Comedy of Confusions

9. Krish: Cute ?

Carefully navigating the puddle on the sidewalk, Krish walked past the joint that sold pakoras in the evening. Their plantain pakoras had grown on him. He had gotten used to buying them on his way back from work on days he left early. These pakoras elevated his passable sandwiches to actually make it good. But early in the morning the joint was closed, not that he needed them either. Bananas took care of his mornings. He had particularly developed a liking for the sweet small ones. He walked the near empty roads and arrived at his office. The security guard gave him a crispy salute as if he were a soldier. Krish nodded and walked in. He was used to an eerily quiet office every day as he started his day. Though he found it uneasy that people here started their work day so late, he had taken to the meditative silence. It was the best time of the day to sort out the hardest of his tasks.

To his surprise, he heard some activity as he walked towards his cabin. He stopped in his tracks and turned around to see the wild child approaching him at a distance.

Not now... not on a Monday morning. He took a deep breath. The wild child intruding into his 'me' time was the last thing he wanted. He had a few things to get done that morning before the steady stream of meetings drowned his day, essentially determined to stick to his calendar and she was not a part of that morning's calendar. Her unexpected presence reminded him of their last interaction. Ah the deadline, she wants to negotiate the deadline first thing in the morning ! He assumed. He had complained to Nandini that her favorites were painting nails instead of working, though unsure what he hoped to accomplish by doing that. It must have been his need to vent it out to someone, somewhere. And he knew he was walking a tightrope there making sure that he was not needlessly stressing out Nandini. Thankfully she had dismissed his complaints with a full throated laugh.

"Let them be.... They work hard on all other days. One day they paint their nails, de-stress, have fun. The world did not come to an end, Krish. It is alright." Nandini had dismissed his concerns. "My people are really good. Treat them well." She had added.

But something else bothered him too which neither made sense to him, nor could he explicitly share with anyone. He quickly rushed into his cabin, hoping for the wild child to go away. He keyed in the wrong password thrice in a row in his hurried attempt to log into his machine. Footsteps near the door of his cabin annoyed him further. He promised himself that he is going to fire anyone who knocks at his door next. He waited and waited for that dreaded knock on the door but it was as still as it could get. Too distracted, he stared at the flickering screen for a few minutes before dragging his attention back to the long list of tasks he had to finish before the day got ahead of him.

He had just started responding to an email when he finally heard a knock on the door. He deliberately did not answer. The knock resumed after a few minutes. Krish balled up his fist. He so wished to fire this person. Before he could respond, he heard the door knob turn and the door open ever so slightly.

"N O T  .. N O W" He said firmly with a tinge of bitterness, eyes closed, trying to hold back his impulse to summon the firing squad. He heard the door open slightly more.

"Sir, parcel for you."  said an unfamiliar male voice.

Caught by surprise, Krish turned around to see the same security guard who had given a crisp soldierly salute earlier, slipping out of the cabin. A colourful box was sitting at the edge of his table. Something in there was smelling delicious.  He hesitantly reached out to the box. It was warm and had a note saying 'vegan' on it. Nestled inside were a bagel and a croissant. He stared at them. They were not a part of his routine. Clearly he had not ordered them either. He concluded that the bakery had sent it to him out of goodwill, after all he was their regular customer.

He shut the box and reclined back in his chair, vexed at these early morning intrusions. He tried to disregard the box and its contents but the aroma was way too heady to be ignored. No harm in breaking his routine this once and eating them mid morning. But by then they would grow cold. Of all the dilemmas this one was not worth his time.