‘I need to go inside,’ I said, ‘urgent.’
‘There’s an inter....’
I forced my way inside. HLL was conducting its final interviews in one of the
classrooms. The company staff sat in the front row of the class while the
candidate sat in the prof’s chair.
Ananya faced a panel of five elderly people in the room. She was moving her
hands in an animated manner as she spoke. ‘The rural market doesn’t need
different products. They need affordability....’ She stopped mid-sentence upon
noticing me. Her eyebrows elevated in shock and stayed there.
‘Yes?’ a sixtyish-year-old gentleman turned to me.
Ananya’s face turned pink, then red. The colour coordination came from
embarrassment and anger, respectively.
‘I need to talk to her,’ I said slowly, scanning everyone in the room.
‘Can’t it wait?’ the old gentleman asked. ‘She is having her final interview. All
our senior management is here.’
‘Actually, it can’t,’ I said.
‘Everything OK?’ another panelist said.
‘Yes, I only need a minute,’ I said and signalled to Ananya to come out.
‘What? Just tell me here,’ she said, throwing me a dirty look.
I saw the panel’s confused expression. I went up to Ananya.
‘What?’ she whispered,’ Are you mad?’
I knelt down next to her, my mouth close to her ear. ‘Sorry, how is it going?’ I
whispered.
‘Krish Malhotra, this better be important. What’s up?’ she whispered, loud
enough for the panel to hear.
‘Ananya Swaminathan, I, Krish Malhotra, am deeply in love with you and want
to be with you always. Apart from where we go to office, of course. Will you marry
me?’
nora
(Nora)
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