09-02-2023, 06:07 PM
As they covered the rest of the exhibition, Dutt noticed that the innocent chaste housewife had gone into a bit of a shell. So he didn't really push her too much. In describing the other paintings, he did not make any more erotic references. And when she kept refusing champagne, he did not insist. An hour or so passed and Mansi seemed to be returning to normal. But she soon looked at her watch and said she needed to get home for her daughter. Dutt nodded and called his driver.
"So Mansi..." Dutt said about halfway to her house. "Tomorrow, I was thinking of doing some shopping for my family. For my granddaughters and so on. As you can imagine, I am just completely clueless about these things being a man."
"Amar is the same." Mansi smiled. "Once I sent him to buy some clothes for Pinky and he came back with such outsized things."
"Haha, indeed. So I was wondering, would you mind helping me out? Just come along and pick things out." he casually said.
"Oh..." Mansi thought about his question. Was this the trial run for her "job" that she had talked with Reena aunty about? But she had said she will arrange it. Here he was asking for it himself.
"I understand if you're busy and don't want to spend more time with a boring old man." Dutt knew that self-deprecation was a great tool.
"No no, please, Duttsahab, nothing like that. I will be happy to help." Mansi said. It was just shopping, she thought to herself. One of her favorite activities. Seemed like an ideal setting to spend time with him alone and get paid for it.
"Great. I will SMS you the time I will pick you up. You have my number, right?"
"Yes, I do."
When she got out of the fancy limo in front of her building, there were a few kids playing around who stopped and stared at the car. Such expensive vehicles didn't frequent their colony much. There were also a few neighbors out in the balcony. Mansi smiled at them and headed home. Pinky would be back from college soon, and she needed to start cooking. She changed out of her fancy sari into a regular household one and got to work.
As Mansi cooked and did her chores, she thought about the events of the day. She had gotten a job and that too very easily. And it fit right in her schedule. She had been paid five thousand rupees. Maybe it was a little high because it was the first payment. But even if she got, say, half of that on average. Reena aunty had said he would need her services 3-4 times a month. So about eight thousand rupees on average. If she put it all into the account for Pinky's college, it would be roughly a lakh rupees a year. In another ten years, if she did such jobs, about ten lakhs. Plus interest. It would be a decent bird's nest for her daughter's education.
Then she thought about how to tell this to Amar. Would he find that arrangement weird? What if he expressly rejected it? He could be so strange when it came to matters of money and ideals. Mansi decided to think about that later. Tomorrow will be a trial run anyway, she told herself. If things didn't work out, she didn't want to talk about it too early. So she postponed that decision to the next day.
But as it turned out, it wasn't in her control. In the evening, she was having dinner with Amar in the living room. Pinky was busy watching cartoons on TV as she ate, which was her habit. Amar was quieter then usual. Finally he said,
"So Mansi, how was your day?"
She was surprised. He never asked her this question.
"It was okay." she said.
"Did you go anywhere?" he pointedly asked.
She knew the man for 8 years. She knew he wasn't one to ask such questions casually. She also knew her big mouthed neighbors, many of whom had seen her get out of the fancy limo dressed like she was returning from a wedding or a big function.
"Yes, I did go out for a while." she said, thinking in parallel about what to say next.
"Where?" Amar paused to swallow the food in his mouth and asked.
"Bandra." she said, taking a big bite of the food.
"How come?"
Mansi held up her finger and nodded as if to say, just let me swallow this and I'll tell you. Meanwhile her brain was working at a rapid pace to come up with the right responses.
"It was like a job interview of sorts. Nothing is final. I still have to go tomorrow. But if everything works out, I will have a job that doesn't require too much work and pays reasonably okay."
"Oh! That's nice." Amar said in a neutral tone. "What kind of a job?"
Mansi opened her mouth to tell him the whole story. But then something in her brain said, be careful. The whole thing sounds ridiculous and shady. Some rich old man is going to pay your just for your company? She knew Reena aunty and Dutt sahab were good decent people. But Amar didn't know them. He would be very suspicious. So she starte talking and found herself weaving a story with partial truths and a lot of untruths.
"A few days ago when I was out with Pinky, I ran into an old family friend from Meerut. Reena aunty. Reena Bajaj. She works at a four star hotel as an assistant manager. We spent some time catching up. And I just mentioned to her that I was thinking of getting a job. So she called me yesterday saying she could use me in the hotel."
"Use you how?"
Mansi couldn't believe how quickly she came up with a convincing story.
"Well, you know me. It's not like I have qualifications or any professional skills. And I have so much work at home with Pinky with her studies etc. So she came up with an idea. You know how these hotels host special events and conferences once in a while. She said I could help her out with that. They always hire temps or students for such work."
"What work?"
"Just...helping out with the event." having never been to such an event herself, she didn't know what exactly it entailed. She had just seen the signs for the events in Reena aunty's hotel and seen crowds of people with name tags around their necks. Which is how she thought of the idea.
"You mean like...registration desk, displays, maybe helping with catering, etc?" Amar said, having been to a few academic conferences.
"Yes, exactly."
"Hmmm." he said.
"It will only be a few days a month. And the extra money I get can either be used for household expenses or we can put it in Pinky's college account."
"Hmmmm." Amar said. "And how come you got out of a fancy limousine today?"
Ah, there came the confirmation that one of the gabbing neighbors had mentioned it to Amar. And she knew exactly how it must have happened too. Not in a suggestive or conspiratorial way, but in a joking way. Like, oh, that was quite a fancy limo Mansi was in today afternoon. We didn't know you were so rich, professor sahab.
"Yes, it was one of the hotel limos. It was going in this direction anyway to pick up a guest so Reena aunty asked him to drop me off."
"I see. Why didn't you tell me?" he said.
"Like I said, it isn't final. I have to go again tomorrow. I was waiting until it was confirmed. As it is, you seem very...never mind." Mansi bit her tongue.
"I seem what?"
"You seem to find the whole idea of me finding a job so amusing." she said a little bitterly.
"I never said that." Amar got defensive. "I just meant that we need not be so materialistic. But if a job makes you happy and gives you satisfaction, go for it."
And the topic ended there.
----
"So Mansi..." Dutt said about halfway to her house. "Tomorrow, I was thinking of doing some shopping for my family. For my granddaughters and so on. As you can imagine, I am just completely clueless about these things being a man."
"Amar is the same." Mansi smiled. "Once I sent him to buy some clothes for Pinky and he came back with such outsized things."
"Haha, indeed. So I was wondering, would you mind helping me out? Just come along and pick things out." he casually said.
"Oh..." Mansi thought about his question. Was this the trial run for her "job" that she had talked with Reena aunty about? But she had said she will arrange it. Here he was asking for it himself.
"I understand if you're busy and don't want to spend more time with a boring old man." Dutt knew that self-deprecation was a great tool.
"No no, please, Duttsahab, nothing like that. I will be happy to help." Mansi said. It was just shopping, she thought to herself. One of her favorite activities. Seemed like an ideal setting to spend time with him alone and get paid for it.
"Great. I will SMS you the time I will pick you up. You have my number, right?"
"Yes, I do."
When she got out of the fancy limo in front of her building, there were a few kids playing around who stopped and stared at the car. Such expensive vehicles didn't frequent their colony much. There were also a few neighbors out in the balcony. Mansi smiled at them and headed home. Pinky would be back from college soon, and she needed to start cooking. She changed out of her fancy sari into a regular household one and got to work.
As Mansi cooked and did her chores, she thought about the events of the day. She had gotten a job and that too very easily. And it fit right in her schedule. She had been paid five thousand rupees. Maybe it was a little high because it was the first payment. But even if she got, say, half of that on average. Reena aunty had said he would need her services 3-4 times a month. So about eight thousand rupees on average. If she put it all into the account for Pinky's college, it would be roughly a lakh rupees a year. In another ten years, if she did such jobs, about ten lakhs. Plus interest. It would be a decent bird's nest for her daughter's education.
Then she thought about how to tell this to Amar. Would he find that arrangement weird? What if he expressly rejected it? He could be so strange when it came to matters of money and ideals. Mansi decided to think about that later. Tomorrow will be a trial run anyway, she told herself. If things didn't work out, she didn't want to talk about it too early. So she postponed that decision to the next day.
But as it turned out, it wasn't in her control. In the evening, she was having dinner with Amar in the living room. Pinky was busy watching cartoons on TV as she ate, which was her habit. Amar was quieter then usual. Finally he said,
"So Mansi, how was your day?"
She was surprised. He never asked her this question.
"It was okay." she said.
"Did you go anywhere?" he pointedly asked.
She knew the man for 8 years. She knew he wasn't one to ask such questions casually. She also knew her big mouthed neighbors, many of whom had seen her get out of the fancy limo dressed like she was returning from a wedding or a big function.
"Yes, I did go out for a while." she said, thinking in parallel about what to say next.
"Where?" Amar paused to swallow the food in his mouth and asked.
"Bandra." she said, taking a big bite of the food.
"How come?"
Mansi held up her finger and nodded as if to say, just let me swallow this and I'll tell you. Meanwhile her brain was working at a rapid pace to come up with the right responses.
"It was like a job interview of sorts. Nothing is final. I still have to go tomorrow. But if everything works out, I will have a job that doesn't require too much work and pays reasonably okay."
"Oh! That's nice." Amar said in a neutral tone. "What kind of a job?"
Mansi opened her mouth to tell him the whole story. But then something in her brain said, be careful. The whole thing sounds ridiculous and shady. Some rich old man is going to pay your just for your company? She knew Reena aunty and Dutt sahab were good decent people. But Amar didn't know them. He would be very suspicious. So she starte talking and found herself weaving a story with partial truths and a lot of untruths.
"A few days ago when I was out with Pinky, I ran into an old family friend from Meerut. Reena aunty. Reena Bajaj. She works at a four star hotel as an assistant manager. We spent some time catching up. And I just mentioned to her that I was thinking of getting a job. So she called me yesterday saying she could use me in the hotel."
"Use you how?"
Mansi couldn't believe how quickly she came up with a convincing story.
"Well, you know me. It's not like I have qualifications or any professional skills. And I have so much work at home with Pinky with her studies etc. So she came up with an idea. You know how these hotels host special events and conferences once in a while. She said I could help her out with that. They always hire temps or students for such work."
"What work?"
"Just...helping out with the event." having never been to such an event herself, she didn't know what exactly it entailed. She had just seen the signs for the events in Reena aunty's hotel and seen crowds of people with name tags around their necks. Which is how she thought of the idea.
"You mean like...registration desk, displays, maybe helping with catering, etc?" Amar said, having been to a few academic conferences.
"Yes, exactly."
"Hmmm." he said.
"It will only be a few days a month. And the extra money I get can either be used for household expenses or we can put it in Pinky's college account."
"Hmmmm." Amar said. "And how come you got out of a fancy limousine today?"
Ah, there came the confirmation that one of the gabbing neighbors had mentioned it to Amar. And she knew exactly how it must have happened too. Not in a suggestive or conspiratorial way, but in a joking way. Like, oh, that was quite a fancy limo Mansi was in today afternoon. We didn't know you were so rich, professor sahab.
"Yes, it was one of the hotel limos. It was going in this direction anyway to pick up a guest so Reena aunty asked him to drop me off."
"I see. Why didn't you tell me?" he said.
"Like I said, it isn't final. I have to go again tomorrow. I was waiting until it was confirmed. As it is, you seem very...never mind." Mansi bit her tongue.
"I seem what?"
"You seem to find the whole idea of me finding a job so amusing." she said a little bitterly.
"I never said that." Amar got defensive. "I just meant that we need not be so materialistic. But if a job makes you happy and gives you satisfaction, go for it."
And the topic ended there.
----
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