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City Life

City Life

At times you get caught between your emotion and your instinct. Your heart
wants you to take a plunge but your instinct stops you.
Sandra Periera was in the similar frame of mind today and her mind was being torn between her emotion and instinct. Its another four minutes before the Uber Cab arrives to pick her up from the Mahesh Lunch Home Restaurant at Colaba where she came for lunch today. During her six months stay in Mumbai she visited this famous yet simple looking restaurant atleast three days in a week. Food is the mainstay here and though doesnot have a great ambience the joint is very popular due to its seafood, specially Mangalorean preparation of Mutton and Chicken. Sandra Periera, originally from Mapusa, Goa joined Sakshi & Sakshi , a London based Advertisement Firm having its Asian Head Office at Mumbai just six months back. Throughout her career of almost seven years, she had always worked for Advertisement Firms. She joined as Client Relation Head in Sakshi & Sakshi and was enjoying her job immensely. Immediately after joining, her boss Supratim , a dynamic and handsome man of late thirties asked her to take over the account of one of the largest and fastest growing Companies of India. The group had introduced a new theme based product for the rural India, and entrusted the job of product marketing with Sakshi & Sakshi. Sandra was enjoying her job and everything was going on smoothly till that late night phone call yesterday which disturbed her mental peace.

Sandra looked at her watch impatiently. The Uber cab hasn't arrived yet. Company provided her a car but the long pending servicing which she was postponing since last three weeks had to be done . While returning home last evening the car developed some serious fault and it was not advisable to defer any further. Today she left the car at the garage and took a cab to office.

A strategic thinker with an analytical mind and strong problem-solving skills...that was expected of her as Client Relation Manager. She never imagined that she has to use this skill In this manner. The middle aged Manager whom she was reporting at her Customer's place is a very mild mannered executive. He hardly talks about anything other than what is related with the product and its marketing. Sandra likes Mr. Bineet Rohilla and she finds his company very comfortable. They have stayed late hours in his office and in between the various papers, slides in projectors, cds and graphs and innumerable cups of coffee she has never found anything amiss in his behaviour He has never discussed his family with her though just like Sandra herself. Actually she is a very private person and doesn't like to discuss her family with any stranger.
Even though, as a Customer Relation Manager she is supposed to maintain strong relationship with her customer to boost her company's brand and profits in long run, she has never found it necessary to walk extra miles with her customer's executive. In her profession its not very uncommon to build a personal rapport with the customer. Having dinner together or visiting a night club is not considered something as a big issue, but, neither she nor her client Bineet were ever interested.
The honking from the white Suzuki Dezire made her to come back from the deep thinking and she opened the car door and slid in.
The day started as usual. The late night telephone from Bineet disturbed her peace and the sleep evaded her for quite some time. Usually she is up by 6 am but today she found herself sleeping at seven am and this was so upsetting that she was very very angry with herself. This oversleeping has robbed her of precious half an hour time which she enjoys by thinking about her life, her family and her profession and checks whether everything is going smooth in her life. Sandra is the only child of her parents Maria and Jose. Jose was not a very enterprising man and used to work in a Beer Factory as a Supervisor. Maria also was employed with a Financial company at Panaji. Thery were a happy go lucky family. Sandra was good in her studies and was always appreciated by her teacher for her writing abilities. After graduation she did her MBA and joined a meidum sized advertisement firm in Panaji. During her short association with that firm all she could learn was how an Advertisement firm works. Though her hunger for knowledge of advertisement was not satiated, at least she has grasped the inner tricks of the Advertisement World.
She got down from the car and headed towards the lift. The weather in Mumbai at this time of the day is sultry and she felt exhausted. Her office is at thirteenth floor and through the french window of her cabin she gets a beautiful view of the Arabian Sea.
"Anu" she called her assistant through the intercom. Anuradha Kulkarni is a medium height Maharashtrian girl working with Sakshi for last five years. She likes Sandra and already started knowing her way of working. " Should I cancel your 4 pm meeting with Sandip Bansal ?" "Can you really do it Anu ? You are such a darling " Dont worry Sandra, that Old man will grumble for a few minutes and I have to bear with that." Anu left the cabin.
Last night when she was about to retire for the day, her mobile rang. It was Bineet and the first thought that came to her mind was he must be in danger.
She answered the call " Yes Bineet are you alright ?" " Yes, why did you ask ? Oh I am so sorry. I didn't check the time. Is it ok Sandra ? can I talk to you for a few minutes ? " Ok umm Bineet, Is it that important ? Can't it wait till tomorrow ?"

"Sandra " Bineet said haltingly.. " Probably I will not be able to talk to you tomorrow or for that matter, never ever." Sandra stunned by his reply. Is he committing suicide ? " Bineet, listen you can talk to me for whole night. Are you Ok ? Shall I come ?"
" No Sandra, don't worry ,I am alright. I am leaving for my hometown tomorrow and probably will never come back. I have submitted my resignation already.
" Bineet what is it ?"

"Sandra, during this project of selling our product to the rural market of India, I came across certain figures and it got me thinking. You know , Rural India is one largest consumer base and every company is eyeing to sell their product here. We have half million villages and only one hundred thousand villages have been tapped so far. 122 million household were not created in a night then why this sudden rush ? The fact is, the urban market is getting saturated, when the rural market is flush with fund and that too liquid cash. The rural population of India is slowly but steadily being sucked into consumerism. The daily use product, FMCG products are flooding the rural market. "
Thats alright Bineet but why are you telling me all this at this time of night and what relation it has with your decision to leave the job ?"
"Sandra I was planning to set up a small business in my village for quite some time. Various consumer goods are being pushed into the rural market without any safety or other hygenic standards. During last five years I have gained enough knowledge about how the large companies deviate the set standards to reduce the manufacturing cost of the product and thereby increasing the profit. I have decided to deal with such products which has a proper and proven quality standard. I will see that people are educated properly and will organise workshops for the village folks. You see we have never discussed our family. You see I am the only son of my parents and we have reasonably good property in our village. It was entirely my decision to get higher education and migrate to city to enjoy the comfortable lifestyle. But I was so wrong. During our last four months investigation to analyse the trend of consumerism among our rural people, I have always found how simple and original they are.
"But" interrupted Sandra " What about your family, I mean your wife and children, won't they object to your sudden decision to migrate to the village ?"
" Well, you see, I never had that family you are talking about. I could never see the point why should I get married. Initially my parents used to force but gradually they also lost interest.
"So now that Iam leaving for good, I just wanted to tell you, how much I have enjoyed working with you. I will miss you terribly. Just before saying good bye I want you to know that if I would have met you probably some years back, I could have reconsidered my decision of not getting married. Please dont take offense. They say you must express your love and never leave it untold.
Any time ever, if you wish to see a village....."
" Thanks Sandra...wish you all the best in your life."

The phone went silent.

Anu has entered the cabin with a cup of coffee. She wanted to talk to her...about her personal feelings....her deepest thoughts...
She desn't have a single person here whom she can call her friend. Since her childhood she has only her Mumma, who is friend, philosopher and guide.

She dialled her number....ring ring..."..hello my baby... are you all right ? you are supposed to be in a meeting now."
"Oh did I mention that to you ?"
"You are getting forgetful....and that...
"Mom...." something in her voice forced her mother to stop abruptly. "Whats my age ?"
Oh you are just thirty one kid....

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