The Date

My cousin, Bharat Kumar Srivastava, moved with his parents and brother to Canada from India in 1993. In India they lived in Bhopal. When they moved to Canada they moved to Toronto.

Bharat completed his BA in Economics from York University in 1996 and then joined the accounting firm Myer, Nebber and Xavier (MNX) as a junior auditor. He liked his job and quickly became good friends with his colleagues.

His parents, Rakesh and Seema, wanted Bharat to have an arranged marriage in India soon. Bharat told them that he did not want to have an arranged marriage and wanted to get married in Canada on his own.

Rakesh and Seema were hesitant at first but later accepted Bharat’s point of view and mentioned that they would support him.

At his work Bharat was good friends with one of his colleagues. Her name was Nikita. Nikita’s parents were from India who moved to Toronto before her birth. After some time Bharat started liking Nikita. He had planned to tell Nikita how he felt on July 25th, which was her birthday. As a week was left till then he was very excited. He looked forward to sharing his feelings.

On July 22nd (a Monday that year) Nikita let Bharat know that she got a job in Vancouver and was moving there the next day. It was all so sudden and she had let their boss know about it 10 days ago. She wanted to tell everyone a few days before she left. When Bharat found this out he was very sad. He decided not to tell Nikita as she was moving to another city.

After Nikita left Bharat was very sad for about two months. Then he started getting back to his usual self. By early 1997 a new employee had joined Bharat’s team. Her name was Monica. Monica had recently moved from Dallas to Toronto with her fiancé Mithun. Monica’s father was from the USA while her mother was from India.

Some months had passed and Bharat was now good friends with Monica. Now, Bharat started liking Monica and was going to tell her soon. However, Monica who kept her life very private one day told Bharat that she had a fiancé. She inadvertently mentioned it.

Bharat became sad again. He told himself that things will get better and he will meet someone soon in the future.

In a few weeks a staff dinner took place at a Korean restaurant in downtown Toronto. All the staff members came; some came with their partners. Monica had brought her fiancé Mithun.

Initially, everyone was having drinks and soon the dinner would start. Monica was fond of Bharat so she mentioned something nice about him. It was a good compliment. Mithun overheard this and in a fit of rage tried pushing Bharat off his chair. Bharat smiled back but his colleagues, including Monica, did not like this at all. She told Mithun that she wanted to talk with him privately. They went outside the restaurant and she told Mithun that she was very upset and wanted to end her engagement. She had been noticing other things as well but today’s incident was the last straw. Mithun got upset and left. They would soon part ways.

Monica returned to the restaurant and joined her colleagues.

She apologized to Bharat on Mithun’s behalf. Bharat said that there was no need to apologize. She also mentioned that she would like to go on a date with him. Bharat was happy. They agreed to a date the coming weekend.

That night as Bharat walked to his home he was looking forward to the date this weekend with Monica. He was very elated.