Page 103 of One Indian Girl

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‘Great. You close to your parents?’

I paused for a few seconds to think before I answered.

‘In some ways I am close. Dad is really quiet. I am close to my mom. But we fight a lot,’ I said.

Neel laughed.

‘Really? Over what?’ he said.

‘The stupidest things. Mostly it is about her obsession to get me married.’

‘Oh, you are young. Why marry so soon?’

‘Exactly. If only she would get that.’

‘Typical Indian parents, right?’ Neel said.

I nodded.

‘When did you leave India?’ I said.

‘When I was twelve. I grew up in London after that. Undergrad at Oxford. Harvard for my MBA later. Met Kusum there, actually.’

‘Oh, college sweethearts,’ I said. I realized I should have shown more restraint. I was speaking to a partner, my boss’s boss.

‘You could say that,’ he said and laughed.

The captain’s announcement about the flight landing interrupted our conversation. When the plane hovered above Manila, Neel spoke again.

‘Why did you leave New York?’ Neel said.

‘Personal reasons,’ I repeated my rehearsed answer.

‘Oh, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to...’ Neel said as I interrupted him.

‘I had a break-up. A bad break-up.’

Neel looked at me. He raised his long eyebrows.

‘Really?’ he said.

‘Yeah, why?’ I said.

‘You moved all this way for a guy?’

‘Worse. Not for a guy. But for a guy who didn’t want me.’

Again I felt I had crossed the line of acceptable conversation with a partner. Neel fumbled with his seatbelt as he searched for a suitable response.

‘Well, anyway. Welcome to the Philippines,’ he said.

The flight landed with a gentle thud.

‘I spent years to build El Casa. No logic why I did it. Just wanted to show the world how beautiful my country is,’ Marcos said.

We sat in the El Casa office in Palawan across from the owner and CEO, Marcos Sereno, who had a portly frame and wore a Hawaiian shirt.

We had taken another short flight from Manila to Palawan and come for the meeting straight from Palawan airport. On the way, I saw a sleepy city full of palm trees and long, powdery beaches.