Short story: ‘Sainyam’
May 23, 2009
They were 8 people in the team, 4 girls and 4 boys. The project needed them to travel in pairs to various parts of rural India collecting data, conducting interviews etc. It was a very interesting job one of the best Padmaja ever had.
In Padmaja’s eyes Uday was the least attractive of the 4 boys in the team. She cannot stand lean bodied men and Uday was lean and fragile. Politically he was inclined towards Hindutva and came across as a patriarchal person. He would talk about Indian culture and tradition all the time and would frown at modernization and westernization. He spoke in pure Hindi more often than required.
There were enough reasons to repel Padmaja though she didn’t exactly hate him. She just knew she couldn’t be friends with him too easily.
In between their travel the team used to meet in the project office, share with each other their field experience, submit reports and plan their next tour. Shuffling of the pairs was essential for many reasons. Each person was selected with different skill set and the combinations were meticulously designed as per skills.
