Samar gave a nod.
“Now, will you give her that interview?”
His ears stood to attention. So this was aboutthat.
Iram Haider had started interviewing the founding members. He did not believe it was just to populate their manifesto and write tall tales about their SFF days. She was found talking for hours with Adil, Qureshi, even Zorji.
He smirked darkly at Atharva — “Why don’t you order me like you ordered Qureshi or Adil or Zorji?”
“You know why.”
“We are buying their sympathy, Atharva.” He stated what he plainly thought about her ridiculous idea. Crying about their woes in the military was not what soldiers did. Even if they had an election to win.
“No,” Atharva countered. “We are making them aware. We are telling them look what happened to your people when you swayed to swords and militants, we are warning them of fates that could have been theirs but were ours.”
“I don’t like this.”
“Follow the herd then. Qureshi, Adil, Zorji, they were all pretty happy doing it,” Atharva pointed out with a smile. Samar gave a half-hearted one in return, and turned away.
“Fine.”
He would make her regret she even entertained the idea of interviewing him.
When Atharva began to leave, Samar couldn’t help but see where he was going with this girl.
“But Atharva,” he called out. Atharva stopped.
“Be careful with Iram Haider. Before her, you were doing great.”
He did not listen. When did he ever?
————————————————————
It was an early Sunday morning, and Samar decided it was a good day to send Iram Haider packing. He had seen her squirm and shrivel at his glances. If it was a ruse, he would be sure about it after today. If it was not, she would cry her way to whatever backstabbing hole she had crawled out of. In either case, they would be rid of her.
He walked up to the main house and found her sitting on a chair in the verandah, lounging like some queen who owned the house. He took off his specs and tucked them into the V of his shirt. Some old forgotten rage inside him seemed to come alive at the mere sight of her.
He climbed the stairs, and she looked up, shocked.
“Hi.”
He nodded and perched on the stone balustrade nearby.“What are your questions?”
She recoiled. Whatever she saw on his face made her sit up.“Since you are so disgusted by the whole idea, why did you say yes in the first place?”
So she had spunk. Those shrivelling reactions were a good ruse.
“Because I couldn’t say no to him.”
“Uhhh… I am not prepared here…”
“Just ask whatever you asked others.”
“Uhh huh,” she scrambled, her fingers shaking only slightly as she reached for her laptop and messed around with it.
“Ok, so, Mr. Samar Dixit…”
“Dr. Samar Dixit.”
