“Yes now, okay, bye, see you sir,” then she gently kept the phone, and went out of the room singing to herself. “Mom, I’m going out, back at night.” “You, are? said the alleged mother after a pause, and a big smile slowly stretching out on her face, then “do take your-..”. The door slammed shut with a thud. In the brief period it was open, the continuous humming of rain could be heard from inside the house.

‘Dearest Akash, my love,
Last night I could not stop thinking, so I didn’t sleep a wink. Some sad old things made me cry again, you know those. I took three of those pills Arpita gave me and finally slept at 5 in the morning. A sweet dream of our love filled me so deeply that I had to get up and write to you, though its just 8 o clock. Any-who its been raining since the last three days, and I couldn’t go out of the house. First day I was ‘down’ so didn’t really care, but you know, now I just can’t stop (I’m smiling!!) . Yesterday I read ‘The Inscrutable Americans’ and you know I just loved it. Its about this Indian boy from a village, who never touched meat or had dreams about kissing a girl, going to America for a year and being transformed into a drunk sex maniac of some sort. It’s so sweetly written! Read it when you come back, it’s beautiful. Anyway sir called today to ask when I could join again, and I said, today itself, I feel perfect.” You know sir said, Okay-oh but its raining now, are you sure you’re alright? after a really really long pause and kept the phone. Anyway did you hear Arpita’s going back to her ex. More on that later. I’m in the lab right now. I just miss you so much honey, I just pray this month is over soon and you can get a break and come here for a few weeks. Till then in dreams. Write back soon, Miss you, bye, with love
Your Sonia,
P.S. I’m not angry anymore, and I’m taking my medicines at the right times, so don’t worry at all.’
After an indent of 2 lines the screen read
On 12th July 2003 Akash wrote:

She turned back, as if to see if any one else was reading her email, finding just the neon lights reflected from newly painted walls and yellow gray diffused sunlight of a rainy day entering the room, she turned back and quickly clicked ‘Send’ then ‘Sign Out’, and closed the window. Apparently she was in a hurry. While entering the building, painted in a shade of light yellow, which she occasionally found to be the dullest shade of the spectrum, chosen specifically by a committee after two month long research aimed at making her work place a little more dull and boring, she had to run across a corridor connecting the two halves of an elliptical building, mumbling “Damn it,” I should have brought my umbrella and got to mail him before sir comes in,her files in her left hand diagonally held, some distance from her physiognomy, in an effort to deflect the rain as she ran. When she flew her way up two floors of stairs, too impatient for the elevator, she realized that her heroic, yet stylistically correct efforts were in vain anyway, and she was as wet as she could be.Any-who, she said to herself.