01. Rose and Thorn - Sandhya
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Subha entered her hostel room with the hot coffee in her hand … She checked the time for the ‘n’th time.
Where is this Suji???
Tring tring tring…
Her mobile phone screamed and she answered it just after a ring.
“Hey Suji, where are you yaar? I’ve been waiting for almost an hour”
“Sorry, Subha I am still in the Angel home…”
Sujatha’s voice had that slight tone of hesitation. And that was more than enough for Subha to find out something is not right.
“What happened Suji? Did Bharath disturb you again?”
“No, no, Subha, this is something else…. I know you will be tired but can you please come here?”
Something is really wrong thought Subha…
“Ok dear I will be there in an hour…”
“Thanks thanks Subha”
Sujatha’s voice sounded very pleased.
What has she brought in now? Subha wondered …
Sujatha is her best friend right from the childhood days. They both hailed from simple middle class families from a village in South of Tamilnadu.
They both had shifted to Chennai just like thousands of other people for the sake of job and education.
The friends have big dreams… Subha is an aspiring MBA-ian while Sujatha’s ambition is to become a Chartered accountant.
At present Sujatha is working in the orphanage while Subha is working as a content writer.
After quickly sipping her coffee, Subha again draped her blue color chiffon saree. She didn’t take much time for makeup… Just used her hands to adjust her hair and kept a new bindi….
That's Subha for you!
Beautiful... Soft... Elegant... But very simple. She is neither orthodox nor modern. She is a classic blend of tradition and fashion mixed together.
She is not a beauty queen but she is more like the familiar good looking neighborhood girl.
Subha reached the “Angel home” and parked her Scooty in the parking lot. Sujatha is working there as clerk cum accountant cum any other designation you could name!
In the past two years, Sujatha has become all-in-all for Jaya, the head of that non-profit orphanage.
She could see Sujatha having an animated conversation with a person near Jaya ma'am's room.
Subha walked fast and went near them and called her friend…
“Suji! Suji…”
Sujatha heard her friend’s voice, so excused herself and came near her friend.
“Oh Subha, thank god, you are here!”
“Cut it off Suji, tell me what happened?”
“Home is in a big problem Subha…”
”What problem?”
“Today we took the kids to Muttukaadu Lake…”
“Yes I know that….”
“The kids were playing cricket and by mistake Kamal hit the ball on a car that was parked there…”
“Oho….”
“First I didn’t realize it’s an imported car… I apologized to the owner and told him to forgive Kamal…”
“I guess that’s the right thing to do….”
“No Subha, that man is not like us…. He is a monster….”
“What???”
“Yes, he looked like a decent man but the moment he saw that his car’s glass is broken he turned into a monster and started shouting, no no… not just shouting, but threatening us…”
“Threatening??? Why?”
“He said he just can’t accept our apology but instead we should repair the damage…”
“But is it very costly???”
“Yes it is… It’s a foreign car and you don’t easily get the original glass here... Even if you find it, it will cost around fifty thousand…”
“What???”
“Yes Subha and this guy wants us to replace it for him…”
“Did you tell him about the home??? May be he thought you are from some private school…”
“Oh yes Subha, I told him and that turned out to be a bigger mistake…”
“What???”
“Didn’t I tell you about a company pressurizing Jaya ma’am to either pay the debts in cash or via the home’s property? This guy is the owner of that company…”
“That doesn’t sound good…”
“Yes, you are correct… After hearing the home’s name the heartless monster became more adamant… He is asking us to fix the glass for him immediately…”