Never Late to Love

Friendly Banter

Ananya had a tiring day today. She generally enjoyed her work but with Dr.Saluja assigned to her as her mentee days might be tiring for her. As she walked in to her apartment which she shares with her best buddy Shefali, the smell of garlic rasam lifted her spirits. It was Shefali's turn to cook for the day and since she had returned early, she had decided to put up a south indian dinner with the rice, sambhar,cabbage poriyal, appalam and Ananya's favourite garlic rasam, and to complete it with pickle,curd and the kesar bhath for the desert. As Ananya walked in to the kitchen she stood astonished at the dinner fare, it struck her and she said "Don't tell me Kunal is coming for dinner today and I have to be ousted of my own house." Shefali winked at her and said "I won't say you are completely wrong but partially correct. Kunal is coming for dinner tonight but you are not being ousted of the house. We are going for a late night movie with his friends and their girlfriends so I will be coming back late in the night. I have my spare key so you can have your dinner and sleep." Ananya thought of pulling her leg a little more and said "Poor Kunal, he would be expecting the thepla, dhokla ,farsaan and you will give him a shocking surprise." As soon as the statement was completed Ananya shouted in pain as Shefali had stamped her feet and said "Good, First I have taken the pains to do all this not only for him but also for you especially the garlic rasam and you are here pulling my leg .If you guys don't want to eat its ok I will eat and if Kunal has issues then he can always go and marry a Guju and I will hunt down a guy who likes my rice and rasam. By the way I am making coffee and if you don't want to miss that freshen up and come fast".

Shefali and Kunal met each other when both of them were pursuing their Chartered Accountant courses and were currently dating each other. Shefali worked in the Administrative segment of NIAMS as their Financial Operations Head and Kunal was employed with a Financial Services Company. Kunal came from Gujarat and had his first tryst with South Indian food when he came to Bangalore and later at Shefali's behest. Shefali could never adapt to Gujju food but she was still attempting since she felt that it was necessary to know a thing or two of her would be in-laws lifestyle .On the other hand love had changed Kunal a lot and he had completely adapted to everything that Shefali loved. When Ananya had landed at NIAMS , for the initial few days she felt like she came from an alien planet but after she got introduced to Shefali the two had taken together like long lost sisters. They had talked about everything and anything and soon they had become best buddies. Bangalore being expensive they had shared an apartment together and had enjoyed their life. As Ananya came out after changing, there were two cups of steaming hot coffee and Ananya could vouch that nobody she knew, could make so good coffee like Shefali makes. As they started discussing their day's details Ananya filled Shefali in with the details of the new entrant in the research lab, Dr.Saluja. As she spoke about him she observed that Dr.Akash did not seem to be keenly interested in the research but seems to be wanting to be branded as a research scholar. Ananya expressed that how Mr.Gupta who is said to have hawk eyes while recruiting for the research wing could not notice this.

Shefali on hearing this mentioned "Given that Raman Sir after his wife's death had to bring up Natasha alone, and he being busy with his work Natasha had grown up with maids and money. Anything she wanted was bought for her even before she could ask for it. Once she had grown up, Mr.Gupta had realized how wrong he had gone in bringing her up. She was moody, misbehaved and had a penchant for going against the ways of the world. Natasha Gupta had been even caught having drugs in rave parties and only her father's influence had bailed her out. She is heard to have financed a film so she could feature in the lead role and even tried her hand in some modelling assignments but nothing seemed to have clicked. Her current interest seem to be the handsome Dr.Saluja and I am surprised that after knowing all the history he also seems to be pursuing her".Ananya on hearing this did not know how to react because Dr.Saluja seems to be a good doctor but his choice could be Natasha is a little hard to believe. As they finished their coffee together the doorbell rang.

Kunal was a tall, well-built handsome guy and quite an introvert and serious type of guy who took time to get along with people and exactly opposite of Shefali who loved to talk and made friends at the drop of a hat. Kunal and Ananya shared a special relationship as Kunal felt if he ever had a sister, she would be like Ananya as she was so much like him. Kunal walked in and all of them sat together to catch up a little. After some heart to heart talk Ananya got up asking Shefali and Kunal to have dinner and proceed for their outing as she wanted to take a shower and have a late dinner. Ananya wanted to give the love birds a little dinner time alone to have some dinner table romance and she turned back winking at Shefali and proceeded to her room. After finishing her shower Ananya came back to find her dinner kept ready on the table and she mentally thanked Shefali for being such a caring and adorable friend. As she alone had dinner, a small tear escaped Ananya's eye as the loneliness reminded her of the days bygone or maybe the future when Shefali gets settled with KunaI.

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