The Girl on the Flight

It was 2 AM in the morning. Ravi was almost dozing off but the dozen excited relatives who had come to see him off at the New Delhi airport were still highly energized. He was tired of bidding goodbye, convincing the aunties that he would not marry a white girl and checking his passport and documents umpteen number of times. 

“You are fulfilling my dreams, beta.”, said his dad patting him on the back. Since childhood I have only dreamt of getting a master’s degree abroad and settling in the land of opportunity. But … .”

“Dad, this is the twentieth time you have said that in the past one hour”, said Ravi, cutting him off, dreading hearing his excuses for not making it to America.

As he proceeded to security check he was relieved to escape the farewell party which had been going on for weeks now and ended at the gates of the airport since the farewell bidders were not allowed beyond that; relieved to escape the helpers in the security area pestering him to let them carry his baggage in the hopes of getting paid in dollars; relieved to escape a lot of things he was glad to leave behind in Delhi. 

The flight was delayed by two hours. He seated himself in the lobby wondering how to keep himself occupied other than trying to beat his own scores in Tetris on his cell phone. He did not feel like calling Sheetal either. She would be asleep at this hour. Not that the late nights had ever prevented him from making calls. But two years into the relationship he had lost his enthusiasm for staying awake late talking to her. 

As he continued to fiddle with his cell phone, he noticed the girl in the yellow outfit walk into the lobby. He had noticed her while standing in the queue for security check. She wore a yellow knee length top, black leggings and brown suede boots. She carried a North Face backpack and had perfectly curled hair. 

He had noticed her from the back. She was the only person who looked interesting among the rest of the crowd. The crowd consisted primarily of NRI families with kids who either listened to their iPod shuffles or rambled in their crisp American accent, their ramblings punctuated with “totally” and “like”; businessmen hooked to their blackberries; parents of software engineers who were going to visit their children to take over the role of a nanny of their newborn grandkids; a few foreigners in harem pants, tank tops and henna tattoos,  and one or two more prospective graduate students like him. 

As Ravi saw her move towards where he was seated, he moved his backpack emptying the seat next to his. The girl with the curly hair and yellow top came and sat next to him. She took out a Stephen King paperback and started reading. Ravi couldn’t help but notice that she had a Wolfpack key chain attached to the zipper of her backpack. Wolfpack was the mascot of the university he was going to attend. It was a perfect opportunity to start a conversation.

“Hi. I just happened to notice the wolfpack keychain on your backpack. Are you studying at NC State University?”, he asked looking sideways at her. She looked up from her book, “Oh. Yeah I am”, she replied still holding her book in the same position, hoping to get back to it as soon as she finished answering Ravi’s question.

“I asked ‘cause I am headed there for a Masters in Electrical Engineering”, said Ravi.

“Ohh. Are you?”, said the girl putting her book down on her lap, sounding interested. Ravi noticed the heavy American accent. “Joining this fall?”

“Yes. What do you study?”

“I .. umm… nothing as smart as Electrical Engineering. I am doing a degree in Animal Science”

“Animal science? Ok.. interesting”, replied Ravi wondering what animal science meant. It wasn’t veterinary, it wasn’t zoology. It was a subject he had not heard of.  It was definitely not a major a regular Indian would opt for.

“Interesting is a word people use when they either don’t know what is being talked about or they are not interested in talking about it further. Which one is your case?”, replied the girl in the yellow top.

Ravi was taken aback at her prompt curt reply. “Well it’s the former”, admitted Ravi smiling. 

“Don’t worry I won’t bore you with animal science talks. So tell me why did you choose NC State?”

“Well firstly their Electrical Engineering program is well ranked. Secondly, it was more affordable than University of Southern California, the other university I had an admit to. My cousins and friends live in California and complain all the time about how expensive it is. Also I am talking to a professor there who most likely will fund me. And yeah I also have an uncle in Virginia which is close to North Carolina”

“Aah.. those are good enough reasons. Which prof are you talking to? Not that I know many in your department. But I have lots of friends who are in EE, so I keep hearing some names”

“Dr. Maria Xin.. as in X. I . N. Not sure how to pronounce that”

“Aah”, remarked the girl. “I have heard of Maria. She is quite a tough nut to crack.”

“Really? We’ll see. I hope it works out for me. I have taken a loan here you know. Don’t want to pay for the whole degree. Are you funded?”

“Yeah I am a TA, as in Teaching Assistant. You think I would pursue animal sciences without funding?”

Ravi imagined how distracting it would be to have a cute TA like her.

“By the way how come you called a professor by name? Like you just said Maria.. not Dr. Maria”

“You’ll get used to that. No one uses Sir or Madam to address professors in US. You call everyone by first name no matter how senior they are to you. Initially that will hurt your ears but you will get used to it”

Ravi noticed how she pronounced “ears” with an emphasis on “e” unlike the Indian pronunciation where ears are pronounced the same way as years with a stress on “y”.

“Have you been in the States for a long time?”, asked Ravi

“Yeah. I guess you are wondering how my accent is so thick.”, she smiled. “I have been there for a long time now. My parents moved when I was in middle school. But you are doing a good job of understanding it”

“Thanks to all the American movies I watch.”, replied Ravi. ”Were you visiting relatives in Delhi?”

“No I was here to meet some prospective grooms”, she replied. She paused to catch Ravi’s expression. And yes, he had it written all over his face, question marks about whether it was a successful mission, whether she was engaged, expression of disappointment at a lost opportunity.

“You look devastated!”, she laughed teasingly. “No I haven’t found my desi knight in shining armor.”

Ravi was embarrassed to be caught flirting. He laughed along to somehow make it seem like it was a joke.

“So Ravi, have you found roommates yet?”

“Not yet. I have spoken to some guys from the Indian committee there. They will pick me up from the airport and provide me temporary accommodation for a week during which I will look for roommates and an apartment. Do you live in apartments or the dorm?”
“Apartments, of course. Have you heard of desi grad students living in dorms? That is a lot of extra money, Dude! There are these apartments called Avery Close, five minutes away from campus. I live there. It’s a desi colony. On Sunday afternoons you will see boys playing cricket there. Almost every apartment smells of sambhar masala. There is a joke that once an American guy came to Avery Close looking for some John Doe. A desi guy pointed him to another apartment complex and said “Sorry all foreigners live there”. He he”

They both started laughing. 

“By the way the word desi is funny. How can you call your own people desis? Isn’t it derogatory? “

“You’ll get used to it, Ravi”

The conversation continued to reveal more stuff that Ravi was going to get used to in the next two years. Like walking in snow showers to get to classes on winter mornings, saying Hi, how are you doing? to strangers walking on the road, measuring in pounds, miles and gallons, not having ketchup with pizza, calling coriander leaves cilantro, lady fingers okra and SMS’ing texting, having cooking turns, missing cricket matches and weddings in India, acknowledging everything with a uh-huh, selecting a type of cereal from hundreds of possible choices in an aisle dedicated to just cereals, getting a full refund on returned goods without a receipt, saving coupons for a haircut,  drinking water directly from the tap, tapping neighbors’ wi-fi, watching bollywood movies in parts on the internet,  and many more. 

It was like attending a course New to America:101. Ravi could not believe his luck. The journey had barely begun and here he was chatting with a cute girl who in all probabilities could turn out to be a neighbor. The two other grad students seated in the vicinity seemed to look at him with envy. 

“Do you wanna grab some coffee?”, he asked. Though he was completely wide awake without caffeine, he thought grabbing a coffee would take things a step further. Girls always liked the idea of being asked out for coffee. Not tea. Not cold drinks. But coffee. He never understood why. By now Ravi was totally flirting with her and to his surprise she was flirting back. As they walked to the coffee shop, his phone rang. It was Sheetal. 

“I gotta take this”, he said to the girl. “Two coffees”, he told the vendor and walked a few feet away to answer the call.

“Hi Sweetie. Why didn’t you call? I fell asleep waiting for your call”, said the voice on the other line.

“By the time I cleared security it was too late. I thought you would be asleep. Anyway my flight is delayed so thought I would call you just before taking off”

“Wish your flight was not in the middle of the night. I could have at least come to see you off. I am already missing you”, said Sheetal pausing.

“Miss you too, baby”, said Ravi. The words spurted out before even he could think of what he wanted to say in response. It was like Newton’s third law:  To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. “I think we are about to board, baby and my cellphone is dying. I’ll talk to you once I reach Frankfurt”, said Ravi hurriedly trying to end the conversation. He hung up after performing the rituals of hanging up, the “love you” exchanges. Ravi had moved far enough to prevent the girl in the yellow top from overhearing his conversation.

“Girlfriend?”, she asked sipping coffee from the tiny Nescafe paper cup when Ravi returned.

“Well … she is a girl and she is a good friend”, said Ravi smiling. “How much?”, he asked the store keeper.

“100 rupees sir”

“What??”, asked Ravi. “Just because it is the international terminal these guys charge 100 rupees for 4 sips of coffee!”, muttered Ravi handing out the 100 rupees note.

“100 rupees is 2 dollars, Ravi. Anywhere in USA that is the least you will pay for coffee. And yeah, initially you will do a lot of conversions. You will be shocked at prices. You will not eat out and eat only home cooked meals prepared from the spices and grains and Maggi packets that your mom has packed for you. But gradually you will get used to it. Then you will spend more on beer than you would on your books”

“Is that what you do? Spend more on beer than on books?”, asked Ravi smirking.

“Nah! I only drink wine, sweetie!”

“S..w…eetie! Wow!”, thought Ravi. “Those definitely were signs”

“So….”, said Ravi and paused realizing that he didn’t know her name yet.

“The name is Lakshmi. Lakshmi Subramaniam”, she said.

“Lakshmi! Aah.. you are south Indian?”, asked Ravi, a bit surprised.

“Is that a problem?”

“Naah, naah. Just that you don’t look like one”

“What do you mean by look like one? Do all South Indians look the same?”, she sounded agitated. “You northies have your own pre-conceived notions. South Indian equals to dark skinned, long plaited hair. Right? I mean, how typical can you guys get? Well as hard as it maybe for you to believe, I am a tam bram from Chennai who lives on curd rice and doesn’t speak Hindi!”, she looked at him straight into his eyes. Her dark black eyes piercing through his heart. “Man she is hot” is all that Ravi could think, unaware of the fact that tam bram stood for Tamil Brahmin, a sect of people belonging to the higher strata of the society in the state of Tamil Nadu down south. In his head everyone who lived down south was Madrasi. 

 “Sorry... I didn’t mean it that way.”, Ravi tried to appease her. 

The boarding for the flight started. All that Ravi wanted now was to sit next to her. The flight didn’t look too full. With Lakshmi’s due permission they both walked towards the cabin crew to ask for them to be seated together. He walked up to an air hostess who was busy seating other passengers. 

“Excuse me, M’am”, said Ravi.

The girl who turned around threw Ravi off his mind. It was Sheetal’s friend Samira who Ravi had met several times. “Hey Ravi! Good to see you. Sheetal had mentioned you were flying to US. Didn’t know you were on this flight”

Ravi felt like banging his head. “Why, oh why?”. Sheetal was going to be in India for two years and Lakshmi would probably be his neighbor during that time. It made more sense to think about the future.

“Uhh, Hi Samira. This is my friend Lakshmi. We were wondering if we could get a seat together.”

Samira looked a bit puzzled. She however had to be professional. “Ummm, let me see what I can do for you. May I have your boarding passes, please?”

Samira managed to find a seat for the two towards the end of the aircraft. She seated them and gave Ravi a dirty look, a “Wait till I tell your girlfriend” kind of a look.

Ravi was too mesmerized with Lakshmi to care about Samira or her friend Sheetal. 

New to America: 101 continued for quite a while. Ravi felt overwhelmed with all the information. He was probably ready to teach that course himself without even stepping into America. He didn’t care about the course content. As long as he could keep the conversation alive, as long as he could see Lakshmi’s animated expressions he was happy. 

“So Ravi.. What had you written in your Statement of Purpose”, asked Lakshmi. “Did you write it yourself or copied something from the internet?”

“No no.. I wrote everything myself. I gave the true story. How I come from a family of achievers, how my parents always motivated me to excel, how I was the topper in high school and was in the top 5% of my class in engineering. How I am an ace batsman and won cricket matches for my school and college and how I am passionate about nano technology and won a paper presentation contest in final year and that I worked on cutting edge technology and was the star of my team during my one year at Infosys as a software engineer”, he paused and looked at her.

They both started laughing. “That’s even worse than a rip off from the SOPs available online”, said Lakshmi.

“Well that got me through!”, said Ravi shrugging his shoulders. “Most of it is exaggerated. I was never a topper in high school nor was I in top 5% in engineering. I just got one of my professors in engineering college to write a recommendation letter with top 5% mentioned in it. And yeah I was an extra batsman for our college cricket team. And during my one year at Infy all I ever did was copy and paste code to maintain a website. The menial and meaningless bullshit that is offshored for cheap labor. As for the paper presentation, it was an internal competition. I stood third among five contestants.  Well at least I am not lying. There is some truth in all the statements”

“And your passion for nano technology?”
“Well I read on the university website that Dr.Xin was recently awarded a grant. So I assumed she will need research assistants. And her research is focused on nano tech. So I read a bit about it online. I can pick up things fast and work hard. So if I get funded by her, nano tech it is. Else I’ll look for the next prospective professor and explore whatever field interests them”

“So why are you doing your masters if you are not passionate about it?”, asked Lakshmi.
“Oh come on! Are you passionate about animal sciences? You know how it is in India. Do your medicine or engineering. Or  go to IIM for an MBA or go abroad for higher studies. That’s the only symbol of success!”

“That’s not true.”

“Of course it is. My dad didn’t talk to me for three months when I didn’t make it through an IIT. I didn’t want to try for IIM because I didn’t want to repeat the same story. Cost of an MBA abroad was too high. So I opted for a masters in EE. Anyway America is the land of opportunities.. in my dad’s words. And that’s true it’s the land of average Indians to shine well because we are smarter than an average American”

“Another preconceived notion but I’ll refrain from getting into another argument. Tell me something about your girlfriend”, said Lakshmi diverting the topic.

“Sheetal?”, asked Ravi  holding his hand up against his ears to signal the phone call. He didn’t feel making up stories anymore. “Hmmm… she is a nice girl. The kind I would want to marry. You know, simple and stable. Doesn’t throw tantrums like a child and is not demanding”

“There you go. I like the truth. So what is the problem?”, asked Lakshmi.

“Nothing… I don’t feel the zing with her. You know the spark”

“That happens in any relationship after a few years. The spark doesn’t stay forever”

“But sparks can happen again, right?”

“Like the one between you and me?”
Ravi was taken aback at Lakshmi’s candidness.

“Yeah like the one happening right now”, he replied bending towards her. 

“You know what, if there was any other girl here in my place you would have felt attracted to her the same way”, said Lakshmi pulling away.

Ravi realized maybe he was pushing himself a bit too much.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”
“I wouldn’t be looking for grooms if I had one”

“Who knows?”
“Don’t judge people by your standards, Ravi”, said Lakshmi in an annoyed tone.  “I am going to sleep for a bit” She turned away, adjusted her neck pillow and closed her eyes.

Ravi took out his cellphone and resumed his game of Tetris.

The landing in Frankfurt woke them up. They got off at the Frankfurt airport for the four hours long wait. They waited for each other as they took turns to go to the restroom. He offered to help her drag her hand baggage but she wouldn’t let him. Under ordinary circumstances Ravi would have become impatient and irritable due to the length of the journey. But in this case he wished for further delays. Lakshmi continued to educate him on the ways of the world outside India. This time she spoke about Germany and Europe. They munched on burgers from Mac Donald’s and sipped on coffee from Starbucks while Lakshmi discussed the difference in the marketing strategies of Starbucks and Mac Donalds and explained the significance of brand management. Ravi was impressed with how knowledgeable and well-informed Lakshmi was. She was brainy as well. She solved sudoku puzzles before Ravi could even complete one box. She conversed fluently in French with a shopkeeper and read German signs. She almost quizzed him on world wars and the Holocaust and Germany’s recent political scenario. By the time it was time to board the flight Ravi had been completely bowled over by her; bowled over enough not to remember to call Sheetal.

As they settled into their seats in the aircraft, Lakshmi snuggled up in her blanket with her book, flattening out the dog-ears she had made.

“Are you going back to reading?”, asked Ravi.

“Yeah, the story has picked up momentum. You don’t like reading much, do you?”

“Not much fiction. Some non-fiction, sometimes. But I hardly ever complete a book”

“What was the last fiction you read?”, asked Lakshmi flipping a few pages to refresh where she had paused in the story.

“Ummm”, Ravi was thinking hard. “Treasure Island”

“Wha..?”, Lakshmi asked raising her eyebrows in surprise.

“Yeah. Treasure Island by Rober Louis Stevenson, the abridged version. It was my favorite book in sixth standard”

“Sixth grade.. you never read since then?”

 “I read stuff strictly according to the school syllabus. That’s it. Most stories I tried to read revolved around wars or FBI agents...people and environments that I can’t relate to.  I think the only exception was Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat. But I didn’t finish that either”

“And non-fiction?”

“I religiously read Times of India. Does that count?”

“Never mind!”, said Lakshmi whiffing her hand and moving her attention to the book.

 Ravi really did not want her to return to the book. 

“Lakshmi, why don’t you read later. I am getting bored”, said Ravi after a few minutes.

“Why? Isn’t that game on your phone that you have been hooked on to like a demented kid good enough to keep you occupied?”
“No It’s not. Not when an attractive girl is sitting next to me”. Ravi did not feel any apprehension in expressing his feelings.

Lakshmi put down the book on her lap and looked at him.

“Does Sheetal know how big a flirt you are?”

“You can go tell her.”, said Ravi without a reaction to the name Sheetal anymore. The out-of-sight-out-of-mind feeling was already in action.

Ravi convinced Lakshmi to put away her book and watch a movie instead. Hours passed as they watched movies on the small screens attached to the seat in front of them, challenged each other with puzzles and games, discussed their favorite comics and continued New to America: 101. 

It was almost time to land. Lakshmi took out some hand cream from her purse to relieve her dry hands. She squeezed some of the nice smelling stuff on Ravi’s palms. The fragrance was different. It didn’t smell like any of the Indian creams that his mom or Sheetal used, the ones that smelt like talcum powder. It smelt of apples and cinnamon. As she raised her hands to pull back her hair with a thick black elastic hair band Ravi noticed her well toned upper arms peeking through the big sleeves that had rolled down. He noticed the multiple rings and studs on her ears that shone and sparkled against her butterscotch skin, skin that his mother would describe as buttery. As Lakshmi applied a fruity chapstick to her lips she asked, “Do you want some?”

“Depends”, said Ravi wondering why she was offering him chapstick of all the things.

“Depends? On what?”, asked Lakshmi putting the lid on the chapstick.

“Nah nothing”, said Ravi nodding and bending his head down to conceal his urge of kissing her.

He looked at her once again. Her dark black eyes outlined with long curved eyelashes, her glowing butterscotch skin, her lips shining with the recently applied chapstick that smelled like watermelon were irresistible. Without thinking twice Ravi blurted out “You are so beautiful, Lakshmi…I think I am falling for you”, immediately regretting what he said.

Lakshmi started laughing, “Relax Dude. Its not even been 24 hours since you met me.”

Ravi was embarrassed. “Sorry. I am probably overreacting.”

They looked at each other and paused. Lakshmi raised her eyebrows in a “why are you looking at me like that” manner. Ravi bent towards her. This time he didn’t stop himself. He kissed her on the cheek. She recoiled slightly and tried to move her face away. In the motion their lips brushed against each other. Ravi moved back looking down, not sure if he did the right thing. The taste of her fruity chapstick was different from the Vaseline Sheetal used.

“Is that chapstick you applied watermelon flavor?”, he asked trying to change the topic.

 “Yeah”, said Lakshmi picking up her book.

“That’s my favorite fruit.”, said Ravi nodding his head.

“Since when? Starting five minutes back?”, smirked Lakshmi.

“Do you realize what you did was not the most appropriate thing to do?”, said Lakshmi adjusting the neck of her top back as she leaned back into her seat. “I am your senior. I could get you into trouble for making this move.”

“I wouldn’t care even if you were a professor!”, said Ravi confident of the fact that Lakshmi was just pulling his leg.

Ravi didn’t care about her being senior. He didn’t care about Samira’s shocked glances. He didn’t care about any circumstances. He was just enjoying the best journey of his life and hoped that it never ended. But like all good things, the journey ended sooner than he wanted to.

At the airport they stood in different queues for immigration based on their immigration status. Once done they proceeded to baggage claim together. While Lakshmi waited at the carousel for her luggage Ravi made a trip to the restroom to freshen up. When he returned to the baggage claim section, he didn’t see Lakshmi. He spotted his luggage, pulled them down, loaded his cart complaining about the dollar he had to pay to rent one and waited at the carousel. He thought she may have gone to the restroom herself. After a fifteen minute wait he realized that the graduate students would be waiting to pick him up. He proceeded towards the exit keeping an eye out for Lakshmi. There was no sign of her. He had not taken her number or email id since it would be easy to figure that out from the university directory. As he proceeded to the exit there were some Indian guys ,his age, waiting with sign boards. One of them had his name. He introduced himself. He asked if they had seen Lakshmi. None of the guys who had come to receive him knew her or even recognized her based on the description he provided. 

“Girlfriend?”, asked Ashwin, one of the student committee members who had organized the pick up and temporary accommodation for Ravi.

“No. I met her on the flight”, said Ravi. He did not want to reveal more information to unknown people yet. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s go”

“There is no such girl dude”, said Ashwin. “Trust me, if she is cute there is no way we would have missed her. And there is no one new arriving by that name or description either”

Ravi was surprised to learn that the student committee did an entire background search of the new girls arriving every fall semester through search engines and social networks like Facebook and Orkut and ranked them according to their looks and relationship status. This helped them prioritize the pick up schedule. The seniors, of course, had the first preference to choose who they would pick up. On the drive back Ashwin discussed other things that someone new to America ought to know. Ravi said a “I know” inattentively for almost everything since he had successfully completed New to America:101 on his way to America. He noticed things that Lakshmi had spoken about like the unmanned gas stations where one had to fill gas himself, the logic behind the numbering of the exit signs on highways and the few American accented words like “class”, “status” and “schedule” popping up in the middle of a clear Indian accented English dialog by desi graduate students. He let his imagination wander in many directions as he observed the new place through the moving car window. Fall in North Carolina was very beautiful. The leaves had begun to change color. Blotches of yellow, orange and green dissected by the straight lines of wooden sloping roofs against a vast clear blue sky was something that he had only seen in pictures.

A week had passed since Ravi’s arrival. There was no trace of the curly haired, butterscotch skin Lakshmi Subramaniam from Animal Sciences. He had checked the university directory several times with different spellings of Lakshmi Subramaniam. He had checked every possible social network. He had checked with the Animal Sciences department. He had checked with undergraduate offices. He had even checked all the possible apartment complex offices near campus. No one he met had known a Lakshmi Subramaniam or anyone by that description. “Why did she fake her identity?” “Who was she?”  “Where is she?” The question continued to haunt him. He avoided speaking to Sheetal making up excuses of jet lag and time difference. Thankfully till now his airplane stories hadn’t made the breaking news in his friends’ circle in India. Else he would have to deal with Sheetal’s questions. He wondered why Samira had been quiet though. 

Ravi was completely out of focus. He did not decide anything or have an opinion. He just followed the herd and enrolled in classes that his roommates registered in, opened a bank account where others did, went with them to get his ID, pay his fees, submit his immunization documents and sign up for the apartment lease. He noted down his cooking turns, his course schedule along with the university transit schedule, important phone numbers and calling card numbers, store and road names and campus job locations in his notebook. In the midst of conversations with fellow students about which courses were going to be tough, where to do Indian grocery shopping, and how to do laundry, all that his mind could visualize was Lakshmi Subramaniam and her watermelon chapstick. Everything else seemed fuzzy. 

Ravi was tired of walking around the campus looking for a part time job. This year the number of graduate students was very high. Every possible on-campus job in the libraries, food courts, dorms, offices, tutoring centers had received more applications than required. “The menial website maintenance was better than this crap, man.”, Ravi expressed his frustration to his roommate with whom he was job hunting, as they boarded a bus. “Feels strange to look for a job to arrange book shelves or clean up a cafeteria when in India I could sit in a top notch air conditioned office and take home a big pay packet!”

“What happened to your funding? You said you were talking to some prof”, asked his roommate.

“Yeah, I have mailed her.  Have been reading the abstracts of these publications over and over again to retain some keywords and basic definitions.“,said Ravi holding out the roll of print outs he had been carrying around to read while traveling. “But at the rate at which desi students are flocking the campus, I doubt I’ll have a chance”. It was late in the afternoon. All Ravi had eaten since morning was a slice of wheat bread and a banana. It was too expensive to eat anything after the currency conversions he did in his head.  His head was heavy from the sleepless nights haunted by Lakshmi Subramaniam. His body was tired and weary after the long campus walks in the hot scorching sun. 

As Ravi filled out the application seated in a room filled with many candidates like him for a desk job in his department, his cellphone beeped. It was an SMS from Sheetal. “Samira had called. Can you call me now?”

“Why now? Why, Murphy?”, thought Ravi. He did not need another source of tension added to his frustration and weariness. He muted the cell phone and put it away.

Ravi and his roommate decided to check out the classrooms to make sure they knew where to come on the first day of classes. As they roamed around comparing Indian college campuses to the clean and technologically advanced classrooms here, Ravi smelt something that shook him up. It was apples and cinnamon. The scent of the hand cream Lakshmi used. He could not be mistaken since that smell had been haunting him for seven long days and nights now. He walked past the classroom they were inspecting, to the row of rooms just past it. A couple of rooms down the hallway one of the doors was slightly open. As Ravi approached it, a strong whiff of the apple and cinnamon fragrance reached him.  “Was Lakshmi inside?”, he thought, his head had started throbbing, his palms were sweaty. 

He could hear a faint tune from inside which sounded like the phone had been put on hold. An AT&T commercial looped continuously interleaved with “All our customer service lines are busy. Please wait for the next available associate”. Ravi caught a glimpse of the professor’s name tag outside the office room. It read Dr. Maria L. Xin. His roommate came by looking for him.

“What are you doing here, Ravi?”, he whispered. “Are you going to meet Dr. Xin today?”

Ravi signaled him to be silent as he continued to eavesdrop. 

The AT&T commercial was abruptly disrupted by a ringing tone followed by “All calls are monitored for quality purposes” statement. The customer associate finally came on the line. “Welcome to AT&T. This is Lucy. What can I do for you today?”, spoke an American accented Indian voice.

“Hi. I want to add an additional line to my plan”, spoke a familiar voice. A voice that had been replaying itself over and over again in Ravi’s mind.

“Sure. May I have your number please, Ma’m?”

“Sure. It’s 919-334-5869”

“Can you confirm your full name please?”

“It’s Dr. Maria Lakshmi Xin”

“Your mother’s maiden name for security purposes?”

“Subramaniam”

“Thank you Dr.Xin. We can proceed …..”

The voice faded. Ravi did not want to see, hear or smell anything anymore. He wished his senses just froze. He tried hard to recollect the information on Dr. Xin’s website. “PhD in electrical engineering from Purdue awarded in 2006. Awarded an NSF grant for research in nano tubes. Youngest associate professor in the department of electrical engineering at NCSU”.  He also re-ran bits and pieces of his conversation with Laksmi Subramaniam, conversation about his SOP, his interest in nano tech. His stomach had begun to hurt like it used to before an exam. He suddenly felt awake and alert, like the way he would feel when his dad would knock him on his head when he dozed off while trying to study. All the fuzziness had disappeared. He could see things clearly. He could see objects like the doors in the hallway, the bulletin boards, the L among other alphabets in Dr. Xin’s name tag.

The university mascot on the walls stared at him like it had seven days back from the keychain on Lakshmi Subramaniam’s backpack. He reached for his cellphone and his notebook which contained the calling card number. It was going to be a long night with Sheetal on the phone….