Such Is Life, Sonali

By Shailja Shah Purohit Purohit

Sonali, a Content Head at a corporate in New Delhi, struggles to get her life in order. At work, she battles gossip-mongers, rivals and deadlines, while at home, she placates two demanding children and an increasingly estranged husband.
Things change when Karan, the new – and charming – Marketing Head enters her life and sways her female colleagues one after the other. Sonali doesn’t understand what everyone else sees in him and she is determined to not fall for his charisma. But an equally determined Karan manages to break down her walls, and she gradually begins to find him and his extravagant ways attractive.
When her family easily drops her from their Shimla trip, Sonali realizes that she has been taken for granted. Soon, she finds herself standing on the threshold as she introspects her marriage and her burgeoning attraction towards Karan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Aug 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9789352010585

Shailja Shah Purohit Purohit

Shailja Shah Purohit is AVP (Assistant Vice President) and Content Head at Yatra Online, and Editor of the Yatra Blog. She has straddled various roles and different domains. She has spent over 15 years with top Media houses—The Times Group and HT Media Ltd, managing and contributing to online content, as well as writing for print. She has worked in Media for over 22 years.She was recently featured in the book, Weaving Dreams Into Reality: Inspiring Women by Gagandeep Gulati, that showcases 20 successful women of North India from different career fields.Shailja is married and has two sons. She has a strong zest for life and believes that life holds endless possibilities. She enjoys travelling, being outdoors, and reading books, and has recently taken up a penchant for painting.

Book preview

CHAPTERS

Monday Mania

More Misses!

Thank God It's Friday!

Coffee and Karan

It’s the Aura

Good News

Complications

Confidential!

Office! Office!

A Day Off

A Promise Redeemed

Lunch Out

The Conference

Managing Golu

Work goes on

More Bantering

Of Wedding Plans

HR & Other Issues

The ‘Big Dinner’ Plans

Being Politically Correct

Rehearsal Day is Here

The Big Day

The Week After

A Rendezvous

Thailand Beckons

Sunset

Monday Mania

It is 7 am on a Monday morning and I am getting dressed for work. All excited about the pretty, new, blue and orange dress that I just bought myself at the Lifestyle sale last week. I had literally dragged it out of the hands of this other woman who insisted she had got to it first.

Oh no you don’t, I had promptly insisted, my aggressive side coming to the fore. And she had retreated hastily, hissing, It won’t fit you anyway! It’s size M.

Hah! So much for that annoying comment of hers – because it did. Maybe it was a little tight around the seams, and it had been a bit of a struggle getting in – but aha! – now that I had managed to get in, it looked gorgeous!

I am just beginning to visualise the compliments that would come my way in office when my little four-year-old walks in and looks at me all big eyed. Mamma, you got dark circles under your eyes. And you are the fattest mom in our society, and you look even fatter with that dress on.

Having passed this mind-blowing judgement in his cool manner, he picks up his ball and goes off to play, leaving me quite speechless.

Hmm… Well, what now? ‘To wear or not to wear?’ Maybe I should just wait a couple of weeks, go on that diet I have been thinking about, get around to doing some exercises and then try it on.

Nope. I finally decide not to wear the dress and look mournfully at the four other dresses, already sitting in my cupboard with the same promise made to each of them.

Oh, shucks! Why is it so damn difficult to lose weight? I wonder for the nth time and can almost hear Hubby replying, Well maybe if you stop eating so much, it would help.

With a resigned sigh I take off the dress, and look around my cupboard for other options.

That green suit – nope… just wore it last week, red – don’t feel like red today, black – too hot for such a colour, yellow – too bright, brown – such a boring colour, purple – don’t have anything worth wearing in that colour, white – hmm… but too sober for today’s mood. I am in a chirpy mood today – or was, before my little one gave his mind-blowing ‘verdict’.

Oh well… maybe I should just wear my new dress after all – it will cheer me up for sure. It’s such a happy combination – blue and orange.

I rub Olay Eye Cream under my dark circles and make a mental note to put some cucumber slices on them tonight. Finally, having fitted snugly in my new dress again, I am pretty pleased with myself.

I peep out from the passageway, hoping my little brat is out of the way. Ah! He is busy playing in the garden with his ball. He has been joined by his best friend Manav, so there is little chance I would come under his scrutiny again.

I go back to the mirror to have a last look and spray on some perfume, as Hubby emerges from the bathroom after his shower.

And… w-h-e-r-e are you going? he asks. Staring as though he had just seen some alien.

Well at 9 am every morning where do you think I go? I retort in my stiffest tone.

He gets the message and retreats shaking his head and muttering under his breath Lord what is the world coming to?

I go into the kitchen to check what our maid Shanta Bai is cooking for lunch for the kids.

My elder one – Golu, all of 10 years, is at summer school and will be back by noon. Summer holidays are almost at an end and in just a few days regular school will re-open.

After giving the maid her everyday instructions of when and what to feed the kids, I pick up my laptop, handbag, and tiffin case, and march out of the house.

Bye Pichu! I shout to him across the garden, while he just waves his hand, with hardly a glance up. Thankfully!

He and Manav are by now totally engrossed in their latest game. Taking turns at throwing the ball into an empty flower-pot lying in the garden.

I am so glad of the little garden space we have, thanks to owning the ground floor in the multi-storied apartments of Green Garden Views in Gurugram.

Heaving a sigh of relief, I walk briskly towards my Santro, dump my stuff in the back seat, and head off to office.

Luckily, traffic is not too bad for a Monday morning. Summer holidays, of course. So many people are off on vacation, at least that gives Gurugram and Delhi roads a breather at this time. Just a couple of days more of this peace before vacations end, and traffic snarls start.

Mulling the traffic highs and lows, I fail to notice that the petrol needle has dropped below zero. Suddenly the car splutters, starts and then goes silent.

I wake from my reverie to the honking of cars around, and try to rev up my dead engine. God! Today of all days! When I am in a dress, I really don’t relish the idea of having to deal with slurpy-eyed mechanics.

Do I dare call Hubby? No, he will be heading out to office by now – in the opposite direction. There is no way he will make a U-turn to rescue his wife. A wife who always seemed oblivious to the fact that cars consume petrol, which needs to be refilled at regular intervals. This hard-hitting fact never seems to register in what I consider my ‘overworked brain’.

Switching on the blinker lights and ignoring the blaring honks I allow my brain to wander into nothingness. That is always the moment of enlightenment for me.

I remember I had noted the number of the mechanic who had repaired my car puncture just a few weeks ago. He was one of the few decent mechanics I have encountered, and so had promptly stored his number. But what was his name?

A search of the word mechanic on my Samsung phone shows no results.

Oh God! What was his name – Chotu? No such name shows up on the contact list.

Umm… Raju perhaps? No. Search results show ‘Raju driver’. Would he help? Of the several drivers we kept calling, which one was he? I really don’t like most of them, and didn’t want to risk calling anyone randomly at this point of time.

Then it strikes me – ‘Puncture’ – yes! That’s how the number was listed. ‘Puncture Sunil’. Perfect!

Half an hour later, a litre of petrol filled, a generous tip to Sunil, I head to the petrol station to load up fully. Deciding to go the whole hog while I am at it, I get an air check on the tyres and also renew the Pollution Check that had expired a month ago.

Whew! Hubby would be pleased, but a look at my watch tells me, Pranav, my boss at work, definitely was not going to be pleased. It is already 10.30 am. The office time is 9.30 am.

I debate whether I should SMS now to say I am running late due to car problems – or was it already too late to send a message like that. Anyway, boss was generally pretty cool, and did not bother too much about timings, as long as work gets done. At any rate, I would now be in office within the next twenty minutes, so there is not much point I decide. I will go in and explain it to him.

More Misses!

Twenty minutes later as I touch down at the office’s first basement parking, I find all parking slots full. I cruise through the first and second basement levels, and after another frantic five minutes on the third level, I find an empty spot. It hits me that the Delhi Corporate office people are here, and gosh, yes, I was meant to be part of the meet.

Oh! No! And why am I wearing this stupid dress, when I should be formally dressed? What possessed me to wear a blue and orange dress on a Monday morning? And especially one that I am bursting out of. My mind whizzes through all the formal outfits in my wardrobe I could have worn. The white top and black skirt – my favourite formal attire. The navy-blue trouser suit would have been perfect too. Even those brown semi-casual trousers with that formal green top would have looked nice. Instead, here I am in this bold chevron printed, bright orange and blue dress, with a plunging v-neckline.

I have half a mind to get back into the car and drive back home, messaging the boss that I am ill. However, what with deadlines and all to be met in the next two weeks over Project Star, I cannot afford to take an off.

I am Content Head for ‘Helix Global Solutions’ and our company provides content and design solutions to other companies. We had recently got a pilot project from a large US based organisation, Ebidita and there was a lot riding on it.

I grab my stuff from the car and rush to the lift lobby. Of course, all the lifts are on their way up as I reach. After what seems an eternity, a lift finally reaches Basement-3 and I tumble in.

Hello Sonali. You do seem in a rush. Smile and sarcasm meet in that gruff voice I know so well.

Huh, oh hi! Sethi, the HR head. What is he doing in the lift?

As though reading my mind he says, I just finished seeing the Chairman off to his car. This damn lift – I thought it was going up, but it came down.

The Chairman? I mumble and somewhere in the back of my head, a Friday evening conversation with my boss begins to materialise.

Yes. Sethi is smirking. He was here for the meeting. I think Pranav was expecting you to be there too? A quizzical eyebrow raised towards me.

My face falls involuntarily. Oh, Pranav didn’t tell you it seems, he says with a note of sadistic pleasure in his voice as he smirks some more.

Of course, he did, I retort, as Pranav’s excited voice now buzzes a little uncomfortably in my mind. It’s a rare chance – a rare chance. Not everyone gets to meet the Chairman. And I want to give you this chance because I know you are working really hard, and I think you have scope – a lot of scope to move ahead.

I had been happy just knowing my boss appreciated my work, and if he felt meeting the Chairman was part of that appreciation – so be it. I had decided to be in at my usual 9.30 am. The Chairman was expected to be there at 10 am. There was no need to come in earlier than usual, or put a meeting reminder on my phone, as I usually do.

Drooping even more under the burden of the not-too-great happenings of this morning, I maintain my silence. I pretend I have no link whatsoever with this great Chairman, Sethi is smirking about just because he had the chance to see him off to his car. Ha! Big deal! Two hoots I care!

As the doors of the lift slide open on the 12th floor of the office, the first person I come face to face with is Pranav, and my nonchalant look dissipates. I come out of the lift, petrified at the look on his face. Is he going to launch into a tirade right then and there?

He stares at me first, as though not quite recognising me, reminding me of Hubby’s morning look of ‘where did you land up from?’ Then he blinks twice, and without another word, turns and walks off to his cabin. I stare after him in dismay.

Slowly, I walk towards my bay, noticing people hanging about in small groups in the lift lobby and the conference room area. Probably discussing the meeting that has just got over. By the air of excitement, it seems to have gone off well. Lesser known faces – people from the Delhi office are still around.

A familiar voice calls out, Hey, is that you Sonali? Wow!

I turn to see Arvind, CTO of the company and smile wryly, Meeting over? Seems to have gone off pretty well. I muster.

Superb! Superb! He enthuses, looking me over, then adds, Wasted effort for today!

I decide to let that pass and march off towards my bay. After a few more hellos and a couple of stares, I reach my desk without any more encounters.

I have hardly sat down when a slap on my back and a bright hello, makes me turn around to face Payal, my colleague. Payal is in Project management, confident, bold, with an ace figure and a sharp tongue. And always dressed in the latest trends.

Where the hell were you today of all days?

I… uhh… ran out of petrol I splutter like my car engine.

You what? Again? she snorts.

‘Silence is the better part of valour’ will be my motto for today I decide, remaining quiet.

What a meeting it was! Pranav introduced all of us and we had a ten-minute face-to-face session with the Chairman. He is such a wonderful person. Really, you missed it.

Yeah, right! Ten minutes is all it took for you to decide what a wonderful person the Chairman is. And Raghav whom you are dating for a year, you still can’t decide whether he is a nice guy or not. The thought circles my mind, but I decide to live by my motto for the day and say nothing.

Have you met Pranav and apologised to him? He looked mighty pissed that you were not around, she continues. He refused to allow me to call you either, saying you should be responsible enough when you know the Chairman is coming. And that it would be your loss.

Oh heck, I will speak to him later, I say. I really don’t feel like meeting Pranav now, not after the reaction at the lift.

Payal’s tone changes. Hey, are you coming from a night-out or something? she says staring at my dress.

Payal, I have two young kids at home, how could I be coming from a night-out to work? I am not foot-loose and fancy-free like you. I almost hiss at Payal. This ‘dress-stare’ is getting to me now.

What a lovely dress! Though I think it would fit me better, you are almost splitting it through, she laughs.

Scowling, I open my laptop, pretending to get to work, while my mind buzzes, just watch me lose weight and see how I fit into this dress. Bah! I am just six kilos more than you – which is not so bad, considering I have two kids, and you are not even married!

Payal seeing that she would not get any more conversation out of me for now, ambles off to her desk.

Should I go and apologise to Pranav right away? Or wait till tomorrow? Maybe dress soberly to make the