The Coffee Mug

The Night Shift

A half-filled coffee mug in hand, a stack of files on the table and eyes glued to the screen. A very typical night of her life. After a number of requests and a hand full of letters to HR department for the change in her shift, now she has grown accustomed to her night shifts.

"Hey, Reena, what's up?"

"Nothing as such, debugging the code for final submission. You know, Mr Mehta gave a deadline of next Monday."

"Ah! Right, but I was asking about the guy. You told me he was going to visit today in the afternoon. So, how did it go?"

For the last two months, she has these frequent visits of suitors, almost every weekend. To add on to the surprises she can get, she is seldom informed about their visits. The reason for this is simple, she will make the world spin in order to escape the house with some ridiculous excuses. The bomb hits her when she is woken up in the middle of her sleep. This is the scenario most of the time, but she is informed in advance when the suitor's family is to visit them on a weekday, as was the case today.

"Same old story. I dress up like a doll, carry the tea set to the drawing room and sit by my sister after placing it on the table. Their eyes checking me out as if I am an alien species. Then it's a short rapid fire round. In thirty minutes or so, I am off to bed again.", no change in her facial or vocal expressions explained the rest.

"That was short and nice. You are hopeless case.", giggling under her breath.

"No. Don't you dare laugh at me."

"Why? I can't help it.", bursting into laughter this time.

"Because Mrs Kappor, you are as much hopeless case as I am.", now it was Reena's turn to laugh.

This is indeed the truth, both of them are looking in the same direction. The only difference is, Mrs Kapoor is on a ship sailing in the opposite direction of their view and Reena is yet to board that ship. Both of them looking for an escape from reality, Reena from her suitors and Mrs Kapoor from her husband.

By the time they realised they are still in their cubical they have successfully made others look in their direction. It always seemed to Reena that what a great library it will make, only if these screens are blown up somehow.

"Why not settle this over the dinner table. I guess we have pulled the spotlight to us."

"Indeed Mrs Kapoor, let's get back to these electronic boxes before we are in the spotlight of our team head."

A year now, since Reena got this job of a software developer. It took her two straight days to convince her parents to let her find her own job in the city. Mr and Mrs Gupta were against her job from the very beginning but after they had shifted to Delhi they reluctance in this matter got much stronger.

"Anyways, how is Meena doing?"

Meena, her elder sister, the most important person in her life. Bringing up her name always makes her think two things, her being named in rhyme with her elder sister and her husband, One of the biggest reason for her view towards marriage. The reason her family has shifted to Delhi is her sister's chemotherapy and the requirement for frequent visits to AIIMS for proper check-ups.

"She is doing fine.", as if snapping out of her imaginations she repeated, "She is doing great actually."