Names

Today was the day, Neethi Verma would get to know her workplace in the office. She was quite amazed by the cubicles, and the sound of the keyboards. The manager took her along with 2 guys to an empty cubicle. He said “Folks, this is where you will sit until you are allocated a project, please feel comfortable. If you need any help, you can let me know”.

Both the guys opted for seats in the cubicle, Neethi had no option to take up the last place in the cubicle. She switched on her system, the name of the previous user came up on the screen. “Hmm.. Rohit Sharma.. nice name” she thought and then logged in with her new id and password. She was excited as this was her first system in the corporate world. Every new application she tried to login had Rohit’s name flashing on the screen. In the evening she told her friends about this little incident. They finally concluded, he was probably the previous user of the machine and that’s the reason it was coming up.

Days passed by, Neethi got busy with her project. One day she noticed a drawer next to her table. She realized, it was for her use. She felt stupid for not realizing this earlier. She always kept her stuff on the table. She opened up the first drawer, to find a lot of notepads and pens. Just when this happened, a friend of hers came to her place. She saw the stuff and took it out. Neethi stopped her saying it was not hers, so it would be better they don’t touch it. Rekha did not care about it. She read out the name on the notepad. “Rohit Sharma.. hmm.. that’s why you dint want me to touch it”. Neethi dint understand what Rekha was talking about. She snatched the notepad from her and read what was on the Notepad. She felt so embarrassed. She just put it back and told Rekha she had no idea about this. Infact, it was the first time she had even opened the drawer. After Rekha left, Neethi was very curious. She opened the second drawer, this was pretty big, it had a pair of shoes and also a t-shirt. She assumed these also belonged to Rohit. Neethi was now concerned, it was more than a week since she had moved into this place, and this guy Rohit never came up to claim his things. She sent a mail to him, asking him to collect his stuff, from the place.

Two weeks passed, there was no response from Rohit. Neethi was frustrated that she couldn’t use the drawer as it was full. Also, she dint feel it was right to use it when it already had somebody else’s stuff. Few days later she started cribbing about Rohit. Her friends referred to him as RS. Every evening they would ask her if RS came to claim his things. Neethi was now used to this. She dint mind Rohit’s stuff in her place.

A month later, when she logged in, she saw a mail from RS. He apologized for the delay in replying, he was on vacation for a month, and he now had to request for a new drawer to keep his stuff. He had asked Neethi, if she could accommodate the stuff for some more days, until he could get his own drawer. She had just completed reading the mail, she picked up her coffee mug and got up from her seat. As she turned around, she saw a guy standing behind her. She just blurted out “Rohit”. He was quite surprised, “Hi Neethi, I hope I haven’t left any of my pics in here. How did you know it was me?” Neethi just smiled and said it was wild guess. He thanked her for keeping the stuff with her and also allowing him to keep it for a few more days.

A week passed, they would occasionally crash into each other, just a smile or a hi, would be the conversation. All her friends had started building their love story. It seemed more like a movie than what could happen in real life. Every time Neethi heard her friends talk about her and RS, she would just smile. Following Monday, when Neethi came to office, she saw a big dairy milk on her keyboard. She was surprised, since it was not any special day. She dint understand who could have kept the chocolates at her desk. As she opened her mail, she saw there was a mail from RS. He had thanked her for all that she had done. He had to leave to a different location the previous weekend, hence dint get a chance to meet her personally.

Neethi opened the drawer, to keep her stuff in. Everything was taken out there was just an envelope in there. She opened it. After reading it, she just smiled and kept it back with all other stuff.

Four years later, all her friends received her wedding invitation. Neethi Verma weds Rohit Sharma. All her friends came to the wedding, claiming to tell her “we told you this would happen”.

On the stage was Neethi, happily married to Rohit. One of her friends came up on stage to wish her. She introduced her husband to her friend. “Rohit, meet my friend RS. You remember I had told you I have a friend with the same name as yours”