Everyone reaches the stage where they have to settle down.

A certain airport incident put a spin on Aryan’s mind and there was a visible imbalance in almost everything that happened around him and with him. While he took it on a lighter note, a few pushed his already broken buttons a little harder. He wasn’t the one to snap but it was something he had not seen coming and hence it hit like a person running towards a bullet train. With the buttons being pressed, he had taken an off on his birthday weekend and went home, only to be pestered about creating a matrimonial profile. Aryan laughed at the thought of it since he still assumed he was too young for that sort of thing, but his age had a completely different story to tell. While Siri, his colleague had argued with him that he was well past his marriageable age and that he was nearing the age where he won’t eve get any matches, thanks to the increasing count of his age.

He laughed again at the thought of marriage. And wondered who would be stupid enough to even marry him. However, he had to sit in front of the laptop and create a profile. He laughed again and this time it was the photos, which he had none. He was clever enough to not send the photos that they had taken during his cousin’s marriage for the same reason that they will put them on matrimonial site or give to the people known to his parents who sort of finding the marriageable partners. So, he had to create a profile with no picture and also the sort of knew that a photo would just further decrease his chances of getting any match, not that he had a great profile to start off with. But he found out that he was outsmarted by his parents who after realizing that he wasn’t sharing any photos of his, they decided to take matters into their own hands. So, they did the next best thing they could. They cropped his part from a group photo and uploaded it in on the website and also started sharing the same to the people. Aryan was taken aback when a younger cousin of his who was hell-bent on making him suffer from this marriage torture decided to relay this information just for the kicks of it.

While when Aryan returned from his little trip back home of his, he had got some sweets that his mom had prepared and wanted to share them with a few friends of his. But the rumor has is it that he was engaged and the sweets that he was sharing, which he apparently never did before and hence the rumor by the “good” friends of his namely Sameera and Siri. While he reciprocated their rumor with that it was his after marriage anniversary sweets. The facepalm moment was when a few believed that for a second that it was the truth. He cleared the confusion but there was still a lot of doubt lingering in their eyes per say.

While Aryan was being hesitant in sharing his thoughts except for of course the biggest debacle that he had faced the very month, Gautham was not at all hesitant in sharing his feelings. He was traveling over half the world to come back to his home country, for a little while to visit family and do a few things that were needed to be done. However, the confidential information was shared with one and only one person. While Siri and Sameera took turns and also sometimes combined forces to outsmart Aryan, they were winning in all possible ways without even trying. Aryan made it too easy for them. Perhaps, he shouldn’t have told everything.

Meanwhile, the month also saw the organisation putting up different games for the employees. It was a project wise event and there were quite a lot of categories that were up for play and win. The problem with the project in which Neil, Aryan, Siri and Sameera were that there weren’t as many people in the account needed to make a decent team. While a few too many people decided to take a back seat and were not at all interested in the athletics, it became quite difficult for Neil and Aryan to make the guys team but however after a lot of persuasion, the ladies in the account decided to participate in at least one or two of the games. That finally led to setting up the team for the game of Throwball and the hence began the training even though there wasn’t much time for practise mostly since a few too many were busy working. But still the team managed to go to the quarter finals with the expert coaching of Aryan and Neil. Aryan was on the ground the whole since he had nothing better to do anyway while Siri, Sameera and the co. were down to practising. They weren’t expecting to go the next level after the first level and when they won the match, the pressure was building up on them and on top of that they were getting tired as well. While they won the next match as well, they were more tired than wanting to go ahead to the next level. They wouldn’t have minded if they had lost the next match because they just wanted for the day to end and get some rest for all the hard they had put in one single day.

While the ladies of the project did a great job at the games, the guys were in the cheering party this time, something like a reversal of role. However, the games weren’t over just yet. It was sort of a fest and that happened to span for close to a month. Thanks to unforeseen circumstances and the likes of it. There were quite a lot many things that the employees didn’t see coming, like the boot camp where they set up the whole ground just to serve that purpose. Or like the beach volleyball. Now, this was bizarre since there was no beach around or anywhere close. But, that wasn’t something impossible for them. They got the sand, completely adultered sand which had stones as big as one’s foot and what not and no matter how much frisking was done the stones seemed to sink in when that was being done. While surprises were a new thing, something was waiting for them on the last day of the festivities.

( To be continued … )
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