The Message

He sat on his grandfather's old rocking chair wearing his traditional morning costume, a slightly stained banian and an old dhoti of his father's. The only change today was that his father's old Nokia 1100 replaced the customary steel tumbler full of strong filter coffee, in his hands. His heartrate had way exceeded the pace of the rusty old fan from the ceiling. He was waiting for news, good or bad, he couldnt take the waiting any more.

It had been three months since he had been selected in a campus interview by this large software company. He had been impressive. He sailed through the technical rounds, with clearly superior knowledge of Java, XML and SQL. All his English training in the holidays had also paid off. He was able to spell 'believe' and 'receive' without mixing up the 'i's and 'e's. He was not very happy about his English speaking abilities, but for now it would have to do. Software Engineers dont really need to speak to too many people early on in their careers, he thought.

The company soon gave him the offer letter. The pay was good. Appa wouldnt have to bear the huge burden anymore. They could soon move out of this dump and go to a better place, if he saved up. Everyone at home was ecstatic and elated at these prospects. Then the recession happened. Two months ago, he got a call from the company saying that he had to wait for sometime before he would be called. He asked them what had happened, for which they replied that some 'corporate restructuring' was taking place, as a result of which new recruitments were being 'frozen' for the moment. This was bad news. He had to face two months of torture, staying at home and doing nothing. He tried applying elsewhere, but it was all useless. Same story, same result. He even tried working as a systems repairman in a computer store, but found himself completely dissatisfied and unhappy. Even his father's persistent visits to the Ganesha temple had not borne fruit.

In this period of fractured dreams, he had met her. She had moved to the house just next to his. Her father was a clerk in a Government Co-op Bank. She was having trouble with Maths in college, so her father had requested him to tutor her. He had accepted reluctantly. He hated teaching. Most of these students, werent motivated to study and they only did this out of force, he thought. Their waning interest was something he couldnt tolerate. But she had been different right from the beginning. Her curosity and inquisitiveness was positively refreshing. She challenged him at every front with questions and doubts that were vital, yet never raised. Her vivaciousness was so infectious, that for one hour a day, he used to forget all his troubles and bask in the joy of teaching her and find supreme satisfaction in successfully answering her questions. Although he fought the feeling for a few weeks, he realized that he had fallen for her. At first, he was shocked at himself. She was his student after all. He had been given a position of exalted privilege, not to be taken lightly or abused in any way. After a few weeks of shadow-boxing with himself, he realized that he had to tell her. So he did, one day at class, cooling all the
frenzied nerves in his body. He expressed his intent in a plain and simple way and left it at that. Her reaction had been unreadable as she got up and stormed out of his house. The next day, she had told him that she would think about and let him know.

Shankar, from the next street had told him that the software company was announcing recruitment calls today and that they would probably call him and formally announce that he could join soon. He hadnt told anyone, as he was quite sure that he would be disappointed. His father viewed him curiously when he had asked for his phone, before unfailingly heading towards the Ganesha temple close by. He didn't bathe. He sat there waiting for a call or an SMS to arrive. There were some text messages early on, which he frantically read only to find messages of "Pest Control" or "Stock Market Tips." He had sat there for 3 hours waiting patiently, before he lost hope. He wasnt getting any phone call or text message today. He was just fooling himself. As he got up to leave, the Nokia phone chirped its customary text message tone. He instinctively dived for the phone, and clicked on the 'Read' button. He read the message and smiled end-to-end. The message simply read 'I Accept' and it was from her. Suddenly, he felt a whole lot lighter. He prudently deleted the message from his father's phone. He walked towards the bathroom with a spring in his step and a firm confidence that things would only get better from here.