Chapter 4

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Devakshi FF - Small Moments

Part 4

The alarm clock blared so loudly that Sonakshi almost fell off the bed. She took some time to reorient herself into this world. She had been dreaming about those brown eyes again. The same brown eyes that had refused to leave her mind and had kept her up half of last night. She had repeatedly told herself to forget about him, that he was the King of Rudeness and Arrogance. But No. Her mind refused to cooperate and so did her heart. Frustrated, she had ditched her bed and paced her room through the night. It had only been in the wee hours of morning that she had could go to sleep even though it was not a comfortable one.

As a result of all these problems caused by that one Mr. Dev, she was now late. As she almost slapped the alarm clock off the table, she opened one eye to look at the time. The moment she realised what time it was, she tried to jump of the bed in a hurry and ultimately landed on the floor in a heap along with her blanket!

"Ouch! Ki Korcheesh Sona! (Translation: What are you doing Sona) Why are you such an Idiot? Kitni der kardi tuney uthney mein!" she scolded herself. She groaned at herself and got up from the floor while depositing the blanket onto the bed. She had to reach Ishwari Communications to collect her contract letter and settle all arrangements with Mr. Dixit, the CEO of the company. She had been ecstatic when she had bagged the job a week back. This was a great boost to her career. She would be working as a nutritionist to almost five hundred employees.

She had read about this job offer in the newspaper and found it to be her calling. She had never heard of any company taking so much care of the health of their employees. She was impressed and hence decided to take on the job as a challenge to herself. Yes, she would still work at the hospital. But instead of sitting at her chamber every day, she reduced it to two days a week, Wednesdays and Sundays, in the morning. On the other days, she would be at Ishwari communications, handling all the employees. She had settled all these things when she had gotten the job after an interview with Mr. Dixit's secretary, Tina.  

She had expected to meet the CEO, Mr. Dixit at the interview itself but had been informed that he had to leave for an emergency meeting at the last minute. Therefore, Tina had been left to take the interview. She seemed like a sweet and hard working woman. The moment Sonakshi met her, she knew they would be great friends if she ever got the job and it seemed like Tina was impressed with Sonakshi's achievements as well and after a brief ten-minute interview, Sonakshi had a new job!

She had been told to start work from the week after the interview and was asked to come and meet Mr. Dixit on her first day at 11 AM to collect her offer letter and confirm her duties and arrangements with him before she began her work. Sonakshi panicked. She had been asked to come at 11 and the clock in front of her showed that it was already 9:45! It would take her at least forty minutes to reach Ishwari Communications, which meant she had just twenty minutes to get ready.

She cursed herself and ran to the bathroom. "Maine toh alarm 8:30 ka set kiya tha! Toh woh itna late kyun baja?" she wondered dejectedly. As she finished her early morning duties and her bath in record time, she ran to her dressing table to find matching earrings to her kurti.  As she began her hunt for her lucky watch in the dressing table drawer and, she suddenly remembered that it was she who snoozed the alarm twice before it finally woke her. She slapped her palm on her forehead, "Gadhi hoon main. Khudko hi late kara diya! Yeh sab uss Mr. Obhodro ki galti hai!" she said to herself angrily through the mirror. At that same moment, Elena entered the room looking for a copy she had forgotten to take.  "Kya kar rahi hai Sona? Jaldi jakey breakfast kar. Late nahin ho rahi tu? It's already 10:05. Paanch minute me breakfast karkey nikal jaah!" she said while pushing Sona out of the room with her bag. Sonakshi ran to the table, picked up a sandwhich kissed her ma, baba, dada, dadi goodbye and ran out the door. She ran to her scooty, put on her helmet and took off at full speed.

On the other hand, Dev had a stiff neck. The constant work since morning had made his neck stiff. He still had fifteen minutes before the new nutritionist arrived so he decided to get himself a cup of coffee. He would often go down to the canteen himself to get the coffee. He knew how hard Tina worked. So occasionally, he would go down and get his own coffee. Sometimes he would just make it in his cabin, but his coffee maker had broken down a month ago and he kept forgetting to ask Tina to get a new one.

He moved his neck from side to side to get rid of the stiffness while getting up from his chair. "Tina, agar Dr. Bose aa jayein, toh unko cabin mein bithana. Mein coffee lekar ata hoon" Dev said to Tina, while massaging his stiff neck with one hand and closing his cabin door with the other. Tina stood up in a hurry saying, "Aap kyun ja rahey hain Sir? Mein le aati hoon coffee!" she said closing the notebook in which she had been making an important list for an upcoming board meeting.  Dev shook his head, "Nahin Tina. You continue what you were doing. Mujhey waise bhi thoda walk karna hai. Baithe baithey neck stiff ho gayi hai. You continue, main ata hoon abhi. Tum Dr. Bose ko andar bithana." As Tina nodded her head in affirmation, Dev made his way out the door that connected his cabin and Tina's.

As he passed other employees, they wished him Good morning and he just barely nodded back. Taking the elevator down to the canteen on the second floor he thought about all the details he had to discuss with Dr. Bose. Tina had taken her interview and had informed him that she was the most suited for this job. Dev trusted Tina with these decisions. She had been working for him for a very long time, almost from the start. She was the best judge of what kind of employees Dev would like to hire. When Tina had assured him that she had done all the background check into Dr. Bose's work as a nutritionist he had immediately agreed to take her on without considering greater details. He knew Tina was the best at her job and he took her word for it.

He got off the elevator and went straight to the coffee counter. While some employees greeted him, others just stared in awe. Dev was a very just and fair boss and no employee had ever gotten the chance to complain. He was well respected and treated every employee equally well. They all aspired to be like him. But everyone wondered why he was always so serious. He didn't smile often. He got his cup of coffee and made his way back towards the elevator. The doors opened and he got in. There was no one else in the elevator. As the doors closed he punched the number 10, his floor.

Sonakshi zoomed into the parking lot of Ishwari communications. She had almost flown the scooty to reach on time. She still had five minutes left before the clock struck 11. She dumped her helmet into the space under her scooty seat and ran into the building. She was met with a cheerful girl at the reception who pointed her towards the elevator saying she had to go up to the 10^th floor to meet Mr. Dixit, when she introduced herself. She thanked the girl and made her way towards the elevator. But she was too late because the elevator already showed that it was going up to the 10^th floor and she would be late if she waited for it to comeback down.

She had no other option, but to run up ten flights of stairs. She hitched her bag tighter on her shoulder and started towards the stairs. She took two stairs at a time as she thought it would seem bad to be even a minute late on her first day to work. "Taratari karo Sona. Achhi exercise hai yeh. You can do it" she kept encouraging herself. By the time she reached the tenth floor she was huffing and puffing like crazy and her face had turned red. She hurled herself through Tina's cabin door and landed in front of her table with her hands on the table top. Seeing Dr. Bose in such a disgruntled state Tina grew concerned. "Dr. Bose aap theek toh hai naah?" she asked with wide eyes. Sona put up one finger and told her to wait as she gathered enough air to be able to speak again. Then she looked up at Tina and said "Haaan haaan. *huff* Mein theek hoon. *huff* Woh mein *huff* late ho gayi thi *huff* and lift dheerey nichey aa rahi thi. *huff* Isiliye mein stairs se ayi. *huff*"

Tina sighed in relief and then giggled. "Oh. Toh yeh baat hai. Theek hai. Phir aap andar ja sakti hai. Sir cabin mein hi hai" Tina smiled. Sona nodded her head gratefully and turned towards Mr. Dixit's cabin. On the other side, Dev had just come back into his cabin and placed the mug of coffee on the table. As he was about to sit down his mobile phone started ringing. On taking it out from his pocket he saw it was Mr. Chhabra, a business associate. It was an important call. So, he walked out to the balcony that was connected to his room, to take the call. As he closed the balcony door, Sona knocked on his cabin door on the other side. But as he failed to hear her, she got no reply. "Tina ne toh kahan tha ki Mr. Dixit aandar hai. Toh kuch keh kyun nahin rahey?" Sona pondered.

She looked back at Tina to ask her but saw that she was on a call. So, she turned back around towards the door and pushed it open slightly. Peeking inside she found the cabin empty. She tiptoed in and looked around. "Arey, Yeh Mr. Dixit gaye kahan?" she thought. Aloud she called out "Mr. Dixit?" But Dev couldn't hear her because of the screen door separating the room and the balcony. "Kahin bahar gaye hongey. Main yahin wait karti hoon" Sona decided.

She sat on the chair opposite to Mr. Dixit's and looked around the office. "Ki shundor office" (translation- what a pretty office) Sona said to herself. He has a great taste in decoration. She marvelled at the awards that had been put on display on the shelves. "Bohot successful bhi hain" she thought. As her eyes wondered around she suddenly spotted the coffee mug on the table in front of her.

"Arey waah! Mere liye coffee ka bhi intezaam kar rakha hai. So, nice of them" she mused. She picked up the coffee mug and got up from the chair and wandered around the cabin. As she was looking at a particular award on the shelf in front of her and sipping the coffee she heard someone say "What exactly do you think you are doing with my coffee?" Sonakshi jumped in fright and turned around only to find the same Dev with those beautiful brown eyes standing not more than a couple of steps away from her.

The moment their eyes met Sonakshi spit out her coffee which unfortunately landed on Dev's shirt! While Dev yelled "What The?!!", Sonakshi yelled "aaap!"

Ho Gaya Satyanash! 

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