I asked for him at the reception, he came out of the adjoining cabin behind the reception desk to meet us. He looked like a mid-forty-year-old average built man with a sophisticated formal look.
He welcomed us nicely (guess Suresh had told him to expect us). Then we followed him on a brief tour of the facility before settling in his cabin. All this while he had been checking Uma out by randomly stealing glances on some pretext or another.
Once in his cabin, he gave a short objective questionnaire to Uma telling her to fill it. While she was busy filling it, he asked “so Mr. Krishna, what are your expectations from us, how much do you want us to help you”?
I cooked up a story, I said “you see Uma was sent here from my village so I can help her with higher education and if things work out then to settle in a good job. Now she has been struggling with English, so that is why we are here”.
He took the paper from Uma and went thru it, he said “Sir I would have blindly told you to go for a one-month crash course but I am sorry to say” looking at Uma “dont take me wrong. She has a lot to learn”.
I asked “so what do you suggest”? He said “depending on how much effort she puts in, I think three months should be fair for now”. I looked at Uma, she gave me an uneasy smile.
I asked “so what level of proficiency are we talking about here”? Charles said “Sir I am targeting fluent grammatically perfect English”. I said “fine then. What are the timings”?
He said “we currently have four batches in session, but I don’t think I can add her to them just yet. I will personally coach her for 3weeks by when the next batch will commence and then I will add her too”.
I said “fine, but what time does she need to come here everyday and for what duration”? He said “since I will be coaching her, I am flexible”. Now Uma interjected, she said “what we mean to ask is if you give us options then I can decide keeping my work at home in mind”.
He turned to her and said “well we start at 6.30am everyday but I am free from 10am to 1pm only”. Uma said “if you can excuse me I need to make an urgent call” and stepped out.
I was surprised and wondered who was this important call about and that too why now. She came back soon and said “no that is too long, I need to get back and prepare lunch. Can we do 10-11.30”?
Charles said “yes absolutely, that way I will also get time for other students. So when do you want to start Uma”? She looked at me, then she said “from tomorrow morning itself if possible”.
Everything settled I paid the enrollment fee and other charges. Thanks to Suresh we got a hefty discount. We left from there and got back in the car. I asked “what was that call about”?
She said “ohh that was Aslam, I remember he telling me that he goes to work around that time so I wanted to check with him if he could drop me to the center on the way”.
I was mighty impressed by her planning and also the need to be independent. I asked “sounds good to me, what about coming back”? She said “ohh don’t worry, I will sort that out tomorrow when Aslam comes”.