Living In

Background:
Meeta has just arrived. Literally and figuratively in the big bad city of Mumbai.
In fact, more than half of the entire B-school population probably moves to the city after campus. After slogging without pay on a score projects a day, the poor chaps get a respite. Most of their KRAs are peanuts compared to what their monstrous profs drove them to, day and night. You can hear most of them sigh after getting out of the sophisticated sweat-shop and the ‘sigh’ is quite eloquent- damn neat man! I get to work on a project for at least a week, more over I get paid for it and people even praise the presentations for which I could have flunked back there!!
So Meeta has arrived. With a baggage which is absolutely figurative. A broken relationship, thanks to the odd hours back there! A moral dilemma- is it right to give so much to the career that love gets buried in an avalanche of deadlines! A considerable weight in the baggage is the mighty weight of loneliness. A B-school is a microcosm where everybody knew what the other is up to. In Mumbai on the other hand, you are jammed in close quarters with hundreds but they are just people, faceless and uninteresting.
It may have been tougher academically in the B-school but travel didn’t eat up those blissful work-free moments. Then there was the mess-food, however messy, you could have counted on it being there. Not to mention the life where one didn’t have to do anything but projects and assignments. The cost-benefit analysis that Meeta swears by, has gotten quite confused. Only getting-sloshed-up sessions with Mr. Kuggi helped, where both could reminisce about the good old days, vent out the frustration of yet being single and desperate to mingle and console each other by giving out a mutual feeling that someone got a worse deal than you!
Enters a new guy:
Put the alarm to ‘snooze’; snooze yourself. Motivate yourself to wakeup. Note the time. Flat fifteen minutes, she locks the door and dashes off to the work.
You do not appreciate being woken up again but someone is calling for her in the bus! Surprise and irritation, he is an ex-school mate who can’t believe his luck in finding her back again after so many years! ‘Why were you looking out in the first place?’ Another stroke of ill luck, it’s his birthday tomorrow and she has to attend! ‘I am going to be very busy. Too busy to leave office before 12.’ The situation turns worse when phone numbers are exchanged and the next day reminder calls and SMSes drive one crazy enough to attend the ‘Birthday’ and get over with it. The bash turns out to be a congregation of about twenty men gathered around a meager cake only to look up to find the ‘friend’ introducing Meeta. The ‘friend’ goads about his friend who is a rare combo of beauty with brains. ‘No wonder he is in sales. Liar!’
A few days later….
Hello! Meeta?
Yes, who is this?
Abhishek.
Do I know you?
Yes, we met at Sapan’s birthday party! Remember?
You can be about twenty people!... Ya, of course!
So, what’s up?
More of the supercilious conversation follows which boils down to the conclusion that the guy is hitting on her, hard enough to give her a mental bump.
A few days later…
Bumps and lumps forgotten with Mr. Kuggi’s call.
Meeta, how much rent do you pay?
Three thousand two hundred for this one room kitchen light years away from the office. You are lucky to be staying near Manisha Koirala’s house…
Man! When she starts…OK listen, I want to move in with you, we will share the rent, OK?
What happened? (Friends have this nasty habit of jumping to the worst conclusion at the most innocent statements and the conclusions are seldom wrong. The latter makes it worse!)
I quit my job and will be taking a break to search a new one. Need to curtail my costs in between and…
Man! When he starts ...OK. Move in today and don’t worry about the rent. Pay me once you get the job.
No, I will move in this weekend. Have to serve some notice period.
K. see ya then.
Hmmm. Bye!
Well, that is nothing to worry about. A good management graduate is seldom worried about getting a job. That species frets more about ‘getting the right break’.

The Plot:
As Meeta’s mental bump becomes more painful the iron lady in her awakens! This bludgering has to stop and I hope he calls me this weekend. Follows, an evil grin.
Hello, Meeta!
Hi, Abhishek!
So what plans for the Sunday? What do you do?
I am learning the cruciatus curse so that I can hone my skills on you…Nothing, generally get bored. Why don’t you come to my house and we can get bored together?
Gee that was fast, am I a charmer or what!... OK. Tell me if you will be there in the evening.
Yep. Come along.
OK. I will meet you at your place.
Ya. See ya. Bye!

The next phone call-
Kuggi! When are you coming? .....

Comes the evening-
Meeta! I have just entered your Complex. Where next?
Kuggi! Take left and come straight till you see ICICI Bank next to Reliance web-world. I am waiting to guide you from there.

The real-time conversation-
You brought these Dumb-bells? How dumb! You will carry them. I do not want muscular arms.
Abey! At least pick up that bag, no! What’s the use of having you as a roomy?
You BEEP! BEEP!

Home, at last-
There you are Kuggs. This is the room and this is the house as well. Good, you don’t have furniture or we wouldn’t have had a place to sleep. And listen, there is a guest coming to meet me. A guy.
OK. I will stay out for a while.
No! You have to stay in and behave like we are ‘Living In Together’.
Don’t get you. Do you mean we are Living In as in LIVING IN?
Whatever, we are staying together, that’s enough for some people to assume we are living in. Anyway, I don’t get the difference. Of course we are living in together! We are roomies now…and who says only lovers can live in together, why can’t friends?
Point. So, who is this guy?
Some guy who is interested in me and I have invited him to my place to show you off as my room partner. Ashawatthama hata! We don’t have to say Naroti Kunjarah.

Abhishek vinis vidis loses-

Gee Kuggs! Good that you shifted. Though you will have to search for a job and all which is not that good.
Meeta! It was an opportunity lost man! Why did you drive him out like this.
Do you think I would have been happy with someone who believes living in as in LIVING IN?