“By the way, do we have Internet access here?” Arjun asked eagerly
“Oh
yes. Every team has one connection to internet. The computer in that corner is
connected to a modem that will help you access internet. We are supposed to get
9.8 kbps connection. But often the connection sucks. If you are working late in
the evening you may get a better connection.”
“Do
you have an email account?” Arjun aske
“I
have got myself an account in Hotmail which is a site allowing free email
account. Earlier we had to use the email service of Sprint. They used to charge
one Rups per mail for both receiving and sending with a max cap of 100 kb per
mail. If you sent some heavy mail, you had it. Once we tried to send a 2 mb
word file to our head office and we got a bill of Rs 20,000. The worse thing is
that the file never reached our HO”
“My
God! How expensive is Hotmail?”
“Oh
it is free.”
“Really,
I have never used it. When I read about it recently I really did not believe
it. I felt that there was some catch.”
“As
of now there is no catch. May be this is a promotional offer and they will
charge sometime in future. Till then, enjoy”
“Do
you use internet quite often?”
“I
browse around a bit. Sometime I get some useful stuff relating to our work”
“How
do you figure out what is available over the net? Do you go to some specific
sites put up by specific institutions?”
“There
are some nice utilities like Gopher that would help track down relevant
documents. But with increasing adoption of www using HTTP and launch of “Yahoo”
has changed the way we use Internet. Yahoo has made available a large compilation
of links organised in an orderly fashion that help to search and track a large
collection of relevant information.”
“That
is great. When we were in the institute we used computer room for games and
assignments. We hardly used internet for any meaningful research”
“Come
let us go for lunch. We get a fabulous lunch in our cafeteria. It is even free”
“Ya,
We need to eat. After that I have to meet up with JS” Arjun said aloud
They
walked together to the café.
“Wow
the Café is really impressive and the buffet appears quite elaborate. How much
do they charge?” Arjun observed
“Oh
the charge is really nominal. It is only Rups 10 per meal” Praveen replied
Together
they walked towards the buffet table.
Arjun
picked up some salad and very little rice. He preferred to have larger portion
of the non-veg dishes that were available.
“Looks
like you are an absolute carnivorous” Praveen commented
“I
don’t waste my stomach space with grass” Arjun laughed
Praveen
walked towards a table that was occupied only by one girl. She was quite a
looker. Arjun followed Praveen. Praveen took the chair adjacent to the girl and
Arjun took the opposite chair to Praveen and not to the girl. There was element
of shyness in Arjun when it comes to girls when he meets them for the first
time.
“Lekha,
meet Arjun our new colleague at SDAP. Arjun meet Lekha our legal whiz kid”
“You
mean Lekha Kurup?” Arjun asked as he wanted to be sure
“Exactly,
This is she” Praveen replied with a laugh
“How
did you know my name?” Lekha asked
“Oh
Praveen was explaining his project and he mentioned about you” Arjun replied
“Hope
that is all he said” Lekha replied with a mock seriousness
“Did
you expect him say anything more? Like a daring adventure or a juicy scandal.”
Arjun responded with a naughty smile
“Praveen
loves to sensationalize anything. So just for impact he would make up stories.
Though he means no harm and will ensure that they don’t end up being rumours.”
Lekha replied with a smile. Her eyes darted towards Praveen and Praveen gave an
acknowledging nod. To Arjun there appeared to be a connect among the two.
“Lekha
is a law graduate from Harvard Law School. She joined DI in USA from campus and
agreed to take a posting to Indrapuram office. As she is a US citizen and has
relocated to Indrapuram, she even get a distress allowance” Praveen said
“Don’t
be jealous Praveen” Lekha responded
“I
am not jealous my sweet heart. I am just explaining your pedigree to our new
friend”
There was quite a lot of banter at the table and they finished their lunch in 20 minutes
There was quite a lot of banter at the table and they finished their lunch in 20 minutes
“Arjun,
How about joining me for a smoke?” Praveen asked
“I
was wondering if there would be a smoking partner. Good where do we smoke?”
Arjun asked
“We
can smoke in the office. There is no restriction. But I prefer to walk down for
a smoke after lunch” Praveen replied
“I
was wondering. The restriction on smoking is increasing these days. The year we
joined IMI, smoking was banned in the class. I remember oru Eco prof announcing
it on the first day of his class. ‘Guys as per the new rules, not smoking in
the class. I will adhere to this rule and I hope you would do so too”
“I
see. We could smoke in the class till we graduated” Praveen said.
“Ok
a let us run along. I need to meet JS in 15 mts”
“That
is true. You should go an mark your attendance with his secy at the specified
time. When he gets free he will call you. Sometimes he will get caught in some
discussion and you may end up waiting for quite some time”
They
finished their smoke and walked back to their office. Praveen got busy in his
work. Arjun walked over to JS’s room.
