I don't Wear Sunscreen (3 page)

The days passed
quickly and
the first semester hit the calendar. Pallavi was
busy
studying
and Laksha called only for a few minutes one day
mid-exams to wish her luck and to ask how she did on. Pallavi had
worked hard and felt she did her exams well, except her old enemy,
mathematics.

“
Laksha, I am dying every
minute, I don’t think I will clear this stupid maths paper,”
Pallavi cried a river over the phone.

“
Relax Pallavi, things will
be fine. Come, let’s calculate, how many pages did you
write?”

“
I wrote 39 pages, but I
didn’t
get
any of my answers right! Now it’s freaking me out,
you know I started crying soon after my first glance at the
paper?”

"Stupid,
you have written 39 pages, even if the gracious person reward you 1
mark per page. You'll get 39 marks. Inyourinternal you will
definitely get16 marks at least, right?
So
39 plus 16?"

“
I’m weak in maths remember,
can you please calculate that for me?” asked Pallavi in a feeble
voice. “Dumbo, its 55, so stop crying, you will clear all papers
with a good percentile,” laughed Laksha.

“
Are you sure?” Pallavi
asked and then she also laughed about the calculation. “Okay, you
sleep well, I have an internal exam about graphic designing
tomorrow,” explained Laksha. “You do well my designer, be prepared,
you are going to build my new house, so study well sweetie
pie,
bye
!” Pallavi cut the call and hit her
bed with 55 marks on her mind.

Pallavi
was very busy with studies and her part-time work, while Laksha was
exploring Mumbai even more. She used a pseudo name for her Facebook
profile to keep her identity a secret, butPallavi didn’t even
bother to step into the social world.
She
kept off from mundane affairs and other
friends;
she led a
caged life at her relative’s place. The only goal that drove her
was the dream of being in the IT world.
She had a
few
professors helping her in her studies and leading her towards her
aspirations. She even spent time reading placement books and taking
aptitude tests to sharpen her skills.

Laksha, meanwhile,
was obsessed
with arts, architecture and
designing;
she
visited Delhi,
Jodhpur
and other places renowned for
great palaces and
forts
and
she focused more on landscape
designing. She was a much better student as a conceptual
artist.

Both friends used to have
great conversations on Engineering and Interior
designing;
both
were happy for each other, supporting each other and always
bonding. Right from exams, semesters, animation models to hostel
food and draft works, everything was discussed. Everything except
Laksha's "being a brat" experiment.

***

May, 2013

The months flew by. Pallavi
finished her 6
^th
semester with good scores – she was one of the
most expected competitors for other toppers in her class. She had
even polished her communication skills over time and groomed to be
a perfect fit for any big IT company. Her aptitude courses helped
her in sharpening her logical skills.

Laksha was working on her
final semester
project
and trying her luck to bag an
internship at a top interior designing company. She went to the Sai
Baba Mandir in Indira Nagar to pray for getting selected. She would
fight and argue with God
too;
she was praying hard. Being a
Chennaite and moving into Mumbai permanently was not going to be
easy for her.

“
Na
ennapersaketuten
,
internship
thana kekren
(God, all I want is an internship and nothing
more)
,”she mumbled in a small voice, and
the person next to her heard her talking to God and
giggled.

She turned her head and gave
a cold
stare.
Then
she walked to the footwear counter to
get her shoes back.
As
she handed over the token, something struck her. "Hey, I was
talking in Tamil, how did that guy understand?” she wondered aloud
while buckling her shoes.

"Well, I laughed because I know Tamil
and am from Andhra Pradesh." He was standing near her, still
smiling.

Laksha glared some more. “So what do
you want?”

“
Typical Tamilnadu, I just
want to be your friend,” he smiled again.

“
No,
thanks, I have a good number of
friends already,” she tossed her head and started
walking.

“
Plus one is no harm,” he
smirked and she smiled to herself. She did enjoy the flirting, and
after a few steps she turned and smiled at him. He swiftly ran the
few steps down and came to halt next to her. “ So I guess you will
love my name, I am Sai.”

Hmm! I am Laksha, what's your full
name?” she questioned. "Typical Tamilnadu girl, always asking
annoying questions," he said, knowing he would start a debate.
Laksha replied "Yes, dear Andhra, your spicy words don’t interest
me! How can you just say that? You think we are boring? Then why
did you follow me?"

“
Huff! Tough fight, well, I
surrender, do you want to have a coffee?” Sai started moving into
her comfort zone. “No, Tamilnadu girls don’t take coffee offers
from Andhra
guys,
” she said and walked
away.

As she stood at the bus stop
holding her bag and thinking about the conversation, Sai came up
from behind. “How about tea?” he asked, and as Laksha turned, he
moved closer and smiled. “Sorry! I think you
were offended
.
Apart from the
state that you're from, I see you as a little girl who gets hurt by
silly guys like me. I wanted to extend my friendship to make you
feel better. There is a coffee shop in the 200 meters, says my
smart mobile, so shall we?" he asked this in a very soft and sweet
manner.

“
I
am ok with that
, now
let’s walk,” she smiled back and gently hit Sai with her
handbag.

“
Ouch! That hurts,” he said,
swiftly running his left hand over his right arm.

***

Once their coffees
were
served,
they started talking about each other.

“
I am finance graduate and
working in L&T, how about you?” Sai asked.

“
I am an interior designing
student and desperately looking for an internship, you know.”
Laksha said, a bit
sadly
.

“
Do you have your CV or
resume? I have a friend working in a company related to interior
designing, I think he can help,” Sai smiled.

“
Well, thank you God!” she
thought and opened her handbag. She took out a copy of her resume
and handed it to him, saying that had brought it to keep at God’s
leg in the temple. She felt glad that she met him and after an
hour, departed happily.

That
entire night, Laksha had a battle going on within herself.
I should have given my number
to him or at least asked him for his number. Why did I miss, I
wonder why he didn’t ask me.? Maybe he thinks am arrogant or
something,
she thought
and kept going over the conversation with the Andhra
boy.

A week later, Laksha
received a call from a random number. For a second she thought
about Sai, and then answered the call. “
Hello
am I talking to
Laksha?” asked the caller. “Yes! That’s me,” she
answered.

“
Ok, we are a startup
company in Mumbai for interior
designing;
we received your
resume recently. I would like to invite you for an
interview,
” said the firm male voice at the end.

“
Oh! Great, I can come
anytime, can you please send me the address details?” she asked.
Her pulse rate had shot up immediately.

“
I’m e
mailing
you right
away, I’ll see you tomorrow, and please acknowledge my mail,” said
the guy and cut the call. Laksha hung up too, all excited and
geared up.

She rushed to an internet café nearby
and checked her mail, and then she checked the address in Google
maps and found it to be an office near Andheri. She had spent an
hour in the internet café trying to learn about interview
techniques. Then she called Pallavi to tell her about the
interview.

“
Do well Laksha, this is
your chance to learn a lot, have the learning spirit and perform
well in the interview. I will pray for you, I am sure that you will
get this. You are one of the most versatile girls in designing, I
love you! Call me after the interview ok?” Pallavi was almost as
excited as her.

Laksha didn’t sleep much and kept
dreaming about the interview that night.

She dressed on time and left for
Andheri with copies of her resume, and after 10 more minutes of
discussion about interview etiquette with Pallavi and blessings of
her parents. Her intuition told her that she would definitely get
this offer; she was very positive and kept praying to do well. But
soon after she reached the address and stepped into the office, her
hands were shivering as she told the receptionist, “I am here for
an interview today.” The receptionist took Laksha’s resume and
asked her to sign in the register.

She waited anxiously in the
lobby. The receptionist came back in a few minutes and directed her
to a room, “go straight and then enter the fourth door,” she was
told. Laksha’s heartbeat was so loud that she could hear it.She
held her bag
tightly,
looking around. It was in fact
a petite company with 40 people, and there were
four
small rooms
for conferences. It looked
posh,
and she was satisfied
with the look of the place.

“
Hi Laksha, so did you find
it easy to reach the office?” asked the interviewer.

“
Yeah, I did,” she smiled
nervously.

“
So tell me about yourself
Laksha, give me your profile,” he said.

“
I’m
Laksha, and I’m from Chennai.
I did my
Bachelor’s in interior designing and am now looking for an
internship to strengthen my skills," she explained.

“
Why did you take up
interior designing, Laksha?
And why in Mumbai?” asked the interviewer.

“
I had an affinity towards
interior designing right from my childhood. It was difficult to
move
to
Mumbai, but I was firm because the exposure and
learning here cannot
be
matched
. Even though many colleges in
Chennai were available, I chose Mumbai for the extensive knowledge.
I opted to do this internship also in the city because the
companies here drillout work enhancing the skill set and that’s
what I want,” she sounded confident and pretty clear.

“
That was like fire from an
ice cube, Laksha!” he smiled. “Please wait for
sometime
, one more
person will come in to discuss more about the internship,”with
that, the interviewer moved out of the room.

Laksha waited, coiling her dupatta
around her finger. Finally, the next interview arrived. As he
opened the door, she turned to look at him and was stunned to see
Sai.

“
What’s up, are you happy
with what you see?” he smiled at the gaping Laksha.

“
Whoa.. What are you… I
don’t get it, explain..
How?”she stammered.

"Chill, this is my cousin's
company. I visit often so I told him to include you in the
internship interviews. Not just that, you can also join in if
you're interested, in six months time, and the pay will be more
than those who typically take internships here. And of course I
will be here to support and help you
in
case you feel
uncomfortable with anything.” Sai explained all this while she just
blinked at him.

She took a few minutes to come back to
normal, and smiled at him. “I can’t thank you enough for this
flavor Sai, thank you so much! I seriously don’t have the words to
explain,” she said to him, meaning it completely.

“
Don’t thank me, work is
different from friendship. I just helped you get in, from now
on
it's
your show. I did note your number from your
resume, but I thought you
would take
me wrong if I called you. I
would have told you in the coffee shop about my cousin's startup,
but I was not sure if you would take it in the right spirit. I am a
stupid person
,
and this extra effort I took was just to get
forgiveness from the individual I hurt. Hope you will, Laksha,"
said Sai, and looked away.

“
I don’t even remember that
anymore, Sai. Anyway, can
I
have your resume, please?” she
asked.