The Weekend

By Latika Sharma

Anamika Sharma is a dedicated and consistent employee. Her efficiency and commitment to work can be gauged from the fact that she has essentially no social life and has not taken a leave from work in a really long time. So when she meets Siddharth Kapoor accidently she has no inkling that the weekend will take a turn she had never anticipated. Not only is Siddharth everything a woman wants in her man, he is aware that Anamika is hiding behind a curtain of workhiding from something.
The one week vacation that Siddharth is on, turns out to be the best they both ever had and when it is time to say goodbye, Siddharth knows why it is that his heart no longer wishes to leave India.
Engulfed by her past demons, Anamika is torn between the love that has found her and the life that has taught her otherwise.
It is up to her to realize that Siddharth is not a reflection from her past, but the path to her future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Mar 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481784870

Latika Sharma

Latika Sharma is a biology teacher and a Gold medalist in Life Sciences. She stays in Delhi and this is her second book. Her first book, Schoolmates, the most famous couple in school has been admired by children and young adults tremendously. Her writing is fresh, fast paced and rich in myriad tones. Her style attracts almost everyone who loves a modern romantic story.

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© 2013 by Latika Sharma. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/12/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-8486-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-8487-0 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

1. Saturday: Morning

2. Saturday: Office

3. Saturday: Evening

4. Saturday: Evening

5. Sunday: Morning

6. Sunday: Noon

7. Sunday: Evening

8. Morning: Monday

9. Monday: Night

10. Monday: Evening

11. Monday: Morning

12. Monday: Noon

13. Monday: Evening

14. Monday: Night

15. Tuesday: Morning

16. Tuesday: Night

17. Tuesday Night

18. Evening party

19. Wednesday: Morning

20. Thursday: Morning.

21. Friday: Morning

22. Friday: Noon.

23. Friday: Evening.

24. Saturday: Morning

25. Saturday: Noon

26. Saturday: Night

27. Saturday: Night

28. Saturday: Night

29. Five years ago…

30. Saturday: Night

31. Saturday: Night

32. Sunday: Morning

33. Sunday: Night

34. A few weeks later.

35. One Year later… Delhi

36. November noon: Delhi

37. November Noon-Delhi

38. November Evening-Mumbai

39. Mumbai: Night

40. November: Night

For Monika

Acknowledgement

Bringing out a book is not tough a task if you have the right story, efficient regime to make time to sort it down and a superb team to help you through the journey. I have been blessed to have them all and so I would begin by thanking my fast friend Dr. Monika, who has inspired me and literally pursued me incessantly to finish the second novel, since I did not permit her to read the manuscript.

I would also like to thank my team at authorhouse for their co-operation and support, Angel Robinson, who has the sweetest voice I’ve heard on phone so far and Thirdy Aguirre, who got this ball rolling. Thirdy, you are forever in my thoughts, thank you soo much.

My friends from work, Geetika who is now blessed with a son, Deepika, Ruchi, Deepshikha and the entire Chemistry department at school. And above all, my students for whom I am more than just a biology teacher, who have awaited this book with equal enthusiasm as if it was their own; I cannot explain how grateful I am to have each one of you in my world. I could name a few, but then the list would contain atleast a hundred names!

Thank you everyone, it’s an honor and privilege to be a part of your world too.

And… dad. You are the beacon of my life.

1. Saturday: Morning

Life in a metropolitan city is like a marathon; someone is always running way ahead of you and looks more comfortable, stronger and well-off. No matter how big your home, how heavy your pay check or how influential your position, the world around you compels us to be fooled into believing that someone else is definitely beating us to that winning line. Most times, we do not even know what that line looks like. It’s something… we just never realise that, in the haste of making it there, we are missing out on many grounds. That’s a metropolitan life, the big city life.

It never lets you take a breather, or permits you the simple joys of life, like admiring a sunrise or gazing at a clean azure sky. The minute one task is over, the next one pops up. There is no time for rest or to even realize that we are growing older, till we actually do! That sometimes when we head back home, no one greets us because now we live alone, secluded in our world.

That’s exactly how Anamika felt this morning—Saturday, her day off from the week’s long exhaustive routine. Single and a working woman, away from family, Anamika usually slept late till about ten in the morning on a weekend. After completing the innumerable chores of life, her body, as if in a state of a semi-coma from exhaustion, usually refuses to get aroused from that resting state, not before the door bell is buzzed, by one of the day’s paid help.

And so, as was expected on any regular weekend, she was asleep peacefully when her phone rang, piercing the quiet of her modern apartment in Gurgaon. It was 8:15 a.m.

Somewhat delirious she picked it up after the eighth or the ninth ring, after it stubbornly refused to stop.

‘My God! Why don’t people just drop the call,’ she thought and then answered mumbling softly.

Hello… ? Sleep was clearly audible in her voice.

Hello… Anamika? Is that you? A resonating, domineering and wide awake female voice asked.

Yeah… who’s this?

Hey Anne, it’s me Priya, wake-up sleeping beauty and reach the office ASAP… The wolf is here… we have important work to do, rushed Priya, Anamika’s work colleague and fast friend.

Today? Now? Why? What’s happening? asked Anamika coming out of her slumber and resting the cradle of the phone between her ear and shoulder. She rubbed her eyes wondering what it was that had become soo important that the employees were being tested again for being human!

Yup… today, now… now make it here as fast as your car can, without breaking rules ofcource! O.K. Bye. That was Priya. Always short and crisp. No big talks, just business, or perhaps even she din’t realise how fast her day spinned around her.

‘Well here goes another weekend!’ Anamika thought.

She sat down on her bed with a soft pillow at her back, resting her still sleep-filled head which was slowly realising that it was going to get tired very soon.

She threw away her bed covers staring up at the carvings on her ceiling thinking how multi-national companies sucked the life out of their employees. It is like they own you, like an elevator or a toothbrush or a soap dispenser… use whenever and how much ever needed without any regards for anyone’s personal time, especially so in India. Anamika always rationalised a little too much and in the end concluded that all was still good in the world and it was her fast life that made her believe otherwise, that there was indeed work to be done and definitely a requirement of the over-time! So what if you missed a bit of family time, not that she had any or missed out on partying, not that she was attending any.

She was not what we would commonly refer to as a party animal or even the party types. She had limited friends and spent her very little spare time, which she had, with them but only when the Delhi weather, work and occasion permitted it. Most weekends flew past attending household chores—cleaning, cooking, prepping, and paying bills… being single and living alone did have its disadvantages. Unlike her family home, back in Pune, where her siblings (two brothers, elder) and parents had once lived together and intervened in each other’s lives as noisily as possible. What she missed the most was her mom’s cooking, especially the weekend brunches. Since she was the youngest, food was cooked keeping her favourites in mind.

Anamika let out a sigh! Anyhow, that was past and in the present she had to get up fast so that she could take a quick shower and eat her cold breakfast of cornflakes and an apple and rush to her office for… ‘Lord knows for how many hours!’ She wondered stepping out of the bed. She headed off to brew herself a cup of coffee.

In about an hour she was ready to hit the morning traffic. That was the thing in Delhi-NCR, traffic was always at peak in mornings—given any week day, sometimes even during the holidays ! In-fact, Anamika thought as she drove towards her office, the holiday season saw a much higher turnover of vehicles as everyone was out of their homes, visiting friends and family. She din’t visit anyone, she preferred it that way. She worked mostly during the holidays; much to the relief of her colleagues who needed numerous offs to go deliver gifts or buy homely things or go out on that much talked of vacation with their clans.

And today seemed no different on the roads, and she knew she desperately had needed that nap. As she put her car in fifth gear she realised that a lot of household pending work would remain just that… pending. Another disadvantage of living single, you can’t attend to all needs all by yourself in good time!

Anamika was a swift yet cautious driver. Good at wheels. Once Abhinav had remarked—You are good for a woman driver. Abhinav Kaul was another colleague from work who lived nearby. His car had gone for its much overdue service that day and he had taken a lift from Anamika.

SCREECH!! Anamika had applied brakes hard, reducing her car speed to near zero in an instant and it had given Abhinav a huge jolt and had almost sent him flat face towards the wind shield.

Oh!! Thank you so much Abhi… she had sneered and accelerated nonchalantly.

She did display her audacious self once in a while… not as frequently as she once did though. Most times she told herself that it was maturity, but in reality, the gloom of life with its up’s and down’s had killed the joy out of life.

She reached office at just a little before 10.00 am and was met by Priya in the foyer.

Perfect timing Mr. Bond… as usual, Priya smiled and remarked looking at her watch. She was holding folders and her cell phone, dressed in her crisp black business suit with her long hair neatly tied in a bun. As always, she hardly adorned herself with any jewels, except her signature diamond studs in her ears and one solitaire in her neck. She looked totally in the middle of her regular busy working day and not working over the weekend.

Yeah! You too Ma’am, I was sleeping so peacefully that I’m sure someone somewhere just could not see it… So what’s up? Anamika scoffed and then asked seriously. And she and Priya were lost behind the closed doors of their big and chic office building. As they took the elevator to their office floor, Priya updated Anamika on the latest and joked about a yawning Abhinav who had joined the mayhem just a few minutes before. Anamika smiled thinking about it, rather passively, as all in the office knew that Abhinav, just like everyone else, hated doing weekends and would have a train of coffee cups lined on his desk in no time. The last time he had spilled it on the copier, some say he was asleep, but Anamika and Priya knew better, he was just vengeful as he had to miss his football match for that day. And you can’t mess with a guy and his game!

Well, what can be said, MNC’s did suck one in. And most weekends are turned into ‘working weekends’. We rush from one task to another, answer one phone call and then the next, we complaint and grumble about the management, we gossip about our co-workers and we load our bodies with caffeine. Yet, amid all this robotic life, we manage to laugh at jokes, pat our friends on back, flirt and tease, surf the net and chat and feel as if we are the ones in control. We feel like our life is going the right way, even if there is no one by our side. That life is so predictable and static, that we have everything under control. So what if we’re working this weekend… next will be total relaxation! Isn’t it? We would take an expensive vacation or join the gym or go for yoga and numerous such ideas boost us to put one foot ahead of the other and keep walking… keep working.

But this weekend was different! Little did Anamika know that this weekend would change her life forever!

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2. Saturday: Office

Anamika was an efficient executive, very dedicated and committed to her work. She had never taken a day off in the last year and a half, that she had been employed. She preferred it this way. It left no time for her mind to wander in those dark alleys of loneliness and kept her away from the negative spiral of anguish and sadness. She often thought that human mind was the most compliant organ, when we load it with work it takes time to adjust to the new routine, but then it becomes accustomed and the problem we tried to burry with work resurfaces… demanding a new routine.

Her co-workers were great people and she really gelled well with all of them except Chaitanya Bhaskar. He was one of a kind!

‘Vulpine’ was the word she had often heard being assigned for him and it goes without saying, that on certain occasion when it was demanded, she had surreptitiously and unscrupulously used it herself, when referring to him. Cunningness and arrogance were his core competencies. He was self-consumed with his own gratified image of being the best in everything. Tossed in with these were his crass remarks and almost dictatorial behaviour. He was disliked and ignored as much as possible, especially by his female co-workers as that high headed narcissist was also a chronic flirt.

As if this was not enough.

He was also their boss.

Anamika… sweetheart how are you this morning? Chaitanya came close to Anamika and spoke salaciously. As always, he stood a little too close to her. He hugged her shoulder from the side as a mark of ‘great friendship’. Words were flowing out of his mouth like wine, dark with a deeper meaning. All were watching his moves; each one knew what he was doing.

Good morning boss. Doing well, thank you, Anamika gave her standard flat answer and moved away to the other side of her work table, pretending to await a non-existent fax arrival.

Hey babe, you look tired and sleep ridden… what’s keeping those passionate eyes awake all night? Chaitanya continued in his lewd tone, moving yet again close to Anamika and standing almost behind her back. Anamika could feel his closeness and instantly felt nauseated.

On the pretext of checking the fax machine she stepped aside and replied without looking at him, Working late boss, that’s all. You know how it is… Anamika gave him a half smile, a mere twitch of her cheek muscle and moved beyond the fax machine towards the bulletin boards.

Chaitanya observed her movements with amusement. It gave him a high thinking she was skirting away from him. It boosted his male ego, made him feel superior and very attracted to Anamika. She was a catch! And he intended to catch her.

That’s like a good dedicated employee, my favourite kinds… you’ll be going places girl with a steady work attitude. I’ll make sure. And if you need anything… anything from me, don’t hesitate. OK, he touched her shoulder firmly, and Anamika hated it. He winked at her and walked away to enter his cabin stopping enroute on various work tables, mingling with his employees and making the females a bit self-conscious of their attire or posture.

That horrible prick! I would pay big money to see that man mugged! flared Priya. Apparently quite a few people had seen this tete-a-tete, and silent gossips had begun circling along with coffee cups and emails.

Aren’t you sick of his constant flirting and touching… this is harassment Anne!! I mean its crystal clear what his motives are… he’s trying to seduce you… you better speak to HR once again, Priya was gesticulating and was a tiny bit louder than necessary.

Stop please… I can’t hear all this yet again Priya. I know everything, I see everything… so does everyone else. And in my own subtle way I maintain as much distance as I possibly can without being offensive! Anamika spoke habitually. She knew the HR could do nothing.

This was yet another robotic routine for Anamika, arguing with a forceful Priya regarding Chaitanya and his false intentions. Life is challenging and testing for all women, in all ages and almost in every sphere of life. But it seemed to choose Anamika for a regular dose of panic and uncertainty. She was however determined to fight her way through, so despite numerous improper remarks and dirty looks that Chaitanya dispelled, she persisted in the office with patience and a strong spine. She did ignore him rather openly but somehow instead of dampening his spirits, Chaitanya was flamed by it.

Yes you do, but he doesn’t get the message, does he? Or maybe he does, but he has chosen to follow you nevertheless. He loves the chase; it’s like a game he wants to win! Priya said, angry at Chaitanya’s insulting behaviour towards her friend.

Well… I’ll deal with him in my own way. Besides, men are like that. They love it when a woman plays hard to get… even if she really, actually just doesn’t want them to. Some are real persistent to the point of being shameless… and well… they are all like that only… and Anamika buried her head in her files burying the topic along with it.

Anamika was the Vice-President of her firm. She enjoyed the long hours of work and was the one employee who hardly ever complained of overtime, except on weekends sometimes. Her room had a huge window with a grand view of the ever expanding Gurgaon malls and traffic. Although she hardly ever had time to look out, but sometimes, the night hours were a view to behold. On those rare occasions when the lights sparkled in the dark night, Anamika did feel that she had come a long way and that her life was just as meaningful as everyone else’s. That she had made it, that she had survived.

She found herself looking out today though. Whatever Priya had said wasn’t new. It had begun ever since she had joined, infact she had seen a varied look in Chaitanya’s eyes even on her day of interview, long ago. Now she realised that she was marked on her day of inception. Perhaps she had replaced some other hapless women and become his new target… that was a curious thought and she had shared it with Priya and Abhinav on one of their lunch breaks when they all sat across the table discussing Chaitanya.

It could be true! Abhinav had remarked, sipping his tea.

The man is a wasp, I am positive some dame is thanking her lucky stars for having him off her back when she should actually be thanking you, he had said.

Anyone else would have switched jobs, if you ask me… you could go elsewhere, maybe give Pune another chance. Priya had added.

Yes. I know… . it’s not that I haven’t thought about other avenues, but it’s… . it’s… it’s because of you guys I don’t want to leave, Anamika replied sipping her coffee and munching her favourite cheese sandwich.

Most people think of their families in time of crisis, but it was her friends Anamika thought of instead. So this statement brought a smile of understanding on their faces and they let the topic go. They knew Anamika missed Pune, her home and her family, yet the reason she abstained from seeing them was also known to her close allies.

She had needed to get out of Pune and the package offered was ideal. Besides, Priya was in Gurgaon as well and therefore Anamika had accepted the offer almost instantly. Her parents had not objected and she had settled beautifully in Gurgaon as if it was her own domicile.

However, since this wasn’t her home town, there weren’t many friends here that she could spend her free time with. Besides, she was a little too cautious of new friendships and wasn’t too keen either. She was a reserved person; a few good friends to trot along were good enough for her. Trusting people and making friends fast was something she had vowed never to do.

Working late in office wasn’t an issue ever. So it was 3:30pm when she finally emerged out of her office, heading for home. As she walked towards the parking lot she was lost in her thoughts… her evening gym session won’t be missed as traffic was lean, and a plumbing work was pending, for which she needed to meet a fellow and discuss the details. She could drive around the mall enroute and do that, then head home and take a relaxing shower before preparing her dinner and feeding the fish her neighbour had left in her custody for a few days.

She liked this patterned predictable life. Dinner would be at 8:30 hopefully, followed by some more work, a quick glance at the newspaper and her mails and if she felt like it a late night movie before she caught forty winks.

But, amongst the many predictions in a metro, the most unpredictable thing is the weather.

As she looked from the parking lot, the Delhi sky was unexpectedly overcast by dark clouds. ‘It could rain’ she thought, ‘or maybe not.’ Anamika tightened her grip on her files and walked up to her car. Tossing them next to the driver’s seat she thought of what more errands she could do enroute. And then she recollected the grocery shopping that was planned for today. ‘Well, no harm done . . . I’ll just stop by at the store first and . . .’

Hey Anne… . someone suddenly startled her by calling out her name. Anamika came out of her thoughts and looked at her side. Unfortunately it was Chaitanya standing outside her window. She rolled down the glass, somewhat apprehensively.

Yes Boss? Anamika questioned. She did not wish to abandon the security of her car.

Hey what’s the hurry darling? Look, I’m sorry we had to… I had to call you on a Saturday again. But work just couldn’t wait, he smiled at her. It was not Chaitanya’s basic nature to apologise. But he could be malleable for a reason he thought suitable.

Anamika nodded her head and dismissed his apology rather abruptly. She could see his lie easily now.

So I was thinking how about I offer to take you out for a late lunch or maybe we have dinner? It’s the weekend after all! Chaitanya spoke casually. Anamika was afraid of something like this. She was actually expecting him to make his move.

Sorry. I kind of have other plans, she displayed her fake smile of apology, again.

C’mon Anne! You always have other plans… just that I’m never in them… and I so much want to be in… Your plans I mean. Cancel them. Chaitanya spoke meaningfully.

"Sorry boss…