IT WASN'T THAT SIMPLE

CHAPTER SIX

Next day, throughout the office hours, Ayesha was at unrest. She wasn't able to concentrate on her work at all. The last night conversation with her dad was making continuous rounds in her mind. She knew that he had a valid point and she wasn't able to think of an apt come back. She and Punit were serious about each other and some day or the other, they would have to talk to their respective parents about it. She was very sure that to convince her parents for an inter caste marriage for their daughter was an uphill task and the start-up had made that climb taller and steeper. But she wasn't able to figure out how to break that conversation to Punit. Though the idea of the business was Sid's but over the years, Punit got deeply involved into it. She felt that it would be inhuman for her to advise him to pull out of the start-up and most importantly, it would be a betrayal to Sid and that thought itself was killing her. Sid was a soul friend to her. He had been there for both Ayesha and Punit through thick and thin. Whenever either of them were in a mess, Sid was always there trying to figure out what's best for them. Then, to turn their backs on him just because the going was getting tougher, it wasn't something her mind was allowing her to be in peace with. After plenty of thoughts, she came to the conclusion that a discussion with Punit was the only solution and that was the agenda of their after office date that evening.

Punit was already there, waiting for her and he sensed it from her first glance that something was bothering her.

"What's wrong?" He asked as he gave her a hug.

"We need to talk.

"Is there anything serious?"

She hesitated for a bit and replied, "Ah - yes. It is."

Without further delay, they settled down and Ayesha elaborated the marriage proposal situation and the last conversation with her dad to Punit.

"Why didn't you tell me all of these before?" He asked after hearing everything.

"Because you are already so much stressed with your job and business and I didn't want to add myself on that list." Her eyes were starting to get watery.

Punit held her hand and said, "You are not pressure to me babe! You are very important to me and the last thing I want you to do is to bottle up your issues inside you. I have never hidden my problems from you then why are you doing it?"

"Because I want you to be happy," She voiced shakily. "I prefer solving your problems rather than being one."

"And so do I," assured Punit. "But that's not possible if you start keeping things only to yourself. Promise me that you won't hide your problems from me again."

"I promise," finally, she was feeling better. "So, what are we going to do about it?"

Punit thought for some time and said, "See, as of now, I have a decent paid job and I won't resign until we get funded. So, let's not disclose the start-up to your parents and let me be introduced as an employed engineer. "

"It's not going to be easy," cautioned Ayesha. "I am Bengali and you are Sindhi. My parents are going to have an issue with that."