Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 121 - Cracking The Code

Kartik drove Shehnaaz over to the Indian Student Association’s mixer party in his Mercedes-Benz.

He parked the car in front of the building and, to Shehnaaz’s complete surprise and dismay, followed her inside.

Shehnaaz had tried several times to get him to leave, but he had waved aside her arguments easily with sarcastic retorts.

Shehnaaz gave up: she would just have to ignore him and pretend that he wasn’t there. She walked into the building and began to mingle with the students inside.

She was young and extremely beautiful. All eyes were on her as soon as she walked in. What made her stand out further was how not only was she a good conversationalist, but also was cheerful and easygoing. Her fellow students quickly warmed up to her.

Shehnaaz scanned the room, but did not see the postdoc fellow she was looking for, the one from the School of Engineering. She pulled one of the party organizers aside and asked, in a low voice, “Hey, have you seen Pankaj Tripathi?”

“Pankaj Tripathi? I saw him a minute ago. Maybe he’s in the kitchen, helping them out with grilling chicken wings?” The student pointed the kitchen out to her.

Shehnaaz thanked her and calmly walked towards the kitchen.

Kartik casually followed her. She was tense as he stopped in the kitchen doorway, and looked in.

A chubby man, half a head shorter than Shehnaaz, turned and hurried to the door. “Yes? Are you looking for me?”

Shehnaaz stood frozen in place.

What the heck!

This man did not look anything like his photo on the university website! He had been sitting down in the photo, which had made it impossible to tell how tall he was.

Although, he had a pleasant face that was easy on the eyes, he probably could have passed for an “Adonis”—if only he had been a little taller.

Shehnaaz stood and stared at her short, chubby “Adonis”, chagrined. She could almost hear Kartik laughing at her behind her back.

Well, she thought, she was just going to have to go through with it—she was a woman on a mission, after all. He could have looked like a total pig, and she would have shamelessly worshipped the man as an a beautiful made idol even then, if it had meant getting the results she was after!

Kartik was, as Shehnaaz suspected, laughing at her, but only inwardly.

He coolly looked Shehnaaz’s “Adonis” over, before turning to leave.

Once Shehnaaz saw that he was gone, she breathed a sigh of relief. It would have been so much more awkward if Kartik had hung around.

“Brother Pankaj, I heard you’re a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Engineering. That’s, like, so amazing!” Shehnaaz looked admiringly at  with her large eyes; she bat her eyelashes at him and smiled. Pankaj’s mind
instantly went blank under the full force of her adoring gaze.

“Oh no, I-I-I’m just like any other researcher, r-really,” stammered Pankaj. He handed her a grilled chicken wing. “Want some?”

“Thank you, Brother Pankaj.” Shehnaaz accepted the chicken wing. She held it up to her nose and inhaled.

“Oh gosh, this smells heavenly!”

She began to butter Pankaj up again. “I’m a law student myself, but only because I’m no good at science. I never paid much attention in my science classes, you see, ever since I was little, so I really admire those with a head for science—like you, for example! Actually, now that I think about it, women have always been inferior to men when it comes to the sciences, haven’t they?” Shehnaaz gave an exaggerated sigh.