"Dude. You sure about this?".
Nihal filled his cup, took a swig, and stared at me, one eye brow raised. "I-I- dont know man.", I spluttered, " It was so.. surreal."
Nihal sighed and took another swig. "Dude. This is just another crush man. It'll pass. Let it go."
"I'm going to the hospital." I boldly stated. "Hmpf. Do what you want. just remind me, to take home dinner. Neha 'll kill me if I forget."Nihal laughed.
Nihal Sharma was a childhood friend of mine. I met him during playschool, and since then we've been best buddies. Nihal and I went to the same school, same college, same class, and eventually same job. In college, Nihal had fallen for this for this girl in the arts department called Neha Sebastian. The two hit it off like a house on fire, he proposed, she accepted and they dated for three years straight before deciding to move in together. She headed the "Bengaluru Buzz" and was also a guest editor for The Times.
"Isnt it high time you two got married?", I asked. "Hmm yeah, yeah, just waiting for the right moment man. I want it to be perfect you know? But forget me, You're the man of the moment. I'd hate to be the one stealing your spotlight",He winked, But suddenly his expression changed,"Oh bloody hell. Its Satvinder. Get your head down!"
A big burly Surd walked into the room, with a rather unhappy look on his face, Unfortunately for me, the big burly Surd was my boss, Satvinder Singh Chaddha.
Mr Chaddha, or Satty as he was fondly called, came up the hard way. He ran away from home, studied under street lights, worked on the streets of Bombay and god knows how, ended up as my boss. And how'd we know all of this. The fool would not stop ranting about it.
"Mr Sharma, I want those figures on my desk tomorrow morning."His voice boomed. "And it better be accurate. Mr Narayan comes into the office the other day with the figures. I take one good look at them and do you know what I say to him??"
"No sir." We said in unison, even though we knew what was coming.
Satty puffed up his chest and went on."I looked at him straight in the eye and said"These are the figures?? SHAATA!" he barked.
"Oh very nice sir", said Nihal with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
"Nice?? Shaata it was nice! I gave him the full Satvinder Singh Chaddha treatment. Which you too will recieve if those figures aren't on my desk by tomorrow morning. Now get back to your work. SHAATA!" he barked as if he was referring it to as ASAP, and left the room.
No one in the office knew how Satty had come across the word. Legend has it that, Satty got into a fight with a rickshaw driver, who threw abuses at him, and he was only able to single out one of the expletives the driver had used. And we were all pretty sure Satty had no clue what it meant, cause he didnt know a word of the language. And now he used it as if he'd known the word for years.
"Crap. I've got satty on my ass. And you, you get off my ass too. Go meet the girl of your dreams with a broken foot and work things out. In the meantime, I'll have to get these figures done with it, plus I've gotta pick up dinner too. Wow, Some day I'm having eh?" He said, his voice soaked with sarcasm.
I looked at the clock. It was nearing half past 5. visiting hours at the hospital would close within an hour and a half. So I said a quick goodbye to a bitter Nihal, picked up my coat and made my way out. I passed by Satty's office where I could hear him taking Narayan's case again."WHAAAT??" he bellowed." You say you're getting married tomorrow and you need a week's holiday for your honeymoon?? SHAAAATAAAAAA!!"
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Part 3 coming soon
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