LOVE IN THE TIMES OF 8 MBPS (Part 1)

Chapter 1

Rohit was sitting outside Café Coffee Day, watching the occasional cars that would beep by him; the chuckle of lovers that would resound the empty, midnight streets, ricocheting from one building to another like a carom peg. It had all been so sudden. Only two days ago he was the most content man there possibly could be. Or was he? He could still hear her, her eyes blurring from tears, asking him “Do you like her, Rohit?” “Did I like her?”, he was asking himself now. The software engineer in him answered, “Ofcourse not! How illogical! There is no proof… She doesn’t even know. Anita was over reacting. How can you like someone you hate so much??” And then, the boy in him wondered “How could she have known, anyway??”

Rohit and Anita weren’t exactly a Romeo and Juliet kind of couple, but they were very comfortable in each other’s company. They had met at their college festival four years ago when Anita fell for Rohit’s slapstick sense of humour and he for her childlike laughter. That was in their third year into engineering. They were even placed in the same company but a few months back Rohit got a lucrative offer from another firm, albeit in Mumbai itself.

“I think I’m gonna have to change my department”, said Rohit one evening to Anita as they watched India versus Srilanka on television. Anita knew this had to be important because Rohit, like any other Indian male, suffered from partial amnesia when it came to watching cricket. “That Shikha female drives me nuts! She thinks just because she’s pretty the world will come bowing at her feet”. Anita raised an eyebrow. “Just because she is pretty. That sounds interesting.”, she said. Rohit tried to correct himself, “ I mean.. she’s not as pretty as she imagines herself to be. Look at the kind of clothes she wears to office. They are so….ummm… inappropriate. And so is her behaviour. She tries to be a little too pally with everybody, patting them on their backs, cracking insinuating jokes at everyone, trying to be.. you know.. one of the guys.”

“ Does she do that to you?” , inquired Anita.

“ Yeah sometimes. But then I give her the no-luck-here-lady-i-am-taken look.”

“ Did you ever tell her that?”

“Er.. not in so many words”

“Hmmm."