Mixed Masala

Chapter 15

It was Thursday, the 19th of January, almost two weeks since Jayashree's son was born. It had been a chaotic fortnight as far as Meera was concerned. The project she had been yearning for all this time was finally hers and she had found herself inundated with endless files and other tasks that required her constant attention. She often stayed on late after working hours with a small group of her "think-team", sometimes only getting home well after ten o'clock at night.

Meera was only too aware that the timing, as Kavitha put it, "sucked". She had finally got her "dream job" but now she felt guilty that she was not spending enough time with her sister and the new baby (who as yet remained nameless). In fact the only time she went over to Jayashree's was on Saturdays when she would stay the night and then head back home the following afternoon. Even the girls' nights out had been put on hold for the moment because Meera was simply too exhausted during the week to do anything but fall into bed after a hard day's work. She bumped into Sudha once in a while in the mornings when she left for the office and managed several brief telephone conversations with Kavitha now and then. As for Suresh, Meera had not seen him since the morning he had arrived at the hospital after Jayashree had delivered ... Not that they hadn't tried to meet up though.

"I'm really sorry," Meera had told him when he had called the week before to remind her about a dinner date. "But I'm running late with some deadlines and ..."

"Say no more," Suresh had said, his voice reflecting none of the disappointment he felt. "Some other time, okay?"

But that "some other time" continued to elude them as Meera pored herself into her work during the week and then devoted some "quality time" with her sister and new baby during the weekend.

Even their daily telephone calls to each other was slowly becoming a thing of the past. What with her suddenly heavy workload, Meera seldom had the time to talk to him during office hours and was simply too tired to hold a conversation afterwards.

Meera's parents had stayed with Jayashree for over a week after the delivery and then had headed back to Ipoh the Sunday before.

"I thought she was supposed to go through confinement back home in Ipoh with you," Meera had said, confused. She was referring to the month-long care most new mothers are lavished with immediately after having their baby, complete with special diets and all.

Lakshmi sighed. "That would make sense only if she had come back home to have the child in the first place. There's no way she should be travelling now, and as much as I'm more than willing to stay on here and take care of her ..." She had shrugged, then added, "Your sister says I'm getting on her nerves ... Me! Can you believe that?! Thank goodness Shoba has a lot more patience. She'll need it!"

Lakshmi was referring to Ravi's mother who had been more than happy to "baby-sit" both the baby and the new mother. She had moved in ("temporarily") with Ravi and Jayashree a few days ago and judging by the size of her luggage (which looked like it hadn't been unpacked since her return from Australia) she wasn't planning to leave anytime soon.

It was close to nine o'clock when Meera got home. She headed to the bathroom for a well-needed shower and then later, after she had dressed in her favourite pair of cotton pyjamas, she propped her feet up on the coffee table in the living room, leaned back in the sofa and slowly ate the Chinese take-out that she had hastily stopped for at a restaurant on the way home.

She was halfway through watching "Judging Amy" when her cell phone rang.

"Hi," Suresh said, his voice sounding tired.

"Hi yourself," Meera said, turning the TV volume off but keeping her eyes on the screen. "Long time no see."

"Not my doing," he said simply. There was a decided edge to his voice.