An official matter, episode 3
Ruhi reached home. She was in a mixed state of emotions. All this while Vikram Kumar was someone she fell in love with and now Vikram Kumar is a lady named Vishaaka Khatri. Her dad said, ‘ No more crazy about Vikram Kumar?’. Ruhi brushed her hair with her slender fingers, tied an untidy bun, smiled at her dad and said, ‘ So you know about it?’. Hemant came and sat beside Ruhi, patted her head gently and said, ‘ How could I not know about it. I was sure Vikram would make a superb son in law.’ Ruhi giggled and said, ‘ Hmm.’ Before Hemant could say anything, Ruhi said, ‘ I am sure, now you will follow Vikram Kumar’s page more diligently.’ Hemant looked at Ruhi with a confused look and said, ‘ Why?’. Ruhi got up from her bed and walked towards the door of her room and said, ‘ Well Papa, Vishaaka Khatri is beautiful’, saying that she winked, giggled and ran away. Hemant laughed out loudly and said loudly, ‘ Now, till you don’t get someone in your life, I will be busy cooking. When do I have the time to go on a date with Vishaaka Khatri?’. Ruhi yelled from the kitchen, ‘ Don’t worry Papa, the day you go on date with her, I will order food from outside. First know her.’ Hemant and Ruhi then burst out laughing.
Back in office, life was as busy as always. The new project was crazy. Every morning a stand up meeting was scheduled for updates and key responsibility areas. A single miss on anything would mean bearing the brunt of Mohit’s acidic tongue. Shobhit, the lead in this project was a man of patience. Thanks to Shobhit, rest of the team could work in peace. Shobit has been with this company for 5 years now. He was just the opposite of Mohit. Shobhit was always dressed formally. Plain light coloured properly ironed shirt, formal dark coloured trousers, polished panache shoes and not to forget the super stylish watch. With curly hair cut very short, dusky skin, sharp features and specs, Shobhit was fit as a fiddle and tall as a ladder. He was one guy who could have made it to the world of glamour, if he had the inclination.
Today’s stand up meeting was a disaster. Mohit said sternly, ‘ If we are updating something in the environment, why is it that there are no notes? During the call with Jonathan and Steffie, how am I supposed to defend the errors which we made when I do not know what all changes we made? Look guys, this is a bank project. We are lucky they have given us time. Errors will be there initially, codes might go haywire once or twice, but it cannot happen all the time. We are never on the same page. We work on an environment and we don’t write notes and comments, how is the team supposed to know? We are not soothsayers, damn it!’ Mohit did not blame anyone individually. All the team members were seniors and this was a lame mistake done by one team member Sneha who was new. She had immense knowledge but her work experience was lesser than the entire team. Sneha almost burst into tears at Mohit’s tone and words. Ruhi looked at Sneha. However, there was nothing she could do about it.
After the meeting, Ruhi went to Sneha’s desk. Sneha was sobbing. Ruhi touched Sneha’s shoulder. Sneha looked at Ruhi and hugged her. Just then Shobhit came. Although the situation was tense, Shobhit knew how to make it light. He took out a chocolate from his pocket and gave it to Sneha and said, ‘ Can this cheer you up? I am not sure but if not this, maybe a pizza can?’. Sneha cried and giggled at the same time. Ruhi wiped Sneha’s tears and whispered in her ears, ‘ Forget the khadoos and say yes to pizza, please. If you say yes, we will get to eat too.’ Sneha laughed, wiped her tears again, took the chocolate from Shobhit and said, ‘ We need a pizza too.’ Shobhit gave Sneha a hi five and said, ‘Pizza on me. See you guys at the cafeteria at lunch.’ Just then Kirti came. Ruhi told Kirti, ‘ Aren’t Shobhit and Mohit poles apart?’ Kirti smiled and replied, ‘ Yeah, they sure are.’
Back at their desks, engrossed in work, Ruhi and Kirti completely forgot about the pizza affair. Sneha came to their desks and said, ‘ Let’s go. Piping hot pizza waiting for us.’ Ruhi jumped out of her work mode and said, ‘ Oh yes. I had completely forgotten. Let’s go. Shobhit is such a sweetheart.’ Kirti smiled and said, ‘Ruhi, Shobhit sure is nice haan?’. Ruhi gave Kirti a wicked smile and said, ‘ Oh really?’ and then all of them laughed. While the girls got up from their seats, a voice said, ‘ We will need to wind up lunch real quick because there are some fixes that need to be completed before 9 pm. We have a call with Steffie and Jonathan after that. You guys can take the call from home. The call might go on for long, hence have your dinner before joining the call.’ The voice was none other than Mohit. Ruhi felt the urge to punch him but she knew how to control herself.
Back in the cafeteria, although Mohit was not invited, he did join the team for Pizza. And yes, Shobhit added pasta also to the menu because he knew some team members preferred pasta to pizza.
As if the day was not hectic enough, the call at night was super tedious. The clients were finicky to the core. They were not to be blamed. They were investing tons of money on this project and after the client call, half an hour of discussion with Mohit was cumbersome.
After the call, at around 1 a.m., Ruhi checked Vikram Kumar aka Vishakaa Khatri’s page again. There was a post about her new book coming up. To her surprise, Vishaaka had sent a video message to her fans saying, ‘In all these years, there has been one fan of mine who has been diligently following my books, knows all the characters and has been writing fan mails through out. I hope I meet that fan of mine in person on the day of my book release. I promise a dinner date as well, with that dear fan. I will declare the name of the D-day’. Ruhi was thrilled. She had also been an ardent fan of Vikram Kumar. So what if Vikram Kumar was Vishaaka Khatri, it barely mattered. What mattered was, she was a splendid writer and Ruhi was still her fan. Ruhi typed a comment at the video message, ‘Looking forward to your new book release ma’am’.
Next day, back in office, Ruhi had a splitting headache. She did not get a good night’s sleep. It seemed somebody was hammering on her head. She needed a paracetamol badly. She went to the medicine room. The officer in charge gave her a paracetamol. She gulped it with some water and was on her way to her desk, when she walked past Shobhit’s desk. Shobhit was on a call with someone. Ruhi never peeped into anyone’s laptop or phone, however, her eyes caught something strange. She could see Vikram Kumar’s page on Shobhit’s phone.
The next moment, she checked her phone and she could see there was a ‘like’on her message she had written to Vikram Kumar aka Vishaaka Khatri, last night.
To be continued…..
