Anindita's Escapade Part 4 : The Girl with The Solution

 

“So that we are very sure what we are putting in front of the committee.” Naveen smiled. He was going to follow that up with a joke, Anindita thought. She had a sense about these things. She could feel jokes coming from a mile away. Even as it is being conceived in another’s brain. This has got to be the lamest superpower ever. She thought, smiling.

Sure enough, the joke followed. “Granted, for us to do that, we have to know what they want and thus they have to know what they want.  Which, sure as we are sitting here, they don’t and so we don’t.” Naveen chuckled. “Effing Morons!”. Riya snorted with laughter while sipping on her lemonade.

Mohit raised his glass with a “You said it Boss!” and let out a half laugh and half sigh. He knew in his bones that not knowing what people want generally translated into multiple rework requests on review decks.  

Anindita looked around for the waiter, maybe she should have another iced tea. It was going to be a long day. That’s when it happened again. She felt another prick in her right eye. Again she pushed at her eye ball from over her eyelid with one finger. Careful not to smudge her kajal. But this time the prickly feeling didn’t go away. It just turned into a constant feeling of irritation.

“Oh god! Its prickling me now” Anindita said out loud without really meaning to. “You and me both lady. You and me both!” murmured Naveen. “May be we should talk to them for some clarity” he went on.

“No! My eye. My eye is bothering me since a while ago and I am wearing lenses. Without which I am practically blind” Anindita explained.

“Just take them off and wear your glasses” Riya suggested. “Well, I don’t have my glasses, lens container or solution. So as you can see, I am totally in control of this situation. That seems to be our theme today”.  

“Stupid woman!” Riya said. “That’s fair” quipped Anindita. She excused herself with “I think I need to go look at it in the washroom”.  

Mohit started sniggering. “Oh! Grow up will you?!” barked Riya. “She is talking about her eye”.

“That wasn’t made clear” murmured Mohit.

Anindita made her way to the washroom. She expected a small albeit clean washroom as was typical to these traditional yet urban restaurant in Chanakyapuri, Delhi. On the way to the washroom, she crossed the maître d patiently explaining to a couple why that variant of a dish was not possible to be served at this time of the year. She crossed the bar and turned right for the washroom.

Two young ladies were standing in front of the closed washroom door chit chatting. Anindita put her hand over her eye and pressed on it for effect. Without saying so she wanted to get ahead of the line because hers was an emergency. The girls looked at her from top to bottom and resumed their tales. Anindita leaned against the wall and waited.

After what felt like an eternity, the washroom was finally available to her. She entered and found a somewhat clean washroom. She stood in front of the huge wall mirror leaning over the sink and tried to see what was going on in her eye. It had turned reddish from all the poking and pressing.

She had been using lenses for years now. She had gotten so good at it and had so little trouble with it that she never really carried any lens solution or spare glasses. She chided herself. You deserve it, she thought to herself. Why are you never prepared?!

As much as she was admonishing herself now, she knew she would carry on living the exact same way in the future. And that enraged her even more. You ARE stupid, Anindita. Stupid and incorrigible. I have to take the lens out now and I need some solution to put it back in. No tap water won’t do, she thought. She had learned that from experience.

She was in the middle of the self-admonishing exercise when the washroom door made a noise behind her as it opened. Anindita jumped and turned around with a start. A woman was standing looking at her, holding the door open.

“Hey! I am in here!” complained Anindita, loudly. “Hey! I am so sorry. I just saw that the door was opened and I.. I am sorry. I will wait here” the woman smiled.

“Ah.. no problem. I should have locked the door. Don’t worry about it.” Anindita heard herself saying gruffly while turning back to the mirror. Her mood slightly improved on hearing the woman apologize.  

She was still deciding whether to pull the lens out and spend the rest of the day seeing through one eye. Or alternatively, going back home to get her glasses or lens solution. Or may be a pharmacy nearby would help. That’s when she noticed in the mirror that the woman was still looking at her through the partially open door.    

Anindita turned around and said, “This washroom can only occupy one at a time, really.” What ever happened to privacy, she thought. The woman smiled and said, “Are you having trouble with your lenses?”. Anindita turned back to the mirror and said “Yup”, and I am not in the mood for chitchat, she thought. She wanted to close the door on the woman’s face but decided against it out of curtesy. Wait your turn lady, I waited mine.

“I have solution, do you want some?” the woman offered. Anindita spun around and stared at her blanky. She was suddenly out of words in the face of kindness from a stranger. She felt her lips were smiling. “You do? ‘Cause that would be God sent!”. Suddenly she felt bad about yelling at the woman.

Instead of a bottle of solution, she pulled out a pack of disposable lens that was stored in solution and handed it to Anindita. “You can just take the solution and throw out the lens.”

“Umm..” Anindita was even more baffled than before. “That will cost you. Can I please pay you for the lens then?” she offered. “Arre.. just fix your eye first. It’s nothing.” the woman smiled.

“Thank you so much.. I really don’t have words to thank you.” Anindita turned around feeling grateful and ripped the lens case open. There was just enough solution there to help her eye.

Once done, she turned and opened the washroom door to thank the woman again and may be insist on buying her a drink. But there was no one there. She stepped out and looked around, but she couldn’t spot her. Riya had spotted her though and yelled across the floor, “what’s going on? You, okay?”. Anindita nodded a yes, distractedly.

She thought about asking the maître d if the tall stylish looking woman who was just standing here was seated on another floor but it looked like he had his own problems.

She walked back to her table. “I am fine now, thanks to this lady who offered some kindness, but she just vanished”.

“A lady offered some kindness in the washroom?” smirked Naveen.

“These things happen to Anindita only.” Mohit said jokingly.

“Never has this kind of thing happened to me ever. I never expect kindness from strangers in Delhi at least” said Anindita. “Well never is a strong word, but still. This is certainly rare.”

“Well what do we do about the review deck then?” Riya asked.

“I think we should just sit across the table with them and listen to them with some understanding and kindness. That will tell us where to go from here”. Anindita replied feeling calm and wise.

Everyone at the table looked at her in unison. “Mata Anindita, what happened in the washroom?” asked Naveen.

Anindita smiled.