Karma Cupid & I - A Preview

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Karma, Cupid & I



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Karma, Cupid & I

Nethra Ram



NotionPress

5 Muthu Kalathy Street, Triplicane, Chennai - 600005

First Published by NotionPress 2012

Copyright © Nethra Ram 2012

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 978-81-924555-3-2

This book is sold subject to condition that it shall

not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold or

hired out, circulated and no reproduction in any form,

in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in

critical articles or reviews) may be made without written

permission of the publishers.

This book has been published in good faith that the

work of the author is original. All efforts have been

taken to make the material error-free. However, the

author and the publisher disclaim the responsibility for

any inadvertent errors.



To my beloved grandmother, Savithri.For your love and ever existing support.I love you.



Acknowledgement

My sincere thanks extends to :

Maatha (Abhi), Swati and Shilpiya for being excited aboutmy book more than even I could possibly ever be. You girlsrock!

Bala, for being my sounding board, critic and source of optimism. I promise I will keep your secret. The one about

your role as Lord Shiva in that Sanskrit play back in highschool. Oops!

Arun and Nitin, for being as crazy as I am and ignoringall that to be my best buddies. If they ever make a moviearound Babe, a pigsty and a wasted bottle of beer, I’ll besure to star in it with you. For now, here I am, taking that

pinch of salt and crossing the damn bridge finally!

Sameer and his blog, for being what a mobile phonedisplay is during a powercut – that spot of light that helps

you hunt for a candle.

Bram, Sree, Pradeep, my family and all my other friends,for your unconditional love and support.

Mom, for being my first critic, reading through the entiremanuscript and laughing at the right places.

Grandpa for those story books with big bold print andlovely pictures. Dad for introducing me to the world of crazy plots and limericks that only we understand.

Naveen, Bhargava, Jana and everyone at Notion Press.Thank you for picking up my dream and taking it to print.

Francis Bomban for the super awesome cover design. ToMeera Srikant, my editor for her sharp eye for detail.



All those souls who in the past two years, have popped upnow and then to tell me that I should write a book – Thank

you with all my heart. Now you know that’s precisely whatI was doing. This book goes out to you and your faith inmy writing.

Those who told me I could and those who said I couldn’t.There is an insane satisfaction in proving the former rightand the latter wrong.

To books and authors everywhere. You make my world.

And finally, to providence, for your fantastic taste andsense of humour, whatever you turn out to be in the end.

ii Karma, Cupid & I



Chapter 1

A constant ringing in my ear from all the phone callsI had made during the day distracted me momentarily

from the joke VJ was cracking. A second later though, I was in on it, and with a satisfied grin I headed to thecoffee machine down the corridor. When I got back withmy zodiac mug full of steaming caffeine, my phone wasringing.

‘Hello.’‘Hi. Is this Madhumita?’‘Yes.’‘Madhumita, I am Raghu. We met at Surekha’s wedding,

remember?’Of course! I thought sarcastically. No, I couldn’t

remember him. Because I don’t remember guys I meet. Iremember guys I fight with! This one clearly wasn’t on my hit list.

‘Umm…’‘We talked about outsourcing.’Oh yes! How did he get my number?‘I got your number from Surekha. Hope you don’t mind.’Ok, he’s a mind-reader too?‘Oh Raghu. Yeah, that’s fine.’It struck me at that instant that I remembered him for

something else, but I couldn’t place my finger on it.



‘I need to talk to you about something. It’s important.Can we meet? How about 6.00PM, the CCD near youroffice?’

‘Uhh…’‘I know this is out of the blue, but it is really necessary

that I meet you. Please.’Ok, he won. He was polite, rare for men.‘Ok, I’ll be there.’‘Thank you. Nice day to you.’‘And you.’‘Bye.’‘Bye.’I shut the flip close on my phone. Three pairs of eyes

were fixed on me, anxiety doing a Mexican wave in eachof them. ‘You guys have work to do you know,’ I said.

‘Oh! Shut up,’ went Appu. ‘So who was he? What doeshe want?’ she cried, almost jumping out of her seat.

‘Well…his name is Raghu and he’s a FOAF and told methere’s something important he wants to discuss with me,’

I replied.‘Did he say what it was?’ Danny questioned.‘Nope,’ I replied.Oh my God! I had agreed to meet with a stranger just

because he was polite and supposedly had something totell me. I seriously felt the need for common sense lessons!

‘So are you going to meet him?’ VJ asked.‘I said I would be there. Looks like I have to,’ I

replied. This was followed by a moment’s silence wheremy workmates ingested the fact I had supplied them with

and tried coming up with something for or against it. My caffeine concoction had understood a minute ago that it

wasn’t my priority anymore and had stopped steaming.Finally, they let out sighs and shrugged. Their eyes held

a clear message – conference call at 7.00PM for the FIR.I picked up the mug and headed towards my cubicle. Theclock on my desktop read 11.00AM.

♥ ♥ ♥

The morning zoomed by, or maybe it was just good

ol’ Einstein’s relativity thing at work. I picked up my bag

2 Karma, Cupid & I



and prepared to leave at 5.45PM. CCD was just a coupleof blocks away and I could make it in about five minuteseven if I had to crawl on all fours! I looked across at my team. VJ held two thumbs up. Appu crossed her fingers andDanny winked. I smiled at them and walked out towardsthe elevators.

I walked into CCD at 5.55PM pretty impressed withmyself (I had to wait for an elevator). Sam gave me a goodevening salute that I returned. My gang was as frequentthere as coffee beans! Danny and I had downed the Devil’s

Own so many times that if the devil were to pick his ‘own’, we would definitely be top of his list.

I scanned the tables to see if there were any occupiedby a single guy staring at me. None. Good. I was early andthat meant I needn’t have ‘clumsy’ on my behavior list forthe evening and I could pretend like I had been waitingfor ages and throw some attitude. I picked up a chocolatemilkshake and headed to my favorite corner table for four.

I took a sip and resumed my people watching. I had

hardly gone past two tables when a guy walked in throughthe door. He paused for half a second and located me. Hisface lit up with a smile of recognition and I returned half of it hesitantly. He didn’t wait for it though because he wenton to hold the door open for someone. A moment later my sister Aditi walked in. Her face appeared flushed and hereyes dropped to the floor as he took her arm and led hertowards my table. I buried a stunned face in my milkshakefor those few seconds, which confirmed Einstein’s theory

yet again and stretched to ages!

♥ ♥ ♥

They reached the table. He smiled, held out his handand said, ‘Hi, I am Raghu.’ I shook it mechanically andmotioned for them to sit down. Aditi was avoiding my eyesand my lips seemed to have sealed themselves shut as if Ihad eaten a generous helping of the glue they called upma

back from my hostel days. Raghu seemed oblivious to thering of electricity that had sprung up between us girls.

‘It has been quite a while since we met,’ he said. And

a long time since I met this girl with you, I said to myself.

Nethra Ram 3



I nodded for his benefit. My mind was undergoing somemajor partitioning at that instant. One fraction wanted toleave silently. Another wanted to remain passive and justlet the guy talk. Yet another wanted to give some sarcasticcomment to my so-called sister. Still another was curiousto know why this guy had brought her here, though I wasalmost sure of what the answer would be.

He looked from me to her a couple of times, and like aguy who had just had to make a decision on a reality show,he looked up at me and said, ‘I don’t want to deliver alengthy prologue. Let me just get straight to what we wantto tell you.’

The ‘we’ part resounded in my ears. ‘Aditi and I are inlove with each other and we need your help to convincethe family to agree to our wedding.’

I realized I had been staring at him for the past minute without blinking. I broke my gaze, nodded twice very slowly and took another sip from my glass. The gulp felticy cold against my throat and was taking its time down to

my tummy.‘How…I mean…when…umm…where?’I had suddenly lost my sentence making skills. Raghu

seemed to have expected it though. He smiled shyly, lookedat her (she remained resolutely focused on melting the

vase at the center of the table with her stare) and said,‘Well…we met at Surekha’s wedding too incidentally. I wasthe first one to fall in love. I tried talking to her but sheblew me off. I just couldn’t get her off my mind. I foundher on Facebook, and believe me, it took superhuman effort

to get her to have a conversation with me!’Oh really? Tell me about it dude, I thought wryly. ‘But

that’s one of the traits I like about her,’ he said and gaveher an amused look. I could plainly see that he adoredher. That , I realized, was the other fact about him that Iremembered. I had caught him watching her transfixed, atSurekha’s wedding. I stole a few glances at her while he

was talking, and all along, her cheeks had changed colorlike a pH strip, only in shades of crimson. I saw the cornersof her mouth curve a wee bit to smile at his last statement

4 Karma, Cupid & I



but otherwise she was still laser torching the vase, herhands clutched tight around her purse.

‘Once I had gotten her to trust me, she was a greatconversationalist and we found we had so much incommon. We started seeing each other a year and a half ago. I popped the question last month and she said yes,’ hefinished. His face was alight with happiness, the same kindI had felt when I laid hands on my copy of Harry Potter

and the Deathly Hallows the day it came out. One of my uncles, Mr.Hemanth, had surprised me with it as a gift andI had almost but ripped the package off… Wait a minute.Did he say they’d been going out? My kid sister? Going out

with a guy? In public? A nerve snapped inside me. She hadbeen able to find secret ways to meet a guy but was neverable to reach me? Years had gone by but it still hurt whenI thought about it.

I was silent. I joined the condensed drops of water onthe outside of my glass and watched them fall onto thecoaster in a little puddle. Raghu wasn’t disappointed at my

lack of sound or response. He went on to say that they hadthought this through and wanted both families to agree andthey were ready to wait until that happened. I couldn’t helpbut think that a million couples around the world sworeexactly to the same thing everyday.

It was already a whole minute after he had finished. Ilooked up at him. His eyes were gentle and kind. He stillappeared thoroughly excited and his smile was in place,

joined by hope. I looked at her, her bowed head rather.It had been close to four years now since I had made my

last attempt at saving the bond we had shared as sistersand as friends. I had since closed chapters on everythingconcerning her and burdened myself with one person lessin life.

Aditi was my cousin but neither of us had felt anythingless than twins in all the years we had known each other.She was a year younger to me and sometimes I loved herlike my own kid. We did everything together. We likedthe same kind of music, the same books, movie heroes,sportstars, TV shows, blah and blah. Our families moved

quite a bit but we were always in touch. Our telephone

Nethra Ram 5



network owed half its profits to us back then for we wouldbe on the phone for hours together. From being kids toteenagers, it was always us two to tango. However, moviesend and popcorn packets run out.

Aditi started becoming distant when I was a fresher incollege. Even during the couple of times we had onlinechats, instinct screamed to me that she was not someoneI knew anymore. I tried every trick in my book to get herto talk about what was bothering her. I could’ve as welltried to decode the Da Vinci code and beat Dan Brownto a bestseller. She could be so darn stubborn when she

wanted to! I had seen her become impassive to a coupleof others, but it hurt when I realized she was playing thatcard against me.

I never had trouble apologizing for a mistake, but Icould never stand it when I was blamed for something Ididn’t mess up. Reason started to get to me over affectionfor my sister. My head wanted answers over my heart

wanting to help her. I made one last attempt to talk to

her, and surprisingly, she responded. I wished later that shehadn’t because it only hurt me more and brought a bout of fury with it. She had supposedly misconstrued somethingI’d said and it had blown up into something else, hadgrown into one of those hard level Sudoku grids and wasso tangled that the original issue was nowhere in sight.What a silly reason for a fight and whatever happened totrust in our bond?

I stopped corresponding with her from then on. I coulddo it too, only, this was self-preservation.

I realized our table had been silent for quite some timenow. Raghu went to get them both some beverages andI was left alone with Aditi. I studied a glossy picture of a chocolate frappe on the wall opposite. I wondered why they called it that. I also wondered randomly about thebeauty of the Greek language. Anything to keep me frombeing the one to break the ice between this girl across thetable and me!

Raghu seemed to be lingering a little too long at thecounter, I felt. Maybe he wanted us to burst into tears and

hug each other like in those old time movies, I thought.

6 Karma, Cupid & I



He came back with two cups of hot coffee for them. She was back on the coffee habit, I could see. Since when? Ididn’t know. Normally, I wasn’t tongue-tied like I was then.I made instant acquaintances and had numerous pleasantconversations to my credit. I knew Raghu would’ve met adifferent side of me had it been just the two of us catchingup, but he had chosen to bring the cat with him and letit out of the bag too. I felt it was terribly unfair. ‘So whatdo you do?’ I asked him. ‘Oh! I am a senior programmer inBangalore.’

Great, I thought. He was smart, polite and had a good job. That would score well with the family. However, thecentury would come from the fact that he was one of ‘us’. An Iyer. That was the trump card these days. If yourlove happened to be from your own lot you could availthe ‘3-month-short-term-convincing offer’ from your folks

where they just had to get over the fact that their kidhad gone ahead and made a choice of his/her own. But,if you were the adventurous kind or the love at first sight

type you almost always ended up finding someone froma different background and with it came the ‘unlimited-resistance-offer’ with lifetime validity. This one had many levels – maamiars gelling with bahus , conservative motherslearning to hide their shock in front of jeans clad, bindi -less daughters-in-law, dads wondering how their girl couldsupposedly love this smoker along with his carcinogens,multi-cuisine menu problems and on and on. The thrillof this package beats an X-box and by the time a family crosses all these levels successfully, the bride and groom

decide they need time away from each other to understandtheir differences!

Aditi’s mother was strict but her father was outrightsweet. If I could convince him, then I knew her mother

would agree to atleast meet with Raghu’s family. The rest would then be up to him and his folks.

I sighed to myself. I was refusing to make any sort of contact with my sister, but here I was, already planninga strategy for getting her wedding approved. It was notthat I hated her. I just hated the distance that had

developed between us. Like Jerry McGuire said, the world

Nethra Ram 7



is indeed cynical. One moment you are a kid laughing and wondering why adults lead such dull lives and the nextmoment you grow up and know why.

‘So, you’ll help us?’ Raghu asked me, although heseemed sure of my answer.

‘Yeah. Sure. But I need some time to think about how Iam going to talk to the family,’ I said.

‘Yes, yes, definitely,’ he replied, clearly excited. It wasthe first time in my life I was looking at a guy so thrilledabout marriage. Most of those I had come across reveledin wife-jokes, marriage-jokes and quips about their rudely ended bachelordom. That’s when I remembered. ‘Whatabout your family? Have you told them yet? Did they agree?’ I asked him.

‘That wouldn’t be a problem. I have someone at my endto help me with the convincing,’ he grinned.

‘Er…you have a medical miracle sibling your parentslisten to?’ I asked.

‘Ha ha ha! Good one! No…but he is like a brother,’ said

Raghu amused at my supposed joke. He was either totally enjoying the conversation or being incredibly patient forthe sake of Aditi.

‘Oh! Alright,’ I said. After finishing their coffee in silence, Raghu said, ‘Ok

then, we’ll get going. Thank you very much Madhumita. I was really nervous about all this but it was just great.’

I nodded in agreement.‘So, can I safely assume that you like me too? Will I

fit into the family?’ he questioned me, again with not an

ounce of doubt on his face. I looked at him with a smile,the only one I had managed for the evening, and said, ‘Letme reserve judgment on that.’

♥ ♥ ♥

I walked in slow motion towards the parking lot at work, the past hour and half replaying on my mind.

My sister was in love and ready to be married to thisguy Raghu. And I had agreed to help them. Oh my God!What did I know about him except that he seemed nice and

8 Karma, Cupid & I



genuine? Was he really? Will my sister have her happily ever after with him?

There it was again, the ‘my sister’ routine. I needed tostop that. She wasn’t a kid anymore, and was making herown choices. I was only going to help them with the family part, only because Raghu wants me to... She hadn’t askedfor my help, I reasoned. He had. I would just talk to herfolks and then retreat to a silent corner, I thought.

The other side of me laughed hard. Who was I fooling?I had already started to plan the wedding, mehendi , saris

and a long following list! If only my mind had been thisrapid during lab viva sessions! I had to imagine hittingthe laughing part of my brain with the voluminous Oxforddictionary before it shut up, still giggling feebly.

A dozen traffic signals slowed me down, on my way home, each one giving me more time to contemplate thesituation at hand. I dropped onto the couch and voiceda vehement ‘Yes’ when Mom asked me from the kitchenif I wanted some tea before dinner was ready. I started

feeding her the day’s happenings, naturally excluding theCCD encounter. I would tell her eventually, but not just

yet. After a cold shower, I had come to accept facts. My tea

was waiting on the dresser and I checked my phone. There were three calls from Appu and a message from Danny,no doubt eager for information. There was one more callI had missed. From Raghu. Fifteen minutes after they hadleft CCD. My inbox refreshed itself as a message landedin. From Raghu again. It said, ‘Hi. I have something I

need to talk to you about. Are you free to take a call?’I figured there was something he wanted to discuss when

Aditi wasn’t around. I sent him an affirmative reply. A second later, he called and I answered, closing the

door of my room behind me. ‘Thanks for meeting usMadhumita and thanks again for agreeing to help us out,’he said. ‘No problem,’ I replied. ‘And call me Madhu.’

‘Well Madhu, I called to talk to you about something you already are very well aware of.’

I understood where this was going and groaned silently.

‘I am listening,’ I said.

Nethra Ram 9



‘I know you and Aditi had a problem a while back,’ hesaid. ‘Have. Not had,’ I corrected him automatically. He hadalready tried to score a goal for her and a vein inside me

was starting to heat up. ‘After today I think that sadly istrue,’ he said. I didn’t reply. ‘Don’t you think you shouldcall a truce?’ he asked me.

‘Raghu I don’t mean to be rude but why don’t you just jump to the part where you tell me that your girl ispure as a crystal and I am the heinous witch? How I amthe immature elder one who should’ve embraced my lovely

younger sister in spite of her oath of silence? It wouldsave a lot of time for both of us,’ I shot at him. The veinhad overheated in a second and Mount Vesuvius had foundits way to me. Double filtered anger was running throughevery bit of my circulation.

‘Good Lord! Madhu! I didn’t mean to say that. I…’I didn’t let him finish. He had broken open the seals in

my heart that were loose from the moment I had seen herthat evening. ‘Ok. Then maybe you wanted to say that I

over reacted to a trivial issue and I should’ve intensified my banging at her mailbox and inbox like a desperate puppy,trying to find out what was troubling my little sister andoffering a million apologies without the slightest idea if Ihad indeed done something to hurt her?’ I almost yelled. If he wants to be her partner in life, then he had to put up

with my rants against her, I reasoned.‘Madhu please…’‘You know only her side of the story. You know how

she was hurt and sad and in need of support. But you

have no idea I felt all those too, along with a huge doseof confusion. It pains twice as much,’ I listened to thequiver in my own voice. There is no stopping once youstart retribution with words. ‘She wasn’t the only one inthe bond, Raghu. If she has tales to tell, I do too. You haveno idea how much she meant to me. For that matter, shedoesn’t either. That much was clear from her speech longback. She doesn’t know what it is like, missing someoneshe cares about. She doesn’t know what it is like, to notknow what that someone is doing in life, but every stranger

on her social network is updated on it. She doesn’t know

10 Karma, Cupid & I



how hard it is to not know what to say when a friend asks you how your sister is because you have absolutely no ideaand you can’t tell them that! Best of all, she has not theslightest inkling of exactly what it is like to go year after

year with not so much as a text message for your birthday,from a girl you call your sister and mean it!’

My face felt hot and I was breathing hard. But my mind was perfectly organized. Raghu gave me no reply, but Iknew he was listening in tart silence. ‘I am plainly sick of being told I have to be the one to make a compromiseRaghu. I am no zombie. I do have a heart that hurts whenmistreated. I can’t keep a relationship alive if I am theonly one trying. You are in love. You should know it betterthan anyone else! I tried my best. She had morphed intosomeone I didn’t know anymore. I had to let go and getback to my life. I stopped cribbing about this a long timeago actually…but you chose to reopen wounds…I am sorry if I sound like the worst person on earth complaining about

your fiancée to you, but these are facts. Go tell your girl

that,’ I finished.‘You just did that yourself,’ said Raghu simply. A

woman’s sniffle was clearly audible over the line before thecall disconnected.

♥ ♥ ♥

I drank tea to have something to do as I sat down onmy bed, understanding what had just happened. My day

was supposed to have been calm and breezy and I hadplanned to catch a late night movie on TV. But there I was,

my day divided into two conversations – one that made me wonder if I was a bad person and the other that clarifiedmy doubt.

‘You didn’t know she was on the line,’ said one partof me. ‘That doesn’t give you the right to rat about yoursister to her fiancé,’ another part interfered. ‘He poked youon that subject and everything you said was true,’ part one

was defiant. ‘You’ve just ruined any chances you had of patching things up with Aditi,’ voice two replied. ‘There

was nothing wrong on your side. She could’ve spoken to

you this evening,’ my defense was in peak form.

Nethra Ram 11



I let out a heavy sigh. There had been an unwary confrontation. What should’ve long before ended as achildish tussle between two teenage girls had found its way into my future as a judgmental, adult maturity issue. I hadblamed Raghu for assuming I had over reacted when, inreality, I had done something very close to that only then.‘Madhu, dinner is ready,’ my mother called to me fromdownstairs.

Emotions have always been my forte. Creating them,ignoring them, hiding them and growing bored of them. Iknew I had quite a bit of work in that area coming my way once again. I was clear on one thing though. I didn’t needthis now. My life had been peaceful for quite some timeand I intended to keep it that way. I had put in so mucheffort to paint each frame with stuff and situations thatmade me happy and resolutely kept myself from troubleand pessimism. I had enjoyed a light head for a while now,that a little weight starting to creep in bothered me a weebit.

I picked up my mug, turned the lights out in my roomand walked downstairs.

♥ ♥ ♥

Two people stood in front of my cubicle blockingmy way. Normally, I would’ve called them Appu andDanny. However, the two figures standing in front of me wore dangerous expressions on their faces, steambillowing from their ears and mafia arms crossed overtheir chests. I almost expected Appu to come charging

at me like one of those village heroes in Tamil movies,carrying a ballpoint pen like an aruva with a deep-throatedguttural,’ yeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh……’

I was trying my best not to giggle. Behind them, VJ was faced with the same difficulty and his shoulders wereshaking from silent laughter. I looked at Appu. ‘You wantus to ask about it again, now, don’t you? What do youthink we are?’ she bellowed. Er…eager for gossip, I thoughtto myself but I dare not tell her that. She was the sweetestafter all. ‘She won’t budge,’ Appu said to Danny, hands on

12 Karma, Cupid & I



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