The US shift had a way of making people forget what part of the day it was.
Sudharma woke up in the rented flat he shared with two friends. One was asleep. The other had left a note near the television.
Milk in the fridge.
Lock the door.
Don’t finish the pickle.
He read the note, ignored the last instruction and got ready.
He and Sanvi had tickets for Bhool Bhulaiyaa before work.
They had not planned anything beyond the movie.
Sanvi reached the theatre a few minutes late.
Sudharma looked at his watch.
“Good. I was wondering if I should sell your ticket.”
“You bought only one?”
“I was hoping to.”
She laughed and walked inside.
By the time they came out, both of them were still repeating dialogues from the film.
They stopped for tea from a roadside cart outside office gate.
Sanvi burnt her tongue and blamed the tea.
Sudharma said it was because she never waited for anything to cool down.
She said people had been telling her that since school.
Then she looked at the time.
“We’re late.”
“We’re not.”
“We are.”
“We’ll blame traffic.”
“There was no traffic.”
“We’ll say there was.”
They reached the office a little after their shift.
The security guard looked at them.
“Movie?”
Sanvi pointed at Sudharma.
“He made me late.”
Sudharma pointed back.
“Tea.”
The guard smiled and waved them through.
A new training batch had joined that day.
Sudharma had some reports to finish before meeting them. He sat at his desk while the floor slowly filled with people coming in for the night shift.
Somebody was looking for a headset.
Someone else was asking where the new ID cards had been kept.
A chair rolled across the aisle.
A phone started ringing and nobody answered it.
Somewhere behind him, anklets made a sound. Chan… Chan.. Chan…
He looked up.
A young woman was walking behind one of the HR executives. She wore a simple salwar and carried a file against her chest. There were jasmine flowers in her hair.
Without thinking, he smiled and said,
“Amije Tomar… Chan… Chan… Chan…”
The boys sitting nearby laughed.
One of them repeated the dialogue much louder.
The HR executive turned around.
The young woman kept walking.
She did not even know they were talking about her.
Sudharma watched her disappear around the corner.
Then he turned back to his screen.
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