Part 105

Part 105

Malviya Nagar

Clean Water Office.

April 14th 2011

Thursday

Noonish

The wedding date had been set for April 29th, Friday. Raghav had actually spoken out twice during the families' back and forth, he suggested once, "Lets get married at the Registrar's" only to receive a collective "OHHHH! " "Oh! My" "Oh! No!"

Then when the Pandit had suggested 4 dates in May, he had insisted the guy find an April date.

Aurin had had a field day, teasing Radhika, mocking and razzing her… “OK The guy wants to get married alright! Whats wrong with that?” she had countered with a straight face.

“Atleast he is gutsy enough to speak up… unlike me”

That was it, there was a collective howl….

Radhika stared at her fading mehandi… smiling

The rock was… ermm…. A ROCK!

French Polynesia… for a week, she had to return because she was registered for a “leather processing course” or “tannery science” as they called it… at one of the vocational institutes.

It was a 3 week course intended to give her the full “scoop” of the industry and its production methods.

She had up until now only worked on projects that involved oil refinery spills, crude oil residuals, and the resulting toxins and destruction of aquifer and organisms…

She absolutely did not want to miss the tannery science class.

She had coaxed Raghav to go with her, he had chuckled….

She had asked him a couple times about his visit to Dehat Kanpur… the purpose… “We wouldn’t have met otherwise” he had acknowledged, amused…

“The company is looking at turning some abandoned yarn mills operational”

“But doesn’t Kapoor already own some spinning & weaving mills in Maharashtra and Karnataka?” she asked… very perceptive and knowledgable herself…

“You would be paying substantial costs in freighting it to UP, it wont be cost effective”

He had smiled admiringly and said “Dad should just hire you”

“No thanks! The sound of clean water gushing through a kitchen faucet is way better than the feel of cotton fabric” she giggled…

“Touche’”

Umesh and Poonam were sifting through ownership records of the dozen or so tanneries in the region. They also supplied lots of socio-political context around the use of cow hide in these operations.

“Hindu majority hai Radhika, kholne denge nahi dobaara”

“You know how politics works in UP” she countered…

Her phone beeped, multiple images trickled in…. Marquesas Island, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Hanavave………..

“Take your pick Radhika” he texted…

“I pick you!” she texted back with trembling fingers…. And waited….

“All yours” her screen flashed… as her cheeks warmed up..