” Ashwin Reddy , who was sitting next to Prakarsh asked.

“Yeah , she studied with me till my senior secondary .: Prakarsh remarked , trying to sound unruffled.

“She is hot “Amit Agarwal, who was sitting just in front said, perhaps finding no other point to contribute to the conversation.

“So now Prakarsh will tell us all why the Edsel model did not work for Ford? “

Prakarsh thought he heard a familiar name and then it came back to him , it was his . He looked stupefied at Shabnam .

“I suppose that’s what you are so busy discussing, .aren’t you?” she remarked with a note of sarcasm in her voice.

Ansuhka turned back to take a look at the personality in question and then she kept looking. She did not realize that she would be ever seeing him again. In school she had always been fighting with him. In academics their rivalry could find no better match. Both tried to outsmart each other whichever way they could. When they had exhausted all levels of adversary competence in their study life , they found new territory in Co-curriculars . Prakarsh being more literary flamboyant, won the Interschool writing competition , while she having her skills hovering more towards the contemporary was satisfied enough when she won the best play writer award for a adaptation of The Tempest . As time passed the competition turned more fierce each not ready to relent any ground to the other to bask in the glory they rightfully thought was solely theirs . Thus a time came when even for a single mark or for a marginal difference in their aptitude scores , the two fought as if there was no tomorrow. It was hard to say what they hated more, seeing their own grade score that they thought was below par , or seeing the other’s countenance basking in the triumph of victory at the expense of the other.

“ I think it failed because it looked cheap” Prakarsh remarked .

Ansuhka came back to the present .

“Although I completely believe that was a wild guess, you are right . Only to an extent though.”, Shabnam responded.

Anushka just gave a wry smile and looked at him. He did not look back.

When the first session had ended and the young recruits headed towards the lunch hall , Prakarsh paced fast and finally caught up with Anushka .

“I didn’t think I would ever see you again .” he remarked .

“And I can see that you are very happy Prakarsh.”

“So you do remember my name.” he continued.

“It’s hard to forget the name of someone who always stood second in class , especially when I was the one coming first. “

“Ahem, ahem ahem,” Prakarsh faked the chuckle, “ I guess someone just forgot who came second in the National Science Talent Search Examinations.”

Anushka continued, “You know very well I had a fever.”

“Hmm. I thought the doctor’s report said all normal.”

“No, I don’t prescribe to roadside doctors that you do.”

“But I thought you could do anything to get brownie points in your favor.”

The argument stopped only when Ramesh Sharma , who shared the cubicle with Prakarsh , pulled him to a nearby table.

“What was that?” Ramesh asked.

“Umm… nothing, just a little badinage.” Prakarsh replied.

“You might like to give a thought to the word little there. “

But Prakarsh was not listening. He looked at Anushka having lunch sitting next to Mr. Pansari. Smart girl, already up to her tricks, he thought.

But Prakarsh knew he had bigger matters to deal with. All new joinees at ANM were grouped in groups of 4 which were called a HIVE, the company’s notion of being different. They were then assigned an experienced GL or a group leader who would lead the group. Generally an experience of three years was needed to become a Group Leader, however there were exceptional managers who had been known to make the cut in two years itself. Prakarsh just hoped to get a good Group Leader. An experienced GL could help him grow and learn fast.

However as days passed, trainers of ANM realized that a cold war of sorts was brewing between two of their most talented young recruits . The two month long training program, called FINETUNE, saw the continuation of the old rivalry . On the third day itself , a debate competition grew fierce when Prakarsh and Anushka , locked themselves to argue on “ SHOULD AD FOLLOW ETHICS ?” .

Praksrsh remarked, “ If Politicians can get away with the morality lecture , so can we . All that matters today is the bottomlines.”

Ansuhka countered, “If all start thinking like that,we would not have seen the Anna movement.”

“ I think we can do better by following Anna Kournikova’s movement .Atleast she doesn’t starve to stay fit .”

Not many among the batch could control their giggles. Anushka just snarled.

The tenth day, Soumyashish Mukhopadhyay the Vice President of the company divided the batch into groups and asked them to come up with a jingle for Airtel’s DTH services.

Ansuhka,s group came up a medley of sorts that was appreciated by everyone .

Prakarsh created a jingle based on item numbers of some latest Bollywood flicks.

After he had sung his jingle (to a lukewarm applause), he looked at Ansuhka to see her reaction. She didnt pay any attention to his stare and instead whispered, loud enough for Soumyashish to hear , “Atleast we know which SEC this jingle can cater to . SEC Z . I think the paanwaalas will really like the lyrics.”

Soumyashish looked at Anushka , raised his eye brow and then burst into a roar of laughter. The whole batch joined in. One boy didn’t. He just gritted his teeth.

Things turned desperate as days rolled over. Infact Prakarsh took the war to a new level, by posting remarks on Facebook . Ansuhka resisted the temptation to join in , but retaliated when she saw Prakarsh,s comment purposely placed on one of her friends wall .” One Mittal created a revolution called Airtel , another Mittal is creating a jingle to destroy it .”

Each night Prakarsh would message Richa Sharma , a common friend asking her about Ansuhka’s latest post on Facebook .One night Richa got angry and messaged back .

“If you are so interested to know why don’t you send her a FB invite?”

Prakarsh replied back “Well then , it would cease to be my FRIEND list .”

She didn’t reply back.

On the seventeenth day, another session on Brand Failures saw the bunch of new joinees divide themselves into groups for a quiz. Prakarsh and his partner Ramesh won the quiz. After the session had ended Prakarsh ran up to Anushka once again and chuckled, “I guess your losing streak at ANM has begun Anushka .”

Anushka did not remark.

In the canteen, while taking a coffee break, she made it a point to sit as far from Prakarsh as possible.

He on the other hand, kept sniggering. Sweet victory.

As he was sipping his coffee empty, Shubham came running down to him.

“Dude, they have assigned us our group leaders.” He then kept quiet, waiting for the suspense to build up .

Prakarsh got curious. Before he could ask, Ramesh took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Prakarsh . It had the names of the groups and the Group leaders

Prakarsh frantically looked for his name. Then he found it.

HIVE 5

1) Ramesh Sharma

2) Prakarsh Tiwari

3) Avishek Bose

4) Mercy Louis

Prakarsh gave a rise smile. He looked at Ramesh and then remarked, “Dude we are in the same group.”

Ramesh did not reply. Prakarsh thought it weird that Ramesh did not seem to share his happiness.

Prakarsh scanned the paper and looked at all the names. He was looking for a particular name. When he didn’t find it, he looked quizzically at Ramesh , “ Why can’t I find Anushka’s name ? Don’t tell me they have thrown her out of the company this quick.” He smiled impishly as he said it.

Ramesh looked at him gravely and said, “Look alongside the team assignments.”

It was then that he noticed it, her name.

HIVE 5

1) Ramesh Sharma

2) Prakarsh Tiwari HIVE 5 Group Leader : Anushka Mittal

3) Abhishek Bose

4) Mercy Louis

Shubham laughed uncontrollably. People around him started staring. But Prakarsh was not seeing all that .A thought occurred to him. Every time during lunch he saw her sitting with Mr. Pansari . The plan had worked for her.
Shubham looked at Prakarsh and then asked, “ Ab kya karega bhai mere. Iska toh super promotion ho gaya.”

Prakarsh did not bother replying, he walked straight to his cubicle.

Moments later, Ramesh went near his desk .

Prakarsh was just browsing aimlessly on his desktop. He saw Ramesh standing behind him but he did not react.

Ramesh remarked, “I had the list with me in the morning itself. But I didn’t tell it to you because I knew you would over react during our quiz”.

Prakarsh looked at him.

“If in the next two years I don’t make her quit this job, I will not be working here .”

When he said this, he himself meant to be a joke, lines delivered at the spur of the moment to portray a false sense of bravado.

Little did Prakarsh Tiwari realize, that Anushka Mittal would leave the job with two months to spare for the second year to end.. And he would be the sole and only reason behind it.