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The Designer Kurta from Ritu Kumar....



She was like the “the new girl in the city” but she had started falling in love with it. Though a metropolitan but Kolkata had its own culture. On one side, the bustling traffic with trams on the road and hand-rickshaw pullers from the Victorian times gave a rustic feel to the city, on the other side the developing New Town areas with its malls and high rise buildings gave competition to cities like Gurgaon and Noida.
  She was amazed to see that the old ambassador car, which can rarely be spotted anywhere in India, form an eminent part of Kolkata in the form of ‘yellow-cabs’. She found herself beaming with excitement when she first came out on Howrah station and spotted the famous Howrah bridge right in front of her. If Mumbai and Delhi boast of their sea, Kolkata stand humble there with its sacred “Ganga”. Even the peculiar road-side lamps reminded her of British times. On her way to hotel she couldn’t believe her eyes when she spotted the ‘the white Victoria Memorial’ in all its beauty and grace giving competition to Taj Mahal. 

It was Monday morning. She was supposed to stay in the city for five weeks and already her mind had started making plans for the weekend. She checked in smoothly at her hotel and the next few days were uneventful. On Saturday the housekeeping staff came with an apology letter saying they had lost one of her favorite kurta , which her mind calculated she had bought from Ritu Kumar’s , the famous designer. She got visibly upset but never felt like scolding the poor man standing in front, who was plainly acting as a messenger.

Events took unexpected turn when she got a call in the evening saying “Hello is it Tanu mam? Hi mam!! I am Abhilash, the laundry owner. I am so sorry for the loss of your Kurta and I want to make it up to you. Can we meet tomorrow?” This was perplexing yet exciting. She wondered whether the hotel-people were really that genuine or was there something behind it? The person seemed very descent in conversation and she agreed to explore the meeting.
Next evening, she got a call from Abhilash that he had reached the hotel. When she came down she was actually swept off her feet with a red Porsche car, with a descent friendly-looking young man behind the steering. This was no where in her imagination not even close. He opened the gate for her and for the first time in her life she sat in an ultra-luxurious car.

She asked “Do you do this for all your customers?” , and he laughed heartily. She liked the sound of his laughter which reflected innocence. He actually went to few brands with her and patiently waited for her selection. Finally they went to ‘Fab India’ and she selected a beautiful kurta for herself. He insisted on complementing it with a beautiful dupatta which she couldn’t deny. Later they went to a restaurant for a fine dinner. Here she came to know that he actually owns a management degree from Europe and has two factories with almost two hundred employees. He was first generation entrepreneur in his family. He also disclosed that he has a beautiful girlfriend and they would be getting married in six months. She was moved by his genuineness. They talked for quite some time on almost all the topics in the world, ranging from career to family to relationships. She was actually happy that she decided to take the call to meet this wonderful person.
It has been almost four years. Abhilash had married his girl-friend and still lives in Kolkata. And she wonders till today “how come a single meeting can give birth to such a wonderful friendship as this?”


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