Sharath Dev was
turning 30 in a month and his parents were eager to see him married soon, they
felt it was already late. He had a plum job in the technology sphere with a
good salary and owned an apartment in the high profile IT residential corridor,
most of his childhood mates were married and settled with a family of their
own. Proposals were sought and match making was in progress. One such
prospective bride's parents found Sharath a suitable match for their convent
educated daughter, who had her own fashion design studio.
All things
seemed perfect and then the girl's father Raghav took time out from his Central
Govt duties and travelled to the tech company to meet Sharath's employers. He
made discreet enquiries about his future son-in-law with the receptionist, the
HR executive, the security guard and also the parking assistant. Raghav was
more or less convinced, but for the little bit of information of Sharath's
partying habits everything seemed fine.
Sushil just
completed his post graduation in management following his civil engineering and
was busy scouting for a placement in an infrastructure company, he had given an
interview a week back and was excited about the thought of working with a start-up.
His weekend plans were to meet a few friends in the industry to make enquiries
about his soon-to-be employer’s credentials. On receiving the offer and almost
having decided to take it up, Sushil was advised by his father to meet Surinder,
a senior executive in a competitor infra company. Surinder spoke at length to
his friend Raghav's son, leaving the young man quite perplexed.
Mohan was a
manager at one the branches of India’s largest private banks, an independent
thinker and a social media buff. With the recent appraisal and the salary hike
he was keen to buy a sedan for his family, well he and his wife Shruti, also a
banker – with a National bank, lived on the other end of the city to Mohan’s
parents’ residence. The couple had made up their mind to buy a Japanese car,
well almost. Neha, Shruti’s college mate, advised her to speak to Kishore, who
was a happy owner of an Indian SUV.
Kishore was a
popular cricketer turned real estate agent, known for his penchant for latest
gadgets among other things. He was quite a gentleman in the business, making
money out of sensible and honest advice to his clients. Recently Kishore celebrated
the launch of his new venture and the next day bought a smart phone in an
instant, he picked up an expensive android and was checking out the features
when a middle aged man shrugged at his choice and suggested to go for the
upgraded variant of an iconic American brand. Kishore did not regret the choice
he was influenced to make, albeit he consulted the showroom salesman before
splurging. He seemed to recognize Mohan, with his sharp features that resembled
the man in the mobile shop, he didn’t take long to place Surinder’s son. Soon
the choice of car was made!
Shruti thanked
Neha and promised to make it to her best friend’s wedding the next month
without fail, her fiancé smiled. The duo drove in their SUV to the Lebanese
restaurant for a quiet dinner. They both loved Mexican food, but the place they
originally planned to eat at was too crowded, and the online App suggested
Lebanese. While they were skeptical about the spread, the chance call from
Deeksha, and the validation from her made the evening quite memorable for the
soon-to-be married young couple.
Deeksha spent
an hour everyday calling friends and random people from her friends’ shared
database to tele-market her new offerings at the boutique, that call she made
to a dining-out Neha was just the one before she called an elderly man Vinay
Dev. While the man was not keen about modern designer apparel, he had a worry
of his own, he casually asked her if she knew any urologists in her directory.
Vinay found Dr Ravindra the right specialist to concur with about his septuagenarian
father’s reports for an impending surgery, he was overwhelmed by the referral
and wished to thank the young lady, but neither knew her name nor her contact
number, which he lost through the numerous call notes.
Chandra Dev, a
retired military man, was ailing but extremely overjoyed today, he had just
overheard his daughter-in-law speaking on the phone - a confirmation call about
his grandson’s engagement. Vinay walked in, touched his father’s feet and told
him he will have a painless surgery much before his son Sharath tied the knot
with Deeksha.
Next week, Raghav
and his wife went to invite the Inder brothers for their daughter’s wedding. The
older Inder brother was not at home, he was busy operating on an ex army
officer that day.
A month later,
the young Dev couple were going on their honeymoon and it was Sushil’s first
day at work, at the office entrance stood his boss’ gleaming new SUV.
We all live a life
well connected through a Second Opinion!
Disclaimer: All characters and incidents in the story are a figment of imagination, any resemblance to anybody living or dead is purely coincidental
