Vehicles Still Move On The Water-Logged Road

Suddenly the calling bell rang for the first time. Mou's mother was making tea and Mou opened the door to receive a long envelope. It was indeed a letter from CSC. Her appointment letter finally. But after opening it with trembling fingers what she saw, surprised her. Her appointment had happened in Abhi's college. 

Continued from last week…

Incidentally, Abhi had got his job in Maldah. According to him, he did not have to give money to anyone as someone had recommended his name directly to the CSC (through some political connections). However, after getting the job, Abhi became rather tightlipped. However, he was surprised with the fact that Mou hadn't received any news about her job.

Almost one month passed and Abhi continued to maintain a strange silence. Consequently, Abhi and Mou started drifting apart. Their friendship that was a mix of many things- motivation and support and a little healthy and harmless flirting too was clearly dwindling.

Exchange of text messages too dwindled. Within a span of a month, Abhi had texted Mou just three times to be precise.

However, when he actually joined his job the frequency of messages and calls increased. Most of the long distance conversations were about Mou' job and Abhi assured her that she too would soon receive her share of good news.

The conversations drifted to other topics too. In one of his messages, Abhi apprised Mou about a colleague, Dr Sonali. He spoke quite enthusiastically about this young lady who was of their age and who had joined just a year ago. Abhi also said that he wished he had met Dr Sonali a year ago. Mou started losing interest in relationships and felt a secret jealousy about Dr. Sonali too. And at the same time she felt that she wouldn't be able to forget Abhi all her life. She had been so serious about the possibility of her relationship with him that she had almost thought of updating her relationship status in Facebook to –'In a relationship' from 'single'. Mired in setbacks, at the moment her life felt like a cactus plant thriving in a barren land deprived of rains.

Suddenly after some days, it started raining in Kolkata and Mou felt a little better. The slow moving vehicles gave her some energy and motivation. She opened the TV channel for the ever monotonous ED and CBI news. Recovery of crores of rupees and gold bars in the flats of the ministers and influential people and news about money laundering and employment rackets played endlessly on the television channels. Mou felt good when she realised that she was not part of any of these money laundering traps even remotely as she had refrained to pay anyone for the job. She scribbled on her black diary- I wear the pain you give me Abhi. She suddenly concluded that a man who after getting a job can forget his best woman is never a good choice anyway. Meanwhile she was still hoping for and awaiting her appointment letter. She had valid reasons for persisting in her hope. Even if 5% of the total candidates are appointed through honest means and without taking money, her name must come, she reasoned. After all her academic credentials and records were scintillating and put her in good stead for the job.

One evening, the roads were water logged because of heavy rain. Mou had not stepped outside her house the whole day. The door was closed all day. Suddenly the calling bell rang for the first time. Mou's mother was making tea and Mou opened the door to receive a long envelope. It was indeed a letter from CSC. Her appointment letter finally. But after opening it with trembling fingers what she saw, surprised her. Her appointment had happened in Abhi's college. 'Ma, how is it possible?' Mou's voice was trembling in surprise .At that very moment, the mobile screen started blinking. Unexpectedly it was Abhi calling. "Hello Mou , I know you will get it today. You are happy?" Abhi informed that the Chairman called his father to give the information just an hour ago. Apparently he had got recommendations for both Abhi and Mou and sent them to the same college. "What will Mou do? Will she accept the job on recommendation?" Mou lost all words and stood on the balcony once more and looked at the waterlogged street. Some vehicles were still moving on the water logged road. This is life!

By Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee

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