Page 269 - Musings 2020

Anirudh: Ma, to be very frank, I haven’t been very good lately. It’s this top-secret national
security project that I am working on for months now, and unfortunately, I haven’t been
getting the right results, or I should say the right outcome. I have really put my soul in this
thing and it's really frustrating to see opposite results in every trial. The lab has done every
possible thing to change the outcome. But it has been to no avail.

Dad: Don’t worry beta! I am sure you will find the solution with time. It’s not the first time
you are facing such a situation. In the past, you have done pretty well in such unfavourable
conditions.

Anirudh: Yeah I hope so too. But now I just wish that I hadn’t signed up for this project. I
wouldn’t have signed up had I known that this project could run into months. I really miss my
family.

Mom: Yeah all of us know you don’t do very well emotionally when our family is not around.

Jayant (wryly): Remember when he changed his college just because our little baby couldn’t
live in the hostels.

Anirudh: Gosh bhaiya! Can’t you just let that be? (laughs) You know, what? I would respond
with the same retort. I still ended up in a better college than you did. How about that!

Jayant: Yeah the family prodigy. Huh!

(All laugh.)

Mom: Okay boys! Enough of the childish stuff. Let’s just be happy that Anirudh finally got
the chance to meet us after such a long time.

Dad: Yeah!

(A slight pause in the conversation.)

Dad: Hey you all! Do you remember our trip to Russia, or let me say the USSR as it was back
then?

Anirudh: Yeah quite a few bits. I was about ten back then.

Jayant: You were!

Mom: It was probably our first trip abroad. And to make things worse, your dad refused to go
through a travel agency to save some bucks.

Dad: Oh come on! Don’t you remember it was you? You were the one who told me to save
on that.

Mom: Oh hush! Can’t you just take the blame for me like old times?

(All laugh.)

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