Vinit sat pondering strategic and politically correct answers to an interviewer's questions, listed on the glowing screen of his recently purchased Mcbook air. At 28 years of age, Vinit was well dressed, athletically built, composed and doing very well at his job. Vinit had been recruited from college campus itself, by a reigning entertainment channel and given a dream job as vice president - marketing with a plump pay package.
After having achieved a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, from a reputed university, he had set out to pursue a course in management at one of the best institutes in the country. He was sharp, eager to learn, ahead of his class and was blessed with a memory like that of an elephant. This memory, he often considered to be a problem more than an asset as sometimes, it would drag him through gloomy and painful times of the past.
A chart from Business India, bearing proof of his channel's prowess in the Hindi entertainment industry lay on his coffee table as he stared out the window, absorbed in thought, on the 27th floor of his office building at Nariman point in Mumbai. His table was near a wall sized glass window in starbucks, which treated it's customers to a splendid view of the sea, marine drive and the horizon. It saw the who's who of the entertainment industry, walk in and out for coffee and bites, from offices throughout the building. CEOs, owners, executives and their clients alike would come alone, or in groups to get a glimpse of the sea and break the monotony of their time spent in airconditioned and windowless cubicles.
Vinit cursed his memory again as he fought to focus on the interview for Business India, on young guns of the entertainment industry, which they wanted to feature in their 25th anniversary special addition. He was fighting his memory, which today, was showing him a looped telecast of two hours of the nasty breakup he had had with his childhood sweetheart Aanya...
Aanya used to be an average student and 2 years his senior at school. She had droopy shoulders, unkept, messy hair, and a flat chest which almost scooped backwards. She wasn't particularly talented or popular either. She liked Vinit and went after him, till he fell in love with her and closed his doors to any advances by other good looking, endowed, or even mildly talented girls. Vinit on the other hand had impeccable grades and was also called "Captain safe hands" as the captain and wicket keeper of his school's cricket team. He had a toned, agile body and chiselled yet sensitive looks, which could make any girl turn and look twice and that too longingly.
They would date, go to movies and hang with friends, but Aanya detested intimacy. Their only two attempts to have sex in all those years of relationship, were complete disasters and extremely dissatisfactory for Vinit. Committed and loving as he was, Vinit missed action in bed, which his friends frequently and fluently boasted about.
Aanya had been an insecure wreck when Vinit topped his management class. In a massive tantrum, she had threatened a break up. This hadn't been the first time. Vinit had understood her insecurities and had always reconciled and suffered. This time though, he had pulled the plug. He had started his job soon thereafter and had had a very progressive and busy year.
He fought an urge to sympathise with himself, for blinding himself from affections of so many other lovelies, for so many years. He winced at memories of his friends calling him "The Capable Virgin"!
The final blow always came when he remembered that Aanya had never even tried to get back and he had been stupid all along...
Calm and composed as he always was, he tugged resolutely on his tailormade Raymond business suit, slapped his mac shut, shoved all papers and magazine into his briefcase and headed to the elevator. He instructed his secretary to hold fort while he was urgently away for the weekend. Next call was to a bewildered friend, who ran a travel agency, pleading him for a 3 day getaway starting next morning, Friday. Vinit knew he needed, deserved and had enough leaves saved up, to afford a short break.
It began to drizzle as Vinit threw his Nike sack into the overhead baggage hold of the twenty seater Mercedes minivan. He slumped into it's last seat and awaited his complimentary forty minute airport transfer to the five star 'Auris Resort and Spa', nestled in the western ghats. In ten minutes, an extremely excited and loud gang of 2 guys and 3 girls bustled into the minivan. They were partly drenched, from the drizzle, but were loving it, just as anyone does on a holiday. They hit high decibels, passed wise cracks around, chomped on crunchies, sang and shot frequent jokes on the "baby - Vaani" of the group. Vinit ignored the cacophony and prayed his trip would give him peace and rest.
Vinit put on some music on I-tunes and may have dozed off. He awoke to the most pleasant and distinctly feminine fragrance of what seemed like classy French perfume. The van was humming steadily on state highway and the others of the group had grabbed window seats.
Seated on the window across of his, right at the back, was a girl dressed immaculately in a white silk formal shirt and light grey trousers. She must've entered after he had dozed off. Her beautiful features glowed softly against the back drop of passing greenery, as the van ascended into the ghats. Her shirt contoured ever so beautifully over her breasts, her silken hair fell softly on to her shoulders and hid matching earrings. A belt hugged her slender waist and she looked beautiful in profile. Vinit could've stared for hours, manners be damned!!
She smiled embarrassed and fended off jabs by her senior colleagues, calling her 'baby - Vaani' in the most tender voice Vinit had heard. He heard one of the girls tell her friend, that Vaani was interning with their fashion label for 6 months, was fresh out of designing school and was all of 22. She was like a baby at the job. Vinit thought, Vaani, on the contrary, was the only one amongst them to have a classy fashion sense, even on a holiday. All of Vinit's senses were in hyperdrive except for touch and he felt an unfamiliar longing swell up somewhere inside him. They arrived at the Resort.
Vinit being chivalrous, allowed Vaani to head down the van's aisle before him. He could hear his beat when she smiled graciously and walked ahead. She looked slender and petite from behind. Her derriere had a luscious contour and was beautifully proportioned with her waist. Vinit wondered if he'd ever see this beauty in a bikini or even better! In the nude...
At the reception, the group parted to freshen up and meet again for a short trip to the Waarli Cloth Center. The Adivasi tribes of the forest used natural pigments to print on cloth and had a small display of their talent in the hills. He remembered his friend telling him that he had booked Vinit on a tour with the designing team of a very popular fashion label from which one member had bowed out. This explained their fascination with prints and garments. Vinit saw Vaani and Priya, her colleague, check into a cottage just across of his.
In his plush, dimly lit cottage, Vinit had some wine and slept. When he woke, the sun had set. He showered, gelled his hair, put on a linen shirt with khakis and headed to the bar for a drink. He was scheduled for the full health treatment and spa the next day...
At the bar, the fashion team were back from their excursion and already on their second round of shots. There was a group of foreigners and another young couple, but much of the resort wasn't occupied, it not being the correct season. He called for a vodka martini and relaxed just a few sips into his drink. Vaani wasn't with the team. 'Could she have left already? Am I disappointed?'...
And behold! she entered the door. Was there a kind of silence in the bar? Did he hear a gasp from one of the men? She breezed in, looking drop dead gorgeous in an emerald green dress. Her brunette flowy hair, which was fashioned all on to her right shoulder, concealed an emerald green earring which shined and dangled ever so lightly on her left ear. Her left neck lay bare, shapely and inviting. Just a faint touch of gloss on her luscious and mildly parted lips made Vinit feel he had lesser space in his khakis.
A emerald green pendent nestled between her supple breasts. Her dress cupped her breasts from the outer side till the nipples and kept their inner bulge bare. The dress continued in strings over her bare shoulders and criss-crossed in a straw-mat pattern over her partially bare and toned back. Vinit hadn't realised that he bar tender had replaced his drink and he was half through the new one as well. The dress stuck to her, like silken skin till her waist, where it opened up and fell casually down few inches on her thighs. She had firm and toned thighs which continued into shapely calves. Her calves pivoted on emerald green stilletos that wound and strapped around her calf like laces. She looked nothing like the intern designer Vinit had seen in the bus.
He laughed inwardly at the analogy of how his member wanted to turn from the nerdy Dr Bruce Banner to the muscular Hulk. He noticed a hint of green twinkle in every mans eye in the bar.
She smiled recognition at him when their eyes met, perhaps due to his chivalry in the bus. Vinit wanted her, relentlessly. He could have taken her right there on the bar stool where she sat elegantly and enjoyed masculine attention. If only he could approach her! By this time she had mingled with her group. They were already quite high. Her room mate Priya was having her 4th shot and swaying. Vaani sipped wine as she snuck a few glances at Vinit from the corner of her eye...
Frustrated, Vinit left the bar and called for champagne at his cottage. It was 9.30. He wanted to head for a trek down the nature trail from their resort early next morning...