The thing called love…. Part-2

Find Part-1 here

Part 2:

Her three year project in London was coming to an end and Nami had the feeling that time had simply whizzed past. Her team had just one month left to present the results, to come up with the analysis, and to conduct final discussions about the decision to off-shore the project to the Indian center in Bangalore. She felt her team had done a very good job given the low manpower and had given high productivity along with excellent documentations and procedure setups.

***

Not just the bad headache, Nami was also in a bad mood following last night’s argument. She had once again told Arun about her project completion and that she will have to go back to India. She wanted Arun to marry her as she did not feel like leaving him.

Arun was a little hesitant about getting committed this early in his life, but he loved Nami a lot. He also had told Nami that even if her project goes back, Nami can stay with him and they can work together in his business. But she was wary of getting into his business as it was not something she enjoyed doing.

On top of this, she also had to think about her parents who did not know much about Arun and her and ways to convince them.

Above all, her main worry was how to convince Arun to marry her?

***

Nami even had spoken to Santosh about the intensity of her attachment towards Arun.

Seeing Nami’s predicament, Santosh assured her that he will try to get her London stay extended, even though rest of the team will go back to India. But he did not promise that he will succeed.

Nami had to complete a presentation on process improvement on one of the complex process as suggested by Santosh in order to impress the client to keep her in London longer.

She took an aspirin for her headache and went over the finishing touches to her presentation.

With just two hours to go, she went to the cafeteria and got herself a steaming double espresso. After all the individual presentations, Santosh summed up the concluding analysis to the client. Once he had finished, he announced that Nami would introduce an idea which would take the current procedures of a complex process in a new direction and could substantially improve productivity.

Nami took a deep breath and started. Nami did not usually feel very confident while on stage, but today something had made her resolute and she started with an assertive tone. Santosh was impressed and smiled inwardly as he heard her move on to the core of her proposal.

Once Nami finished with her presentation, Santosh had to attend closure discussions with the client’s management for the next two hours.

While Santosh was in closed session, a sense of hopelessness engulfed Nami. She could see the happiness in the eyes of her team members that they were returning to India. She started cursing herself for falling in love. And also cursed Arun for making her fall in love with him!

She looked at her watch and still 15 minutes were left for the top level management discussions to finish.

She then saw Santosh coming out of the room hurriedly and striding towards her. He told her that the client wanted him and Nami to stay two more years while the others were to be shifted to India. He looked really excited both for himself as he could get his family here and for Nami. 

Nami was shocked and was silent for almost a minute on hearing this wonderful news..

She badly wanted to call home and tell her parents about this news and when she did, her father sounded very happy, but her mother started to cry "what will happen to her marriage??” in the background. Her father promised Nami that he will convince her mother about this. She could not believe her ears.
Her father after losing his business and money was not in a very good state to marry her off. He felt happy that his only daughter was in a very good position in her life and that she is independent and nothing else mattered to him.

After half an hour of crying and speaking to her father and mother, she called Arun to tell about her extended stay in London. Arun could not believe his ears.

He then said he had a surprise visit that day and wanted to introduce her to these "visitors". He did not agree to give any more information about them at all. This irritated her and also made her a little apprehensive..

She said her farewells and hurried to Arun's home. When she entered she saw was an old couple sitting comfortably on the couch.

“Surprise!!” shouted Arun and introduced his parents to her. She hugged them and took aashirwaads and went to her room to change. 

She could hear Arun’s mother asking him "Arre beta, can she speak Hindi? Where is she from and what is all this about? ladki apni wali jaise nahi dikti??"

When Nami came out of her room with mixed feelings and apprehensions, Arun looked at her and their eyes met and he smiled at her and replied to his mother in a convincing and confident way "Mom, she is from Mysore and she speaks Kannada and Hindi as well. Nami is working for a multinational company and we are planning to get married this year and I need your’s and papa’s blessings for us…"