A Long Lapse - Manisha Speaks

"Okay but I don't see the issue here." He said cutting me in between.

"There's more to it sir." The president nodded.

"After a good week, a few rumors air the ambience and in their effect, I am made to think of how you disliked the color of the suit Rafi had put on in the painting, and adding to my cynicism, I start to think of the anonymous bidder and if it is someone from your contacts allowed to make a handsome profit and even if I had been provided with a fair share on the sale of the portrayal, I am forced to think that it is me perhaps who has been offered just a few cents from a dollar." I paused to take a sip from the glass and the man didn't interrupt this time, "While at the very first PLACE, nothing alike TOOK PLACE." The reason I poetically ended in rhythm, Mr. Kumar has been smiling.

"It's an internal issue!" he exclaimed rather sharply.

"Yes sir, where the investors are continuously voicing misgivings, which have blocked the loans to fall through." I added to his conclusive statement.

"So what do you suggest of it?"

"I would borrow some time before coming over anything sir." I said to him.

"Its not of a problem Miss Maheshwari, whenever you are ready but until next weekend, I expect to be getting the solution in full." He made me know well of the deadline.

"Most certainly sir." I replied to put him at ease.

He rose from his seat and offering a handshake, spoke looking at me, "I'm obliged to know that my conclusive vote after the six all draw didn't go for a waste, I picked the right candidate. I look forward to be working with you, young lady." The man had a glare that was of self pride but it was none of my concern after I was left to flatter.

"That is very good to know sir." I replied shaking his hand. "And certainly that is one handsome man over there who must have heard every word shared between us and must be giving his agreement as well." I said looking at the biggest portrayal in the cabin which was on the wall right behind his seat.

It was not big of a guess that it was his old man in the painting there and catching a grin, Mr. Kumar replied, "Most certainly Miss." Next I approached the door and getting out of the office, closed it behind my back.

The rest of the day I spent having two more coffees making it reach to a number of five in the day and was sank in the files wanting my readings. I had also a need of using the smoke room thrice in that time. It was five past five when I left the building, and the station being at its peak hours asked me to take another thirty minutes before stopping in the first class carriage with the ticket again.

It was more like the same seat from earlier in the day and I took the seat, and opening the same magazine, I studied some more about US economy. The ticket checker arrived and while I had taken my hands in the purse to take the piece of paper out, I waited for the checker to stop at my seat.

I had been glancing around when I saw a middle aged man at the far end of the carriage looked to walk past a slightly elderly man and took one of the seats reserved just for anyone more than sixty leaving the old man to stand in the corner. I could see he neglected to even put his head up to face the elderly man and stayed seated shamelessly. Before even a second of this, I left my seat with my ticket in the hand, and walked down the carriage till the elderly section.

The ticket checker's "Excuse me ma'am, excuse me ma'am" pacing behind my back had caused almost everyone's eyes to be set over me. While everyone glanced towards me, I without giving a damn kept walking only to stop right before the man in the seat.

"Yes?" he said looking up from the newspaper he pretended to read.

"Can I see your ticket?" I said shooting my hand forward.

The puzzled man glared at me from head to feet, and answered after a while, "I don't see the uniform around you ma'am."

Just when he had said it, the actual checker in uniform who was always a few paces back killed the lead and now stood before me. The obese ticket checker was catching his breath like he had run in a marathon and spoke, "Why won't you stop?"

I ignored his mere presence there and continued to look at the man in the seat, "Would you care to show the ticket please? I'm asking you again." I said still keeping my palms shot forward.

"Ma'am why are you not listening....." just when the TC was in the middle of his sentence, I quickly turned my eyes at the ticket checker and interrupted him, "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND CHECK THIS BELLEND'S TICKET!" I didn't how loud I was until I had finished with the sentence.

The commuters inside the carriage looked at the fairly humiliated ticket checker and with his head now not moving an inch from the man asked slowly, "Can I see your ticket sir?" His tone was almost half loud as mine.

The man in the seat hesitated and now cleared the sweat over his forehead, the checker and he shared a glance until he finally shot his hand forward with the ticket, moreover his hands evidently shaking while handing it over. Before the TC could handle it, I anticipated in between to grab hold of the ticket and read inside of it.

"How the fuck is this clown allowed to be in the first class let alone being seated in an elderly section!" I shouted looking straight at the man in the black uniform. He looked like knowing the fact that the man had a third class ticket and the ticket collector didn't even fine him for the breach."

Looking at the guilty conscience the checker was drowned in, I made out on my own that he too was in the accusation, I gave out a sarcastic smile and said, "Oh so you knew" I looked at some of the near onlookers there and spoke, "This is how these fucking officials run the system" my loud tone this time reached a guard as he swept in the carriage.

I told him everything and it wasn't a few minutes before the carriage was accompanied by a few guards escorting the accused ones out of the carriage. The old man who had not been on his seat since, looked at me with a smile and I returned it very well and helped him to take the seat. As I walked up to my seat again, the passengers inside were giving a bright smile, whoever I shared a glance with. I took my seat in the corner again. The authority with which the job was done motivated many to find a voice, this was the least I hoped for. Having completed the latter part of the journey without any considerable glitch, I reached home just before seven.

I hung my coat beside the door and after only a few steps in; I started to unbutton the white shirt and walked around the house with just the lingerie over my body. It took me an entire span of two hours to be fed, bathed and finally sank deep in the bed again. The sleep again came untimely and New York had set off quite nicely by now.

Chapter 3

Next morning I took the same first class carriage to work, and after yesterday's encounter, I noticed that the elderly section was being used rightly; I didn't expect the things to be set right in just a day. It was half the story I presumed and before I could think of anything else, the beautiful brunette woman on my left gave me a slight nudge on my shoulders and spoke, "You are perhaps the same lady from here if I am not wrong?"

She said handling me the newspaper and I dipped my eyes in to read the story. I was mentioned in the morning edition of The New York Times and reading it in the whole; I finally answered giving the paper back to the lady, "Yes miss, that's me."

I said trying not to sound too egoistic with the newly disposed fame. She brought her hand forward and added, "It is my pleasure perhaps to come across you Miss...."

"Manisha"

"Yes Manisha" her minimal Latin accent found it a little difficult to bisect between Manisha and Manuel.

"I was here yesterday to see you delivering those blows over those men and got them busted by their balls, it was quite uplifting to be honest." The lady said in her blunt accent that showed a little of glee in it.

I shook her hands and added, "Thank you Miss...." I paused in the exact rhythm as she did earlier which only brought a smile over the beautiful brunette's face.

"Cassandra"

"Yes thank you Miss Cassandra, but it was one of my duties to be raising a voice and I think more than thanking, there should be apologies granted to the mistreated elderly."

"Ah you speak just too well Miss Manisha, I could not agree more. This event would supposedly help these lazy arse government officials to carry out some good works as well." Cassandra spoke while adjusting her purse on her lap.

I was subjected to a little grin and added, "That is one good way to describe them, and lazy arses combine to form one big arse..."

"And which actually gets fucked day in and day out, not to mention anally" she interrupted me and added again, "so long before they are given a permanent stretch at the anus, the working should be made to get handled..."

"And eventually pull the pants back over the arses." I interrupted her this time and our collective laugh caught one or two eyes inside the silent and well behaved carriage. Cassandra had reached her stop now and before she left her seat, she glanced at me to smile only to be met by me smiling back at her.

After having spent the working hours, I took the same train back home. As I walked past the pupils take my seat in the corner, I coincidentally bumped in to the same woman. Before I could take my seat, she spoke, "It could not be a co-incidence, stop following me." She said it humorously.

"Perhaps I could condemn you for the same, and if we are to talk further it would be JUST Manisha." I said giving my hand forward again but in a friendlier sort than the one in the morning.

"Cassandra Moreno." She said meeting my hands.

"Manisha Maheshwari." I replied.

The train journey had just started and by the time we had stepped out of the carriage, Cassandra had told me everything I wanted to know about the city. From where and what time each public transport could be found in the city, to the definite centers to eat, to how far out of your budget you had to be before you could enter the big shopping stops, to where to find a partner to spend a night with or without commitments, to the places at the city's outskirts in order to find a good glimpse of the sunset. She just never stopped talking until had not briefed me about just everything in and around the city.

The woman was very well informed and I realized that I had never come across someone like Cassandra in my life: so fiercely independent, yet somehow managed to remain feminine with her perfectly cut hair, skirt that only just fell above her knees accompanied by the lace stockings pulled up along her legs till her good thighs giving a hint of sensuality and the tight jacket that might leave you in no doubt just how good her figure was. Her neck rested upon a good figured 5'7 body and possessed just the right roundness over her vital ends. I was a fan of her already.

Down and down we walked on the stairwells and it was noticeable that every man we came across in the station crowd, stopped walking to glance at the brunette beauty and then me and they stood aside to let us pass, and making themselves join the line of the optimists hoping to dip their paws in this honey pot, but not the same case for Cassandra who just occasionally would reward some of them with a smile and move on, and like any other good converser, kept all her focus on me while we chatted on our way down the Fifth Avenue.

Cassandra's house got first in the roadway with my coming later at the other end of the street only in about half a mile. I took to lean in a little to hug the lady and let her out of the trouble to apparently rise on her toes to meet my two inched higher body. Cassandra had just the right glare in her eyes that told me about our friendship coming at a significant ease end only after the first meeting. We took our leaves with the word of seeing again soon. And I started walking away. To my troubles, my shoe under the pant met with a pebble on the road and as I turned around to touch my sole and get the little stone away, I saw a rather rich man getting out of his Mercedes from the other end of the road and paced up towards Cassandra's stairs only to be taken in after he had just stopped by the door. 'Finally someone getting to taste the honey from the paw' I laughed with myself.

I went back home, quickly undressed, and walking down the house in just the lingerie pair, I did the evening chores. In an hour I filled my appetite, and rubbing my naked 5'9 self in the tub, I washed myself well. The bed was my next stop as I drifted away to sleep in the next half an hour.

Our words of seeing ourselves soon fell too quickly as Cassandra shared a journey with me back home the next evening. She was accompanied by her two friends; Jean, a man whose six-two Danish charm was frankly the first thing came to my notice and Janice, a blonde and New York local, who among these three immigrants felt at utmost ease, a quality quite different from her fellow countrymen. I couldn't miss out on the look Jean gave me when we were taking our leaves after coming out of the railway station.

After Cassandra walked down with me towards our house, she invited me to join in the jog with her the next morning and I could never forget the selection of words with which Cassandra addressed the invitation. With her hand at my waist she said, "You are supposed to buckle up a little bit and tone your 'Desi Phataka' physique in shape" and slipped her hands on my big butt to spank lightly through the formal pants I had put on.

It was indeed her forcibly Hindi pronounced Latin accent and the spank later on that caused me to burst out, Cassandra only followed the laughter but remained a few paces back after I was laughing for a well minute. Next morning we were together around the public garden in our tracksuits. Looking at her in that attire, I was now clearer about how fit a 5'7 woman could be, Cassandra was the best example of it. We did the running across and away from the area and my first day said about how which time I have spent over the years seated whether it's for studying or working in the office. Till the third day of the jog, Cassandra asked me to meet one of her gym trainers -- Mark and the stout 6'5 man was just too happy to be receiving a lady with my physique to train. He mentioned it as a once in a while chance.

My working hours were now being well settled and as it was the completion of my first week, I had been accustomed with most of the things and half of the staffs were now well informed about me also I was about them. I also came across the Chief Execute Officer and just when we shared a joke over his Don Donald Duck glasses, the man was put to ease and out of his uneasiness.

It was at that evening back home when Cassandra was again accompanied by her two friends and with a seat already vacant next to Jean, I was sure of where to sit. On the twenty minutes' journey, I had shared a few good talks with Jean as we giggled and conversed with his hands nudging my shoulders once too often. We left the station and Cassandra and I accompanied each other to home on our feet like regular. It was when I hugged Cassandra to a good night; I noticed the same black Mercedes parked at the same place at the other end of the road.

Just when we were about to part, with a teasing smile I paused to say, "I hope you have a great night Cassandra!" my brunette best friend gave a puzzled look on my overly sweet accent but settled over a gentle, "You too Manisha." Saying that she unlocked her door to get inside and I didn't turn for once and kept walking down the street only stopping to unlocking mine.

Chapter 4

At home Marsha had been a maid of quality by now and with her presence, I was given some ease to rest my big bottom in couch after every long working hour. I was getting close to the deadline assigned by Mr. Kumar and long working hours apparently didn't mean for anything and come the meeting with the president next week, I would be assured with the points to be reflected towards him.

The next day was Friday. For most of my working hours, I was settled in my cabin without intaking much to fill my appetite, and continuously worked over the task the President had assigned me with. I went over a row of files and studied them accurately to know all about the union, company policies and much more and made out how all of them coming together, were in any manner influencing the finances of the company. I was not provided with much spare time, and after I had worked half the day, I took the regular first class carriage back home.

I was not shocked but only had little widened eyes with a smile when finding Jean already in the carriage, keeping a seat vacant next to him. I slumped in to the empty space and the friendly chatter began. From his English mother to his on the door rejection from Stanford, Jean talked just everything while accompanying me to the end of the train journey. As soon as we had set our feet at the station floors, Jean asked if I would like to take a halt somewhere and eat.

'Just the thing to talk me into' I wondered in my own. I managed a smile to his offering and answered in an insistent YES. Jean got us in a cab and asked the cabbie to stop at The Royal hotel, one of the most renowned places to have dinner after it came to my knowledge last week when Cassandra once joked about 'never offering me a treat there' looking at my capacity to eat. The cabbie obeyed what his costumer asked him to do, and by fifteen minutes, we had stopped before this big twenty floored hotel, it could only have been called another corporate sector back home.

Jean with his hands nervously crossed around my still blazer covering waist, accompanied me through this huge entrance of the hotel. With the elegantly dressed aristocratic guests continuing to slip in and out of the hotel door, a woman dressed in a corporate attire didn't suit the ambience much but Jean at my side didn't seem to care an inch as he accompanied me to one of the seats at the center of the dining hall. A manager putting his blazer out of any wrinkles stepped forward to greet us and quickly asked us for the order. Jean like any frequent visitor, looked directly to the menu and ordered a Filet Mignon, lobster and being a cuisine admirer, I settled over a Gumbo to start with. The manager with a slight bowing gesture walked back and away from our table.

The handsome Danish was just very courteous as he settled his expressions over me with a smile. We shared the glance and it was not a minute when we had started to talk everything about ourselves. From my time growing up in a middle class family of Mumbai to the Cambridge scholarship in the United Kingdom, I filled him in with almost everything I could speak in the fifteen minutes time before which our meal was to be served. Jean was a man capable of listening and added up only when required. The second part of this surprise date of ours also went well, after the food only helped with our moods. In the next hour, Jean had signed the check and on my insistence to loosen my purse, he asked to get it done on our next meal together which only meant getting to see each other again.

The cabbie put the car to a halt on the street's outskirt and Jean accompanied me to my house walking. Once this rightly called sweet evening was ending, Jean stood at my door steps with his expressions almost shouting about how much he wanted to be called in but the stern, obnoxious Cambridge graduate in me didn't gave a straight way ever. I leaned forward towards the man and annulling his expectations I stopped around his cheeks just to leave a sweet kiss there. And after hugging Jean to a good bye I unlocked my door to enter in. I had turned to give a final look to Jean and the decent chap looked disappointed clearly but managed a warm smile as I shut the door once and for all. 'The Indian woman in me was still not lost even after six years out of the country' I smiled with myself.