She joined me not long after, brimming with stories of how the Khannas had always thought of me as the daughter they’d never had, having been blessed with two boys. I faked a headache and sought solace under the covers—only to be plagued by a strange dream in which I desperately tried to put together a presentation on Bright Biscuits while Varun hovered around ominously. I was all alone in the meeting room, the presentation was scheduled to begin in fifteen minutes and I was nowhere close to finished. Suddenly Mom came charging into the meeting room on a white horse, brandishing a garland in her hand. There was a guy sitting behind her, holding on for dear life—Gautam! Dressed in a sherwani! Oh my God, he was dressed for a wedding! My wedding! ‘Marriage for Megha!’ yelled Mom and charged towards me holding out the garland. I screamed in terror and ran out of the meeting room… except that I wasn’t in a meeting room any more. I was in a desert, the sun beating down on me, thirst parching my throat. Blindly, I began running, desperate to get away from Mom. Suddenly I spotted what looked like a sand dune in the distance; a familiar figure was perched atop it. Yudi! Feeling strangely happy, I rushed toward him. ‘Yudi! Help!’ I yelled. ‘The presentation! I have to be there in time for the presentation, help me!’

But Yudi didn’t move an inch. He had that familiar sardonic smile on his face.

‘Miss Megha, the hot-headed small-town girl,’ he said with a smirk as I reached him. ‘Don’t you worry about the presentation, I’ll handle it. You’ve screwed up enough on Bright Biscuits, anyway. It was nice meeting you, but you know what? I don’t want to have a good working relationship with you. In fact, I don’t want to have any relationship with you. Run along and get married now, will you? Here comes your mother! Goodbye!’

Three

The phone rang shrilly, jolting me out of my reverie. Mulling over some creative ideas for the Bright Biscuits meeting scheduled that morning with the agency, I had completely lost track of time.

‘Megha? Call from reception. The creative team from Blue Strawberry is here.’ Pulling my stuff together quickly, I hurried towards the meeting room. I was feeling particularly excited about some of the ideas I had in mind and couldn’t wait to discuss them with Suketu and the creative team.

‘Hi guys!’ I beamed as I entered the room and saw Neil, Shubhra and Suketu clustered around the conference table. Just the sight of Neil and Shubhra was like a mood booster; Neil was dressed in bright yellow, looking like feisty egg yolk, and Shubhra complemented him perfectly in soothing shades of white. They looked bright and chirpy as usual and grinned broadly as I walked in.

‘Yo dudette!’ Neil raised a hand in comradeship. ‘Let’s get this party started, shall we?’

‘You bet!’ I grinned back at him ‘I’m raring to go! Umm… Suketu, will Yudi be joining us?’