[Ramesh_Rocky]

This point was really driven home to me, not in a couple of days but a couple of weeks that I got away from Lallan.

Almost two weeks later, I was standing in the driveway of the Hyatt in Ahmedabad, clutching my small travel bag and purse, and looking towards the road. I was nervous and my heart was pounding. A loud internal voice kept berating me for being there, but I kept trying to ignore it.

"You sure you don't want me to call you a taxi, madam?" the doorman wandered over and asked again.

"Yes I am sure. I am just waiting for someone like I said." I was dressed in a black formal skirt suit with a blue blouse underneath, looking very much like any business traveler at the Hyatt.

I had downed a couple of stiff whiskeys at the hotel bar before stepping out at the designated time. I was feeling just a mild buzz, but it had been necessary to calm my nerves. Even after all that I had done with Lallan over the last few months, tonight was risk-taking at a whole different level.

"Are you staying here, madam or just here for the conference?" he asked again. It was close to midnight, and there weren't too many people around, so I guess he was just making polite chit-chat.

"Conference." I said.

"Which one? The Medical one or the Banking one?" he asked.

"Medical." I said, wishing he would go away.

"So you are a doctor, huh?" he asked and I nodded. "I hope my daughter grows up to become a doctor. She is does very well at college."

"That's nice."

"In fact she says..." he started talking when there was a loud whistle from the road at the end of the driveway.

We both looked in that direction, and I saw Lallan standing there waving at me. He had the top two buttons of his shirt open and was sporting a thick beard. The doorman looked at him and then at me as I pulled the purse over my shoulder and started walking.

"That's my driver." I nonchalantly said, in case the doorman was wondering why a high class woman in a formal skirt suit was walking towards a visibly lower class man.

"Oh ok." he nodded, but he had a look of suspicion on his face. Lallan looked too scruffy to be a driver for someone like me.

I sprinted a little down the driveway and towards Lallan. I held out my bag towards him and he just stared at it.

"What am I, your coolie, you cunt?" he said in a low voice.

"The doorman is watching. I told him you're my driver." I whispered.

He looked at the doorman and then reluctantly took the bag. Then he turned around and started walking. I followed him.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The truck is parked just down the road." he said. "I didn't know if they would let a truck pull into the front entrance of your precious five star hotel."

"Truck???" I asked, surprised.

"Yes, truck, you stupid bitch. Have you forgotten what I work as?" he growled.

"But on the phone you said..."

"I know what I said. Change of plans." he said, handed the bag back to me, and started walking faster.

With the heels, it took some effort to keep up. But I managed.

"So your thing is done...what did you say...conference? What is that?" he asked.

"It's just an event where people in the same line of work meet and discuss ideas."

"Hmmm...sounds like a rich people thing. Is that why you are dressed like an English memsaab?" he said, eyeing my clothes.

"Yes."

"I have riped a lot of clothes off your body, but never this. It will be a nice change." he said and started laughing.

Finally we turned around the corner and sure enough, there was a truck waiting there. It was one of those old trucks, with an orange chassis and rickety back carriage covered in tarp. I saw a middle aged man sitting behind the wheel, who nodded at Lallan, and then looked intently at me.