Snapshots from a single girl's life
I reached out to my mom and placed an effusive kiss on her cheek. Brushing away a stray strand of hair from my face, she said, “Call me once your flight lands.” “Sure, mom!”, I practically yelled. As I waved good bye to my dad and rushed downstairs into the cab that was waiting to take me to the airport, I thought that finally, I could justify the title "grown-up," at least in my own eyes.
Two weeks ago, I had received confirmation that my application for the post of copy editor had been accepted at Magnus, an international bank in Hyderabad. I was thrilled and couldn't believe I was finally going to live alone. I, who was always accompanying my mom even on visits to the mall, was now going to fork out rent, pay my bills, make friends in a city where I knew no one, and be the epitome of the quintessential single woman.
My thoughts flowed unchecked as I reached the airport, unloaded the luggage, made my way through the inevitable queues to scan my baggage, checked in, and waited for my flight. After the cumbersome procedures were taken care of, I was now free to browse through the latest paperbacks at the bookstore. Picking up 'Almost Single' by Advaita Kala, thinking the title was most reflective of my current state, I settled into my chair.
I was the perennially ‘Almost Single’ girl. Never quite in a relationship, but never quite single. All my interactions with boys thus far were dangerously without any boundaries from my side, with me talking to them with absolutely no filters, and depending on whether they were ‘bad boys’ or ‘nice guys,’ it resulting in absolutely nothing ‘definable.’ If Chetan Bhagat hadn’t made ‘Half-Girlfriend’ sound so ‘loser’ ish and ‘uncool,’ I would have called myself half-girlfriend!
That’s when I noticed a tall guy wearing a red Tee shirt and jeans with a backpack that said ‘Grogan.’ Grogan was the most prominent search engine company in the world, and its only Indian branch was in Hyderabad. Hmm, interesting! He opened his laptop and was busy surfing the Internet.
After about five minutes of preening like a feline and receiving not so much as a glance in my direction, I was just about ready to call up my friend, Aanya, and bitch him out. So much for sultry seduction! As I tried my best friend’s number, the familiar “Apologize” caller tune rang in my ears. Smiling as I remembered an inside joke we shared on why the caller tune was set in the first place, I tapped my heel impatiently on the floor, waiting for Aanya to pick up.
Pick up, sweetie….pick up…Don’t you realize I’m having a “situation” here? I need to look busy and popular! A voice---finally---“Aalia…I’ll call you back….two minutes,” and then the line promptly went dead. Turning red as a beet, I thought, “This isn’t going exactly as I had hoped!” Now, the voice on the microphone said “Calling all passengers of Jet Lite traveling to Hyderabad… please board your flight.”
As I wheeled my luggage into the plane, I had a fleeting thought. “Why can’t the cabin crew have hot hunks instead of women in skirts?” I went to my seat, looked out the window and felt a blush creeping up as the Grogan guy sat in the seat right next to me. Hmm, economy class—so maybe the dude didn’t own Grogan after all. I decided this was my moment: To be new, stunning, approachable, friendly Aalia-- the persona that would win me friends and influence people.
“Hey! I’m Aalia, I’m just leaving home to work for Magnus….in Hyderabad”…I finished lamely. Grogan dude looked at me, a blank expression on his face and said, “Myself, Anand.” Vorking as developer with Grogan”.
Oh no! He couldn’t speak English. Who introduced themselves as “Myself, Anand, anyway.” And “Vorking”?
Jeez, what a waste of good looks! And then I buried my nose in my book hoping he wouldn’t open his mouth again. But of course, he had to! In fact, he seemed to have quite the verbal diarrhea.
“I’m from Jhennai”, he said in an accent that was so pronounced, I could barely grasp what he was saying. “Uh huh”…total disinterest.
“Grogan is a great gompany; I work there. My father’s dream was…..
“Oh my God, who cares about his father’s dream.”
And as he rambled on, I started a serious soul-searching. “Am I really that shallow? Does his accent really matter? And the only reason I wanted to even chat him up was ‘coz he looked cute.”
And as I berated myself inwardly for my shortcomings, I had a mental conversation with Aanya. “Am I the only one who feels this way?”
And I could hear Aanya’s voice in my head. “Dahling, of course, it matters how he talks. We are superficial, aren’t we?”
And then I broke into a grin that only seemed to encourage the Grogan guy, recently fallen from grace. The flight seemed endless….The steady monotone of Grogan Guy was too much to bear. I soon zoned out and snapped out of my reverie only when I had to order a juice from the air hostess. The flight landed soon enough as domestic flights thankfully do and sensing my disinterest, Grogan guy had tuned out and sunk into silence. Thank God for small mercies. I deplaned, claimed my luggage, then caught a cab to the guesthouse allotted to us by the company.
I then called my mom to tell her that I had reached in one piece and that everything was okay. I described the room to her. There was a television set with a set-top box, a fairly comfortable bed, a night table with reading lamp, a tiny refrigerator, a big wooden wardrobe, the futon I was sitting on, and even a tiny balcony. I also spoke to my dad for a couple of minutes and then hung up.
Taking in my surroundings, I thought happily, “ I could get used to this” and my lips curved into a smug smile.
The next day, it was drizzling. The monsoons had arrived! I didn’t even have an umbrella with me. Magnus provided all the new hires staying at the guesthouse (which was called Cozee homes) a ride to the office every day, a dhobi to wash our clothes, and breakfast on the house. Today, I thought, I should try to find out about accommodation in Hyderabad. And the quest for my flatmates was on!
As I went to the main hall where they served the food, I noticed a group of three girls having breakfast, and chatting. I made my way to the table and said, “May I join you, guys”? as casually as I could. I was struck by how beautiful one of the girls was. She had a complexion like that of a china doll, a waist that couldn’t be more than 24 inches, streaked brown wavy hair that cascaded to her hips, and an overall bearing of royalty. She said her name was Zaliha. I was like “Huh!”
I found out that she had done her engineering, but had ended up in Equities research, and was an avid reader who loved Jane Austen. And she was from Mumbai. Now, my desire to make her my flatmate was so overpowering, I told her, “Wow! You love reading! I have a huge collection of books that I’’m just waiting to get from Chennai as soon as I find a house. Which was true..I did have a huge collection of books and I loved reading, too..but suddenly I felt I was in kindergarten again. Trying to “make” friends.
She went back to her room and took out her beautiful candy-striped umbrella. It was huge-- Certainly big enough for two. She smiled sweetly and said, “Shall we leave?” I said “sure!”
We boarded the bus to Magnus and sat next to each other in the last row. The other two girls found seats at the front. On the way, she started listening to her iPod nano. I looked away and out of the window. She then offered me one of the earphones. I beamed as I took it from her and now we were listening to “Words.” Hmm, she sure was into retro.
After a while, the battery died. I was simultaneously looking out of the window to take in the sights and sounds of Hyderabad: A city that I had not visited even once, but which was to be my new home. I had decided that I would work with Magnus for at least a year, before looking for greener pastures. One year was all the time I gave myself, ‘coz I expected to get homesick by then. Deep down I realized that living alone was going to be hard, too. And back in Chennai, I had a support system of loving parents, friends, and familiar places, malls, hangouts. If I went to a nightclub, I would probably know at least a couple of people there.
In Hyderabad, I had to start from scratch! But I was not put off by what lay ahead. In fact, I didn’t know what to expect. As I sat on the bus next to Zaliha, the possibilities were endless. I was positive that whatever happened, it would only make me a better person and that I would learn a lot along the way. Turning suddenly to Zaliha, I said, “Hey! So do you go running or anything?”. She said, Oh, I would love to get into a proper fitness regime.” I thought to myself, some people have all the luck. Here she was, svelte as a sylph and she could afford to just contemplate a fitness regime. For me, it was more like a necessity as I tended to pack on the pounds quite quickly if I let myself go.
I told her I had a treadmill in Chennai too, which I planned to bring to Hyderabad. To my ears, it sounded like I was trying to tempt a kid with chocolates, but she merely arched her eyebrows and said. That’s cool!’ Only then did I ask her the important question. “Have you found a flat?” Her response depressed the hell out of me. She said, “Yeah, the other two girls, Shweta and Radhika are moving in with me. We are planning to stay in Ameerpet. Ameerpet was about an hour away from work. I wanted a house close to the office since I didn’t have a car or anything and didn’t want to spend too much money on autos.
The heavy rain had petered down to a drizzle. The bus driver parked the vehicle outside the office, and we swiped our ID cards. As I wrote my name in the register as was the practice, I heard a voice behind me. “Hi! Are you from Chennai? I’m Varun” I turned around to see a thin, tall guy with thick straight black hair. He had an earnest expression on his face. I said” Yeah, I’m from Chennai. What about you.” Pat came the predictable answer. “Me, too.” He said, “Are you looking for a flat to stay in?” I said “Yes.”. He said,”Yeah, I’m looking for one, too. It shouldn’t be too hard to find one.”
I said, “Really?” I have no clue where to start. And we have just two weeks to find one! It seems a rather daunting task, don’t you think”. As there was no reply from him, I guessed he didn’t think it was daunting. Or maybe he just wanted to project calm self-assuredness. I couldn’t be bothered to give it another thought. So I brightly said. “Well, see you around”.
I went up the elevator to the fifth floor where my department was and braced myself for day two. Since most of us at the bank were outsiders and the rigorous entrance procedures demanded that we send scanned copies of our previous employment certificates, relieving letters and ID proof, there was really nothing much to be done by way of procedures other than the mandatory filling up of the PF forms and other forms. We had an orientation programme scheduled for that evening. It included cross-cultural awareness. There was also to be a 2-day workshop on financial markets regardless of our role in the organization. That was to be next week.
I smiled vaguely at my teammates and sat in my designated seat. The team was involved in making powerpoint presentations for clients from EMEA, APJ, and the US. My job was to edit the financial content-- Easy enough, as I had edited for e-learning companies in the past. The challenge was that I was going to do it in Hyderabad, a place where I knew no one!
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Two weeks ago, I had received confirmation that my application for the post of copy editor had been accepted at Magnus, an international bank in Hyderabad. I was thrilled and couldn't believe I was finally going to live alone. I, who was always accompanying my mom even on visits to the mall, was now going to fork out rent, pay my bills, make friends in a city where I knew no one, and be the epitome of the quintessential single woman.
My thoughts flowed unchecked as I reached the airport, unloaded the luggage, made my way through the inevitable queues to scan my baggage, checked in, and waited for my flight. After the cumbersome procedures were taken care of, I was now free to browse through the latest paperbacks at the bookstore. Picking up 'Almost Single' by Advaita Kala, thinking the title was most reflective of my current state, I settled into my chair.
I was the perennially ‘Almost Single’ girl. Never quite in a relationship, but never quite single. All my interactions with boys thus far were dangerously without any boundaries from my side, with me talking to them with absolutely no filters, and depending on whether they were ‘bad boys’ or ‘nice guys,’ it resulting in absolutely nothing ‘definable.’ If Chetan Bhagat hadn’t made ‘Half-Girlfriend’ sound so ‘loser’ ish and ‘uncool,’ I would have called myself half-girlfriend!
That’s when I noticed a tall guy wearing a red Tee shirt and jeans with a backpack that said ‘Grogan.’ Grogan was the most prominent search engine company in the world, and its only Indian branch was in Hyderabad. Hmm, interesting! He opened his laptop and was busy surfing the Internet.
After about five minutes of preening like a feline and receiving not so much as a glance in my direction, I was just about ready to call up my friend, Aanya, and bitch him out. So much for sultry seduction! As I tried my best friend’s number, the familiar “Apologize” caller tune rang in my ears. Smiling as I remembered an inside joke we shared on why the caller tune was set in the first place, I tapped my heel impatiently on the floor, waiting for Aanya to pick up.
Pick up, sweetie….pick up…Don’t you realize I’m having a “situation” here? I need to look busy and popular! A voice---finally---“Aalia…I’ll call you back….two minutes,” and then the line promptly went dead. Turning red as a beet, I thought, “This isn’t going exactly as I had hoped!” Now, the voice on the microphone said “Calling all passengers of Jet Lite traveling to Hyderabad… please board your flight.”
As I wheeled my luggage into the plane, I had a fleeting thought. “Why can’t the cabin crew have hot hunks instead of women in skirts?” I went to my seat, looked out the window and felt a blush creeping up as the Grogan guy sat in the seat right next to me. Hmm, economy class—so maybe the dude didn’t own Grogan after all. I decided this was my moment: To be new, stunning, approachable, friendly Aalia-- the persona that would win me friends and influence people.
“Hey! I’m Aalia, I’m just leaving home to work for Magnus….in Hyderabad”…I finished lamely. Grogan dude looked at me, a blank expression on his face and said, “Myself, Anand.” Vorking as developer with Grogan”.
Oh no! He couldn’t speak English. Who introduced themselves as “Myself, Anand, anyway.” And “Vorking”?
Jeez, what a waste of good looks! And then I buried my nose in my book hoping he wouldn’t open his mouth again. But of course, he had to! In fact, he seemed to have quite the verbal diarrhea.
“I’m from Jhennai”, he said in an accent that was so pronounced, I could barely grasp what he was saying. “Uh huh”…total disinterest.
“Grogan is a great gompany; I work there. My father’s dream was…..
“Oh my God, who cares about his father’s dream.”
And as he rambled on, I started a serious soul-searching. “Am I really that shallow? Does his accent really matter? And the only reason I wanted to even chat him up was ‘coz he looked cute.”
And as I berated myself inwardly for my shortcomings, I had a mental conversation with Aanya. “Am I the only one who feels this way?”
And I could hear Aanya’s voice in my head. “Dahling, of course, it matters how he talks. We are superficial, aren’t we?”
And then I broke into a grin that only seemed to encourage the Grogan guy, recently fallen from grace. The flight seemed endless….The steady monotone of Grogan Guy was too much to bear. I soon zoned out and snapped out of my reverie only when I had to order a juice from the air hostess. The flight landed soon enough as domestic flights thankfully do and sensing my disinterest, Grogan guy had tuned out and sunk into silence. Thank God for small mercies. I deplaned, claimed my luggage, then caught a cab to the guesthouse allotted to us by the company.
I then called my mom to tell her that I had reached in one piece and that everything was okay. I described the room to her. There was a television set with a set-top box, a fairly comfortable bed, a night table with reading lamp, a tiny refrigerator, a big wooden wardrobe, the futon I was sitting on, and even a tiny balcony. I also spoke to my dad for a couple of minutes and then hung up.
Taking in my surroundings, I thought happily, “ I could get used to this” and my lips curved into a smug smile.
The next day, it was drizzling. The monsoons had arrived! I didn’t even have an umbrella with me. Magnus provided all the new hires staying at the guesthouse (which was called Cozee homes) a ride to the office every day, a dhobi to wash our clothes, and breakfast on the house. Today, I thought, I should try to find out about accommodation in Hyderabad. And the quest for my flatmates was on!
As I went to the main hall where they served the food, I noticed a group of three girls having breakfast, and chatting. I made my way to the table and said, “May I join you, guys”? as casually as I could. I was struck by how beautiful one of the girls was. She had a complexion like that of a china doll, a waist that couldn’t be more than 24 inches, streaked brown wavy hair that cascaded to her hips, and an overall bearing of royalty. She said her name was Zaliha. I was like “Huh!”
I found out that she had done her engineering, but had ended up in Equities research, and was an avid reader who loved Jane Austen. And she was from Mumbai. Now, my desire to make her my flatmate was so overpowering, I told her, “Wow! You love reading! I have a huge collection of books that I’’m just waiting to get from Chennai as soon as I find a house. Which was true..I did have a huge collection of books and I loved reading, too..but suddenly I felt I was in kindergarten again. Trying to “make” friends.
She went back to her room and took out her beautiful candy-striped umbrella. It was huge-- Certainly big enough for two. She smiled sweetly and said, “Shall we leave?” I said “sure!”
We boarded the bus to Magnus and sat next to each other in the last row. The other two girls found seats at the front. On the way, she started listening to her iPod nano. I looked away and out of the window. She then offered me one of the earphones. I beamed as I took it from her and now we were listening to “Words.” Hmm, she sure was into retro.
After a while, the battery died. I was simultaneously looking out of the window to take in the sights and sounds of Hyderabad: A city that I had not visited even once, but which was to be my new home. I had decided that I would work with Magnus for at least a year, before looking for greener pastures. One year was all the time I gave myself, ‘coz I expected to get homesick by then. Deep down I realized that living alone was going to be hard, too. And back in Chennai, I had a support system of loving parents, friends, and familiar places, malls, hangouts. If I went to a nightclub, I would probably know at least a couple of people there.
In Hyderabad, I had to start from scratch! But I was not put off by what lay ahead. In fact, I didn’t know what to expect. As I sat on the bus next to Zaliha, the possibilities were endless. I was positive that whatever happened, it would only make me a better person and that I would learn a lot along the way. Turning suddenly to Zaliha, I said, “Hey! So do you go running or anything?”. She said, Oh, I would love to get into a proper fitness regime.” I thought to myself, some people have all the luck. Here she was, svelte as a sylph and she could afford to just contemplate a fitness regime. For me, it was more like a necessity as I tended to pack on the pounds quite quickly if I let myself go.
I told her I had a treadmill in Chennai too, which I planned to bring to Hyderabad. To my ears, it sounded like I was trying to tempt a kid with chocolates, but she merely arched her eyebrows and said. That’s cool!’ Only then did I ask her the important question. “Have you found a flat?” Her response depressed the hell out of me. She said, “Yeah, the other two girls, Shweta and Radhika are moving in with me. We are planning to stay in Ameerpet. Ameerpet was about an hour away from work. I wanted a house close to the office since I didn’t have a car or anything and didn’t want to spend too much money on autos.
The heavy rain had petered down to a drizzle. The bus driver parked the vehicle outside the office, and we swiped our ID cards. As I wrote my name in the register as was the practice, I heard a voice behind me. “Hi! Are you from Chennai? I’m Varun” I turned around to see a thin, tall guy with thick straight black hair. He had an earnest expression on his face. I said” Yeah, I’m from Chennai. What about you.” Pat came the predictable answer. “Me, too.” He said, “Are you looking for a flat to stay in?” I said “Yes.”. He said,”Yeah, I’m looking for one, too. It shouldn’t be too hard to find one.”
I said, “Really?” I have no clue where to start. And we have just two weeks to find one! It seems a rather daunting task, don’t you think”. As there was no reply from him, I guessed he didn’t think it was daunting. Or maybe he just wanted to project calm self-assuredness. I couldn’t be bothered to give it another thought. So I brightly said. “Well, see you around”.
I went up the elevator to the fifth floor where my department was and braced myself for day two. Since most of us at the bank were outsiders and the rigorous entrance procedures demanded that we send scanned copies of our previous employment certificates, relieving letters and ID proof, there was really nothing much to be done by way of procedures other than the mandatory filling up of the PF forms and other forms. We had an orientation programme scheduled for that evening. It included cross-cultural awareness. There was also to be a 2-day workshop on financial markets regardless of our role in the organization. That was to be next week.
I smiled vaguely at my teammates and sat in my designated seat. The team was involved in making powerpoint presentations for clients from EMEA, APJ, and the US. My job was to edit the financial content-- Easy enough, as I had edited for e-learning companies in the past. The challenge was that I was going to do it in Hyderabad, a place where I knew no one!
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