05.You & Me - Sandhya

As Thulasi and Uma expected, Seetha didn't visit them immediately. It took her many months to give them a visit. When she arrived at the boutique, Seetha was warmly welcomed by another girl. Seetha accepted her greetings with grace but searched for Thulasi and Uma. Her searching eyes finally found them both busy talking in another room. She informed the sales girl that she wants to meet Thulasi and Uma. But even before the girl can move, Uma saw Seetha through the frozen mirror and waved at her. Thulasi too turned back and smiled at Seetha.

They both opened the door and welcomed Seetha and asked her to come and sit inside. Uma asked the girl to bring some juice for Seetha. Seetha was very much impressed with the boutique. The place was neat and very well kept. Even the sales girl was very polite and kind.
"I am very much impressed with your boutique... It's very well maintained... Good job" she said with a pleased smile.

Both Thulasi and Uma were happy to hear those words from someone like Seetha.

"Thanks madam. It's great to hear such kind words from someone like you." said Thulasi beaming.

"Aah! What does this someone like you tag means???"

"Oh! Sorry madam, nothing to offend you, it's just that we know that for your status you should be used to some very good shops... and you uttering such kind words is flattering us..."

"Hmmmmm... even if that's true... you have offended me..."

Thulasi and Uma looked at each other.

"What? You guys are just glancing at each other? I asked you both to call me using my name but again you are calling me as madam... So shouldn't I be offended for this?"

"Oh! Right Seetha madam, that's a good reason to be offended. But it's difficult to make Thulasi come out of her respect circle... But don't worry, I will not offend you like that" said Uma winking.

Seetha noticed that Thulasi looked slightly different now. Her face looked bright and there was something else... very different from what she can remember.

"Good... Uma, you are my friend then... Thulasi there seems to be something different about you... I can't figure out what it is... But you look very different to my eyes today..." said Seetha.

Even before Thulasi can react, Uma said,
"Seetha madam, it's very obvious sign... I am not sure how you missed it... Thulasi is not carrying the mountain in her shoulders now... she has finally kept it down..." with a smile.

"Mountain?????"

"Yes, she used to always worry about her sister, her mother, their future etc etc. Now she is not carrying that with her anymore, so that's why she is looking different..."

"Oh!" said a surprised Seetha.

"Yes madam, my sister has started working and now she has almost single handedly taken the family responsibility... Her salary is more than enough for us to handle our expense... She has asked me to think about expanding our "Fabulous boutique"... Now I can spend almost 100% of my share of profit for expansion... Actually we were discussing about that only..."

"That’s good... But why are you thinking about the boutique now? Think about yourself? I guess it's very high time that you get married..."

There was an uneasy pause for few seconds. Malar, the sales girl entered the room with juice just then.

"Please madam, accept this juice..." said Uma, giving the tumbler to Seetha. While handing over the juice, Uma signaled something using her eyes.

Seetha smiled to show that she has understood her sign language and tried to change the topic.

"Thanks... It's so very hot... And this juice is like heavenly drink for me now..."

After completing her juice, Seetha continued to speak,
"So you are going to expand your boutique... Good... So what are you guys going to do?"

The friends hesitated for few seconds, then,
"There are no big plans madams... Just thinking about getting more dresses and also thinking about recruiting one more tailor so that we can deliver our work fast... It will be great if we can get one more specialist like aari specialist... We can also opt for a door delivery option if we can get a good delivery boy... There are so many other things too...But as you see most of them are long time recurring expense... and also we should get more profit..."

"Sounds good, so when are you going to start with the changes?" asked Seetha.

"Not sure madam, we started discussing about this only now... There are lots of things to worry about... What if my family needs my money for some emergency reason? What if the expenses go beyond our plans? What if we don't get the expected results...? So many what if's..."

"mmm... I can understand..."

"It's really a high risk when we bank on our own profit for these changes..." said Thulasi.