"Falling" In Love ...

Vineeth is one of the silent characters on her office, people have never seen him talking loud or rather talking in the first place. He lives in his own world and will always be glued to his laptop. He used to go to lunch or tea / coffee on his own. He is very good technically and hence he had a nice name and respect with the management. But his silence is still a mystery to all his team members, even some of his team members would hesitate to go and talk to him in case of any doubts; he has created a canvas of being "reserved" to his fellow colleagues...

Sandhya joined the company a day back and she was put in Vineeth's team, and for an "all boys" team, Sandhya's entrance to their team was a welcome break and it actually changed the morale of the team, Sandhya is an extrovert and she does not have this sex barrier in moving with her team mates and in fact she was very much comfortable in moving with them. Sandhya does not know anything about Vineeth and she was equally warned by all her fellow team mates saying, not to talk to him unless or otherwise it’s very necessary and that too only if its an official thing. Vineeth's character was totally opposite to Snadhya's and as we all know physics, "Like poles repel and unlike poles attract".

Sandhya was pinned to work with Vineeth in one of the modules, which is an opportunity the other guys were expecting to have come to them, not only that they can work closely with Sandhya, but this module needs to be developed at onsite, its so unfortunate that she has to work with Vineeth, and the reason for the other guys to feel envy is, they both will have to fly abroad very soon and be there for couple of months and complete the assignment. Sandhya was thrilled about this opportunity and somehow, she started to like Vineeth's character and was even more curious to know why is so silent. She first thought of developing a good rapport with him and then slowly investigate the reason for his silence.

One fine day Vineeth called Sandhya to tell her that he needs to teach her something important which she needs to know before she starts working in this project. Both of them sat inside a conference room and Vineeth was going over a presentation to her, he asked her to raise any questions, if she has any doubts. Sandhya was impressed by his technical abilities and she was very attentive to the presentation. Vineeth completed the class and without any hesitation he said thanks and started to leave the room, Sandhya stopped him and then asked him, if he can give her his mobile number, so that she can call him if she has any doubts, she was slapped with a reply saying, "Whatever be the doubt, you email me, I will clear it for you, I don’t feel there is a necessity to share my mobile number with you". Sandhya was not shocked over the reply, as she was expecting something of this sort.

That day she logged on to orkut to find his profile, and luckily she found his profile which was last updated way back in 2004. She happened to read some of the testimonials that were written for him and all were praising Vineeth for his technical abilities and his quite character, also people were praising him for his terrific sense of humour and its always fun when he is around. This is one statement which Sandhya could not understand as she has not seen him talking anything "funny" since the day she joined. She immediately sent him a friend request and after a wait for nearly a month or so, that was promptly rejected. The D day came, when both were set to fly to the US and Sandhya's fellow mates asked her to take some good novel or an i-pod while travelling, as Vineeth is not a good companion to travel with.

They both were at the airport and Sandhya first proceeded to the counter and got her boarding pass, she asked for a window seat, and looked at Vineeth to see if he wants a window seat, but Vineeth does not even pay attention to her looks, next was Vineeth, he asked the front desk person to give him the last seat which is towards the tail of the aircraft, Sandhya did not expect that Vineeth would opt for a different seat which is quite far, she promptly asked him why he has not got a seat next to her, and all she got back as a reply was a "deaf year" from him. Vineeth took a remote seat at the waiting lounge and made sure that there is no one around him, Sandhya was curious to see if he is pulling out any magazines to read, but he was simply sitting and closing his eyes. At this time, too many thoughts were going on in Sandhya's mind, over the reason for his mysterious behavior. "Would he had a love failure", "Is he a psycho", "Is he pretending as if he is reserved", or "Does he have any serious family problem. While all these thoughts were occupying her mind, there came the announcement for boarding, as it was already 2 in the morning, Sandhya went to sleep immediately after the flight took off. The story remained the same at the rest of the boarding points.

They both reached US and took their respective hotel rooms, and Sandhya did not see Vineeth for the rest of the 2 days over the weekend, his room was never opened and she was also a bit hesitant to know the status. The next monday morning he went to office without even letting her know and Sandhya has to find her way to office as she was not sure of its exact location. As her other colleagues warned, it was not such a pleasant stay with Vineeth as he hardly bothered to talk to her. Sandhya decided that she has had enough and she wanted to break this silence. One day she barged into his room and Vineeth does not expect that. She said "Hi, just felt boring, so thought of having a chat with you", and Vineeth was quick to ask "Do you have any doubts with respect to our application?", and Sandhya was even quicker to respond, "No i have some doubts about your character, I just wanted to know why you are distancing yourself from the rest of the crowd".

Vineeth does not want to encourage such talks, so he said "He is feeling sleepy and he wants to sleep now", and asked her leave his room. Sandhya was adamant to do that and hence she pressed upon a reply for her question. Vineeth blasted her by saying "You have no business to know that and i don’t think i need to tell anything to you", Sandhya decided to take it light and then said "See Vineeth, i respect and admire you for variety of reasons, but its really getting difficult for me to understand you, if you really have something that is bothering you, why can't you speak up and pour it out?". Vineeth said, he has nothing to say to anyone and he is not interested to talk to her anything about him now. Sandhya was smart to pick up that word "now" and she asked him, "Ok, if not now, will you share your thoughts with me over this weekend?" Vineeth just showed her the exit and was waiting with his room door opened for her to vacate his place.

The rest of the week was very busy at work and Sandhya did not had time to think about anything other than work, but she had her views clear in grilling Vineeth that coming weekend and then make him speak out. That Saturday, Sandhya went to Vineeth's room in the morning and then told him that today is her birthday and she wants to go out with him for lunch, Vineeth initially refused to come out with her and also did not bother to say a formal wish for her birthday, but Sandhya forced him to come out with her. Vineeth slipped into his jeans and then reluctantly accompanied her to a nearby INDIAN restaurant. Sandhya ordered the dishes for Vineeth without even asking him what he needs, after ordering she turned to Vineeth and said "If i ask you what you want to eat, you are not going to reply and if i eat without giving anything to you, i will have stomach pain, so i thought its better i order for you" and gave him a wink, and that did not sound funny to Vineeth so he turned his face towards the window and fixed his eyes on those speeding cars at the expressway.

Sandhya started, "OK now tell me, what’s your problem in life ?, you are well educated, you are employed, you are earning a good amount of money, you are young, I just could not find any reason for you being like this and above all, I read all your orkut testimonials and people around you have given a different picture about you, which is in absolute contrast from what you are today, so there must be something in your mind which is bothering you, so please, open up, there is nothing you are going to gain if you have all those within yourself", Sandhya has worn the hat of a psychologist now. Vineeth immediately took off from his seat and started to leave the restaurant, Sandhya has to literally beg him to come back, with her promising that she will never ask about him or his personal life anymore. It was one of the silent lunch she has ever had in her life.

Vineeth remained to be a mysterious figure for her but she was confident that she will change him before they fly back to India. That day evening she saw Vineeth going out somewhere, but before she could call him, he took their hired car and went off. She did not see him the whole of next day and she had no clue of whether he returned to the hotel or not. That being a Sunday morning, she got up a bit late and was actually disturbed by a door bell ringing at her room, she opened the room with a big yawn on her face and immediately that got closed as she saw a group of well built police officers dressed in blue standing in front of her. They came into their room with their trademark question "How are you doing today" and told them that they have came here to enquire about one of the terror suspect who blew himself up at the O’Hare International Airport, Chicago last evening and they found a piece of his passport paper which had Vineeth's photo half-burnt.