She didn't have an elder brother. Ever since she read Little Women, she had wanted to have a friend like what Laurie was to Jo. Then she met him, after her college, at her first job.They were in the same team, but she was the only girl in the team. When she arrived she had to quickly make friends with someone to have coffee and lunch with. (Not sure if this was her own specific need or the general need of the female species). She chose him, since he seemed like one of those who were comfortable with his masculinity without having to flash it out. He did not intimidate her by paying her too much attention. Also, that he was not very handsome was an added comfort. She could be herself with him, without putting shielders over her thoughts, for he didn't seem to have an opinion on how 'women' should think or talk or be, which every male you met in those days seemed to take for as their birthright. She could talk and argue with him endlessly about anything and still go back feeling closer than they started out with.
They worked in a wonderful office with separated cubicles and a rooftop cafeteria with glass walls on one side and open view on the other. In the city of Bangalore, they could actually catch sunset from their cafeteria. They would grab coffee and biscuits from vending machines, and take them up to catch the sunset and talk, in the cafeteria. She had many friends among boys, since the professional circle in which she moved about had more men than women. He was not the only friend whom she had coffee with, so she never felt anything odd about having extended conversations with him. It was a Saturday, but since most of their friends were from office they used to use the office as a meet up place on Saturdays. As usual, after spending time in individual cubicles checking on emails or listening to music, they grabbed their coffee and went up. Some kind of work was happening on the cafeteria roof. Some workers were perched at the top in the area near the door, but they could see that the sunset area - the one near the railings was free. So they passed the workers and moved onto the edge and stood there, sipping their coffee, watching the evening sun, talking..
They were just friends, not in love... not yet..
Their conversations were always in English, since both spoke different native languages. Then she heard it as they were just walking back - one of the workers boldly commenting in Malayalam "Nokkeda, avar panchara adikkukayanu"..("Look over there, they are flirting!") .He was oblivious - he didn't speak Malayalam. She heard it, but she was used to eve-teasing. In her native place, it was assumed that the girls would just ignore whatever nasty comments were hurled at them - In this case, the one making the comment was at least sure that nobody would understand what he was saying. She felt very embarrassed, but told him that the guy on the roof was commenting that they were flirting.
Suddenly everything changed. She saw him trembling with anger - the boy who was the gentlest among her teammates - whom she chose! He stood like a rock there and turned to her and asked which guy. She pointed and he asked the worker on the roof in a steely voice "What did you just say?" The worker stammered -Then he yelled in hindi "Tu ne kya bola? Bhir se bol!" ("What did you say? Dare to repeat?") . The workers around tried to pacify him - "No, nothing.. nobody said anything". Then he asked "Where is your supervisor? I am not leaving till I meet him".. The supervisor came and pleaded with him - "No Sir, I am sorry. Please let it go, Sir. I will lose my job. Will make sure nothing like this happens again.."
She was amazed. She had grown up as a girl in a small town and there were many occasions when she had to endure even bigger taunts. Nobody had gotten angry for her. Nobody ever told her that she could or should react. In fact, if anything, everyone would advise her to just ignore and move on, without inviting more trouble. There was never a situation where anyone had stood up for her like that! Since that moment he was not just a boy. He was also the boy she could count on..
After that day she tried to look at him more closely. That is when she slowly started observing that maybe he is not someone whom you would look twice at, in a crowd - but he did have a personality that stood out a mile..
~ Her
© 2019 Shenuja Subhash