The North East Connection - Part 3

The meeting with David went well as per Rajveer. His points of view in the presentation had been immaculate. He was able to showcase the highlights and achievements of the organization, and the benefits it could provide if the partnership works out. David seemed to be satisfied with the proposal and informed he would take it up further and revert in a few days. All in all it was a good interaction and Rajveer was hopeful of a positive outcome. He went back to his room, ordered coffee and settled down in a chair with his laptop. He was supposed to report the outcome of the meeting to his boss Aditya over Skype. Aditya came online adjusting his spectacles and looking bored as usual. Aditya had been a good boss to Rajveer, supportive in all respects. He considered himself trapped in the Corporate rat race and had aspirations of opening a Travel Café. He was an avid traveler, and a biker covering vast expanses of the country on his motorcycle, sometimes with his group of Biker friends and sometimes all alone. Leaves for Rajveer had never been an issue, since Aditya understood the relevance of breaking the monotony and humdrum of the regular life and taking a break from the mundane worldly chores. He usually wore a constant bored expression on his face which livened up when he packed his bags to leave office.

“Rajveer…just a couple of years…I am almost done with the final plans to my café. Will get out of this rut soon” Aditya often mentioned to him.

Today Aditya had the same expression. He adjusted the screen of his laptop and said” Hey Rajveer, good to see you man. How is it going? Let me ask you first, did you reach safe and sound? No issues I presume?”

“Aditya, did manage to reach. Will share the details of that at another point of time. The meeting with David went well. He was pretty convinced with the presentation. He will probably revert in a few days”

“Good. I knew the meeting would go well. After all it’s you Rajveer and I believe you would crack this too”

“I hope so too “Rajveer said” After all you know this would my ticket if it materializes, to the overseas vacancy we discussed”

“Hmmm about that….that should work in your favor I believe so, but I needed to discuss something else. Rajveer we have a site at Kolkata. There is a staff crunch since one of the potential guys suddenly decided to resign and leave. Now they do not have a responsible person who can handle the business in the interim. Our organization works out of two locations, one Gurugram and one there.”he paused. Rajveer felt a tingle in his stomach” The Management wants you to stay there and work out of that site for some time till they find a suitable replacement”

“But….but Aditya who decided this. I was supposed to be here for the weekend, finish the meeting and comeback. How can you guys expect me to accept this decision?”

“Well you know I am just the bearer of the news. This was decided by Naveen Saxena” Naveen was the business head who had a reputation of being one of the most dedicated, talented, but at the same time ruthless individual. Business needs were topmost priority for him and his expectation from the employees were to be adaptable to situations as and when needed.” You are in his good books hence he chose you to shoulder this responsibility. Consider your future prospects Rajveer. This will provide you extra leverage and seal your overseas plans”

Rajveer’s mind was not functional at the moment. He was unable to figure out how this stop gap plan would work out for him. This was an unfamiliar city, he did not have any relatives or acquaintances here, how was he supposed to live and survive and till when?

Aditya seemed to answer some of his questions.” So the plan is you find an accommodation there, preferably closer to the site, probably find a cook, and bill anything and everything back to the company. All the bills will be borne and paid by the organization. I cannot put a timeframe till when you are supposed to stay there, but would say as soon as they find a good candidate you can come back. By that time I am sure David would have reverted and you know the next plan…..” Aditya smiled “Also checkout of the Hotel maybe by tomorrow, utilize the Sunday in searching for staying options and settle down…….I know this was uncalled for, but look at the brighter side. Something would surely work out of this”

“I hope so” Rajveer muttered.

“Well if you need me for anything I am just a call away. I will forward you the details of the site address, and the contact person you are supposed to report to on Monday. Will set up a daily call to check on things. All good?” Aditya concluded.

“Okay, let see. Will keep you posted” Rajveer said and ended the call.

This was a situation indeed uncalled for. There was a knock on the door. His coffee had arrived. He lit a cigarette, the first in two years. He had given up on smoking and had been determined to kick the butt until then. He needed a double dose of nicotine to have his brains functional, he had to plan a lot of things in a very short time. He called back home and informed his father of the developments. His father initially seemed worried but knew this was a work requirement and had to be adhered to. Unfortunately he did not have any contacts in the city, but asked Rajveer if he needed extra money. Rajveer mentioned the finance was taken care of, but he required help in familiarizing to the new place. His mother was a bit hysterical but managed to control herself, and made Rajveer promise to call once in a day to update about his whereabouts.

Family affairs sorted Rajveer wondered whom should he contact and make a start. He did not know anybody in the city except probably Gurvinder Singh the Taxi driver. He did have his contact details, and for a moment pondered on calling him. He instead called for the bell boy and asked for today’s edition of the newspaper. He checked with him if it had a separate classifieds edition, catering among other things rentals in the city. The bell boy got him the newspaper. He started going through the classifieds section meticulously, there were rentals advertised but he had no inkling which ones would be the closest and the best options to his workplace. He still had half of Saturday and the whole of Sunday to finalize something.

“Let’s look through the phone contacts and see if I can find someone who might be from here and can be of help…”he said aloud to himself” Ankush, Akriti, Aakash, Ashwin….”

He kept browsing alphabetically. His fingers paused. He looked at a name with a smile and a question on his face. He had paused at “N” and the name he had stopped on was Nilanjana. Would she be able to help, and would she be willing to? He had known her for the last 20 hours or so. They had been generally familiar on the train discussing topics from weather, to movies, sports, Bollywood, and others. Rajveer did not consider her as a friend but was willing to ask for a favor. He had to, his options were limited at this point of time!

There was a slight hesitation before he pressed on the call button. The phone rang for a sometime and got disconnected. Let’s give it another try he thought. The phone rang a couple of rings and was picked up.

“Hello” a familiar voice sounded.

“Hi Nilanjana….Rajveer here…err...I don’t know if you remember me. We were on the same train….”

“Ah yes, definitely. How can I forget you? I did not expect you to call….so tell me…how are things going?” she seemed a bit busy.

“Well actually Nilanjana I need some help” Rajveer explained the situation to her. She was silent for a minute and then laughed.

“So they seem to have dumped you here and you want me to help you search for a reasonable place and a good deal….how much is my commission?” she laughed again” Hey jokes apart I can help you out of this mess. So where is your office site?”

“That I am yet to be confirmed. My boss will be forwarding me the details”

“Firstly that needs to be confirmed. Tomorrow as I had mentioned I have a concert in the evening, and I have to be home by afternoon and prepare for it. That leaves the morning unoccupied which I can devote to your search my friend” she said.

“Friend” Rajveer thought. So she did consider him a friend.

“I will call my boss and get the details today. So where and when can we meet tomorrow morning…?”

“Let’s meet at Exide More, at let’s say 9 o’clock. Will that work?”

“Err… where exactly is Exide More?” Rajveer was puzzled.

“Oh Ma…apologies” she laughed. She did have an infectious laugh. Rajveer felt a bit better” I forgot you are new to the city and would not be knowing the locations. So where are you putting up?”

“The Oberoi Grand”

“That’s nice. So your company put you up in Grand and then dumped you. Not bad. So I can meet you at the lobby at 9 and then see where we can go”

“Sure. Hey listen….thanks for helping me out “Rajveer said

“Not an issue. Anyways I had to return you a favor” she laughed. The same infectious laugh.

Rajveer got up early the next morning. He set the agenda for the day sipping his cup of coffee. He would have to finalize his stay, come back to hotel to check out, and carry his belongings back again. He also would need to buy basic necessities and probably new set of clothes. His wardrobe consisted of a pair of shirts and trousers, a pair of jeans, some T-shirts and undergarments. His phone lying on the bed rang, it was Nilanjana on the line. She was leaving home and would be reaching the hotel in approximately an hour. Rajveer took a shower and got ready. He was there at the Hotel lobby as per the scheduled time. He picked up the newspaper and browsed through the events. He had a habit of running through the paper every day to catch up on the latest events and developments in Delhi and NCR. It strangely felt different to have to check on the happenings in Kolkata and around Bengal, he kind of did not relate to the news published. He saw Nilanjana approaching through the driveway. Her appearance was different from the casual hiker style which she was wearing on the train. She was dressed in a salwar kameez, and had traditional ethnical accessories on her ears, and wrists. She walked up to him and smiled taking off her sunglasses.

“So Mr. Hooda it seems you have been waiting for some time. Apologies I got caught up in rush hour.”

“That’s okay. I was actually trying to catch up on the events” Rajveer said folding and keeping the newspaper down.

She raised an eyebrow and said” Kolkata news. How much do you know about the city?”

“Just a habit. It seems to check on the news in my region, I will have to depend on the internet or probably TV”

“Better get used to catching up on the local news here. Since you would be spending some time in the city, it would be beneficial if you know the local flavor”

She put her handbag down and sat on the empty chair across Rajveer.

“Did you check on the location of your company’s office here?”

“Do you want to drink or eat something? We can order” Rajveer offered.

“No I am fine, I had a filling breakfast since I assumed it would be a long day for me.”

Rajveer took out his phone and read through Aditya’s message” The company premises are at Salt Lake, Sector 5. We will have to find the exact location once we reach there.”

“Okay, so we can either take a bus, or a taxi from here. Which mode would you prefer?”

“Let’s take a bus. It’s been a long time since I have been on one. Rajveer said.

They walked out of the Hotel onto the bustling Dharamtala Square. It was busy with office goers rushing for work. The footpaths were crammed with people hurrying across to make it on time. The hawkers were busy trying to capitalize from the need of the hour, shouting at the top of the voices and pitching their sales. The bus to Salt Lake would be availed from across the road. Rajveer looked around for a footover bridge, but found none. There were vehicles of all shapes, sizes, and categories zipping across and Rajveer was averse to the idea of crossing the road in this melee.

“Hey come on. What are you looking at? “Nilanjana said” You would need to dodge your way across this. Just look at the vehicles, gauge their distances and take a step at a time”

With a deep sigh Rajveer started. As instructed he measured the distances between him and the vehicles and followed a stop and go routine. Unlike Delhi where pedestrians were at the mercy of the drivers, here they were used to people crossing across, hence they had their own mechanism of dodging them at the same speeds they were travelling, there was no scope of hesitation! He let out a sigh of relief once on the other side. He looked for Nilanjana. She had already reached the bus stop and beckoned him over.

“So how did it feel? “She asked.

“I was moments from letting it out in my pants “Rajveer smiled.

“You will get used to it. This is how the city runs. Each one of them is used to the mechanism. We can take the State Bus which will reach us faster.” She said and shaded her eyes with her hand and looked out for the bus.

“State bus?”

“It’s like what you have as DTC in Delhi. It’s the Government run bus.”

Rajveer looked around at the buses which were plying. Firstly he found the number of buses on the road as compared with the other vehicles higher in density. Second he found them in all shapes and sizes. There were the small buses which looked as if they had been chopped in half. They came in a combination of red and yellow colors with the destinations written in Bengali on the sides. Then there were buses which seemed to have been covered with a sheet of aluminum with small wooden windows.  Some of them had chrome toppings on them which shone in the sunlight. The State run buses were of regular shapes but seemed to be rattling from years of negligence in maintenance. All of them had the destinations declared in the local language which Rajveer could not make headway of.

“You better learn to figure out the destinations written on these buses” Nilanjana said noticing his observation. “Though the conductors will keep on shouting the route but you should know which bus goes where.”

“I think I will have to get used to it. Am not really sure for how long I am stuck here. Better to know the routes and destinations since I would not have you guiding me always” Rajveer smiled.

“I can….but it would be chargeable” Nilanjana punched him on his shoulder” So there is our bus. Get in queue”

As soon as the bus stopped people tumbled out, and he was shoved from behind into the bus. He looked around for Nilanjana. She was a couple of steps to his right. The bus was packed as a can of worms. He could feel elbows digging his shoulders, and his hands which were holding the top rung were crowded with others trying to grab a piece of the same. The bus lurched forward and he lost his balance for a second and was about to fall on the guy sitting across with a huge stuffed bag on his lap.

“Bhains ki taang!” He exclaimed.

“Ore Baba what is that. You don’t seem to be from here. Better get used to the motion of the bus and learn how to balance yourself, and at the same time take out your wallet and pay the conductor. It’s an art. If you do not master it you will find yourself sprawled on the floor”he said and smiled. He had a couple of upper teeth missing possibly repercussions of the tobacco which he was chewing.

Nilanjana signaled that she had paid for both of them which spared him from learning an ancient art which eventually he would have to get used he reckoned. The bus plowed through the crowded streets of Lenin Sarani, onto Sealdah station depot and further. Looking out of the window he saw another British heritage – the tram, making its way slowly across the traffic. He had heard rumours that the trams were so slow that you can alight from them, have a plate of “Phucchkas-Gol Gappe what you call in Delhi” and make a quick sprint and climb abroad. He made a mental note to ride one of them when he had ample time. He felt a tug at his sleeve. The guy with the missing teeth gestured that he was about to get off and him to come and stand near his seat.

“You see Sir….There is a system of getting a seat. The person which is standing next to your seat is the one who gets it. You stand right here and when I get up slide yourself in” He smiled again with the signature gaping hole.

Rajveer thanked him and tugged at Niranjana’s sleeve” Hey come here. This guy is about to get off. Take this seat.”

Nilanjana moved across and Rajveer made some space for her. The guy with the missing teeth looked at him and then at her and said” Ki Didi, very chivalrous…good, very good!”

He made a flash of his brilliant smile one last time and trudged ahead. Nilanjana slid and settled down.

“Rajveer I can hold your bag for you”

“No that’s okay. I think I am managing it well.” He said. The bus came to a halt. A couple of intense shoves from the passengers alighting, and Rajveer felt he would be swept along with the tide. He grabbed the pole in the middle and weathered the storm.

“You are doing good” Nilanjana smiled at him.