Chapter 5 - Nancy

The lunch meeting turned out to be such a happy occasion. Mano actually came to know more about Nancy only then. They knew that her father was a Christian but her mother a hindu brahmin. She was brought up as a true hybrid with exposure to both religions. She told about how emotional their whole family was, while watching Bombay. She had an younger sister by name Mary.

Nancy said that her dad ran an automobile shop and her mom worked in a bank. When her parents married, they had to face huge resistance from both sides. Her mother's side had accepted them slowly. Nancy grew up in her grandma's place for first three years. She was brought up like a typical Brahmin girl in many ways by her grandma. Her grandma usually called her by a second name, understandably a Hindu name. Because of this, Nancy had always been very dear to both her grandparents. 

After finishing the lunch and returning home, Priya told Mano "I wish Madhu would grow up smartly like Nancy. She is so pleasant and likeable". Mano smiled and agreed.

******

A week later, Mano and Nancy were participating in a dumb-C competition in office. They were in same team and their team won with a huge margin. Their ability to connect with each other helped them win the dumb-C competition easily.

*******

One day, they were travelling together on work in Mano's old 800. Mano casually said "Nancy. I need to give a small feedback to you. It is at a personal level. May i?". She replied "Pls go ahead sir. I always respect your feedback". He said "you are a black and white person. You dont believe in grey's. Either you like a person or you dont. If you like a person, he or she can get away with murder. Similarly if you dont like one, you will never care about them whatever they do". Nancy said "very true sir. But i prefer to be so". Mano asked "why?'. Nancy said "i dont know sir. Frankly you are the first man in my life i have got this close. I stay away from men normally. Even with most women, i prefer to stay at an arm's distance".

Mano too liked her. He could not clearly explain why.

**********

Next day, Mano asked Nancy a feedback about him as a boss. She said “I may be biased. But I think you are the best. Just be the way you are”. Mano laughed and said “I cant agree more”. Nancy said “Good. Finally you agreed what I have been saying. You are too good”. Mano said “I did not agree to that. I agreed to the fact that you are biased”. A smile crossed her lips as she said, “you fight for what you belive in, you fight for your team. You are sincere, honest and committed. You have a great sense of humour and you light up any environment.  You are a good family man. What more should one need sir?”. It was Mano’s turn to smile now.

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There was a time when the girls were chatting when Mano walked in. Smitha asked some doubt to Mano and Mano explained to her patiently.

Mano later received a SMS from Nancy that said "wow. You have an amazing style sir. The way you explained complex concepts to Smitha, I am amazed".

Mano did not know what to say but he was extremely happy.

***********

Another time, the girls were having a private joke which they refused to share with Mano. He tried his level best but could not get them to share the joke.

Nancy sent him an SMS that read "Poor you sir. But the way you sulked when we refused to share the joke...It was so cute sir".

Mano would never know what the joke was about. He was anyhow happy to receive the compliment.

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Mano knew that they (Nancy and him) both liked each other very well. This was the first time Mano was getting so close to a girl outside any known relationship. He had other good female friends, none of them this close or this young.

_________to be continued____________

Chapter 6 –  Sharma

Sharma and Mano had different styles that complemented well initially. But offlate, Sharma had too many personal issues because of which his concentration on job suffered. Because of this, Sharma and Mano had many fights and top management too started noticing Sharma’s shortcomings. Sharma’s fights with Mano did not help Sharma’s cause either. At this stage, Mano got a call from his ex-employer if he would be open to coming back. When Mano expressed willingness, they readily agreed to take him back at a good package. Mano also knew that he would get lot more free time while working for his ex-employer and he looked forward to it since Priya was carrying. He also did not want to continue fighting with Sharma, a man he truly liked and respected once.

When he broke the news to Nancy after putting his papers, she expressed mixed feelings. She was happy for him. She said she would miss him badly in the last few months of her project. She had just got an extension of three months for her project. Had she known Mano would leave, she would have left earlier too, she said.

A week later, on a January 03 weekend, he took out all the girls in his team for an outing. Nancy wanted his family to join. He told her that his wife could not join since she was carrying. He picked up all the three girls from a common spot on a Sunday morning. Only Nancy, Shreya and Gowri could join. Mahesh and Smitha were not in station. Interestingly, Nancy wanted to sit in front seat next to him but Gowri insisted on sitting in the front and she got her way through. The bird sanctuary they went to, had no birds, except for a few crows. This was due to failure of rains that year. The absence of birds also meant absence of crowd. So, the team had only nature as company and they had a great time. The one day picnic was pure fun and they sang, played and enjoyed like kids. During return trip, Gowri again took the front seat when Mano was about to start the car. Nancy literally pulled Gowri and threw her out of seat to sit next to Mano. Mano was pleasantly surprised with this attention.

*****

A week later Nancy sent a mail to Mano’s personal id. It was shocking and painful. Nancy’s mail read

“Dear Sir,

I used to be a very reserved person earlier and I normally don’t trust people that easily, especially men. You are the first man I have got this close. I think I have told you this several times earlier. You have brought a major positive change in me by being a wonderful boss, caring mentor and understanding friend.

Sir, I thought I need to tell you something about my background which you should know. You know I hate men. There is a reason for this. My dad has been a womanizer for long and I know how much my mom has suffered because of this. He could not even spare his daughter (me). When I was in seventh standard, he started misbehaving with me. It all stopped when I took a firm stand one year later but not before leaving a deep wound in my heart.

After this, I have got into a shell and it is only recently that I am slowly coming out of my shell. Much of the credit should go to you for this. I never realised that there could be men like you. You are honest, straight forward, sincere, humourous and what not. Above all, you are such a wonderful family man. Your wife and daughter are fortunate to have you around.

I don’t know why I wanted to share some unpleasant things that happened in my life. But I wanted to. Please forgive me in case I have upset you with this mail.

Regards,

Nancy”

Mano remembered Nancy telling him once that she was against marriage. He did not take her seriously as he took it as a routine statement of any unmarried girl. Now he understood that she actually meant it.

Mano spoke to Nancy briefly over phone about this mail once. He understood that her dad started misbehaving and when she complained to her mom, he gave a vague explanation that she mistook his affection. But Nancy had no doubts about her dad’s intentions but could not convince her mom. The abuse continued for some more time and finally Nancy mustered the necessary courage to put an end to it. He told himself that he should slap her dad the day he would see him.

*******

With few weeks left for his exit from current job, he returned home early on a Wednesday evening. He was spending time with his family in a relaxed state of mind. He forwarded some sms joke to many and Nancy responded with her usual witty remark. They exchanged a few sms’s when one of her sms’s read “Ok anna. Tell me what are you going to have for dinner”. He replied “Did I read correct?”. She sent an sms saying “yup. U did”. He asked “was that a convenient way of addressing me or u meant it?”. She replied “I am never casual about such things. I meant it. I am not sure how u feel”.

Mano did not reply as he could not. He lost his thinking ability for a while and so did not know what to reply. Happy tears started rolling down his cheeks as he read the sms again and again. Priya noticed this and asked what happened. He said in an emotional voice “Nancy is asking me if I can be her anna”. Sensing how happy he looked, she said “I am so happy for u. She is a fantastic girl. I would like to speak to her straightaway”. Mano dialed the number and gave it to priya.

Nancy was surprised hearing from Priya. Priya pulled her leg by saying “How dare you make my hubby cry? I have never seen him shed tears ever in his life. I forgive you only because he seems so happy”. Their chat was long and later Madhu too spoke to her Nancy aunty. Mano and Nancy spoke to each other finally but both their voices were choked with emotion. It did not matter they did not speak much. They both realized that they could not have asked for more from life.

It is always difficult to quantify happiness. If there is anyway one had measured happiness of all human beings on the day Nancy called Mano her anna, the two happiest people on that day would have been undoubtedly Mano and Nancy.

________to be continued _____________