8. Besharam
Maya walked by Starbucks. Inhaled. Exhaled. Inhaled again. She took three steps forward, then three steps back to take one last whiff.
“How much to bottle it all up?” She muttered to no one in particular and dragged her feet away. She wasn’t a coffee aficionado, but suddenly the decree that it wasn’t allowed had begin to make her crave it every morning. A cup here or there is fine , her doctor had said. But Maya wanted to ration it for a rainy day. Pun intended. Life right now was flooded anyway.
She suddenly had more vitamins in the house than chocolates. B12, iron and folic capsules were her new morning munchies. She had a list of ‘avoid’ items in her diet that included raw food, street chaat and Chinese ( Chinese! ). And she couldn’t take any regular medicines. How was that possible? She would have to ‘consult’ her gynaec before popping a Dolo 650? That was her drug of choice after 10-hour design shifts.
Maya sighed, walking into Made in Mumbai on depleted energy. It wasn’t due to the pregnancy, but with the week of crazy planning and change of pace. Even so, Maya was ready to inform the HR. And start taking concrete steps in her professional life now that her health was more or less managed.
“Hey, Maya! I got you jalape?o poppers…” Leo rounded his reception counter, a Tupperware box in hand. She didn’t have the heart to refuse him, was about to accept it, when he snapped opened the box — “It’s with extra garlic chutney. Try it…”
She took a deep breath from her mouth, willing her nose to not inhale. Her mouth stretched in what she assumed was a grateful smile.
“Maya!” Gautam barked from somewhere.
“Yes! Coming… thanks, Leo, thanks so much,” she clicked the lid shut and accepted the box. “I’m sure it’s great. I’ll try and tell you.”
She ran inside. And right into Gautam’s chest.
“Hey… what’s up.”
“Learn to say no,” he clipped, eyeing the box in her hand.
“How do I break his heart…”
“Then eat it,” he taunted, and was gone. Maya huffed.
She started her day as usual, leaving all her stuff in her office and going around to greet everyone. Gautam thought it was a waste of time. But for her, it was a way of being on top of all of the day’s projects and what each designer was doing. They wouldn’t see it as a check-in, instead, chat up with her for two minutes and get going.
As she finished her round and returned to her desk, she grabbed her laptop and sat down to type THE email.
To: Trisha Shah
CC: Gautam Kumar; Sahyadri Rao
Subject: My Pregnancy Announcement
Dear Trisha,
I hope this email finds you well, although I know you are rocking today with that red kurti that I just told you looks like Anushka’s from Breakup song.
This email is to officially inform you about my pregnancy. I am officially 11 weeks along, which means I will be delivering my baby on 20th January as per the date provided by my gynaecologist. I read our company policy on maternity leave, and would like to inform you that I will be on leave starting 1st December. However, I think I will go crazy without work, so I request you to come up with a system where I can take work home for at least a few weeks before I deliver and then after.
Awaiting your response.
Warm Regards,
Maya Kotak
Senior Textiles Designer
MADE IN MUMBAI
————————————————————
“Maya?” Trisha tapped her shoulder fifteen minutes after she had hit send.
“Yes?” Maya turned, suddenly nervous. Her tentative voice must have cued her, because Trisha smiled benignly between her and the rest of her designers — “Can I see you in my office, please?”
“Sure.”
“What did you do?” Riya’s eyes widened as Maya got up to follow.
“Oh, umm… nothing. Let me see.”
Maya padded into the HR office and closed the door. When she turned, Trisha embraced her tight. “Congratulations!”
Maya’s chest lightened. She circled her arms around her and squeezed, “Thank you.”
“Wow, it’s not visible at all,” Trisha pulled back, looking at her belly. Maya grinned — “It’s visible on the hips,” she turned, earning an amused eye roll.
“Come, sit. I have also invited Gautam Sir and Sia down for this.”
“Why?”
“Nothing serious or formal, but it will be better if we talk it out and manage projects as per your maternity…”
Two knocks sounded.
“Yes, Gautam Sir, please come in.”
Maya sat surprised as the grumpy boss knocked and entered nicely here when he had barged into her office last week and threatened to shut off the lights.
“Hi, Maya, congratulations,” Sia smiled, following him. She seemed so happy for her that for a moment Maya thought she genuinely was. Then she realised that she was with Gautam, and that she always acted weird around him.
They all took their seats.
“So, you both have read Maya’s email, I assume. I called everybody here to discuss a preliminary plan for Made in Mumbai’s upcoming projects. And also to discuss if we can create a work-from-home arrangement for Maya.”
“Of course we can!” Sia exclaimed. “In fact, I suggest you take hybrid days early on, and then completely work from home.”
“Thanks, Sia.”
“No.”
That was Gautam. Of course, he would be allergic to the smooth sailing in the room. “You can take your maternity leave, but work from home will not be possible. And you live two lanes away, you can come to work after the baby is born.”
“And put it where, in the empty planter outside?”
Silence.
“I mean,” Maya scampered. “I will need to work out an arrangement for the baby.”
“Let’s see how things go, this is too early to talk. Anything else?” He glanced between them all. Then stood to his feet and was off like an arrow. Maya shot out of her seat and followed.
He had already turned the steps and was out of sight. She raced after him — “What do you mean let’s see how things… Ow!” She stumbled, catching herself in time before his hand wrapped around her bicep.
“Are you crazy?” He hissed through his teeth, helping her up the steps until they were on the first floor. He pulled her through an alley she had never seen, the railing white and looking down at the backyard of the villa. He kept going, and she kept quietly following, still shocked after that near fall.
He opened a door at the far end and nudged her in, then closed it. Maya glanced around. It was a storage room with bundles and bundles of richly wrapped textiles. Cottons and hemps and silks, in so many colours and designs.
“What is wrong with you?” He let loose. She whirled, her hair just missing his face as he pulled back — “Are you even serious about this pregnancy thing? Because I don’t see you doing anything remotely looking like a mom. You are so irresponsible that it took you one whole week to even go to the doctor. And you are flitting around the office like you have nothing wrong with you? I don’t know what’s going on in your personal life but I do not want any mishap in my office or on my conscience!”
“How dare you?” She advanced on him. That temper that she had almost lost that day after her parents’ phone call? It erupted with a vengeance — “You do not get to tell me how I deal with this 'pregnancy thing.’ You do not get to stand on the sidelines and judge me for how I conduct myself. Agreed, I was running just now and shouldn’t have. But know this that…” she choked. “Even I forget sometimes that I am pregnant!”
Maya swallowed, fortified herself, and went on — “Pregnant women have a whole tribe to talk to, to hype them up, to make this real. I don’t have much going on in that direction. But what’s that got to do with you? You just…”
“You are scared of telling everybody!” He retorted. “Look, you scrunch your nose and hold your breath every time one of your friends offers you something that makes you nauseous. Instead of just telling them that you are sick because you are pregnant!”
“Again, not your subject to judge.”
He turned, his fingers clawing through his hair. Maya counted back from 10. Her rage began to cool. But the asshole turned at 4 and it was all back!
“You will not get work from home because that will set a precedent. Every pregnant woman in the company will demand that kind of favour…”
“It’s not a favour! I can work solo, I am great at what I do and I work honestly…”
“Doesn’t matter…”
“You know what? Fine. Keep your work from home to yourself. And do not show me your face downstairs.”
“Let me see who saves you the next time Leo offers you jalape?o poppers.”
She gagged.
“With extra garlic chutney,” the fucker added, storming out of the room. Maya stuck her head out behind him, breathing in clean, fresh, leafy air. Phew. 10, 9, 8… Her countdown to sanity was again disrupted.
“I’m sorry…” Sia stepped up from behind the door, kept coming, until she was inside the room and had shut the door again. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. But I couldn’t help but overhear. Is your baby Gautam’s?”
Maya’s eyes widened. She peered at Sia, checking if she was joking. No, her face was pinched, perfect makeup but bitch expression. Why did god teach the bitchiest of women the most perfect of makeup techniques?
“With all due respect,” Maya channeled her inner professional. “That is none of your business.”
“What did you say to me?”
“I said it with all due respect, Sia.”
“Listen, Maya, you are new here and not familiar with my ways. You may have run your loud mouth and woven some happy-go-lucky magic around Gautam, but these cheap tactics don’t work here…”
“Wait a sec, wait a sec, you think I work some happy-go-lucky magic?” Maya grinned, more to piss her off. “Wow, thanks.”
And piss her off it did. Her bitchy face reddened under that perfect makeup. Thank you god!
“No doubt you are in this condition!” Sia spouted. “Trying on your bosses and getting like this. I heard your ex-husband was here and you threw yourself all over him? What, keeping Gautam close in Coorg and your old hubby close in Mumbai? You should be ashamed of yourself!”
Maya waved a palm in front of her. Sia’s eyes narrowed at it — “What?”
“Talk to the hand, Sia. Talk to the hand. Or didn’t you go to school?”
Maya didn’t wait for her to spew more of her crazy venom. She stalked by her and left the storeroom, starting again — 10, 9, 8, 7…
————————————————————
The next morning, Maya came bearing mini cupcakes. A hundred of those baby monsters in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
“Good morning!” She wished Leo. “Here, have a cupcake.”
“What’s the occasion?”
“Have, have! And follow me!”
She went around their co-working area, spreading morning cheer with cupcakes, refusing to reveal the occasion. That was the moment Sia walked in with Gautam, the two looking like such a pair as they began passing by the space to climb up to their respective lairs.
“Hey!” Maya sped to them, “here, have a cupcake…” she began to offer, then pulled the box away from Sia. “Oh I’m sorry, I forgot you don’t take sugar. My bad. Gautam, would you like one since its almost weekend?”
He eyed her suspiciously — “What’s the occasion?”
“That’s what we have been asking too,” Aarya chipped in, popping a second cupcake into his mouth. “What’s the good news, babe?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“Whaaaat?’ Riya bulldozed right into her with arms out, pushing her into Gautam’s body.
“Riya!” She laughed, returning her embrace.
“Oops, sorry sorry sorry… sorry, sir.”
“It’s alright,” Gautam nodded, then dipped his gaze to her — “Are you ok?”
Maya stared shocked at him, but nodded. The whole office erupted in congratulatory cheers. From her closest team to their coworkers, from some GK Textiles robots to the peons and maids, everybody was upon her, wishing her, hugging her, patting her head, picking more cupcakes, asking her how far along she was, giving her tips to take it easy. For a second between all that commotion, tears came to her eyes. She turned her head to cough, and drink them down, only to notice that Gautam still stood behind her.
“We are so throwing a party!” Aarya embraced her from behind, as usual. This time, she noticed Gautam’s impassive expression transition. His nostrils flared. But she didn’t wait to see more, turning in Aarya’s embrace and returning it — “No booze,” she laughed.
“Fine, no booze,” he rolled his eyes. “For you. We will get shitfaced.”
She patted his back and pushed away, laughing as he swiped two more cupcakes from her box.
“Is there any left for me?” Gautam’s drawl sounded from over her shoulder. Shocker after shocker. Maya turned in time for him to grab the last cupcake from her box and shove it in his mouth as he marched towards the stairs.